On the water the oars made the same note the canal had earlier: patient, rhythmic. In the boat ahead a man in a collar like a magistrate's leaned toward a woman holding a lantern carved with stitches. Candlelight carved her face into two halves, one kind and the other unreadable. The magistrate kept counting, fingers grazing beads. They spoke of shipments, of numbers that matched those in Snake's ledger. Their language was arithmetic: debts, tallies, expiration dates for people.