Silhouine sees the Iron Heart for the first time at the suq, buying a cat for the master’s mouse problem. They all see it. No shadow falls over them; no screech makes them cower. They just know to look up together.

Lanthorn’s skybeast is blood-red with cultured rust, and the tick of its mainspring smooth as a knife. Its wings and keel are taut orange silk. It is a dragon. It is fire, and greed.

Silhouine becomes aware that the market has, with silence and expediency, emptied out around her. One of Vertumn’s gang has stolen the money-pouch from her belt.