"Mightn't there be boats along here?" Mercer asked once. "How far up is this place?"
"Not far now—beyond there."
The river appeared to terminate abruptly up ahead against the side of a frowning brown cliff, but Mercer saw a moment later that it opened out around a bend to the left.
"Around that next bend?"
She nodded.
It seemed incredible to Mercer that the second largest city in Mercury lay hidden in the midst of this desolation.
"We'll meet boats," he said. "What will the people think of me? Don't let's start anything if we can help it."
"You lie there." Anina indicated the bottom of the boat at her feet. "No one see you then. I steer. They do not notice me. Nobody care who I am."
Mercer had still the very vaguest of ideas as to what they would do when they got to the Water City. As a matter of fact, he really was more curious just to see it than anything else. But there was another reason that urged him on. Both he and Anina were hungry.
They had eaten very little since leaving the Great City the night before; and now that it was again evening, they were famished. They had rummaged the boat thoroughly, but evidently the men had taken all their supplies ashore with them, for nothing was in the boat.