Snapper shrugged. "Even if I knew I wouldn't tell you. And if I told you it wouldn't do you any good anyway."

"What's in there?" Carmen said. "Are the stories true?"

"I believe so," Snapper said. "Imagine. All the treasures of the ancients. I'd do anything for just one hour inside. Anything. You think I've never looked for it? I've searched for years. Found nothing. Nothing." His brow furrowed. "What's this artifact then?"

Ward glanced at Carmen. She shrugged. What did it matter?

"Dice," Ward said. "Old dice."

"Ahuh," Snapper said.

Ward described them in detail.

"Ahuh," Snapper said again.

"Well? You've heard of them before, right?"

Snapper shook his head.

"Aren't there any famous dice in stories?"

"No."

Ward frowned.

"When were you gonna tell us about em?" Mildew said, a dangerous note in her voice.

"If you're going to bicker with each other," Snapper said, "would you kindly remove yourselves? I am, as I have mentioned several times, trying to fish."

Mildew went quiet, electing instead to smoulder at Ward and Carmen.

"You know I did just remember something." Snapper gave his fishing rod a little jerk. "King Sol owned a pair of dice."

"The Black King?" Slops said.

"The very same."

"He was black too," Carmen said. "I've seen pictures." She had never seen someone who was entirely black. Some Bareheepians were browner than others (her pere was clearly of a more exotic cast than her mere, for example) but that was as far as it went. Bareheep had been a melting pot for centuries, and because there were no clear racial distinctions the population made little of such differences. They segregated themselves in other ways: Reversers from those who aged normally, the bureaucratic class from the working people, the sick from the well, Hattoists from heretics.

"He wasn't called the Black King because he was black of skin," Snapper said. "All of the Oruvian monarchs were black of skin. The Oru came from the North, see."

"Where'd they go?" Carmen said. "You don't see them anymore."

"During their rule the Oruvians married only among themselves. Preservation of their bloodlines was of great importance to them. They considered themselves of a higher order of human to the natives they brought civilisation to – before the Oru arrived in their great ships Bareheep was just a village of hunters and farmers. So it wasn't uncommon among the Oru for first cousins to marry. Few survived the Revolution, but under the new laws those who did were free to marry whom they wished. So they were soon absorbed into the population, and their striking characteristics diluted in the sea of humanity. Why, any one of you might be descended from them. I happen to know that I am. I've traced the bloodline of the Snapper dynasty back as far as the Kingdom – I'm of Royal blood." He raised his chin and looked down at them imperiously. "Not that anybody cares about such things anymore." The chin dropped.

"Why was King Sol called the Black King then?" Carmen said.

"Because he burned everyone," Slops said.

Snapper turned to Slops and nodded appreciatively. "Right again. Sol was nutty as a fruitcake. Believed his closest advisors and family were trying to kill him. Who would blame them if they were? And he was obsessed with fire. Spent years trying to catch the sun."

"Why?" Ward said.

"He thought it was a god. Like I said, nutty. He was the one who introduced cremation of the dead, a ritual that perseveres to this day, so you can thank him for that at least. Before that people were buried when they died."

"In the ground?" Mildew said.

"Precisely."

"Weird."

"What did you think a cemetery was?"

She shrugged. "Just a place where you dumped grandpere's ashes if you didn't want him hanging around the house, I guess."

"Well now you know."

"Kinda wish I didn't."

This reminds me of why I lost my job at the funeral parlour. Turns out it's not polite to ask people whether they're looking for the smoking or non-smoking area.