Lucian did not return to the yards .
Reed Street would have been safer an hour or two, but safer was not always useful. The bathhouse woman had explained the map clearly enough. Delegates sought a Lord. Houses sought a claim. A Free with clean habits and poor timing stood directly between both. If he listened to the next official knock on a door, someone else would select the room it opened into.
He cut towards the upper canal after dark - away from Hold Market and the boarding lanes. Cael did not speak until the street noises thinned to nothing.
"You are walking towards rank," Cael said
"I am walking towards answers."
"In this place they are often the same door."
