‘I’m here,’ she called, wondering who needed her for what now. The interruptions always seemed to come when she was in the most interesting part of something, and for what? So that she could identify a stove part or something that someone had found. Earlier in the week, it had been Rapskal with an armful of very large buckles set with sparkling stones. ‘I know these are important,’ he had said without preamble. ‘I know that I know what they are, but when I reach for the memory, it slides away. It isn’t something I used to deal with directly, but I know that someone did it for me and it was important to me and my dragon.’ He had taken a breath and added mournfully, ‘I found them in a pile of rubble behind my house. Something bad happened there, Alise. I know it.’
She’d looked at him dispassionately. He would never be her favourite person, but seemed artlessly unaware of how devastating his comments had been to her. He was the one who had pointed out that she was not an Elderling and never would be. He was the one who had told her that she had no say over what they did with the city, that the city belonged to the new Elderlings, not her. True as those statements had been, they had still devastated her and turned her life upside down. She’d had to change her image of herself from the very bones out. Ultimately, she knew, it had been good for her. That did not mean she enjoyed being reminded of it.
‘You never touched one of these before today,’ she pointed out to him. ‘But you may have sampled the memories of someone who did.’ An understatement if there was one. All knew how obsessed Rapskal was becoming with his ‘other’ self’s memories. She took one of the buckles from him and turned it slowly in her hands. ‘It’s from a dragon’s harness. Not for battle armour but for show. Perhaps as part of a victory parade or other celebration—’
‘Battle harness?’ he had interrupted her. ‘Battle harness? YES! Yes, that’s it, that’s what this reminded me of. But … but …’ Mouth slightly ajar, his eyes went distant and the light went out of his face. ‘I don’t remember all of it. I should, but I don’t know …’
‘Go to the Hall of Records, the building with the map tower. Climb up, oh; I think it was on the third storey. There are many wall decorations there that you can study to see how the harness was made and fitted.’