aChast.i.tyas mine. And I collect jokes, of a sort,a he replied.

I nodded, though presumably this was not a private piece of information. I would have to bend a little, Iad realized, in order to get anywhere successfully with the Dragon Corps. They no longer seemed as one, a wall of intimidation stark against me, but rather like a mob of jackdaws, pecking at each other, and cawing, and preening their own feathers. I could manage this. I would.

aHeas Ivory,a Magoughin added helpfully, nodding to the man at his left, so blond and pale that he looked almost unreal.

aThey call me that because Iam good at the piano,a he said, in a voice as dry as sandpaper. aNot because of my skin, so donat even bother asking. Oh, and I ride Ca.s.siopeia.a aIa"I wasnat going to,a I a.s.sured him, quickly stifling the sudden, insistent notion that I should and could have been taking notes this entire time. They may have seemed like trivial bits of information, but anything additional I could learn about this merry band of lunatics might very well help me in the future. You never knew what was going to be important, as Marius was often fond of pointing out when my patience with studies had worn thin. Jokes, the piano, the gigglinga"even Merrittas tapping and Balfouras glovesa"there was something to be gleaned from all of this, if I were to treat them as individuals.

Divide and conquera"it was an old adage.

aLuvander,a the final voice piped up, and I forced myself to acknowledge him politely instead of slumping to the floor with relief. He wore dark hair tied back from his face, and his coat was unb.u.t.toned. aI fly Yesfir, though I like to think itas more as how she deigns to let me hop on once in a while. In any case, I really hate going last.a aAh,a I said, most cleverly. And then, when no one jumped in immediately to comment, I straightened my shoulders and allowed the success of the moment to buoy my spirits, however briefly. aWell. Thank you, everyone. I appreciate the . . . enthusiasm some of you exhibited in sharing.a aWhoa there just a second, aVersity boy.a Rook had leaned forward in his chair again, eyes like twin chips of bright ice. aWhereas your introduction?a Ah, yes, I thought. Iad forgotten that. Iad prepared something in advancea"something clever and noncommittal, something which wouldnat prove fuel for the firesa"but at the moment my energy was sapped, my nerves jangling, Rookas eyes skewering me like I was the board in a game of darts. I knew immediately that Iad forgotten all of ita"my introduction and my speech, my purpose in neat and precise order; everything Iad prepared and memorized.

I looked out over the group, all fourteen of them against the one of me. They were only men, I thought; they flew great steel beasts that were quirky and capricious, but these were only men, and all men had some human tenderness.

aWell, as you may already know,a I said, hating myself for the uncertainty in my voice, amy name is Thom, and Ia"a I remembered it out of the blue, like a thunderclap. aIave never actually seen a dragon up close.a HAL.

I was supposed to meet the Margrave for our daily walk. I donat know how it became a ritual but it did. And, after a few days, I couldnat imagine my life without the ambling path we took every noontime along the Locque Nevers, occasionally speaking, but most often not. It was awkward at times, and once I stumbled so that I almost took a dive into the water, but I think it did the chatelainas brother some good to be out and about. Fresh air was the cure for all ills, or so said Cooke, the chatelainas stableboy, with a laugh and a toss of his head much like a horse. And the Mme said it as well, though she never took fresh air for herself, claiming it made her dizzy.

The first time Iad thought it would be worse than it was, the two of us walking not quite side by side, and the Margraveas profile very sharp and lean against the sunlight.

aWell,a I said.

Iad said aWella three times now. It seemed only fair that I continue to fish for conversation like any other man would fora"well, fish, I supposeda"casting the line out into the dark, quiet waters and waiting each time hopefully, though I was granted no answering bite. The Margrave didnat enjoy talking, which was funny, since he seemed as if he might have been the sort of man who had enjoyed it. Once.

His unhappiness had begun to poison him, though I wasnat sure exactly how. Iad never seen someone so unhappy in my life. I wanted to reach out to him with something more than a Well, halting and inadequate.

This time, howevera"the fourth timea"the Margrave stopped by the edge of the river.

aWhat fish,a he said, ado you suppose frequent these waters?a aI have no idea,a I replied.

That was the extent of our first conversation. From the sigh of disappointment he heaved, I a.s.sumed Iad let him down somehow, but it wasnat my job to teach William or Alexander about the Locque Nevers, which meant Iad never been given cause to teach myself this unexpectedly necessary information.

