Strata

have evolved naturally. If those wings worked it would have to be very light, bird-boned. She would have to ask it questions – later.
    ‘I want to escape,’ she said. ‘Silver?’ There was no answer from the earpiece.
    ‘I LIKEWISE. IT IS UNFORTUNATELY IMPOSSIBLE. TOMORROW WE SHALL BE BROUGHT BEFORE THE BISHOP’S COURT. I SHALL CERTAINLY BE EXECUTED .’
    ‘Will they waste time with a court when they think their god is coming?’
    ‘ALL THE MORE REASON TO BE SEEN GOING ABOUT WHAT THEY CONSIDER TO BE HIS BUSINESS, KIN ARAD. ’
    ‘What will they execute you for?’
    ‘I AM SPHANDOR! I SPREAD ARTHRITIS, THE BONE-ACHE AND AGUE OF THE NECK. I BLIGHT CROPS AND CAUSE ABORTION IN CATTLE. THEY SAY I FOUL STREAMS AND HURL THE LIGHTNING STONE.’
    ‘And do you do all that?’
    ‘I SUPPOSE SO. I CERTAINLY ALWAYS INTEND TO.’
    Kin glanced towards the fire. The men had spread out, and she could just see them outlined against the last stains of sunset, watching the sky.
    ‘THEY THINK MY BROTHERS WILL TRY TO RESCUE ME ,’ said Sphandor. ‘ FAT CHANCE! ’
    A holy man entered the compound with a tray of food. Kin watched him absently.
    One of the guards sauntered over to the priest and took a bowl off the tray. He had his back to Kin, who saw him stiffen, drop the bowl andslump down. A third hand had shot out of the robe, holding a sword …
    Some of the others came running after hearing the priest’s anguished cry, and the fallen man was lost to sight as his fellows gathered round.
    There was an explosion of flesh.
    Two men staggered back and two, a little faster, turned to run and slid along the ground with knives in their backs.
    Laughing like a hyena, Marco leapt barehanded at the others. The few seconds of astonishment they experienced helped him, and he worked through them with a mixture of kung digitsju and blind destruction while arrows from the men who had the sense to stay out of it hissed around him. Sphandor giggled.
    Marco screeched a kung battle cry and stalked towards the nearest archer, glistening in the firelight. The man fired one arrow which hit him fairly in the chest, rocking him back on his heels for a moment. Then he walked on. The archer was still staring when two hands grabbed him by the throat and two more swung up in a gristle-cleaving arc.
    As one man the surviving guards dropped their weapons and ran for the compound entrance.
    ‘Marco!’ shouted Kin. ‘Keys! Find the keys.’
    Marco glared at her stupidly, then looked up. A white shape dropped out of the night, towing the familiar form of the dumbwaiter behind her.
    Silver landed lightly. Behind her, Marco wrenched the arrow from his chest and looked at it absently.
    ‘ NEAT ,’ commented Sphandor with interest.
    The shand examined the cage closely.
    ‘I do not like to damage private property,’ she said, ‘but speed is of the essence.’ She stepped back a few paces and hit the bars at a dead run. As Kin jumped over the debris the shand nodded towards Sphandor.
    ‘What about that?’ she said.
    ‘ I PLEAD ,’ said the demon.
    ‘Let him out,’ said Kin, taking her suit and stepping into the lift belt. ‘Right now I’d just love him to spread bubonic plague or whatever it is he spreads.’
    ‘Does he do that?’ said Silver. ‘The ancients always said demons spread disease.’
    ‘This one is a mobile disaster area,’ said Kin.
    ‘Is it wise to let him loose, then?’
    ‘We might learn a lot from him. If you’ve got any scruples, remember Marco’s just killed half a dozen men and you’ve been involved in the molestation of research subjects.’
    Silver considered this. ‘True,’ she said, and splintered the bars with a backhand swipe. ‘If we’re baddies, let’s be bad .’
    Marco stepped forward with two knives levelled to throw as the demon wriggled through the gap. There was a smear of pink blood around his wound. Would it have helped the dead archerto know that a kung in a fighting rage was practically awash with regenerative enzymes? It had been hard enough for earthmen to see kung fight on with their flesh healing like boiling wax.
    ‘I do not trust this creature. Grab him!’
    Silver shot out an arm and caught Sphandor by his scaly tail. With the other hand she unwrapped a length of cable from her waist and knotted it several times around the creature’s neck. Sphandor screeched.
    ‘ WHERE ARE YOU, SOIGNATORIE, UNSORE, DILAPIDATORE —’ he began.
    ‘Shut up,’ advised Marco, taking the other