the far side of the cavern. The drone banked again and accelerated.
Xoxarle pressed the trigger just as Unaha-Closp hit him from behind; the gun hadn't even started to fire as Xoxarle was thrown forward, down to the floor of the tunnel. He rolled over as he fell, but the gun's muzzle staved into the rock, taking all the Idiran's weight for a moment; the barrel snapped cleanly in two. The drone stopped just short of Horza. The man was lunging forward for the Idiran, who was already recovering his balance and rearing up in front of them. Unaha-Closp rushed forward again, diving then zooming, attempting an uppercut like the one that had caught the Idiran out once before. Xoxarle fended off the machine with one swiping arm. Unaha-Closp bounced off the wall like a rubber ball, and the Idiran swatted it once more, sending the drone spinning back, dented and crippled, along the corridor towards the cavern.
Horza dived forward. Xoxarle brought his fist down on the human's head as he lunged. The Changer swerved, but not fast enough; the glancing blow he received hit the side of his head, and he crashed onto the floor, scraping along the side of the wall and coming to rest in a doorway across the tunnel.
Sprinklers spat from the ceiling near where Horza's gun had fired into it. Xoxarle rounded on the fallen human, who was trying to get to his feet, his legs wobbly and unsure, arms scrambling for purchase over the smooth rock walls. The Idiran brought up his leg to stamp his foot into Horza's face, then sighed and put his leg down again as the drone Unaha-Closp, riding unevenly in the air, its casing dented, leaking smoke, wobbling as it advanced, came slowly back up the tunnel towards the Idiran.'… You animal…' Unaha-Closp croaked, its small voice broken and harsh.
Xoxarle reached out, grabbed the machine's front, raised it easily in both hands over his head, over Horza's head — the man looked up, eyes unfocused — then brought it down, scything towards the man's skull.
Horza rolled, almost tiredly, to one side, and Xoxarle felt the whimpering machine connect with Horza's head and shoulder. The man fell, sprawling on the tunnel floor.
He was still alive; one hand moved feebly to try to protect his naked, bleeding head. Xoxarle turned, raised the helpless drone high over the man's head once more. 'And, so…' he said quietly as he tensed his arms to bring the machine down.
'Xoxarle!'
He looked up, between his upraised arms, while the drone struggled weakly in his hands and the man at his feet moved one hand slowly over his blood-matted hair. Xoxarle grinned.
The woman Perosteck Balveda stood at the end of the tunnel, on the terrace over the cavern. She was stooped, and her face looked limp and worn. Her right arm dangled awkwardly at her side, the hand hanging by her thigh turned outwards. In her other hand her fist seemed closed around something small which she was pointing at the Idiran. Xoxarle had to look carefully to see what it was. It resembled a gun: a gun made mostly of air; a gun of lines, thin wires, hardly solid at all, more like a framework, like a pencil outline somehow lifted from a page and filled out just enough to grip. Xoxarle laughed and brought the drone swooping down.
Balveda fired the gun; it sparkled briefly at the end of its spindly barrel, like a small jewel caught in sunlight, and made the faintest of coughing noises.
Before Unaha-Closp had been moved more than a half-metre through the air towards Horza's head, Xoxarle's midriff lit up like the sun. The Idiran's lower torso was blown apart, blasted from his hips by a hundred tiny explosions. His chest, arms and head were blown up and back, hitting the tunnel roof then tumbling down again through the air, the arms slackening, the hands opening. His belly, keratin plates ripped open, flooded entrails onto the water-spattered floor of the tunnel as his whole upper body bounced into the shallow puddles forming under the artificial rain. What was left of his trunk section, the heavy hips and the three body-thick legs, stayed standing for a few seconds by themselves, while Unaha-Closp floated quietly to the ceiling, and Horza lay still under the falling water, now colouring in the puddles with purple and red as it washed his own and the Idiran's blood away.
Xoxarle's torso lay motionless where it fell, two metres behind where his legs still stood. Then the knees buckled slowly, as though only reluctantly giving in to the pull of gravity, and the heavy hips settled over the splayed feet. Water splashed into the gory bowl of Xoxarle's sliced open pelvis.