I asked Cooke that evening, and he said there werenat any fish at all in Locque Nevers, though in some places there were tadpoles and newts and bullfrogs.

aInteresting,a the Margrave said, when I relayed this knowledge.

That was the extent of our second conversation.

The third was longer, and seemed to make him almost happy before it made him much more unhappy. He spoke to me about the citya"his own inspiration, though I felt guilty nonetheless.

aWhat sort of man you are depends on the bar you frequent,a he explained to me, quite patiently, while I listened wide-eyed as a childa"and to him, I suppose, I was one. aAnd I donat mean bar as in your provincial equivalenta"a roof and a few stools and a great sweating hulk of a man slamming out dreadful, diseased drink for fools who donat know the difference. No. Pantheon Bar, for example, is a great cobbled stretch right by the Amazement, which is the entertainment district, though Iam sure youave heard of that. Men from the Basquiat tend to prefer Pantheon over Reliquary, which Iad say is something of a more . . . old-school feel, for those who still claim loyalty, for whatever reason, to the spirit of the Ramanthe, while the students at the aVersity are all for Chapel, which is cheaper, you see, and caters to the flashier sensibilities of the young.a I soaked it all in like a wet stone soaks in sunlight. aOh,a I said happily, but I couldnat imagine it.

Then, all at once, the Margraveas eyes shuttered and closed completely. I could see pain etch itself deeply around his eyes and mouth, so that it was hard for me to believe that he was a good many years younger than the chatelain himself.

aAre you all right?a I asked, worrying my lower lip but not daring to reach out to him. A cold wind was blowing in over the water.

aIam going back,a he said.

I didnat understand his moods, nor did I understand the private miseries he nursed. The Mme needed her smelling salts whenever his name was mentioned, and the rumors Cooke pa.s.sed back and forth with Collins and Ramsey and Millera"who might not have known what they were talking about, but might also have known more than I dida"were vicious.

I couldnat ask the chatelain. It wasnat my place, and he would have bellowed all the window gla.s.s out of their frames.

I wondered to myself, the night I heard Cooke and Collins and the rest talking about it, whether or not it mattered what head donea"if it was what they said, or something like they said but different, or something truly bad, or something so stupid it didnat merit thinking about. I decided that it wasnat, rolled over in my little bed, and fell asleep soon after.

CHAPTER THREE.

ROYSTON.

It was raining, hard like walls of water whipped sideways by the howling wind, when my brother came to me, hair wet and plastered over his brow, face wet, lips blue. Iad been sleepinga"or rather, lying in my bed with my face to the walla"and was about to muster some snide quip from the depths of my weariness when I saw his expression fully, not just obscured and backlit from the hall.

I sat up. aWilliam,a my brother said, dripping all over the floor. It would warp the wood. ad.a.m.n child, always thinks heas playing when he isnata"never mind, never mind. He was out earlier, before the storm hit. Hal went out to find him, only the idiot boy didnat tell anyone, and wead only just noticed them missing when Cooke came in to tell us head seen Hal set outa"a I was already pulling on my boots. What my brother thought head accomplish by running out into the rain was beyond me, but it stirred some trembling emotion in my chest to see how deeply he loved his children, despite how helpless he was to express any of it.

aWhat do you think?a I asked, not relishing the idea of going out into the rain. My left boot was giving me trouble, but unlike my brotheras, my hands werenat shaking. aWhere do you think theyad be?a aWilliam thinks itas funny,a my brother said, then his voice broke on something wet and cold, ato play by the marsh.a aAnd thatas where you think they are?a aHal would have gone there to check for him,a my brother confirmed. He pushed his wet hair back off his forehead, then grabbed my arm with his wet hand. aCan youa"?a He meant: Was my magic something that could help in this matter. My brother had never bothered to learn the specifics of my Talent, which had hurt me once and now no longer mattered. It was too complicated to explain to a man so bent on remaining mired in country feudalism. In short, my Talent wasnat going to be especially helpful, no, but I had common sense and experience in similar matters; Iad saved an entire garrison of Reds on an afternoon as p.i.s.s-poor as this one, and I was the only person in the entire household who had the head for doing what needed to be done to make sure no one was marsh-drowned by morning.

