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hair and flowing robe, he was impressive, at least a head taller than the guards, who were not short men.
    I ran over the walkway.
    When I reached the group, a guard was saying in heavily-accented Coldi, “Everyone who comes here must show their pass and must have been authorised by the council.”
    “Rubbish,” Kando Luczon said.
    “Those are our orders. Challenge them with the council if you must.”
    Another said, “We can’t let anyone in the site. It’s a very delicate site and we don’t want people trampling over it.”
    “Rubbish, rubbish!”
    I stepped between them, holding up my hands. “Calm down, calm down everyone. There must be some sort of misunderstanding. You know who this man is. Are you really telling me that the council has expressly forbidden him to enter the site?”
    The guard turned his attention to me. “Not just him, just all people who don’t work on the dig. The council says they will reveal the findings when it’s all done.”
    I saw. This was about ownership of the process. I tried again. “But you know who he is, right?” One thing I’d understood about the Aghyrian ship people was that they had strong feelings about their home ships, which made sense seeing as they spent their entire lives on board.
    “I don’t care who he is, Delegate,” the guard said. “Unless the council sends us an update with people allowed access, we won’t let him in. We won’t let you in. When the Chief Councillor comes, we won’t let him in. When Ezhya Palayi comes, he won’t get in.”
    I snorted. “Well, I’d like to see you get challenged on that last one, but I get the point, stupid as I think it is.”
    “Raise it with the council, sir.”
    “I will.” Then I added in Coldi for the benefit of the captain, “We’ll be taking this up with both the council and the general assembly.”
    “Do that,” Kando Luczon said. “I’m looking forward to that discussion.”

Chapter 4
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    S O IT SEEMED that this was determined to be one of those days that consisted of a long string of turds lined up in a row, waiting for me to stupidly blunder into them.
    We could do nothing at the site except go back. I hadn’t come because I’d thought there was an awful lot to see at the dig yet, but I’d assumed that those doing the excavation would be interested in the views and experiences of someone who had been alive at the time the ship landed here. I mean—which archaeologist on Earth would refuse the assistance of a real live ancient Egyptian while studying the pharaohs’ graves?
    I couldn’t believe that the historians themselves would refuse this assistance, but clearly the Barresh council was assuming ownership of the dig to the point of excluding everyone.
    Stupid councillors with their stupid egos.
    Meanwhile, what was I going to do with this man who was getting increasingly antsy, who was extremely smart, who had aims we could only guess and commanded technology we had never seen?
    We made our way back to the station in a brooding silence.
    “It strikes me that your current council is none too smart,” Luczon said once we sat in the train.
    Well, that was stating the obvious. It wasn’t my council either. I wanted nothing more to do with those self-important idiots.
    “I’m sorry. I honestly have no idea what is going on here.” At the first chance I got, I was going to find a higher authority to override them, although I realised that would be hard.
    The silence continued. Clearly, he was unimpressed. With the council. With me.
    When we reached the gamra island, Kando Luczon and his two silent companions went back to their apartment—goodness knew what sort of mischief they’d get up to there—and we went upstairs.
    Evi stood at the door; and at my questioning if anything had happened, he said that no, it hadn’t.
    He was right. It was blissfully quiet in the apartment. The hall was empty, the corridor was empty, and from somewhere within came the usual sounds: Devlin talking