Strata (22 page)

‘Hold it,’ said Kin. ‘The flying carpet, the table, these damn money purses – they’re Gifts of God?’

‘Aye. The Carpet I Liberated From A Merchant In Basra, The Table I Found Encrusted With Barnacles On The Sea Floor—’

‘But your master doesn’t know how they operate? I mean, they’re just magical items to him?’

‘Aren’t They, Then?’ said the demon, grinningly.

‘Just as I thought,’ snapped Marco. ‘He’s just an ignorant man who doesn’t know any more about the nature of the disc than does anyone else in these parts. I’ll take out these guards, then we’ll grab him and ride the carpet out of here.’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Kin sharply.

‘What for? He knows nothing except how to operate the toys this creature finds for him.’

Kin shook her head. ‘Just once, let’s try diplomacy,’ she said. ‘Demon, tell your master we are not Collectors. We will give him these flying belts for his collection if he transports us on his magic carpet to the circular island that lies off the coast to the south-east of here.’

She knew she had said something wrong as soon as the words were out of her mouth. When Azrifel’s translation died away Abu’s face went white.

Marco sighed, and stood up. ‘Okay, so much for diplomacy,’ he said. He sprang. So did Azrifel. There was a grey and yellow blur in mid-air and a small thunderclap. Then the demon was back, unruffled. Marco had vanished.

‘What have you done with him?’ said Kin.

‘He Has Been Deposited In A Place Of Safety, Unharmed Except Maybe For A Few Friction Burns.’

‘I see. And his ransom is our flying belts, right?’

Abu spoke. The demon said: ‘No, My Master Says He Knows Now That You Come From Another World. There Was Another Such Traveller, Some Time Since, Who—’

‘Jago Jalo?’ said Kin. Abu glared at her.

‘Crazy fool,’ hissed Silver.

‘That Was His Name,’ agreed the demon. ‘A Madman. He Abused Our Hospitality. He Stole From Our Collection. He Sought The Forbidden Island Too.’

‘What happened to him?’ said Kin. The demon shrugged.

‘He Escaped From Here With A Carpet, A Bottomless Purse And A Cloak With Unusual Powers. Even I Have Been Unable to Locate Him. My Master Feels, However, That All Is Not Lost.’

‘No?’

‘He Has Three New Flying Devices, Two Captive Demons And You.’

Kin sprang round. More guards had appeared on the balcony, and they were archers. She considered taking a dive for the open air with the belt on full throttle. She might get hit. She doubted whether the disc’s medical facilities were satisfactory. Anyway, that wouldn’t solve Silver’s problem.

So she collapsed into tears of inconsolable grief.

She heard a brief conversation between the demon and his master. Then two servant women were summoned to take her away.

She had one glimpse of Silver’s impassive face before she was escorted out of the room and into a maze of ornate arches and screens. A male guard walked behind her with a drawn sword.

The women chattered at her solicitously. When they reached one arched doorway the guard left them, and took up a post outside the door. Kin was briefly surrounded by a gaggle of small dark-eyed women in scanty clothing before the older of her escorts shooed them away. She felt helpful arms guiding her to a bench. She sat and stared.

Later a middle-aged woman brought her some food. Kin looked up at her gratefully. Under the strange make-up the woman was watching her with simple-minded sympathy.

So Kin apologized silently as she hit her, as nicely as possible. The woman sighed and collapsed, but Kin was already on her feet and running.

She sped through several low and airy rooms and had a blurred impression of fountains, singing birds and bored women sitting on large cushions. Kohl-eyed, they stared after her and began to scream as Kin cannoned into a servant carrying a tray.

A long way behind her a new series of screams suggested that a guard had reluctantly invaded the seraglio.

Kin reached a balcony, considered the courtyard below, then scrambled up a decorative trellis that trembled even under her weight. It took her on to a flat roof and into the full glare of the noon sun.

Shouts below meant that a guard had got as far as the balcony. Kin threw herself down, chest heaving, hoping that he would think she had taken the easy way and dropped into the courtyard. He didn’t. There was a sudden silence, broken by some heavy breathing.

Then wood cracked, and there was the beginnings of a wail that ended with a noise like a falling man hitting hard stone flags.

She jogged across the roof to the nearer of two towers that pierced it. It wasn’t a wise choice really, but she couldn’t think of anything else. There was an arch with no door, and a dark spiral stairway as cold as ice after the glare of the sun off the roof.

The stairs ended in a turret room with glassless windows looking out over the city. Kin peered around in the gloom. It looked as if she was in a storeroom.

There were a few carpets rolled up against the wall, and boxes in untidy heaps beside them. A tall bronze statue in vaguely Middlesea dress was propped against a three-legged table with what looked like the wreckage of a drinking party strewn across it. There were several swords, including one that looked – Kin couldn’t believe it, but closer inspection bore out the first impression – one that
was
half-buried in an anvil.