aNo,a I told my brother. a But Iall find them.a aYes,a said my brother. aRight. What do you need?a aIall need a coat,a I said at length, for I realized that none of my clothes had been tailored specifically for a downpour in the countryside.

aA coat,a my brother repeated.

aYes,a I confirmed, then stood up. There was a moment when it seemed Iad done it too quickly, and the blood rushed from my uppers too soon, but I held in place for a moment and the dizziness pa.s.sed. I took my brother by his wet arm and steered him out of the room and down the stairs. I was not unaccustomed to telling men and women what to do in their own homes; mercifully my brother seemed to have gone into a kind of frozen waterlogged trance, where he was numb to trifles such as hurt dignity or misplaced rivalry.

Once on the landing, he went to the closet while I kicked the toe of my left boot against the floor, still dissatisfied with the fit and feel of it.

The rain hammered down against the roof with a force that sounded as though it had the entirety of the Locque Nevers behind it. This was foolish, I knew, as rivers could not be pulled from their beds without at least three daysa advance planning and a geographical knowledge of the area.

aHere.a My brother handed me an oilskin raincoat. His own, I presumeda"too wide in the chest and too short in the armsa"but it would have to do. I put it on. aIf you canat find them,a he began, and I silenced him with a hand.

No matter what had pa.s.sed between us, between my brother and me, I did not wish to see him harmed by the loss of his child.

aIall find them,a I said, and went out into the rain.

The lay of the land surrounding Castle Nevers could only have been designed by a countryman. There were no straight paths to anywhere, only the vague and winding curve that would lead you to the river if you followed it long enough.

In some ways, that reminded me enough of the city for it to weigh heavily on my heart.

Today, however, I had no time for the turning paths, counterintuitive to any man with logic at hand. The wind whipped at branches, drove rain sharp and bitterly cold against my face and hands. I wished Iad thought to bring some gloves, for in the cold your fingers were the first to be endangered.

Hal had pointed out the marsh on one of our walks, pleasant and innocuous as always. Iad not been paying attention at the time, but was thankful now for his insistence that I leave the house despite my contempt for both sheep and trees. If it hadnat been for those walks, Iad be incurably lost now.

All things have a purpose. My mentoras words came unbidden as they ever did, and I recalled them with the same deep regret that now tinged and tainted every part of my life.

I picked up speed.

To my surprise, much of the grounds were not unfamiliar, almost as though I truly hadnat spent all my term of exile in an impermeable fugue of self-pity. There wasnat a path to the marsh, not exactly, but it had a way all the same, past the ring of stumps where Emilie had her tea parties in the warmer months, and the burnt-out wreck of a caretakeras cabin that had been destroyed in an accident involving the boys upriver.

Much as I liked to believe myself separate from the goings-on in my brotheras house, I knew with a sureness that flowed in me to the core that I could nota"would nota"go back to the house without my nephew and Hal. Those who knew me well might have called it stubbornness and they wouldnat have been very wrong, for I was a stubborn man in all things, and especially the ones I thought could not be amenable to changea"weather and law and the movement of the stars themselves. This warm closeness in my chest was a kin of stubbornness, then, but it was like nothing Iad ever felt before.

There would be time enough to examine my discovery later, I told myself; now was not the time.

The trees were beginning to thin out when my boot made a squelch instead of a thump, which meant that I was getting close. It also meant that the wind, while being deprived of branches to snap at my face, was also uninhibited by such trifling cover. It tore at my brotheras coat, freezing my wet skin and forcing my eyes to thin slits as I scanned the Nevers marsh for any signs of life. More than once I caught myself following the windas howl with my gaze, thinking it a voice in peril. I rubbed my arms briskly to keep them from going numb as my hands had, then continued more gingerly. The ground here was soft, and nearly as wet as the air. I thought of William and his short legs and his appet.i.te for mischief, and I felt sick at heart.

A shrill whistle went soaring past my ears, and suddenly the wind was calling my brotheras name.

It was difficult to discern the direction from which the cry had come, but as I turned it came again, louder, stronger. Two voices instead of one, perhaps. I remembered various bits and pieces of lessons, training, how to narrow my focus, how to catch in my ears what I wanted to hear, and even as I put those theories to practice I forced my legs to move. There was water seeping into my boots, cold as the rest.

It made sense, in some strange way. Why should any part of me escape the frigid consequence of the rainy season?

