"But Jernow!" At-sen said, from Gurgeh's left. "You must have a scar-portrait! So that we may remember you when you have gone back to the Culture and its decadent, many-orificed ladies!" Inclate, on his right, giggled.

"Certainly not," Gurgeh said, mock-serious. "It sounds quite barbaric."

"Oh yes, yes, it is!" At-sen and Inclate laughed into their glasses. At-sen pulled herself together, put her hand on his wrist. "Wouldn't you like to think there was some poor person walking around on Eä with your face on their skin?"

"Yes, but on which bit?" Gurgeh asked.

They thought this hilariously funny.

Za stood; one of his ladies packed the tiny slivers of the game-cards away in a little chain purse. "Gurgeh," Za said, knocking back the last of his drink. "We're off for a more private chat; you three too?" Za grinned wickedly at Inclate and At-sen, producing gales of laughter and small shrieks. At-sen dipped her fingers in her drink and flicked some liquor at Za, who dodged.

"Yes, come, Jernow," Inclate said, taking hold of Gurgeh's arm with both hands. "Let's all go; the air is so stuffy here, and the noise so loud."

Gurgeh smiled, shook his head. "No; I'd only disappoint you."

"Oh no! No!" Slim fingers tugged at his sleeves, curled round his arms.

The politely mocking argument went on for some minutes, while Za stood, grinning, ladies draped on either side, looking on, and Inclate and At-sen tried their hardest either to physically lift Gurgeh to his feet, or, by pouting protestations, persuade him to move.

All failed. Za shrugged — his ladies imitated the alien gesture, before dissolving into laughter — and said, "Okay; just stay there, all right, game-player?"

Za looked at Inclate and At-sen, who were temporarily subdued and petulant. "You two look after him, right?" Za told them. "Don't let him talk to any strangers."

At-sen sniffed imperiously. "Your friend declines all; strange or familiar."

Inclate snorted despite herself. "Or both in one," she blurted. Whereupon she and At-sen started laughing again and reaching behind Gurgeh to slap and pinch each other's shoulders.

Za shook his head. "Jemau; try and control those two as well as you control yourself."

Gurgeh ducked a few flicked drops of drink while the females squealed on either side of him. "I'll try," he told Za.

"Well," Za said, "I'll try not to be too long. Sure you won't join in? Could be quite an experience."

"I'm sure. But I'm fine here."

"Okay. Don't wander. See you soon." Za grinned at the giggling girls on either side of him, and then they turned together, walked away. "Ish!" Za shouted back over his shoulder. "Soon-ish, game-player!"

Gurgeh waved goodbye. Inclate and At-sen quietened fractionally and set about telling him what a naughty boy he was for not being more naughty. Gurgeh ordered more drinks and pipes to keep them quiet. They showed him how to play the game of elements, chanting, "Blade cuts cloth, cloth wraps stone, stone dams water, water quenches fire, fire melts blade…" like serious schoolgirls, and showing him the appropriate hand-shapes, so that he could learn.

It was a truncated, two-dimensional version of the elemental die-matching from the Board of Becoming, minus Air and Life. Gurgeh found it amusing that even in the Hole he could not escape the influence of Azad. He played the simple game because the ladies wanted to, and he took care not to win too many hands… something, he realised, he had never done before in his life.

Still puzzling over this anomaly, he went to the toilets, of which there were four different types. He used the Aliens, but took some time to find the right piece of equipment. He was still chortling over this when he came out, to find Inclate standing outside the sphincter-like doorway. She looked worried; the oil-film dress rippled dully.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"At-sen," she said, kneading her little hands together. "Her ex-master came; took her away. He wants to have her again or it will be a tenth-year since they are one, and she will be free." She looked up at Gurgeh, small face contorted, distressed. The blue-black hair washed round her face like a slow and fluid shadow. "I know Sho-Za said you must not move, but will you? This is not your concern, but she's my friend…"

"What can I do?" Gurgeh said.

"Come; we two may distract him. I think I know where he's taken her. I shall not endanger you, Jernow." She took his hand.

They half walked, half ran down twisting wooden corridors) past many rooms and doors. He was lost in a maze of sensation; a welter of sounds (music, laughter, screams), sights (servants, erotic pictures, glimpsed galleries of packed, swaying bodies) and smells (food, perfume, alien sweats).

Suddenly, Inclate stopped. They were in a deep, bowled room like a theatre, where a naked human male stood on stage, turning slowly, this way and that, in front of a giant screen showing a close-up of his skin. Deep, booming music played. Inclate stood looking round the packed auditorium, still holding Gurgeh's hand.

Gurgeh glanced at the man on stage. The lights were bright, sunlight spectraed. The slightly plump, pale-skinned male had several enormous, multi-coloured bruises — like huge prints — on his body. Those on his back and chest were largest, and showed Azadian faces. The mixture of blacks, blues, purples, greens, yellows and reds combined to form portraits of uncanny accuracy and subtlety, which the flexings of the man's muscles seemed to make live, exactly as though those faces took on new expressions with each moment. Gurgeh looked, and felt his breath draw in.

"There!" Inclate shouted over the pulsing music, and tugged at his hand. They set off through the crowding people, towards where At-sen stood, near the front of the stage. She was being held by an apex who was pointing at the man on the stage and shouting at her, shaking her. At-sen's head was down, her shoulders quivered as if she was crying. The video-dress was turned off; it hung on her, grey and drab and lifeless. The apex hit At-sen across the head (the slow black hair twisted languidly), and shouted at her again. She fell to her knees; the beaded hair followed her as if she was sinking slowly under water. Nobody around the couple took any notice. Inclate strode towards them, pulling Gurgeh after her.

The apex saw them coming, tried to drag At-sen away. Inclate started to shout at the apex; she held up Gurgeh's hand as they pushed people aside, drew closer. The apex looked suddenly fearful; he stumbled away, dragging At-sen with him to an exit beneath the raised stage. Inclate started forward, but her way was blocked by a cluster of large Azadian males, standing staring open-mouthed at the man on the stage. Inclate beat at their backs with her fists. Gurgeh watched At-sen disappear, dragged through the door beneath the stage. He pulled Inclate to one side and used his greater mass and strength to force a way between two of the protesting males; he and the girl ran to the swinging door.

The corridor curved sharply. They followed the sounds of screams, down some narrow stairs, over a step where the broken monitor-collar lay, snapped and dead, down to a quiet corridor where the light was jade and there were many doors. At-sen was lying on the floor, the apex above her, screaming at her. He saw Gurgeh and Inclate, shook his fist at them. Inclate screamed incoherently at him.

Gurgeh started forward; the apex took a gun from a pocket.

Gurgeh stopped. Inclate went quiet. At-sen whimpered on the floor. The apex started talking, far too fast for Gurgeh to follow; he pointed at the woman on the floor, then gestured at the ceiling. He began to cry, and the gun shook in his hand (and part of Gurgeh, sitting back calmly analysing, thought, Am I frightened? Is this fear yet? I'm looking death in the face, staring at it through that little black hole, the little twisted tunnel in this alien's hand (like another element the hand can show), and I'm waiting to feel fear.