'Yes, and the sooner I can get a nice hot bath the better. With soap. Soap! Ever since Greenland I've been carrying passengers.'

Marco looked blank. Kin sighed.

'Fleas, Marco. Irritating parasites. Right now I could forget about the Preservation of Extinct Species Law and kill the lot.'

'And you can't scratch very well in a bubble suit.' Silver coughed. 'I too would like the chance of some hygienic reparations,' she said.

Marco finally consented to make an extended stop later in the day, after Kin announced that if he did not she would land outside the first building that looked like a tavern.

As they sped over the sea Silver added, 'We are heading for Germany. Not a good place.'

'Why?' asked Marco.

'A battleground. Danes spreading southward meeting Magyars heading westward and Turks heading everywhere, with the locals fighting everyone. According to history, that is.'

'Anyone have an air force?'

'The technology was pri--'

'It was a joke.'

Kin itched, and stared morosely at the sea. She thought she saw a boat, hull uppermost, rolling in the waves. They were past before she could take a closer look. But she was the first to see the rosette.

From above, the sea had put forth a flower, green petals edged with white. Losing altitude, they saw the mounds of water burst through the surface every few seconds and spread in a succession of roaring, concentric waves.

'Tide pump,' said Marco, and flew on.

They crossed a wide beach, a chequerboard of fields, and a forest. And then a town -- small, bucolic, but a town.

'The fortress I can recognize,' said Marco, pointing to a squat stone building among the canted roofs, 'but what is the large wooden construction?'

'Could it be a large heated swimming pool?' murmured Kin. 'Don't look at me like that. The Remens had hot baths.'

'Romans,' corrected Silver. Marco grunted and glided off, leaving them to chase after him.

'Why the big rush?' said Kin.

He pointed to the smoke column. Kin had to admit it was impressive, even at this distance.

"That's why,' he said. 'According to Silver the disc people are ripe for mob hysteria. What do you think they'd be doing now that's in their sky?'

They landed in a mixed forest well out of sight of habitation, where a stream flowed between low sandy banks.

Kin stripped off her suit as soon as she landed and, while Silver scrabbled at the sand, switched the dumbwaiter to one of its least complicated settings. Soon it gushed hot water, filling the hole. She wallowed.

Marco prowled uneasily along the bank and disappeared up a steep, tree-shaped slope. A moment later he came bounding down.

'We must leave! There's a track up there!'

Silver looked at Kin and shrugged, then wandered up the slope. She came back looking thoughtful.

'There is a distant odour of humans,' she said, 'but it is a forest track, that's all, and there are plants growing undisturbed all over it.'

They glared at Marco.

'People use it,' he said. 'They may have weapons.'

'Only axes, I should think,' said Kin. 'Anyway, superstition will protect us. There are tidal forests on Kung, aren't there?'

'I understand so, yes.'

'Well, what would be the reaction of a simple peasant kung forester who suddenly chanced upon strange and fearsome monsters in his forest?'

'He would fall upon them and destroy them utterly!'

Kin bit her lip. 'I guess he would, at that. Well, humans are different. Don't worry.'

Later she dialled for soap and did her laundry. Silver had paddled off downstream and found a deep pool, nicely cold, in which she was floating contentedly. Marco relaxed sufficiently to bathe his broad feet in the stream.

There was a sudden movement in the water and he hissed shrilly, jumping up and landing ready to fight. Kin watched wide-eyed, then reached down and quickly grabbed a small yellow frog.

She showed it to him without speaking. Marco glared. Finally Kin ran out of air and burst out laughing. The kung looked from her to the impassive frog, hissed menacingly, turned and stomped off along the river bank.

That was unfair of me, she thought. Kung have no sense of humour, even kung brought up on Earth. She released the frog and paddled further out into the stream.

It was clear, and slow enough for yellow water lilies to have established a roothold. Water-boatmen rowed furiously underwater to escape her as she dived.

She drifted in the golden brown water between the lily stalks, moving with just the faintest motion of wrists and ankles. There were rams-horn snails with red skin, and small fish darting like swallows in the shadowy cathedrals made by the weeds...

She rose in a cloak of bubbles and surfaced in a clump of flowers, shaking the water out of her hair.

The archers were well disciplined. Kin looked at the row of arrowheads, wavering only slightly, and quickly decided against diving. Refraction of light or not, they could still hit her under water.

There were eight archers in rough clothing and a haphazard assortment of armour and chain-mail. They wore close-fitting metal helmets and beneath them their blue eyes bored into Kin stolidly.

A voice was squeaking in her earpiece.

'... and don't say anything stupid,' it said. 'There's too much risk of being hit. We must handle this carefully.'

Kin looked round slowly. There was nothing to be seen downstream but stands of reed-mace and thick bushes.

'I like the we,' she said aloud.

'Just don't stare too intently at the big bush with the purple flowers,' said Marco.

Before she could answer, a man pushed his way between the archers and grinned down at her.

He was short and built like a wall. Even his skin was brick-coloured. A thatch of yellow hair and wide moustaches framed eyes that glittered enough to remind Kin that intelligence didn't necessarily start with an industrial revolution.

He wore leggings, a belted smock that fell to his knees, and a red cloak. They all looked as though they had been slept in, if not worse. One calloused hand tapped thoughtfully at the hilt of a half-concealed sword.

Kin smiled back.

Finally he stopped the grinning contest by kneeling down and extending a hand. Jewels gleamed on the dirt-engrained fingers, with a suggestion that they had once belonged to other people.

Kin accepted the hand as gracefully as she could, and climbed out on to the bank. There was a faint sigh from the men. She treated them all to another smile, which caused them to step back uneasily, and plucked a waterlily flower from her hair.

Brickface broke the spell with an appraising glance and a short comment that caused a general snigger.

Turn up the gain control,' said the voice in her ear. 'If he is speaking Latin, Silver may be able to translate.'

'I don't need a translation of that,' said Kin. She treated her audience to another toothpaste grin and stepped forward. Brickface nodded and one man darted hurriedly out of the way.

A group of three men were standing around the dumbwaiter. Two of them wore heavy grey robes and the third, a youth, wore clothes that were bright and obviously impractical. All three pulled back guiltily as she approached.

Then the youth said something and reached inside his shirt, pulling out an amulet which he held in front of him as he advanced stiff-legged towards her. He held it like a weapon. Kin noticed that his eyes were glazed. Sweat glistened on his forehead.

He stopped in front of her, staring straight ahead. She sensed that everyone was expecting something of her.

She reached out gingerly and took the amulet.

There was a gasp from the robed pair. Behind her Brickface doubled up with sudden laughter. The young man stared, lips moving on soundless words. Kin peered politely at the thing in her hands. It was a wooden cross, with what she at first thought was the figure of an acrobat; she handed it back as graciously as she could manage.