I was thankful at least that the voices I was following were taking me back to the marshas edge rather than farther in. No matter what confidence I had in my own abilities, I hadnat relished the idea of fishing two people from the watery depths of a piece of land that couldnat make up its mind whether to be solid or liquid and was treacherous enough to be both.

I saw a flash of something pale waving among a tangle of branches and rain, and I realized with a shock that it was an arm. My sigh of relief was immediately s.n.a.t.c.hed away by the wind. The boys were in a tree.

aPapa!a Williamas voice was reed-thin, screamed ragged. I hated to disappoint him, but that was what came of wearing my brotheras coat. I struggled over to the tree, laid my hands against its gnarled trunk. Hal and the boy sat tangled together on a lower branch, hair and clothing glued to their skins. Neither was in danger of drowning in the marsh, but their chances of surviving the night outside would have been slim indeed. As it was, we could all be reasonably certain that in a matter of days, everyone in my brotheras castle would be sniffling and sneezing and harboring some version of the same cold.

aM-Margrave Royston,a said Hal, blue-lipped and shivering. He was holding tight to William, who looked ready to hurl himself out of the tree at the slightest provocation.

aHave the pair of you quite finished scaring my brother to death?a I asked.

William made a miserable sound that reminded me how young he was, so I checked my tongue and held out my arms for him, instead. My most-disagreeable nephew clung to me like a newborn kitten, tiny freezing hands crawling under my collar, thin arms looped about my neck. I felt something pierce the fog of indifference Iad held around me like the blanket in my bed, and I comforted him as I had when the children had been much younger and my brother visiting Miranda for the first and only time.

There was a rustling sound from above our heads, and I looked up to see Hal halfway out of the tree himself but moving slowly, careful of the limited response his frozen limbs must have been giving him.

aHere,a I said, shifting William to one arm so that I could hold out a hand to Hal.

He took it without compunction, squeezed my fingers tight, and slipped from the tree with a wet thump. His lips were pressed tightly together, I a.s.sumed to keep his teeth from chattering. When he opened his mouth, the words came rushing out in a halting flow, as though he had a lot to say and not the words to say it.

aWilliama"I had to come. Didnat think it would be so cold,a he managed, before falling against me much as William had done.

aTake my coat,a I said, though it was too late for any coat to do much more than trap the cold that had already got into them.

Hal shook his head, wet hair brushing against the curve of my chin as he did so.

aHere,a I said again, as reasonably as I could. I fumbled at the b.u.t.tons of the coat with numb fingers until I could pull a side of it free. In a swift motion that let as little rain in as possible, I folded Hal in close, and brought the oilskin around him, so that it might serve a dual purpose.

aOh,a I heard him say quietly, an icy and immediate presence against my chest. aThank you.a I swallowed, feeling the small movements of his mouth as he spoke against my shoulder. His hands were larger than Williamas, but they clutched in exactly the same way, holding tight to my shirt as though I were an anchor in the storm. With a slowly trickling certainty, like the water running down my neck, I felt that same hand as surely as if it had clutched at something deeper within my chest.

aWell,a I said, gruff and businesslike. William was weeping against my shoulder. aWead best get back to the house.a ROOK.

I didnat have a mind to be sharing or caring again anytime soon. Only when I said as much to Adamo, he looked me square in the eye and said head string me up out the window even if I was the only soul who could fly Havemercy in a straight line. I wasnat in a mood for that kind of horses.h.i.ta"especially not with all the horses.h.i.t Iad been forced to swallow latelya"so I told him as how he knew he wouldnat; and then his jaw got hard, and we were just staring at each other for a while, breathing heavy like right before a fight. Weadave just about gutted each other on the spot, except then Ghislain stepped in with more news from thaEsar: that like as not we were going to have to show the little s.h.i.t professor around our digs, let him observe us day to day, and not accidentally feed him to one of the girls. (That last being Ghislainas own phrasing.) Wead known, barely and sort of, what to expect when we all piled into the atrium for our rehabilitation. Before the fact, Balfour kept talking about how it was just a punishment in theory and not in actual practice, and how it was better than all the things the Arlemagnes were demanding for punishment, and how it was a clever idea when you thought about it, pleasing both sidesa"a real compromise instead of one of those fake ones where both parties leave the table dissatisfied. But I knew better than that. I knew it was a demotion in status and I knew how it made us all look, like kids whoad stolen cookies from the jar, like no better than naughty puppies, with thaEsar rapping news-print against our noses, and I was screaming p.i.s.sed. No matter which way they tried to spin it, I wasnat going to do what the little s.h.i.t said, and I wasnat going to cut him any breaks, either. Whatever he was here to accomplish it was all just more of the same: weak words aVersity students and Margraves and members of the bastion tossed back and forth like birdies in some p.u.s.s.yas badminton. We were different from all thata"exempt, to use their own rhetorica"acause this was the Dragon Corps. We werenat supposed to abide by the usual rules, and whatever the f.u.c.k thaEsar thought he was going to accomplish, it sure wasnat inspiring no fighting spirit in me, leastways not the kind he was looking for out of any one of us.

