Later a middle-aged woman brought her some food. Kin looked up at her gratefully. Under the strange makeup 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 near by 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 the click and whirr of gears underneath her.

'l 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.