The canal began to run backward while Iven was buying a pear.
The seller noticed first. She stopped counting his coins and looked over his shoulder at the water passing beneath the market grating. A peel floated upstream, turned in a small circle, and vanished against the current.
“That isn’t right,” she said.
Iven followed her gaze. The water had risen above the painted line on the canal wall. A second ago he would have sworn it had been below it. He took his coins back, left two on the stall, and put the pear in his pocket.
“Where’s the nearest gate?”
“Down by the dye houses. But they shut it this morning.”
Neri was at the end of the lane with Olan. She saw him coming and looked past him toward the canal.
“Water?” she asked.
