It was clearly an argument that Diseaeda was familiar with. 'You think I exploit these poor creatures?' he asked.

For a moment Zoe couldn't tell if he meant the animals or the semi-human grotesques. 'Maybe I do. But if it's a choice between death in a gutter or life in a show, I know what I'd choose. Anyway, you'll have plenty of time to ask my "exhibits" at first hand.' He suddenly bellowed to someone behind Zoe. 'Oi! Go and put those tent pegs in properly!'

Zoe turned to see a young lad sheepishly return to a job he thought he'd completed.

'So this is your latest acquisition?' came a female voice at Diseaeda's side.

Zoe turned back, and saw two young women standing at Diseaeda's side. Their almost identical faces bore the smiles of delighted imps, and they fidgeted constantly with the buckles of their overalls.

With an almost audible gasp Zoe noticed that the women were joined at the waist, two bodies atop a single pair of legs.

'I'm Raitak,' said one, before Zoe could say a word. 'I'm Reisaz,' said the other.

'Two of my very best friends,' said Diseaeda. 'They'll show you around. By all means ask them what I'm like to work for.'

Reisaz giggled, then fell silent under Raitak's icy stare.

'I'll see you before the first show commences,' said Diseaeda before striding off into the distance.

'Right,' said Raitak. 'Follow me.'

'Us,' said Reisaz.

As if in a nightmare Zoe followed the twins into a nearby tent, struggling all the time to not let the shock that she felt show on her face.

Himesor reverently removed the first of the holy Kuabris robes from the cases. A young knight came forward, eyes averted from the metal and cloth construction being handed to him. His hands trembled as he took hold of the clothing.

The one-piece under-suit was designed to cover the entire body, with the exception of the head. The material was the colour of gold, and it rustled like silk as the young man pulled it on. Obviously surprised by its strength, the man gently poked at the fabric. His face was a picture of disbelieving privilege and extreme bewilderment.

Once the man had pulled strong metal plates on to his shins and forearms, the Doctor helped him with the bulky white chest-piece. It too had the appearance of armour, but the Doctor recognized its true function. He took the end of the transparent tube that ran into the helmet, and plugged it into the top of the air supply on the breastplate. He motioned for the knight to hold the helm under his arm for a moment.

The Doctor turned, and saw that the five other knights, including Himesor, had followed suit. 'Now you, Doctor,'

smiled the Grand Knight.

'Yes, of course.' The Doctor struggled into the proffered body-suit. His trousers, trapped within the golden leggings, bulged around his knees. He struggled to put things straight.

'Give me a hand,' he said, fl.u.s.tered. 'There's a good fellow.'

Himesor pulled the suit into position.

The Doctor clapped his hands together. 'Now, you've told your men how these robes work?'

'They are conversant with the secondary properties of the Kuabris armour,' said Himesor carefully. 'I have ordered that a complement of knights accompany us to the entrance to the sewers.'

'Oh, really, there's no need,' said the Doctor. 'I can't stand fuss. Let's just pop down into these sewers of yours and -'

'I am agreed that we need to proceed with some degree of urgency,' said Himesor, turning to face his men. 'We will pray for the success of our mission in this holy place,' he announced in a loud voice. 'Then we shall proceed to the armoury to collect the best of the Kuabris weapons. These shall surely slay the evil creatures below the ground.' He smiled. 'All glory to the Higher!'

'Higher be praised!' responded the knights.

' Gesundheit Gesundheit,' said the Doctor solemnly.

Defrabax had once been told that in some distant region men caught and ate creatures of the rivers. He was reminded of this repugnant practice because the men who caught the creatures needed great patience, sitting on the river bank with, he was reliably informed, only a stick and a long piece of thread for comfort.

Defrabax, on the other hand, was not a patient man. His natural disinclination to wait was not helped by the fact that mere feet away a huge stone pipe from the sewers fed directly into the river, and the smell was nauseating. It was raining again, so the effluent was taken away at some speed, but that was scant consolation. Defrabax was not only bored and smelly but wet. Three worse states combined he could not imagine.

He shifted his weight, trying to find some escape from the drizzle under the bare branches of a tree. Without getting to his feet he reached for a stone, and then hurled it into the water. A thick green spray marked its silent pa.s.sing.

The creatures were late, as usual. Sometimes it amazed him that they could think and walk at the same time. Still, their stupidity meant that they were unlikely to question his motives. Until their tiny little brains worked out exactly what was going on, they'd follow him blindly.

