LITMIR.BIZ

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along there, and no talking,' one of the Mirayan soldiers shouted, nudging them with his spear.

      Surrounded by the men-at-arms, they left the dockside and went through the gate into the city. Yani was both impressed and disturbed. The houses of the Mirayan town were enormous and built of stone. The streets, too, were paved with stone and built with small paved depressions on either side, to collect the rubbish and ordure. Not a bad way of keeping streets clean, thought Yani, remembering the filthy mud streets of the Dani capital.

      Yet though all this building was impressive, it was also stifling. How could they bear to live in these tall stone houses with no sight of anything green apart from slimy moss growing in the refuse ditches? All these people crammed in together. How did they stand it?

      Most of the people on the streets were Mirayan, but there were plenty of Archipelagans, many of them wearing iron slave manacles around their necks. Apart from a couple of Seagani who stopped and stared at Yani, no one paid much attention to the prisoners, except for some small boys who had fallen in behind them, throwing rotten fruit and chanting something that sounded insulting.

      After a short time, however, the chanting was suddenly cut off by shrill screams of pain. She craned backward to see what had happened. Could Marigoth have…? She wasn't very tolerant. But before Yani could see what had happened to the little boys, she was shoved in the back with the shaft of a spear and roughly urged on.

      At the end of the street was a big arched gate leading onto a paved yard surrounded by square stone buildings. They were certainly good builders, these Mirayans. The column of prisoners was lined up and a mage came down the line and held a crystal up to every man. A dignified-looking man with grey hair looked at Yani carefully and then said something to Commander Barius. Barius looked disgusted but grunted his consent. Yani had made an enemy there.

      When the mage reached Yani, he waved the crystal over her a couple of times, peered at it and her and then said, 'Put a manacle on this one for good measure.'

      The search over, the prisoners filed into the big stone building, which was full of cages floored with straw. The stench of the place was dreadful - stale urine and sweat with an underpinning scent of excrement. Yani found it hard not to gag. The cages were full of men, most of them dirty as well as ragged. All of them were Archipelagans, mostly the local Seagani. They jeered as the crew filed through the door but fell silent when they saw Yani.

      If anyone needed hope it was these people, so Yani said, 'May the Circle of Life enfold you and bless you all.'

      Several of them shot out their hands to be touched, and she touched them, repeating the blessing, until the commander came charging through, hitting their hands and shoving Yani roughly away from the cage.

      'Hey!' one huge man shouted. 'You can't treat a Tari like that.' A clamour of protest arose from the cage.

      'Get in there,' the commander snapped, twisting Yani's arm and hustling her to the end of the corridor. Pulling open a big wooden door, he pushed her into a tiny cell that was barely long enough to lie down in. A stone grate was cut into the wall to let in light.

      'What the hell were you doing out there?' he shouted.

      'It's supposed to be lucky to touch a fair-haired person,' Yani lied.

      'I'll give you lucky, scum!' the commander growled.

      He kicked Yani in the leg so hard that she crashed to the floor.

      She was up in a moment, fists clenched, her mind full of raven thoughts. The look on the commander's face stopped her. He was just itching for an opportunity to beat her and he probably wasn't above calling others to help. She held her ground, scowling at him.

      'Learning already, are you?' the commander said. 'We don't like your kind here. Coming round and stirring up our natives. I'd like to see what the inquisition will make of all this.'

      It was on the tip of Yani's tongue to tell him to go to destruction, but she had to avoid a fight. Too much physical contact might reveal her sex. She just glowered at him and moved into the corner of the cell as if she was worried about another blow. She had come across this kind of malice before. It was the reverse of the respect which most people showed. She felt a twinge of fear at the thought.

      He looked satisfied and left the cell, locking the door behind him. A moment later there was a yelp from outside and a kind of muffled roar from the other prisoners. Through the bars in the cell door Yani saw that the commander had tripped and landed facedown in a very dubious-looking puddle. She heard a little girl laughing out in the corridor. A wave of relief came over her. She moved away from the door before the commander could see her smiling.

      The commander did not return. When night fell Yani rented a filthy blanket from one of the warders and did her best to sleep curled up in the corner of the cell. Her soldier's training helped a little, but the cell was too small and dark and she kept having unpleasant dreams about the walls squeezing in on her until she oozed out from between them like guts out of a stomach wound. After a while she wanted to shout at Marigoth to come and get her, but she knew that when Marigoth thought she had suffered enough she would come.

      Sure enough in the early hours of the morning Marigoth was there in the cell with her, nudging her none too gently with her foot.

      'Time to go, sleepyhead.' From the tone of her voice she was determined to pretend nothing had happened between them. That suited Yani. Less said, soonest forgotten.

      The bolt slid back and a light flared on Marigoth's fingertips. Yani got up, easing her cramped muscles, and pushed open the door. But once outside the cell, she remembered something.

      'Mari,' she said, catching hold of Marigoth's wrist in the darkness 'Can we get the ship's crew out of here?'

      'What? Oh, why Yani? What's the point?'

      'Well, I don't want the master to lose his ship and have to stay in this horrible place. The commander's a pig.'

      'Well, he's wallowed in shit today,' Marigoth said with a satisfied laugh.

      'So can we do it?' Yani persisted.

      'Oh, Yani,' Marigoth groaned. 'You're so sentimental. I thought warriors were meant to be hard. What are these people to you?'

      'It's a matter of doing the honourable thing. Come on, Mari. Would it be so hard to let out a few extra captives? You've already put the guards to sleep, haven't you? It would make getting away much easier if we went on the ship. And think of how it would annoy the commander, and his superiors.'

      'Oh all right, then. But now that you've helped them there'll be no end to it, just you mark my words.' But the idea of annoying Commander Barius, or even better, getting him into trouble, seemed to appeal to Marigoth so much that she opened every single cell in the watch house so that by the time the jailers awoke from their magical sleep to greet the morning sun, the whole jail was empty.

      * * *

      It fell to the marshal of the city to be the one to explain the jailbreak to Duke Wolf Madraga. It pained him to have to report failure to his leader. He promised himself that his guards would feel the whip. Yet they were not the kind of men he would have expected to have fallen asleep on duty. At least not all of them.

      The duke did not get angry. He hardly even seemed interested. The man had changed since the raid on Fleurforet. There was no gainsaying it.

      'We've picked up a couple of the local escapees already this morning. Both of them drunken sots who went to the closest tavern the minute they were free. Most of the others seem to have gone off on a boat with this pale-haired freak.'

      'What did the drunks tell you? Did you mindsearch them?'

      'Had to. They were both too drunk to make any sense. It looks like they were both asleep when the doors were unlocked, but they both show that the freak was definitely the ringleader. Somehow he got out of his own cell, opened the door of their cells and led them out past the sleeping guards. There was a little girl with him. I don't understand it, my lord. Where could she have come from?'

      'And was this little girl like

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