“We can but hope,” I replied hopelessly, then added, half-ironically, “Unless he’s one of the Deluminati, of course.” I felt the full fatuousness of the remark, but needed to focus on anything but the most pressing fact that the barge had just jerked into motion.
“He’s one of the what?” asked my fellow captive, bemusedly.
“I hear it’s some sort of conspiracy, to keep people ignorant.”
“Forgive me, but I had always supposed that to be the work of nature. Do the authorities in my country also conspire?”
“No idea. What is your country?”
“That’s hard to say. I was born at sea, brought up in Mejukstan, my mother’s from a place called Rowana, where they’re all... how do you say?”
“Alvere?” I suggested, gloomily.
“Right, and my father was a sea-captain from Albinor. You know of that nation
