Sitting up like this, resting against the Senator’s shoulder, he managed to get a glimpse out of the window, but all he could see were clouds and sky. Lusa and Kallik must be far behind, he realised, left in the village.

‘Lie back now,’ the Senator said when he had finished drinking. He gently pushed Ujurak back so that he was lying flat on the seat again; he tightened a blanket around him and arranged a small pillow under his head. ‘That’s it.’

The metal bird bobbed in the air, making his stomach lurch. Ujurak groped for the three carved bears that Tiinchuu had given him and gripped them tightly. Their edges felt hard against his frail flat-face fingers. I’m a bear! he thought, fighting back panic. Bears don’t fly . . .Bears don’t fly . . .How will the others ever find me now? When he changed into a goose or an eagle, he had always felt a pull that drew him back, even if he couldn’t remember why. But he couldn’t control his flight when he was inside the metal bird. What if it never comes back down to land?

Then he began to gain control of his fear. The metal bird had landed once; it was bound to land again, sooner or later. I have to stay alert, so I’ll be ready as soon as there’s a chance to escape.

Gazing around, he realised the two flat-faces who had gone into the big den with the Senator were seated behind them at the back of the bird. Two more flat-faces were sitting in seats in front of him. They wore bulky pelts in bright colours, with hard black things sticking out of their heads. They kept reaching out their paws to prod at the surface before them, pushing and pulling at shining bulges at the front of the bird, where lights blinked on and off.

‘Try to rest,’ the Senator said.

Ujurak could hear a growl coming from deep inside the bird, and the rhythmic beating of its wings overhead. He had flown before as a gull, a goose, and even an eagle, but his sensations now were completely new. He couldn’t feel any wind around him, and he didn’t have to make any of the movements of flying: none of the swooping and gliding, no need to find air currents and let them take him upward, banking way above the ground.

Instead everything around him was still. He tried to imagine the metal bird flying high in the air, over the mountains, or maybe across the sea. He could tell that the bird was like a firebeast, not really alive, but he’d never seen a firebeast rise up from its BlackPath and fly off through the air.

Where are they taking me?

The Senator leaned forward to talk to the two flat-faces in front. ‘You’d better let the Medical Center know we’re on our way.’