Grumpily, Alyn picked up her writing things and left the room to venture out through the winding ways of the Fifth Star Court. Not having a food scent to guide her, she succeeded in getting herself hopelessly lost in short order. Eventually, she stopped in a wide hall and looked around, hoping for a garden of some kind, but instead, she saw Ythilda, the maid who had found the body.

"Um, hello," she said, and Ythilda looked round with a smile.

"Can I help you?" she said. "Oh, it's you, isn't it, the page of the lord from Fourth Star Court?"

"Yes, that's right. I'm looking for, uh, the Garden of Seven Streams?" Ythilda looked sympathetic.

"This must be a maze for you right now," she said. "You need to go back the way you came, as far as the long hall with the golden curtains - you remember that? Good, then turn left and follow the corridor round. It opens onto the Garden of Seven Streams; the Upper Chamber will be across the garden from you."

"Thank you!" Alyn said gratefully, and hurried off. As she turned from the hall into the corridor Ythilda had mentioned, she heard the clock chiming and started to run. She didn't want to be late; it was bad enough being new. But time and the size of Fifth Star Court were against her, and it was a full five minutes after the bells had finished chiming by the time she climbed the stairs and reached the door to the Upper Chamber. She paused to catch her breath. The door was open, revealing a large room with several somewhat faded embroidered silk hangings decorating the walls. A thin, ascetic-looking man stood at the front, holding forth in a reedy voice about the principles of the law. A large group of boys - no girls, she realised - sat on the floor on cushions; a couple towards the back of the room were clearly lounging. Some of those near the door noticed her standing there, and a murmur ran round the room. The teaching lord stopped.

"Have we a visitor?" His tone wasn't very pleasant. Alyn gulped, and stepped inside, dropping into the obeisance prescribed for the page of a lord visiting another court to a lord of that court.

"Well well," the lord said. "Someone who knows her manners, what a pleasant surprise." His voice implied otherwise. "So, where did you spring from?"

"My lord, I'm serving Lord Miervaldis of the Fourth Star Court, who is visiting this Court."

"Oh, of course. Well, I suppose he had to get rid of you so he can play the sneak. Is he here to accuse or clear Lord Cassian?" Alyn couldn't work out which was the desired outcome, and in any case the question was too loaded to answer. She kept her head bent, and said nothing.

"Oh, get up. Find a bit of floor, and next time don't be late." He sounded irritable and angry, and Alyn wished briefly for someone like oblivious Lord Fitzhugh of the Fourth Star Court. He had barely even realised when a page came in late, and boring was far preferable to antagonistic.

"Yes, my lord," she said, and went to sit down near the door, putting her quills and papers in front of her. The teacher - whose name she still did not know - glanced at her once, then continued the interrupted lesson as though she had never come in.

"You may, of course, be advised on these matters but it is always worth being aware of previous cases in your Court..."

The lesson lasted two hours without a break, and all Alyn gained was a sore behind from sitting on the floor without a cushion. Teaching pages was always a bit erratic; pages were the next generation of lords and nobles, and knowledge that would be useful for, say, a physicker or an architect, was not considered appropriate for young nobles in case they became interested. Paid work, for a noble, was impious and improper. Nobles were supposed to serve the Sun Court and the people of their lands; that was why they came to their respective Star Courts, as representatives for their people. In days past, pages learned the ways of the Courts from their patrons while serving, in a kind of apprenticeship. Being told what happened was very different to actually doing it and watching it be done, and Alyn found the repetitive, dry recitations difficult to take in. As she gathered her pages of scratched notes, she wondered how Miervaldis had spent the afternoon, and wished she could have spent it with him. Even if he was just napping, she thought, it would be more interesting than this!

She followed the other pages out of the door and down the stairs, through the corridor and back to the big hall with the golden curtains. From there, she didn't know the way, and she lingered, confused. She wasn't even sure where Ythilda had been when she had given the directions earlier.

"Psst!"

She jumped, looking round. One of the pages from the lesson, a smaller, roundish boy with limp brown hair, was waving at her from another doorway. Alyn went over, hoping for directions or even, if she was lucky, a chance to gossip. The boy stood aside to allow her through the door, so she went in to a small room with panelled wooden walls and not much by way of furniture. Several of the other pages lurked around the room, looking variously grumpy, amused and unfriendly. Surprised, she turned round, to see the small round page close the door and stand in front of it. Alyn felt her heart thump, realising too late that she had fallen for their trick, and whatever they wanted to do, she couldn't stop them.