'The doors won't open, Corrie-Lyn said. 'I can't get to the capsule. The alarm is going off. Wait… Ruth is telling me not to move.

Aaron groaned as he staggered erratically across the band of lawn surrounding the administration block. Not that the trees would provide the slightest cover, not against the kind of forces heading for him. Seeking darkness was a simple animal instinct.

'Take the bitch out, he told Corrie-Lyn.

'What?

'Hit her. Here's a combat program, he said, as his u-shadow shunted the appropriate file at her. 'Go for a disabling blow. Don't hesitate.

'I can't do that.

'Hit her. And call the capsule over. It can smash through the doors for you.

'Aaron, can't I just get the capsule to break in? I'm really not comfortable hitting someone without warning.

Aaron reached the treeline. His legs gave way, sending him sprawling in the dirt and spiky vines. Pain that was nothing to do with the microjanglers pulsed out from his damaged shoulder. 'Help, he croaked. 'Oh fuck it, Corrie-Lyn, get the capsule here. He started crawling. His exoimages were a blurred scintillation coursing round his constricting vision.

'Hey, she's grabbed me.

'Corrie-Lyn—

'Cow!

'I can't make it. He pushed against the damp sandy soil with his good arm, trying to lever himself back on to his feet. Two police capsules flashed silently overhead. A second later their hypersonic boom smashed him back down into the ground. Tree branches splintered from the violence of the sound. Aaron whimpered as he rolled on to his back.

'Oh Ozzie, there's blood everywhere. I think I've broken her nose. I didn't hit her hard, really.

'Get me, he whispered. He sent a single command thought to the niling-sponges in his bandolier harness. The little spheres soared away into the night, arching away over the waving trees. Violet laser beams sliced through the air, as bright as lightning forks. He grinned weakly. 'Wrong, he told the unseen police capsules.

The niling-sponges sucked down the energy which the capsules pumped into them. Theoretically the niling effect could absorb billions of kilowatt hours before reaching saturation point. Aaron had programmed a limit in. When the police weapons pumped their internal levels to that limit, the absorption effect reversed.

Five huge explosions blossomed high over the forest, sending out massive clashing pressure waves. The police capsules couldn't be damaged by the blast, their force fields were far too strong for that. But the wavefronts sent them tumbling through the night sky, spinning and flailing out beyond the edge of the forest as the regrav drives fought to counter the force. Down below, trees tumbled before the bedlam as if they were no stronger than paper, crashing into each other to create a domino effect radiating out from the five blast centres.

A blizzard of splinters and gravel snatched Aaron off the ground and sent him twirling five metres to bounce badly. Amazingly he was still holding the memorycell as he found himself flat on his back gazing up into a sky beset with an intricate webbing of lambent ion streamers.

'Corrie-Lyn, he called desperately.

Above him, the pretty sky was dimming to infinite black. There were no stars to be seen as the darkness engulfed him.

After breaking camp just after dawn the caravan was on the road for three hours before it finally topped the last ridge and the coastal plain tipped into view. Edeard smiled down on it with an adrenalin burst of enthusiasm. With nearly a year spent travelling he was finally looking at his future. Riding on the ge-horse beside him, Salrana squealed happily and clapped her hands together. Several pigs in the back of O'lrany's cart grunted at the sudden noise.

Edeard ordered his ge-horse to stop. The caravan pushed on inexorably, wagon after wagon rolling down the stony road. Directly ahead of him the foothills of the Donsori Mountains fell away sharply to the awesome Iguru Plain below. It stretched away for mile after long mile. A flat expanse of rich farmland, almost all of which was under cultivation; its surface marked out in huge regular fields filled with verdant crops. A massive grid of ditches fed into wide, shallow rivers delineated by protective earthen embankments. Forests tended to sprawl around the lower slopes of the odd little volcanic cones which broke the plain's uniformity. As far as he could see there was no pattern to the steep knolls. They were dotted purely at random.

It was a strange geography, completely different to the rugged surrounding terrain. He shrugged at the oddity and squinted to the eastern horizon. Part imagination, part horizon-haze, the Lyot Sea was just visible as a grey line.

No need to imagine the city, though. Makkathran bestrode the horizon like a sunwashed pearl. At first he was disappointed by how small it was, then he began to appreciate the distance involved.

'Quite something, isn't it? Barkus said as he rode his aged ge-horse level with Edeard.

'Yes, sir, Edeard said. Additional comment seemed superfluous. 'How far away are we?

'It'll take at least another half a day for us to get down to the plain; this last stretch of road down the mountains is tricky. We'll make camp at Clipsham, the first decent-sized town on the Iguru. Then it'll be near enough another day to reach Makkathran itself. He nodded pleasantly and urged his ge-horse onward.

Almost two days away. Edeard stared entranced at the capital city. Allegedly, the only true city on Querencia. The caravan had visited some fabulous towns on their route, large conurbations with wealthy populations; several had parks bigger than Ashwell. At the time he'd though them grand, sure that nothing could actually be larger. Lady, what a bumpkin I am.

'Doubts here, of all places? Salrana asked. 'Those are some very melancholy thoughts you've got growing in your head there.

'Just humbled, he told her.

Her thoughts sparkled with amusement, producing a teasing smile. 'Thinking of Franlee?

'Not for months, he answered with high dignity.

Salrana laughed wickedly.

He'd met Franlee in Plax, a provincial capital on the other side of the Ulfsen Mountains. A spree of bad luck on the road, including broken wheels and sick animals, as well as unusually early autumn storms meant the caravan was late reaching Plax. As a consequence, they'd been snowed in for over six weeks. That was when he met Franlee, an Eggshaper Guild apprentice and his first real love affair. They'd spent most of the awful cold weather together, either in bed or exploring the town's cheaper taverns. The Eggshaper Guild's Master had recognized his talent, offering him a senior apprenticeship with the promise of journeyman status in a year. He'd been this close to staying.

But in the end his last promise to Akeem gave him a stronger direction. Leaving had been so painful he'd been sullen and withdrawn for weeks as the caravan lumbered slowly along the snowy Ulfsen valleys. A misery to live with, the rest of the caravan had grumbled. It took the remainder of winter and putting the Ulfsens between himself and Plax before he'd recovered. That and Roseillin, in one of the mountain villages. And Dalice. And… Well, several more girls between there and here.

'Look at it, he said earnestly. 'We did the right thing.

Salrana tipped her head back, half-closing her eyes against the bright morning light. 'Forget the city, she said. 'I've never seen so much sky.

When he glanced up he understood what she meant. Their high vantage point gave them a view into the azure infinity which roofed the plain. Small bright clouds scudded far overhead, wisps so tenuous they were almost sapphire themselves. They seemed to twist as they traced long arcs above the Iguru before hitting the mountain thermals where they expanded and darkened. The wind above the city always blows in from the sea-, he remembered Akeem saying, when it turns round, watch out. 'What's that smell? he asked, puzzled. The air was fresh, zingy almost, yet somehow tainted at the same time.