twirling in his thoughts, but they were indistinct now, and he put them out of his mind.
Ironfoot tried to keep up with Je Wen, but it was difficult. The ground continued to sway beneath him, and the terrain was uneven and sometimes slippery. 'What am I walking on?' he asked.
Je Wen smiled. 'Our net collects what those above discard. All that they do not want they simply throw onto the ground.'
'So we're walking on their refuse,' said Ironfoot.
'Indeed. Castoff furniture, uneaten food, animal scraps, feces. If they do not want it, we catch it in our net.'
Feces.
'Why?'
'Because the Arami are scavengers, who make nothing of their own,' said Timha, straggling along behind.
Je Wen smiled. 'Because they are wasteful, and we are not.'
After a few minutes of slow travel across the strange sea of refuse, they began to near the edge, and the debris began to thin until Ironfoot found himself standing on a flat surface that gave beneath his feet, cushioning his steps.
'This is soft,' said Ironfoot. 'But I don't see how it kept us all from being smashed to bits.'
'It is a very clever net.'
They reached the edge, which was a perfectly straight line, and Je Wen hopped off onto the ground, a few feet below, which seemed to be moving beneath them. It was lighter here, and now Ironfoot could see Je Wen's face. It was strong and lined, there was a bit of light stubble on his head, and he had a neatly trimmed beard that glowed white in the moonlight. His eyes were clear and light, though it was difficult to tell whether they were blue or gray in the monochrome world of night.
Ironfoot looked back into a sea of darkness.
'Come along,' said Je Wen. Ironfoot noticed that Silverdun and Sela had already jumped from the edge of the blackness, and that the other Arami were handing their collected loot off to their comrades. They were moving slowly away from him. A little way away, wide carts pulled by long lines of the tiniest horses Ironfoot had ever seen were stopping nearby.
He jumped off and stumbled again on the moving ground. He turned and realized that, of course, it was not the ground that was moving, but the 'net,' which followed along beneath the city.
'Does it track the city wherever it goes?' asked Silverdun.
Je Wen shook his head. 'Only at night, and only when they pass nearby. We know their paths and follow them as need requires.'
Ironfoot watched the umbra recede. He looked up at the underbelly of the city. From beneath, Preyia was an eyesore. Its hull was discolored and uneven, dark. A fine mist fell from it.
'All that,' said Ironfoot, pointing, 'is one night's worth of garbage?'
'As I said,' said Je Wen, 'they are a wasteful people.'
Timha was the last one off the net. He scowled at Je Wen, but came anyway.
They walked to the carts as a group. Sela pointed out that it would be polite to offer to help carry what the Arami had collected. Ironfoot took a sack from one of the robed figures, who nodded in thanks, but did not speak. As Ironfoot carried it to the carts, he peeked inside: a half-eaten loaf of bread, a cabbage, a belt, a bolt of cloth, a cheese, and other items that he couldn't identify in the darkness.
They reached the carts, and Ironfoot realized with surprise that the creatures pulling the wagons were not horses, but goats. Tall, short-horned goats that made quiet guttural sounds as they stood impatiently in their harness. The carts were low and wide, and their wheels huge.
'Come along,' said Je Wen, motioning for Ironfoot, Silverdun, and Sela to climb aboard the carts. 'A large quake will come to this place in a few minutes.'
Presently the carts were all loaded with both goods and passengers. The loot was carefully tied down in the backs of the carts. Ironfoot, Silverdun, Timha, and Sela sat in the front cart with Je Wen. The goats hopped along, pulling the cart faster than Ironfoot would have suspected, their heads popping up comically out of the tall wild grain that the carts now passed through.
The ground suddenly shook, and the cart jerked to the left. Ironfoot realized why it was built so wide; the wheels on the right side of the cart leapt off the ground for a moment, but there was no danger of the thing tipping. The goats barely seemed to notice. Their hopping gait continued as if nothing had happened.
'Look,' said Je Wen, pointing. The city and its shadow were receding
