Strata

telling me how you fly,’ said Kin, peering at the gardens below.
    ‘ ABANAZZARD THE MAGICIAN FABRICATED ME. I FLY BY APPLICATION OF THE COMPOUND UPSWINGING WEIGHT ENGINE, WHICH REQUIRES THE CONTINUED INTERVENTION OF THE DJINNEE ZOLAH AT THE CRITICAL POINT .’
    ‘Do you know of a zoo in the palace grounds?’
    ‘ YES .’
    ‘Land inside it, then.’
    ‘ TO HEAR IS TO OBEY, O MISTRESS .’
    The horse started to gallop in a descending spiral. Kin was briefly aware of upturned faces as they raced at roof height back towards the palace. A ragged line of dusty trees flashed past and Kin realized they were landing in a wide avenue between rows of low cages, dark and forbidding in the gathering dusk.
    Her mount touched down neatly, hooves galloping smoothly from empty air to packed earth. Something hurled itself against the bars of the nearest cage, and she got a vague impression of wings and teeth. Plenty of teeth.
    ‘Marco!’ Things shrilled and sneezed in the shadows of the cages.
    ‘Over here!’
    Kin urged the horse forward until she saw Marco’s gleaming eyes looking urgently between bars thick enough to have been tree trunks. Perhaps they were.
    Kin jiggled them until they slid back noisily. Marco came out as though on a spring.
    ‘Give me the sword,’ he commanded. Kin had almost handed it over before it occurred to her that she could have refused, and then it was too late. He snatched it.
    ‘Is this the best you could do?’ he hissed. ‘It’s blunt as a ball.’
    ‘Big deal! I could have gone off and left you!’
    Marco tapped the flat of the black sword on one opened palm, and looked at her reflectively.
    ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘You could. This sword will do. Thank you. From where did you obtain the flying robot?’
    ‘Well, I went—’
    ‘How do you make it fly?’
    ‘It just obeys, and –
get down
!’
    Marco settled himself in the saddle, and ignored her.
    ‘Do you know the way to the palace, robot quadruped?’
    ‘ YES , O MASTER .’
    ‘Then proceed.’
    There was a brief dumming of hooves and thehorse was a dwindling speck against the sky. Kin watched it disappear and then peered into the back of the cage.
    ‘Silver?’ she said quietly. A light shape stirred in the gloom.
    ‘Come on,’ said Kin. ‘We’d better be going. How do you feel?’
    Silver sat up.
    ‘Where is the kung?’ she said thickly.
    ‘Gone to beat up the baddies, the lunatic fool.’
    ‘Then where should
we
go?’ said the shand, lumbering to her feet.
    ‘After him, I think. Got any better ideas?’
    ‘No,’ said Silver. ‘I imagine everyone will be far too occupied to notice us.’
    They stepped out into the avenue of bars.
    ‘There are unicorns in that one,’ volunteered Silver, pointing. ‘We saw them being fed. And mermaids, I think, in a pool. They were given fish.’
    ‘Abu is a born collector, it seems.’
    They passed a white dome, temple size. Close up, it was a large white egg, the lower third buried in the sand. There was a small hole in one end.
    ‘Laid by a bird?’ said Silver, indicating it with a thumb.
    ‘Search me. I wouldn’t put out crumbs for it. There’s another one over there. No—’
    It wasn’t. It was, however, the derelict shell of the planetary lander from a Terminus probe. Amemory arose in Kin unbidden, of an ancient copy of a still more ancient publicity film. It looked smaller in real life. There were three deep gashes in it, as though some great beast had tried to grab it.
    Perhaps it had. If the thing beside it was an egg,
something
laid it.
    The interior was a mess.
    ‘Jalo landed near the centre of the disc, at least,’ said Silver. Kin looked at the – oh, all right – call them talon marks, they could have been.
    ‘I don’t envy him,’ she said. ‘Our Abu is a genuine enthusiast, Silver. He never throws anything away.’
    There were running feet behind them, and they turned to see two men gaping at them. One held a pike, and prodded it gingerly towards Silver. It was a mistake. The shand merely grabbed it behind the point and felled its holder with a vicious downward slash, bringing it back afterwards to knock the other man’s scurrying legs from under him.
    Then she started running towards the palace, wielding the shattered shaft like a club.
    Kin trailed after her. There didn’t seem any alternative.
    They found Marco by following the screams.
    There was a courtyard, and a mob of fighting men, and in the middle a blur behind a fence of swords.