At least, that was the idea.

There was a sound from deep within the pipe, just audible above the sound of the water. A few moments later the first creature emerged, followed by another two. They swung themselves up on to the top of the pipe with their strong arms, and then dropped down to the gra.s.sy bank. They made a great show of wiping their feet before coming across to Defrabax.

Defrabax rose to his feet. 'I'm pleased to see you -'

'We are tired,' snapped the leader of the ape-like creatures, his already heavy brow furrowed in concentration. 'Long ago you say we have part of bright world. Defrabax still in bright world and Rocarbies still in dark.'

'Don't worry, my friends,' said Defrabax. 'Everything is working out for the good of your people.'

'Defrabax promise part of bright world if we help. We help. Do not have part of bright world.'

Defrabax smiled. 'Just a little longer. I still need to overthrow the knights.'

'We do not care about the knights.'

'No,' said Defrabax, more firmly this time. 'You must listen to me. Unless we proceed carefully the knights will destroy your race. When the new governing authorities are in place, however, I am sure that they would be delighted to receive a delegation from your people.'

'Rocarbies restless. Now we have seen the bright. New leaders not come, not let us up soon. We come and take this bright world!'

'There will be no need for that. Your attacks are already causing great confusion and uncertainty. The knights are powerless, their influence is waning. My homunculus has reported that almost everything has been prepared below ground. New leaders will soon be required - no, demanded - by the people.'

'Knights come to dark world.' Typically of Rocarby speech patterns, the question sounded like a statement, Defrabax puzzling over the meaning of the words for a moment.

The knights cannot come down into your world,' said Defrabax firmly. 'They don't know how to. You and the other underground races are perfectly safe.'

'Good. Do well for us, Defrabax.' With that the ape creatures turned away from the old man.

Defrabax adjusted his hat against the rain and started to walk back to the city.

The Doctor and Himesor marched through the city at the head of a large group of knights. Most were dressed in ostentatious armour, their cloaks held just above the muddy surface of the streets. A small number were dressed in the golden protection suits. They probably made an impressive sight if the apprehensive glances of the city-dwellers were anything to go by. A hushed silence fell over the city as they walked.

The Doctor felt faintly embarra.s.sed in his much-too-large suit, trotting to stay at Himesor's side. The Grand Knight stared impa.s.sively ahead, and for the moment the Doctor could read nothing in his face.

Not for the first time the Doctor hoped that the centuries-old protective outfits would still function. Even more worrying was the fate of Jamie and Zoe, neither of whom he had heard word of since their arrest the previous night. He hated it when they were separated, but would have to trust in their own intuition and ability for a while longer.

He allowed something of the excitement of exploration to wash over him as they approached the drain covering set in the centre of the street. Despite the ignominious entrance, the Doctor trusted that the subterranean world would reveal sufficient secrets for Himesor to release him to find his friends. If in the process the Doctor established the nature and demise of the previous civilization - the same civilization that produced the protective suits and many of the items in the Kuabris Most Holy Place - then so much the better.

Not, as the Doctor reminded himself, that he had much choice in the matter. The Doctor would help Himesor in every way possible, or face execution as a scientist. At least you know where you stand with Himesor, he thought.

The Doctor fanned his face when the knights came to a halt before the grating. He was relieved to note that the crowds that had followed their progress from the castle had quickly dispersed. None, it seemed, wanted to stand around while the knights violated the Menagerie of Ukkazaal.

'What next, Doctor?' asked the Grand Knight.

The Doctor nudged the grill with his foot, sniffmg the air sourly. 'We go down, Grand Knight.'

'We'll never get into the Castle of Kuabris,' moaned Cosmae.

'Och, quit your blathering,' said Jamie. 'We're nearly there now.'

And how do you propose to get past the knights?' Cosmae pointed upwards at the dark towers. 'You might be able to trick the guards, but the Knights of Kuabris will not prove so stupid.'

'We'll think of something,' said Jamie. But he paused in the shadows of the castle, his face upturned to catch signs of life in the numerous windows. In that moment something cold and electric gripped his spine. It was not that he was frightened. But already he could feel the evil within striving to impress as well as repulse him.

Jamie collected his thoughts. 'It's perfectly simple,' he said. 'The Doctor and your girl are in there. So, somehow, that's where we need to be, too.'

