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the water level rose. Their tops contoured the irregular lake margin like tree rings. Our old camp and the shakehole that destroyed it were somewhere on the lakebed, completely papered over.
    I could just see the Insects’ new wall on dry ground ten kilometres distant, beyond the marshes. They had instinctively joined the new stretch to the immense Wall that seals them in, protecting their Paper-lands from coast to coast of the entire continent.
    I let the wind blow me backwards over the walkway. Little by little I flexed my wings closed and descended. I bent my knees, absorbed the shock, and landed in a crouch with my stiff feathers brushing the paved track on my either side.
    I stood and bowed to Queen Eleonora Tanager. She kissed me on both cheeks and studied my face at leisure. ‘How are you, darling? Oh, Jant, flying makes you so cold.’
    Her attar of roses perfume enveloped me, calling to mind the rose-scented letters that she used to send. They were always crinkled and salty, having been written on her most recent lover’s sweaty back. Eleonora was arguably the world’s most powerful mortal, but she was shod with scandal; she was no good at delicacy and even worse at tact.
    I stepped away and looked at the reservoir’s breathtaking expanse. ‘It’s incredible,’ I said. ‘I admit I had my doubts. But from up here you can see the extent of Frost’s vision. I feel privileged to be part of it.’
    Lightning, the Castle’s Archer, said seriously, ‘Well, I hope it is not just the latest of the thousand plans we have tried and had to put aside.’
    Eleonora shivered. She was wearing Lightning’s long, fur-linedovercoat and, statuesque as she was, it nearly fit her. Her scale armour glittered underneath. Awians sometimes wear full plate, but prefer their traditional scale mail and I can understand why because plate is horribly restrictive.
    She had tipped her helmet back from her head and it hung upside down from a strap showing its green satin lining. It had eye holes and a nosepiece in the Awian style. Its copper-pink horsehair crest rustled against her back and nearly touched the ground. Her chain mail coif and scale shirt were copper-coloured too, and damascened with a raised pattern of feathers matching her greaves and vambraces. She had pulled out her satin undershirt a little between each joint.
    Eleonora had a wide, prominent face with a delicate, tip-tilted nose. I should say she was good-looking but she had a sly and filthy smile. Her ecru wings were naturally a different colour than her close-cropped dark hair, a phenomenon so rare I had never seen it before.
    I said, ‘Queen Eleonora, I don’t know if you realise the time but you’re already late for the press conference and Frost sent me to call you back.’
    ‘Oh, I suppose we must attend,’ she said huskily. She set off along the walkway, between the sheer drop on one side and the lapping water on the other. She strode with a slow, shapely-legged pace; from the deliberate way she carried herself it was clear she was used to being looked at.
    She continued to enthuse as we joined her. ‘If this works we have a way of destroying the Paperlands completely. The effect’s there, right before our eyes! The Insects move out of the flooded area, make a new Wall and retreat behind it. Of their own accord, without any resistance!’
    ‘Then we drain the area and in we go!’ I said.
    ‘Let us concentrate on clearing this patch first,’ said Lightning.
    Eleonora smiled. ‘It all depends on infantry. We’ll position them while Frost empties the lake. Isn’t that right?’
    ‘Yes.’ Lightning indicated the town squatting in the mid-distance. A constant queue of mules and baggage carts plodded towards it, bringing provisions and tackle in preparation to set up the camp that would soon be surrounding it. Outriders protected the convoy, riding in formation at specified distances from the road as soon as they entered Lowespass. We had not yet