Strata (17 page)

The door slammed shut and the men retreated quickly. The creature grunted, gave the door an experimental shake, went and sat down in the far corner of the cage with its arms around its knees.

The men returned, and they were carrying a small struggling body. Kin made out the shape of a creature like the one she had seen on the hilltop – part-human, part-animal, part-insect. It whistled shrilly as it was carried. As one of the men let go to reopen the cage door, it screeched and raked his chest with a claw. When he fell back it wriggled free, kicked another man in the stomach with a small hoof, and sank its teeth into a third’s arm before it was grabbed.

The man who had been clawed stood up silently and landed a swinging blow that crunched when it hit, like the crushing of beetles. It landed in a heap inside the cage, and lay still.

The men retreated but did not leave the area. After a while a watchman’s fire sprang up. Kin called up Silver.

‘They are staying,’ she said. ‘There must be ten of them now. Marco’ll never get in!’

‘I think the guard is for the benefit of your friend in the next cell,’ said Silver. ‘Marco has a plan, though. Two plans, in fact. If the first doesn’t work, he proposes to explode the ’waiter’s powerpack.’

Kin thought about it. ‘That would kill us all’, she said, ‘and leave a crater about a mile across.’

‘Quite so. But we would have
won
.’

There had never been a man–kung war, just a few early skirmishes now diplomatically forgotten. Kung had no concept of conquest, mercy, prisoners or rules. Marco was tainted with human ideas, but …

‘Is he serious?’

‘I think he is frightened almost to death.’

The big winged creature was watching Kin. She was aware of two pale lights in the gloom.

‘I have my own plan,’ said Silver.

‘Oh, good. I like listening to plans.’

‘I have compiled a speech. When a priest next approaches you will recite it to him.

‘You are an Ethiopian princess, left stranded in this country when your party was attacked by robbers. You demand to be released. You are a devout Christer, by the way. So is your father, who is a king, and who will be angry in very physical ways when he hears about this treatment.’

‘It sounds a bit contrived,’ said Kin. She was watching the giant in the next cell. Three metres high. What did it use for ankle bones?

‘
KIN
ARAD
,’ said the winged demon.

She stared. Nothing had moved. The creature was still slumped against the bars, watching her. When he spoke again – Kin couldn’t be sure in the dim light, but the lip movements didn’t seem to coincide with the sounds she heard, as if something was being badly dubbed.

‘I am Kin Arad,’ she said.

‘WHAT
IS
YOUR
DOMINION?
’ said the demon in perfect allspeak.

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘I
AM
SPHANDOR,
OF
THE
DOMINION
OF AGLIERAP.
I
CANNOT
DETERMINE
YOUR
DOMINION OR
PLACE
.’

‘It seems to be speaking shandi,’ said Silver.

‘SPEAK.
ARE
WE
PARTNERS
IN
ADVERSITY
?’

‘I hear it in allspeak,’ said Kin urgently. ‘I think it’s using some kind of direct mind stimulation. Its lips aren’t moving properly.’

‘DO
NOT
MUMBLE.
DO
YOU
THINK
I
DO
NOT KNOW
OF
THE
CREATURES
TO
WHOM
YOU
TALK
BY THE
POWER
OF
THE
LIGHTNING?
THE
THINKING BEAR
AND
THE
UPRIGHT
FROG
WITH
FOUR
ARMS? AND
THE
MECHANICAL
DEVICE
THAT
PREPARED FOOD
BEYOND
THE
POWERS
OF
HUICTIGRARAS?
’

‘Are you reading my mind?’

‘OF
COURSE
I
AM,
YOU
STUPID
BITCH.
BUT
IT
IS DIFFICULT.
YOU
ARE
OF
THIS
WORLD
YET
NOT
OF THIS
WORLD,
NEITHER
ARE
YOU
OF
THE
BROTHERHOOD
OF
THE
DAMNED,
YET
THE
PRAYING
ONES HAVE
CAPTURED
YOU
.’

‘Keep it talking,’ said Silver.

‘The Christers think I am a water sprite,’ said Kin.

‘SPRITES
CANNOT
SPEAK
AND
ARE
OF
LOW
INTELLIGENCE,
AS
EVERYONE
KNOWS.
THEY
ARE LIKE
THIS
THING
.’

Sphandor kicked out and managed to hit the wheezing faun with a curved toenail. It whimpered.

‘It’s injured,’ said Kin. ‘Can we do anything to help it?’

‘
WHY
SHOULD
WE?
IT
BARELY
KNOWS
IT
IS ALIVE.
ELVES
BREED
LIKE
FLIES
IN
THE
WOODS. YOU
THINK
THEY
MAKE
NICE
MUSIC,
BUT
IT
IS
AS
A CRICKET
CHIRPS
-
MINDLESSLY
.

‘
I
GATHER
YOU
HAD
SOMETHING
TO
DO
WITH THE
EXPLOSION
THAT
KNOCKED
ME
OUT
OF
THE AIR
THREE
DAYS
AGO?
’

‘Uh, yes.’ Kin thought quickly. ‘There was a flying chariot, you see—’

‘
A
THREE
THOUSAND
TONNE
STARSHIP
,’ Sphandor agreed, ‘
IMPACTING
AT
FOUR
HUNDRED MILES
AN
HOUR
.’

‘Do you know what those words mean?’

‘
NO,
BUT
THEY
WERE
AT
THE
FOREFRONT
OF YOUR
MIND.
THE
SHOCK
WAVES
KNOCKED
ME OUT
OF
THE
AIR,
AND
SOME
CHRISTERS
REACHED ME
AND
BOUND
ME
BEFORE
I
COULD
RISE.
IF
I BUT
HAD
MY
FREEDOM
I
WOULD
TEAR
THEIR
EARS OFF
.’

It must be vat-grown, thought Kin. Nothing like that could 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 and slump 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.’