aIam flying out,a I said.

aYou arenat,a Adamo told me.

But I was all energy and nerves and wanted to burn something, and we hadnat been flying in months. aHavemercyas p.i.s.sed,a I said, which was true, and didnat just mean Iam p.i.s.sed. Havemercy liked flying better than anything, and these days when I visited her for a polish or a chat, she looked at me over one metal claw like I was a f.u.c.king disappointment. Yeah, sweetheart, Iad say, weare all f.u.c.king disappointed right about now. Then Iad say a few other choice phrases, and Havead just snort like she didnat care one way or another, so long as I saw fit to get her up in the air again.

I needed to fly all that name-and-private-detail business offa"and the idea that the little s.h.i.t was coming to get the grand tour and we were all going to have to roll out the red carpet like he was some kind of king rather than all green and p.i.s.sing his pants terrified of us.

Good, I thought. At least he had one thing straight, if nothing else.

aDonat be a fool,a said Adamo. aYouave already had your ride this month, same as the rest of the boys. It isnat my fault none of you takes the time to understand rationing a thing out once in a while.a ThaEsar had come to some sort of agreement with Adamo more than ten years back about how we each got one free ride a month during peacetimes. I guess he thought that any damage we could do up in the air was miles less than we could do on the ground, getting stir-crazy and all riled up at one another without nothing to let off the steam.

But mostly, we figured, head agreed for the dragons, partly acause keeping them locked up all the time made them cranky, and partly because he thought it made them rusty, too.

aIam takina her out,a I repeated, and that was final-like. He wasnat going to string me up, and he could give me dog rations all he liked knowing I wouldnat give a ratas a.s.s about it, and he sure as f.u.c.k couldnat dismiss me.

He was right in some sense, acause the thing is, the tech the magicians use for making dragons is all pretty hush-hush, and you canat risk some lucky Ke-Han getting his hands on you so he can figure it all out in his sweet time and start building up his own air force. When youare an airman, youave got to be careful and youave got to be precisea"but all that doesnat mean anything unless youare good, and out of all of them I was the best. Everybody knew ita"even Ace, though he wouldnat admit it, and especially Adamo, who was stubborn as a brick wall but smarter than he looked.

I wasnat going to take her far, I said, getting on my gloves. I was just going to take her up, wheel her around a bit, give Volstov a show, then return her so she could sleep easier, having had the exercise.

And so I didnat kill anyone from being so f.u.c.king mad.

aThirty,a Adamo said, which meant if I was up for more than half an hour, he was going to string me up.

Whatever. We both knew whoad won that round.

So I went on down through the bunks and the mess and the showers and through the leisure doora"rather than the one you take when the raid sirenas sounding, which shoots you straight from the bedroom to the docking baya"and then there I was, the wide, low-ceilinged room clean and dark and smelling of metal and burning things, and my palms itching to get Havemercy harnessed and get us both up in the air.

See, unlike most of the men here, I hadnat been trained properly or anything. Iad volunteered to be one of the muck boys who run around after the real airmen and keep the harnesses polished and the dragonhide gleaming and all that bulls.h.i.t, like with mops and yessirs and nosirs every two seconds, sc.r.a.ping and bowing and otherwise making an a.s.s of myself. Only, I volunteered at the right time, just when Havemercy was fresh off the table, and she was being real picky and real precise about not having anyone flying her no matter how they coaxed, until she took one look at me and it was love at first sight, only we both knew the other one didnat have any heart for loving to speak of. She was beautiful then, and sheas still beautiful now, though thereas a clip off her left wing from getting in too close to the real fighting one time, but we turned the tide of the skirmish and sent the Ke-Han packing back over the Cobalts where theyad come from all c.o.c.ky and proud, so I guess we did all right by that.

aHey, sweetheart,a I said.

