(The red crow was looking out over the snowy landscape and quietly shaking its head.)

"Not pleasantly," Ajayi concluded, "but thoroughly."

"What a load of bullshit," the red crow said, looking down at her, still shaking its head. "Bullshit from an old cow." It looked away from her, out over the white plain again. "You think you're being punished; I've got to stick around and listen to all this rubbish. I wonder why I bother sometimes, I really do. Must be easier ways of making a living."

Ajayi was looking up at it, thoughtfully. She was wondering if there was some way of making a weapon with which they could shoot the red crow. If they did, what else would be added to their sentence, and would it be worth it? She could hear Quiss's boot going tap-tap again, but ignored it as she looked at the red crow. She had been aware of Quiss sniggering when the red crow was insulting her, and didn't see why she should hurry with her next domino just to please him. The red crow stared back at Ajayi, then after a few seconds shook itself furiously, spreading its wings briefly and stretching one leg out as though stiff. "Come on, will you?" it shouted at her. "Good god, woman, what got you in here?

Prevarication or just plain stupidity? Or both? Get on with it."

Ajayi looked away from the bird, selecting one of her dominoes and placing it slowly, carefully on the surface of the table. She felt her face flushing slightly.

"Don't tell me," Quiss said, leaning close over the table to talk in a low voice as he put down his next piece, "that our little feathered friend has hurt you..." he glanced into the old woman's eyes as he leant back again. Ajayi looked away from Quiss's eyes, then shook her head slowly as she chose between the remaining dominoes in her hand.

"No," she said, taking one of the ivory pieces from her palm, leaning forward to place it on the table, then changing her mind, putting it back and reconsidering, rubbing her chin with one hand. An exasperated choking noise came from above their heads.

This is ridiculous," the red crow said, "I think I'll go and watch some icicles form. It can't be any more boring than this." With that, it opened its wings and flew off, muttering. Ajayi watched it go. Some other rooks and crows from higher battlements flew down and joined it as it flew off in the direction of the slate mines.

"Pest," Quiss said after it. He drummed one set of stubby fingers on the table top and looked back at Ajayi, who nodded and put another domino down. "No," Quiss said, putting another piece down, "it's just that I wondered if it had struck a bit close to the bone with that remark. About how you ended up here." Quiss darted a look at his companion, who watched him look away again and smiled to herself.

"Well," she said, considering the choices in her hand, "perhaps it's time we told each other why we're both here. What we did to be sent here."

"Hmm," Quiss said, apparently not all that interested. "Yes, I suppose we might as well. Perhaps there's even some sort of clue to the right answer we should give; you know; something common to both our... reasons for being here which might help us out," He raised his eyebrows at her, a "what-do-you-think-of-that?" expression. Ajayi thought it politic not to remind Quiss that she had come out with exactly that argument for them trading stories not long after she had arrived in the castle. Quiss had been totally opposed to talking about their separate misfortunes at that point. She had decided all she could do - all she had better get used to doing - was be patient.

"Well that might be a good idea, Quiss. If you're quite sure you don't mind telling."

"Me? No, not at all, not at all," Quiss said quickly. He paused. "Ah... you first."

Ajayi smiled. "Well," she said, taking a deep breath, "what happened was... I was aide-de-camp to our Philosophy Officer, who in our squadron was of Marshal rank."

"Philosophy Officer," Quiss said, nodding knowingly.

"Yes," Ajayi said. "He was a terribly keen hunter, and - rather unfashionably - enjoyed getting back to the great outdoors and the good old-fashioned ways of doing things, whenever he had the opportunity.

"I could appreciate the concept of getting back to one's roots and reaffirming one's integral relationship with nature - even if it was alien nature - all right, but I let him know I thought he took it too far. I mean, he would never take anything like communication gear or transport along, or even modern weapons. All we had were a couple of archaic rifles and our own legs."

"You went along with him," Quiss said.

"Had to," Ajayi shrugged. "He said he took me along because he liked arguing with me. So I used to go on these expeditions with him, and I became quite proficient at the art of rhetoric, and passably handy with the ancient, primitive weapons it amused him to hunt with. Also quite skilled at rejecting his rarely more than half-hearted advances.

"One day, towards dusk on this... place... we were trudging through a swamp trailing some immense wounded beast he'd just shot, beset by insects, tired, out of contact with the fleet until a fast picket rendezvoused with us at midnight, wet, fed up... well, I was anyway; he was having a great time... when suddenly he tripped on a submerged tree trunk or something, and as he fell his hand must have closed on the trigger- his gun was so old it didn't even have a safety catch - and he shot himself in the chest.

"He was in a bad way; still conscious but in a lot of pain (he didn't believe in taking modern medicines on these trips either). I thought I'd better move him out of the marsh and over to some rocks I could just about make out through the mists, but when I tried to move him he started screaming a lot; then I remembered reading some historical story about people being shot with these ancient projectile weapons and having bullets dug out of them without any anaesthetic, and what they used to do then, and I thought that what they did seemed oddly appropriate in the circumstances, even if it probably didn't do any real good, so I took a bullet out of my own gun and gave it to him to bite on while I dragged him over to the rocks."

"And?" Quiss said, once Ajayi had stopped. She sighed.

"It was an explosive bullet. Blew his head off soon as he bit it."

Quiss slapped his knee with his free hand and rocked with laughter. "Really? Explosive? Ha ha ha!" He went on slapping his knee and swaying in his seat, howling with laughter. Tears came to his eyes and he had to put his three remaining dominoes face down on the table and hold his belly with both hands.

"I knew I could count on your sympathy," Ajayi said dryly, putting down another ivory tile.

That's beautiful," Quiss said, voice weakened with laughter. He wiped the tears from his old cheeks, took up his dominoes again. "I take it he was dead." He played one of the pieces.

"Of course he was dead!" Ajayi snapped. It was the first time she had ever spoken loudly or harshly to Quiss, and he sat back, looking surprised. She tried not to scowl as much as she felt like doing, but went on, "his brains were spread over half the swamp. And me."

"Ho ho ho!" Quiss said sympathetically. "Ha ha ha!" He shook his head, grinning widely, and sniffed.

"What about you? What did you do?" Ajayi asked. Quiss was quiet all of a sudden. He frowned at the two remaining dominoes in his hand.

"Hmm," he said.

"I've told you mine," Ajayi said. "Now you tell me yours."

"I don't know that you'd really be interested," Quiss said, not looking at her. He shook his head, still looking at his hand. "It's a bit of an anti-climax after yours."

He looked up, a look of pained apology on his face, to see that Ajayi was glaring at him, not only more furiously than he had ever seen her looking before, but also rather more furiously than he would have thought her capable of looking. He cleared his throat.