First off - apologies if this is the wrong forum - feel free to point me where I need to be if there is a better location for this query!
I remember reading a fantasy book (at least 20-25 years ago?) about a poor girl, living a life of poverty, barely getting by, in a shanty town in a swamp (the htus were on legs?). She recovers a body from the swamp, but is then amazed to find that the "body" is actually alive, and he is an important person (rich I think) from the well to do city. Not totally clear, but I have vague memories that the "city" may have been a floating city above the swamp? Not clear on that though.
She helps him out, and gets him to a point where he is able to deal with the people who thought they had murdered him, all the time aware that even if he succeeds, his life is such that there will not be a happy ending for her, in that they are from such different life styles.
I am thinking possibly something by Ursula Le Guin? Or that may be a total red kipper....
Anyone any ideas?
Thank you!