'Suppose we need help?'

Aerie turned her back on Wess and stared blankly out into the parade. She evenshrugged off Quartz's comforting hug.

Then there was no more time for arguing. Six archers tramped through the gate. Acart followed. It was a flatbed, curtained all around, and pulled by two largeskewbald horses, one with a wild blue eye. Six more archers followed. A mutterof confusion rippled over the crowd, and then cries of 'The secret! Show us thesecret!'

The postillion jerked the draught horses to a standstill before the prince.Bauchle Meyne climbed stiffly off the platform and on to the cart.

'My lord!' he cried. 'I present you - a myth of our world!' He yanked on astring and the curtains fell away.

On the platform, Satan stood rigid and withdrawn, staring forward, his headhigh. Aerie moaned and Wess tensed, wanting to leap over the glowing ropes andlay about with her knife, in full view of the crowd, whatever the consequences.She cursed herself for being so weak and stupid this morning. If she had had thewill to attack, she could have ripped out Bauchle Meyne's guts.

They had not broken Satan. They would kill him before they could strip him ofhis pride. But they had stripped him naked, and shackled him. And they had hurthim. Streaks of silver-grey cut across the red-gold fur on his shoulders. Theyhad beaten him. Wess clenched her fingers around the handle other knife.

Bauchle Meyne picked up a long pole. He was not fool enough to get within reachof Satan's talons.

'Show yourself!' he cried.

Satan did not speak the trade-language, but Bauchle Meyne made himself wellenough understood with the end of the pole. Satan stared at him without movinguntil the young man stopped poking at him, and, with some vague awareness of hiscaptive's dignity, backed up a step. Satan looked around him, his large eyesreflecting the light like a cat's. He faced the prince. The heavy chains clankedand rattled as he moved.

He raised his arms. He opened his hands, and his fingers unfolded.

He spread his great red wings. Wizard-light glowed through the translucent webs.It was as if he had burst into flame.

The prince gazed upon him with silent satisfaction as the crowd roared withsurprise and astonishment.

'Inside,' Bauchle Meyne said, 'when I release him, he will fly.'

One of the horses, brushed by Satan's wingtip, snorted and reared. The cartlurched forward. The postillion yanked the horse's mouth to a bloody froth andBauchle Meyne lost his balance and stumbled to the ground. His face showed painand Wess was glad. Satan barely shifted. The muscles tensed and slid in his backas he balanced himself with his wings.

Aerie made a high, keening sound, almost beyond the limits of human hearing. ButSatan heard. He did not flinch; unlike the troll, he did not turn. But he heard.In the bright white wizard-light, the short fur on the back of his shouldersrose, He made an answering cry, a sighing: a call to a lover. He folded hiswing-fingers back along his arms. The webbing trembled and gleamed.

The postillion kicked his horse and the cart lumbered forward. For the crowdoutside, the show was over.

The prince stepped down from the platform, and, walking side by side withBauchle Meyne and followed by his retinue, proceeded into the carnival tent.

The four friends stood close together as the crowd-moved past them. Wess wasthinking. They're going to let him fly, inside. He'll be free ... She looked atAerie. 'Can you land on top of the tent? And take off again?'

Aerie looked at the steep canvas slope. 'Easily,' she said.

The area behind the tent was lit by torches, not wizard-light. Wess stoodleaning against the grounds' wall, watching the bustle and chaos of the troupe,listening to the applause and laughter of the crowd. The show had been going ona long time now; most of the people who had not got inside had left. A couple ofcarnival workers kept a bored watch on the perimeter of the barrier, but Wessknew she could slip past any time she pleased.

It was Aerie she worried about. Once the plan started, she would be veryvulnerable. The night was clear and the waxing moon bright and high. When shelanded on top of the tent she would be well within range of arrows. Satan wouldbe in even more danger. It was up to Wess and Quartz and Chan to create enoughchaos so the archers would be too distracted to shoot either of the flyers.

Wess was rather looking forward to it.

She slipped under the rope when no one was looking and strolled through theshadows as if she belonged with the troupe. Satan's cart stood at theperformers' entrance, but Wess did not go near her friend now. Taking no noticeof her, the children on their ponies trotted by. In the torchlight the childrenlooked thin and tired and very young, the ponies thin and tired and old. Wessslid behind the rank of animal cages. The carnival did, after all, have asalamander, but a piteous, poor and hungry-looking one, barely the size of alarge dog. Wess broke the lock on its cage. She had only her knife to pry with;she did the blade no good. She broke the locks on the cages of the otheranimals, the half-grown wolf, the pygmy elephant, but did not yet free them.Finally she reached the troll.

'Frejojan,' she whispered. 'I'm behind you.'

'I hear you, frejojan.' The troll came to the back of his cage. He bowed to her.'I regret my unkempt condition, frejojan; when they captured me I had nothing,not even a brush.' His golden grey-flecked hair was badly matted. He put hishand through the bars and Wess shook it.

'I'm Wess,' she said.

'Aristarchus,' he said. 'You speak with the same accent as Satan - you've comefor him?'

She nodded. 'I'm going to break the lock on your cage,' she said. 'I have to becloser to the tent when they take him in to make him fly. It would be better ifat first they didn't notice anything was going wrong ...'

Aristarchus nodded. 'I won't escape till you've begun. Can I be of help?'

Wess glanced along the row of cages. 'Could you - would it put you in danger tofree the animals?' He was old; she did not know if he could move quickly enough.

He chuckled. 'All of us animals have become rather good friends,' he said.'Though the salamander is rather snappish.'

Wess wedged her knife into the padlock and wrenched it open. Aristarchussnatched it off the door and flung it into the straw. He smiled, abashed, atWess.

'I find my own temper rather short in these poor days.'

Wess reached through the bars and gripped his hand again. Near the tent, theskewbald horses wheeled Satan's cart around. Bauchle Meyne yelled nervousorders. Aristarchus glanced towards Satan.

'It's good you've come,' he said. 'I persuaded him to cooperate, at least for awhile, but he does not find it easy. Once he made them angry enough to forgethis value.'

Wess nodded, remembering the whip scars.

The cart rolled forward; the archers followed.

'I have to hurry,' Wess said.

'Good fortune go with you.'

She moved as close to the tent as she could. But she could not see inside; shehad to imagine what was happening, by the tone of the crowd. The postilliondrove the horses around the ring. They stopped. Someone crawled under the cartand unfastened the shackles from below, out of reach of Satan's claws. And then-

She heard the sigh, the involuntary gasp of wonder as Satan spread his wings,and flew.

Above her. Aerie's shadow cut the air. Wess pulled off her cloak and waved it,signalling. Aerie dived for the tent, swooped, and landed.