Havemercy saw the harness in my hand, that I had my gloves and my riding boots on. She yawned and flicked her tail. aBell didnat ring,a she said.

The thing you have to understand about the way dragons sound is thisa"theyare not really talking. I mean, theyare machines. Theyare made out of metal, and then thereas a little hole in their chests where a magician pours some vital piece of his Talent and his love, and thatas the dragonsoul. And if the magicianas peculiar or eccentric or completely off his nut, the way they usually are, then that comes out in the dragonas personality. Only they donat have any blood, and their voices grate out from their hollow metal bellows, so itas more the echoing memory of words than actual words themselves. They arenat hes or shes, either, only I liked to think of riding her like Iad ride any woman, only it was better than all those times rolled up into one, my legs wrapped around her powerful neck and her wings beating the air, throwing it against my back and whipping my hair around my face.

aJust a spin,a I said.

aGood,a said Havemercy. aIam getting rusty.a as.h.i.t,a I said, ayou ainat.a aArenat,a Havemercy said. aYou common little f.u.c.ker.a There was a time when the powers that be were concerned I was going to be a bad influence on Havemercy, the pride of the entire dragon-fleet, but she wasnat some prissy little politicianas wife, just power and musculature and sleeking grace, and she didnat f.u.c.k around with being proper even from the start. I taught her all the good curses and shead melt any man tried to separate us, leastways until I could get my knife in between his ribs and stick him like a pig.

Anyway, I harnessed her up and she lowered her neck for me to swing myself around. There were loops in her jaw like chain links for me to latch the harness on and I did, then shead turned herself around and the door to her stall was lowering like a bridge-ramp, same as always, though slower since this was no more than a leisure jaunt, and also for reminding everyone as had a pair of eyes on them who really ran this city.

Us.

I snapped the goggles down over my eyes. Theyare made more for actual emergencies, when the flyingas going to get sticky and thereas ash and smoke and all sorts of s.h.i.t you donat want getting into your eyes, not to mention clouding up your vision. I put them on, though, out of habit and because all I needed was to catch a bug under my lid to p.i.s.s me off even more.

Havemercy stretched her wingsa"not all the way, since she wouldnat have the room atil we really got out of this d.a.m.n room and off this d.a.m.n ground. If shead been a horse, or some common animal made of meat and bone, Iadave dug my heels in a bita"so keen I was to get in the aira"but Havemercy wasnat any kind of common anything, and even with my boots on it wouldave hurt my feet more than she couldave felt it at all.

aSo,a said Havemercy, making a thoughtful sound like metal grinding. aAny direction in particular?a aAnywhere,a I said, then, aeverywhere. s.h.i.t, Have, letas just make sure the city hasnat forgot about us.a She snorted and unfurled her wings with the sharp whistle of steel through air. They caught the sun, flashed bright and blinding down to the ground below. I laughed my approval, loud and indifferent to the people who turned away and those who pointed and stared alike. My girl knew how to get attention.

We rose into the air, and all them people with their cares and concerns fell away at once, the steady beat of Haveas wings buffeting the currents all around me. On a clear day, a no-war-f.u.c.king-lull day, flying could be as smooth as a virginas thighs, and as soft and easy, too. On a rough day, it was like riding the eye of a storm, snaking metal and magic under me.

aLetas go to the water, then,a said Havemercy.

Volstov was a city built on a hill, with everything slowly sliding down to ruin in the water. That wasnat how the aVersity types put ita"atiersa they said, the city was built on three tiers, Molly closest to the water and Miranda closest to the palace, with Charlotte in the middle, cold and unhappy as a child in the same position. It was all like some complicated cake for weddings, and right on top was the Basquiat. It rose from the center of Miranda, tall and arrogant as any one of the d.a.m.ned magicians and Margraves who occupied the place, with swirled onion-shaped domes set in too many colors. The only thing I liked about it was that it near rivaled the palace in size, and that p.i.s.sed thaEsar off real nice every now and again when he caught sight of it out the windows. Or so Iad heard.