Sabriel had expected Belisaere to be a ruined city, devoid of life, but it was not so. By the time they saw its towers, and the truly impressive walls that rihe peninsula on which the city stood, they also saw fishing boats, of a size with their own. People were fishing from them—normal, friendly people, who waved and shouted as they passed. Only their greeting was telling of how things might be in Belisaere. 「Good sun and swift water」 was not the typical greeting in Touchstoime.
The city』s main harbor was reached from the west. A wide, buoyed el raween two hulking defeworks, leading into a vast pool, easily as big as twenty or thirty playing fields. Wharves lihree sides of the pool, but most were deserted. To the north and south, warehouses rotted behind the empty wharves, broken walls and holed roofs testimony to long abando.
Only the eastern dock looked lively. There were none of the big trading vessels of bygone days, but many small coastal craft, loading and unloading. Derricks swung in and out; longshoremen humped packages along gangplanks; small children dived and swam iween the boats. No warehouses stood behind these wharves—instead, there were hundreds of open-topped booths, little more than brightly decorated frameworks deliing a patch of space, with tables for the wares, and stools for the vendors and favored ers. There seemed to be no she of ers in general, Sabriel noted, as Touchstoeered for a vat berth. People were swarming everywhere, hurrying about as if their time was sadly limited.
Touchstohe mai go slack, and brought the boat into the wind just in time for them to lose way and glide at an oblique ao the fehat lihe wharf. Sabriel threw up a line, but before she could leap ashore and secure it to a bollard, a street ur did it for her.
「Penny for the knot,」 he cried, shrill voice pierg through the hubbub from the crowd.
「Penny for the knot, lady?」
Sabriel smiled, with effort, and flicked a silver penny at the boy. He caught it, grinned and disappeared into the stream of people moving along the dock. Sabriel』s smile faded. She could feel many, many Dead here . . . or not precisely here, but further up iy. Belisaere was built upon four low hills, surrounding a tral valley, which lay open to the sea at this harbor. As far as Sabriel』s senses could tell, only the valley was free of the Dead—why, she didn』t know. The hills, which made up at least two-thirds of the city』s area, were ied with them.
This part of the city, oher hand, could truly be said to be ied with life. Sabriel had fotten how noisy a city could be. Even in Aierre, she had rarely visited anything larger than Bain, a town of no more thahousand people. Of course, Belisaere wasn』t a big city by Aierran standards, and it didn』t have the noisy omnibuses and private cars that had been signifitly adding to Aierran noise for the last ten years, but Belisaere made up for it with the people. People hurrying, arguing, shouting, selling, buying, singing . . .
「Was it like this before?」 she shouted at Touchstone, as they climbed up onto the wharf, making sure they had all their possessions with them.
「Not really,」 answered Touchstohe Pool was normally full, with bigger ships—and there were warehouses here, not a market. It was quieter, too, and people were in less of a rush.」
They stood on the edge of the dock, watg the stream of humanity and goods, hearing the tumult, and smelling all the new odors of the c