Strata

ear. ‘If he is speaking Latin, Silver may be able to translate.’
    ‘I don’t need a translation of that,’ said Kin. She treated her audience to another toothpastegrin and stepped forward. Brickface nodded and one man darted hurriedly out of the way.
    A group of three men were standing around the dumbwaiter. Two of them wore heavy grey robes and the third, a youth, wore clothes that were bright and obviously impractical. All three pulled back guiltily as she approached.
    Then the youth said something and reached inside his shirt, pulling out an amulet which he held in front of him as he advanced stiff-legged towards her. He held it like a weapon. Kin noticed that his eyes were glazed. Sweat glistened on his forehead.
    He stopped in front of her, staring straight ahead. She sensed that everyone was expecting something of her.
    She reached out gingerly and took the amulet.
    There was a gasp from the robed pair. Behind her Brickface doubled up with sudden laughter. The young man stared, lips moving on soundless words. Kin peered politely at the thing in her hands. It was a wooden cross, with what she at first thought was the figure of an acrobat; she handed it back as graciously as she could manage.
    The young man grabbed it, looked frantically around the clearing, and scurried away up the slope to the track.
    As the robed men started to follow him Kin could see what they had been doing. They had run a sword into the dumbwaiter’s output slot.
    ‘They’re breaking up the ’waiter!’ she hissed.
    ‘Okay, Kin. When I say duck, duck. DUCK!’
    Something whirred past her head and struck one of the men between the eyes. He gave a sigh and toppled backward.
    ‘Cape illud, fracturor,’
said a satisfied voice in her ear. Brickface gripped her wrist firmly and stalked towards the slope, the archers following him as closely. They glanced fearfully at the forest.
    ‘What was that?’ said Kin as she was jerked up the slope. Pine needles clung and pricked her feet.
    ‘Silver threw a stone,’ said Marco, the awe in his voice recognizable even in earpiece reproduction. Kin looked back and saw the ’waiter, her suit and the fallen man lying forlornly near the water’s edge.
    ‘There is little we can do at present,’ said the kung conversationally. ‘The weaponry is laughable, but the situation is not sufficiently desperate to warrant a direct confrontation.’
    ‘Uh?’
    ‘I would not wish you to think that I am motivated by anything other than intelligent caution.’
    ‘No, Marco.’
    ‘Now Silver would like a word.’ There was a rustle.
    ‘You are thought to be some kind of water spirit,’ said Silver. ‘Apparently they’re not uncommon.You should have screamed when they showed you that figure of the Christos. My immediate advice is to cover yourself as soon as possible. There appears to be some rigid prohibition concerning nudity.’
    There were more armed men waiting on the track, with some robed men among them. Brick-face swung himself into the saddle of a waiting horse and lifted Kin up behind him, dumping her on the beast’s rump without a word and then ignoring her. At his brief command the entire troop moved off.
    ‘This is Silver again. Do not despair.’
    ‘I am not despairing,’ said Kin. ‘I am just getting good and mad.’
    ‘We have returned to the clearing. Marco is reviving the stunned priest.’ There was a thin scream which stopped abruptly. ‘Kin?’
    ‘I’m still here,’ she said. One of the robed men had ridden up alongside Brickface. He wore a fur-edged cloak over his robe and appeared to be important. He was also furious.
    ‘This is a perfect opportunity,’ said Silver. ‘Hopefully we shall shortly learn more about these people. If you find yourself in difficulties, you can of course initiate sexual relations with your captor. The men call him Lothar.’
    The cloaked man was shouting and pointing back along the trail, with occasional poisonous looks at Kin. Lothar’s replies were distant and monosyllabic, until he reached over and in onemovement grabbed the priest by the front of his robe and almost lifted him off his horse. He snarled a sentence and spat a full stop. The other man went white, out of either fury or fear.
    ‘This is exceptionally interesting,’ said Silver. Kin thought she could also hear a babble of high-pitched Latin in the background.
    ‘Is the ’waiter badly damaged?’ said Kin.
    ‘Not badly. It can be repaired. Another centimetre and the