In the middle of the floor was a statue of a horse, cast in some dark metal. The musculature had been done well, but the pose was uninspiring. It just stood four-square, looking at the floor.

‘Junk,’ said Kin. She tried to pull an iron-bound chest across the stair-hole, then gave up and sat on it instead. There was no sound below.

‘A person could hold out here for weeks,’ she thought. ‘With food and water, that is.’ Food! She thought longingly of the magic table, or even of the dumbwaiter. But she couldn’t have eaten a meal with Silver watching her sorrowfully, knowing that inside two days the shand would turn despite herself into a ravening, ravenous animal.

‘Marco? Silver?’ she whispered.

At the fifth attempt Marco answered.

‘Kin! Where are you?’

‘I’m up in – is there anyone with you?’

‘We’re in a zoo! You wouldn’t believe it! You must get us out!’

‘I’m in some sort of museum attic,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to wait until it’s dark. Where are you exactly?’

‘I assume we’re somewhere in the palace grounds. You must work quickly.
Silver and I are in the same cage
.’

‘What’s she doing now?’

‘Moping.’

‘Oh-oh.’

‘What?’

Kin sighed. ‘I’ll do my best,’ she said. She padded over to a window and peered out. Someone was shouting in the distance, but the roof lay hot and empty below her. There was, she noticed, a black speck wheeling in the sky. One of the Eyes of God, whoever He was.

Most of the swords she could hardly lift with both hands, so they were out.

‘Let’s face it,’ she told herself, ‘how are you going to make the big heroic rescue in any case?’

‘On the other hand,’ she answered, ‘it’ll be expected of you. The races of the galaxy look towards mankind as the essential lunatic element.’

She stepped backwards, and knocked against the table. The jug on it fell over, and spilled vinegar-smelling wine across the table and on to the floor in a thin stream. Kin watched it for a while, then carefully set the jug upright.

It swished.

Looking inside, she saw dark liquid rising. She waited until the jug was brim full of swirling redness then grabbed the handle, sloshed the liquid across the room and brought the base of the jug down hard against the tabletop.

There was a sizzle and a brief smell of ozone. Bits of circuit laminate bounced on the floor.

‘Fine,’ she said softly, ‘that’s just fine. So long as it wasn’t the fairies that were doing it.’ On the other hand, the Company didn’t believe in matter transmission either. But it might have been, say, a tiny single-function dumbwaiter in the base of the jug, sucking up molecules from the ambient air. She decided she’d believe anything but magic.

Someone moved, down at the base of the staircase.

There was nowhere to hide. Correction – the tower room was bursting with hiding places, but none of them promised to be permanent. Kin grabbed a sword from a pile nearby and considered hacking at the first head to appear on the stairs.

No good. She looked up at a small trapdoor in the ceiling, and decided it would be easier to defend. If it led on to the roof, perhaps the raven would see her – as if that would do any good. Anyway, she could then slice at fingers.

She walked over to the horse statue and hoisted herself into a stirrup, then stood on tiptoe in the saddle to fumble with the trap door.

The horse whirred. Kin swayed, landed sitting in the saddle but with enough force to knock the breath out of her. Then she couldn’t move her legs. She looked down in panic. Padded clamps had extruded from the horse’s flanks and were gripping her gently but firmly.

The neck in front of her came up. The head swivelled 180 degrees and the horse looked at Kin with bright insectile eyes.

‘
YOUR
WISH
IS
MY
COMMAND
,’ it said inside Kin’s head.

‘Hell!’

‘
THOSE
ARE
NOT
MEANINGFUL
CO-ORDINATES
.’

‘Are you a robot?’

She felt a click and whirr of gears underneath her.

‘
I
AM
THE
FABULOUS
MECHANICAL
HORSE
OF AHMED,
PRINCE
OF
TREBISOND
.’

Kin heard scurrying footsteps on the stairs.

‘Get me out of here!’ she hissed.

‘
PLEASE
HOLD
ON
TO
THE
REINS.
PLEASE
LOWER THE
HEAD.
IN
CASE
OF
MALAISE
OF
THE
AIR, PLEASE
USE
THE
RECEPTACLE
PROVIDED
.’

There was a
thud
inside the animal, and the noise of heavy wheels tumbling into motion. The horse took off. As they glided smoothly through the window Kin flung herself forward to avoid the edge of the wall. And then the horse was free and moving, legs galloping on the air as it soared into the copper sky.

Kin looked at the sword in her hand. It was night-black and unnaturally light, but it would do. It would be surprising if Abu had learned how to use the lift belts yet, so possibly his only other aircraft was the carpet.

If it came to an aerial flight, she’d prefer to be on the horse.

‘
YOUR
FURTHER
WISH
IS
MY
COMMAND
.’

‘You can start by 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!’