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Karilee quickly rifled through what was inside.
There s a map of the Sky, he said after a while. Then his, eyes widened.
What is it? asked Jo.
Marilee didn t reply. He sat down slowly in the dark, upholstered chair behind the desk, and muttered, I don t believe this.
Jo looked over his shoulder, saw a circular diagram covered in arrows and scribbles.
What does it mean?
Karilee was silent for a while, and when he spoke his voice was different. Jo recognized it: the quiet, toneless voice of extreme shock.
He s going to poison the Sky. Karilee looked up at Jo. Epreto s obtained a poison from the Dead and he s going to use it to kill the Sky. He s
going to destroy the world.
110
Fourteen
he naieen altered course, but they were too late. Epreto Twatched with satisfaction as the lamps of the guards fell below, still several miles behind
the steamwing.
You see, Doctor, he said, they are inferior to men. They lack any capacity for planning. And to think that the best that might happen to me to any
intelligent man is to become one of the naieen! Do you see now why things must change?
I don t think it ll be as easy as you think, said the Doctor.
Epreto frowned at him. I m not expecting it to be easy, Doctor. I just think it should be possible.
I wasn t referring to your long-term plans. I m talking about the naieen guards. The Doctor gestured at the blank space between the steamwing and
the sun. I shouldn t think they d be using lights if they wanted to sneak up on us. I imagine that the ones we saw were just a decoy party. The real
attack is still to come.
As the Doctor finished speaking, Epreto became aware of a change in the air. A faint whispering in the stillness. A sense, almost, of something
breathing.
Wings.
The wings of naieen.
You re right, Doctor, he muttered. I suggest that we
There was a flare of light, followed by a rushing wall of hot, sulphurous air. Epreto dived behind the control panel, lay flat against the smooth wood of
the observation platform. The Doctor, he noticed, didn t bother.
Reaching up with one arm, Epreto pulled the vent lever. Clouds of steam roared out of the boiler. The observation platform began to tremble, then
pitched as the steamwing lost balance and began to fall. Epreto pulled a second lever, which lit the flare lamps. He caught a glimpse of wild naieen
eyes, furling wings, the white, crenellated wall of some sort of naieen craft, all tipping crazily in the night air. Then everything was obscured by the
venting steam, as he d intended.
Gunners! he bawled. He heard the clatter of metal from below, 111
and felt a glow of pride. The crew were well trained in these situations, and must already have been at their posts.
The machine guns opened up, the vibration of their fire shaking the platform. Epreto got to his knees. He thought he heard the Doctor shouting,
No!
What choice do we have, Doctor? asked Epreto, though he doubted that the otherlander heard him over the racket of the guns.
A bloodied naieen corpse tumbled in front of them, wearing some kind of crest on his uniform. A commander of the guards? thought Epreto.
Good.
The Doctor was still shouting: ...can t do this! This is no way to
The guns roared again.
Suddenly the Doctor leapt over the rail of the platform. Epreto stood up, saw him falling towards one of the crewmen at the guns.
But he d misjudged the jump: Epreto watched helplessly as he fell further, below the level of the boiler, and vanished into the swirling cloud of steam.
Epreto went back to the controls, and pulled back on the venting lever. Slowly the steam cleared, and the steamwing righted itself After a few
moments Epreto adjusted the trim of the wings and they began climbing again. There was no sign of the naieen or their craft in the air around them,
either above or below.
And no sign of the Doctor, either.
Kimji Duboli knew there was something wrong as soon as the wings of his pedithopter passed over the wall around Epreto s estate. The house
was too well lit yellow light streaming from every window and at the same time too quiet. The steamwing had been and gone: he could tell that
from the smell of smoke lingering in the air. Epreto wouldn t have left all the lights burning, and he would have left a servant behind, at least one,
someone who would have challenged Duboli by now.
Or at least waved to him.
Duboli banked cautiously around to the back of the house, let the
thopter glide, and listened.
Prepare accommodation , Epreto s message had told him, and he had done so. He d moved the jumble of stores and pilgrimage mementos out of
the spare room in his apartment overlooking the factory, and had a couple of beds flown in from the Old City. Then he had farwritten Epreto from the
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