'Bala bala bala,' Unaha-Closp mumbled, stuck to the ceiling, dripping water. 'Bala labalabalabla… ha ha.'
Balveda kept the gun pointing at Xoxarle's broken body. She walked slowly up the corridor, splashing through the dark red water.
She stopped near Horza's feet and looked dispassionately at Xoxarle's head and upper torso, lying still on the tunnel floor, blood and internal organs spilling from the fallen giant's chest. She sighted the gun and fired at the warrior's massive head, blowing it from his shoulders and blasting shattered pieces of keratin twenty metres up the tunnel. The blast rocked her; the echoes sang in her ears. Finally, she seemed to relax, shoulders drooping. She looked up at the drone, floating against the roof.
'Here am are, downly upfloat, falling ceilingwards bala bala ha ha…' Unaha-Closp said, and moved uncertainly. 'So there. Look, I am
Balveda knelt down by the fallen man. She put the gun in a pocket and felt Horza's neck; he was still alive. His face was in the water. She heaved and pushed, trying to roll him over. His scalp oozed blood.
'Drone,' she said, trying to stop the man from falling back into the water again, 'help me with him.' She held Horza's arm with her one good hand, grimacing with pain as she used her other shoulder to roll him further over. 'Unaha-Closp, damn you; help me.'
'Bla bala bal. Ho the hey. Here am are, am here are. How do you don't? Ceiling, roof, inside outside. Ha ha bala bala,' the drone warbled, still fast against the tunnel roof. Balveda finally got Horza onto his back. The false rain fell on his gashed face, cleaning the blood from his nose and mouth. One eye, then the other, opened.
'Horza,' Balveda said, moving forward, so that her own head blocked out the falling water and the overhead light. The Changer's face was pale save for the thin tendrils of blood leaking from mouth and nostrils. A red tide came from the back and side of his head. 'Horza?' she said.
'You won,' Horza said, slurring the words, his voice quiet. He closed his eyes. Balveda didn't know what to say; she closed her own eyes, shook her head.
'Bala bala… the train now arriving at platform one…'
'… Drone,' Horza whispered, looking up, past Balveda's head. She nodded. She watched his eyes move back, trying to look over his own forehead. 'Xoxarle…' he whispered. 'What happened?'
'I shot him,' Balveda said.
'… Bala bala throw your out arms come out come in, one more once the same… Is there anybody in here?'
'With what?' Horza's voice was almost inaudible; she had to bend closer to hear. She took the tiny gun from her pocket.
'This,' she said. She opened her mouth, showing him the hole where a back tooth had been. 'Memoryform. The gun was part of me; looks like a real tooth.' She tried to smile. She doubted the man could even see the gun.
He closed his eyes. 'Clever,' he said quietly. Blood flowed from his head, mingling with the purple wash from Xoxarle's dismembered body.
'I'll get you back, Horza,' Balveda said. 'I promise. I'll take you back to the ship. You'll be all right. I'll make sure. You'll be fine.'
'Will you?' Horza said quietly, eyes closed. 'Thanks, Perosteck.'
'Thanks bala bala bala. Steckoper, Tsah-hor, Aha-Un-Clops… Ho the hey, hey the ho, ho for all that, think on. We apologise for any inconvenience caused… What's the where's the how's the who where when why how, and so…'
'Don't worry,' Balveda said. She reached out and touched the man's wet face. Water washed off the back of the Culture woman's head, down onto the Changer's face. Horza's eyes opened again, flicking round, staring at her, then back towards the collapsed trunk of the Idiran; next up at the drone on the ceiling; finally around him, at the walls and the water. He whispered something, not looking at the woman.
'What?' Balveda said, bending closer as the man's eyes closed again.
'Bala,' said the machine on the ceiling. 'Bala bala bala. Ha ha. Bala bala bala.'
'What a fool,' Horza said, quite clearly, though his voice was fading as he lost consciousness, and his eyes stayed closed. 'What a bloody… stupid… fool.' He nodded his head slightly; it didn't seem to hurt him. Splashes sent
