Sam said his goodbyes over breakfast the next morning. He hadn't been friendly with many people during his time in the Glacier, but there were some. People like Jondwyn, the sole Clayr he had revealed is plans to. It didn't matter that it had spread from him to the rest of the Clayr. Looking back, Sam realized that they deserved to know, and Jondwyn had just served as the bearer of bad news. Besides, he had been there for most of the night, helping Sam with things he didn't even know Firana had had to do.

Once he'd returned hugs, handshakes, and well-wishes, he slipped out. Sam went back to his room, changed Alina's diaper one last time, and wrapped her up in everything but the shirt on his back. Paperwing flights were cold for him; he didn't even want to think about what they'd be like for a baby. A freshly heated bottle of milk joined his small pile of possessions before Sam gathered them up and strode out the door. This place fairly reeked of bad memories now, and he wished to leave them behind as soon as was possible.

†††

Lirael ran down the stairs with a hand on her stomach. She dearly hoped it wasn't going to empty itself...again. But as she reached the bathroom door, a sending tapped her shoulder and indicated that someone was at the door. Glancing sideways, she saw that Nick was still asleep. She groaned, but went down the next flight of stairs. Why did the observatory have to be so far above the ground?

Lirael's stomach gave one final heave as she opened the door. Her visitor quickly sidestepped, avoiding the putrid mess that covered her azaleas. Lirael looked up to find Sam still awkwardly holding her hair. "Sorry," she said. "It's the pregnancy."

"You're having another baby?"

"Yes, and far more troublesome than the last, I'm afraid."

"I certainly hope not."

Lirael frowned. "Enough of that. What about yours? The messagehawks didn't saw much."

"Oh! I left her up in the paperwing. Didn't want to drop her on the way down, and the sendings insisted I come in through the front door." A tint came to his cheeks and she sighed. Some of those sendings really did need to be destructed.

Her stomach having quieted itself, Lirael trotted out to the platform with surprising agility. A baby as young as Alina couldn't be left in the cold for long, after all. Once she reached the paperwing, though, she saw the child was wrapped up nice and tightly. Not even the mist that always surrounded the platform could have penetrated the layers of blankets. Perhaps Sam really would make a good father. Lirael shook her head to rid herself of the sudden thought. She might be his aunt, but she certainly didn't have to act like it. He'd always felt like more of a brother, or a close friend.

She picked up the bundle and headed back inside. Sam would be up the stairs by now. She wondered why he hadn't just left Alina with her mother. It would have been far safer. Then again, maybe he'd just wanted to show her off. The prince had always been a bit of a braggart.

Lirael found him in the study, contentedly flipping through a book of Charter marks. He looked up when the door clicked hut, eyes gleaming with an unspoken jest. "So you did make it up the ladder. I thought you wouldn't be able to reach the rungs past your belly."

She gave him a withering look, then laughed and shifted the baby to a more comfortable position. "Where's your wife?"

"She was a part of the Watch when I left, and couldn't come," he half-lied. Firana was, technically, part of the Watch, just not as one of the watchers.

"Oh," she replied. "That's too bad. I suppose it means you've fixed the Ice, though, right?"

"Yes, about that... They had a vision right after I repaired it. A vision about you."

Lirael swallowed. The only other vision she'd been in had ended with a battle against Orannis, and the loss of her best friend. She inhaled deeply before speaking. "Continue."

"I think...you freed Orannis. But you freed him completely, where Orannis had tried to free only a little of himself."

"Well, that's a future that probably won't happen. I can't see any reason why I'd do such a thing."

"You'd do that," said Mogget, who was sliding out from behind a bookshelf, "so you could destroy him. Right now, he is merely bound, and lightly at that. But if you were to ring a bell made of the metal he's bound in within his hearing, he would die. Even if he were to suck the Life out of every other being in Death, that bell's tolls would chase him far beyond the ninth gate. But of course, you'd have to free him to get the metal for the bell."

"Well," Lirael replied after a moment's thought. "That certainly explains the why, but I suppose I'm not lucky enough for you to know the how as well, am I?"

"No," the cat mused. "I suppose you're not."

"I think," said Sam, "I might have the answer to that. In the vision, you were ringing two bells just before it happened. One was Saraneth, but I don't have an inkling as to what the other was. I remember the handle was striped, though I've never heard of any bell like that."

Mogget's ears perked up at the mention of a striped handle. "The bell's size didn't change, did it?"

"Now that you mention it, the bell did seem to get a bit bigger when she started to ring it."

"It's as I thought then. The bell is mine. He handle is made of toucan bill. You'll need to forge the bell and it's handle if you want to destroy Orannis and Liane." A pink tongue ran across his lips at the thought of tropical birds.

"And where, exactly, are we supposed to get a toucan's bill? I've never even heard of a toucan."

"In Olmond. You'd best get going if you want to be there by dusk."