'You have a very clear mind, Jamie.'

'Few'd give me that credit.' He reached down to check his concealed dirk for the hundredth time. 'But with this wee beauty folk have always seen my point.'

'There's a patrol coming,' said Cosmae. The two young men pressed themselves into the shadows and watched as a handful of knights walked the distance between the last few stunted houses and the ma.s.sive gatehouse. There was no door or portcullis to impede their march. The shadows swallowed them up as they proceeded across the castle courtyard, although the sound of their armour rattling could be heard on the still air for a while longer. 'The one thing we have in our favour,' said Cosmae as he stood up, 'is the fear that the knights have generated over the years. As a result, the castle is barely defended. My master said that there were only a handful of guards stationed at the gatehouse, but many knights within the castle.'

'So the gatehouse should prove easy,' commented Jamie.

'Pretend you've apprehended me. That you're under-cover for -'

'Under-cover?'

Jamie sighed. There were times when his ever-increasing vocabulary was little but a hindrance. 'Pretend that you're a knight or a guard but that you've been tracking me in disguise. If you act like you know what you're doing, they'll believe you.'

'Are you sure?'

'Aye, the Doctor does this all the time.' Jamie handed Cosmae his dirk. It shone like a lamp even in the morning's gloom. 'Hold this to my throat. Not too close, mind.'

Cosmae nodded. They were just within sight of the guards who milled around the open doorway. 'Here we go,'

said Cosmae softly, before bundling Jamie forwards.

Reisaz and Raitak pulled back a heavy grey curtain and ushered Zoe into the hut. 'You'll like this,' said Reisaz.

Diseaeda's collection of dead things.'

' So So exploitative,' said Raitak, smiling at Zoe. exploitative,' said Raitak, smiling at Zoe.

The Siamese twins had given Zoe a tour of the entire site.

They quickly surmised her interests, marvelling at her degrees and her range of knowledge, even though Zoe was sure that most of what she said meant less than nothing to them. They had taken her to the primitive generator that powered the lights strung like dew-covered webs over the expanse of the circus. Without thinking Zoe called it a museum piece. Raitak snapped that it had cost Diseaeda half of his profits for one year, that it had come from the edge of the world and was, in fact, a scientific marvel. Reisaz whispered conspiratorially that the Knights of Kuabris didn't know about the machine, and that their licensed 'research' had done little more than develop what was already common knowledge in other regions. Zoe questioned the man in charge of the machine, but it was clear that he didn't even know what principles the machine worked on. For him, it was magic that it worked at all, and a miracle when it didn't break down.

There were many freaks like the twins. She caught glimpses of the tallest man she had ever seen, always edgily on the move, checking light bulbs and the overhead cables.

There was a man with no eyes, his cheeks rising smoothly to meet a furrowed brow of concentration. A rather short-tempered woman with a beard snapped at her when she bent to examine some slowly cooking stew. And then there were the silent clowns, the strongmen, the acrobats, who spent more time on their hands than their feet, and myriad creatures who grazed on the scrubby tufts of gra.s.s or paced angrily in cages.

Her interest in alien morphology had in turn led her to the grandly t.i.tled Hall of Grotesques, a large hut of dark wood.

Zoe stepped inside, followed by the twins. Raitak held up a lamp, while Reisaz half-turned to secure the curtain with a silken cord. 'Obviously, by evening, the lights in here will be working,' said Raitak.

'It's very cleverly done,' said Reisaz. 'Pools of light, illuminating the dead things just as you turn to the next exhibit.'

'The man who used to look after all this,' said Raitak, 'went mad. Said that the exhibits would move when he wasn't looking.'

Reisaz made a little whizzing sound in her throat and mockingly smacked the side of her head.

'It was very sad,' said Raitak, silencing her sister with a stem glance. 'No one deserves to end up like that.' The twins walked over to the first exhibit. 'Diseaeda ensured that the man was looked after.'

Zoe knew that, as with so many of the twins' comments, the real meaning of the woman's words was simple: Diseaeda is no ghoulish fiend. But Zoe wasn't especially interested in this character reference. Whatever the respect he inspired in the workers and performers, Zoe had been arrested, thrown into a smelly jail, sold at auction, subjected to the most excruciating journey she had ever suffered, and was now working at a glorified freak show. She wasn't in the mood to thank Diseaeda for anything anything. She opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. And she promised herself never to complain of s.p.a.ce travel again.