Some of the vendors took up more space and moved faster than she liked and she did brush against two of them. Both times she startled and jumped away quickly from them. Neither vendor seemed to take much notice, although one of them did glance curiously around to see what had touched him.

Miriam did enjoy getting to see what was hidden behind and underneath the stalls. Some of the 'one-of-a-kind' items on sale were piled into boxes as well as broken and rare things that had been removed from public view. One of the stalls selling multicoloured furs had small, sad bones that could only be seen from the back.

The bird was no longer even singing. Miriam watched as the old man fed it through the bars, whispering softly in a gentle tone. It was clear he cared about it. Miriam didn't even hesitate in her plan. The man could not set the bird free, but if it got out, he couldn't be blamed.

The problem was that the bird was at the front of the stall, and unreachable from the back. To get to it, she would have to go into the crowd and take it without being noticed.

She kept to the side of the stall and sat on the ground between it and the next one, bent low and considered what to do. The next stall sold glass balls and dolls, each according to its owner did something different when broken.

Some balls cast fire, others made ghostly apparitions appear. The problem was that, while Miriam could have done with the distraction, she wasn't able to see which item the seller was pointing to when describing them and didn't want to hurt anyone passing or blow off one of her limbs.

The old man was selling jewellery, made of pebbles and beads and offering protection from the elements and various animals that sounded strange and foreign to Miriam. The beads thrown into the crowd would have caused a few falls and taken all attention away from her and what she was doing, but the bird was between them and her.

It was also quite clear that the bird could see her. It regarded her suspiciously from one eye, it's head turned and following each and every one of her movements. Miriam looked back at it. It mistook her for Echo and gave a testing little twitter of song to see how receptive she was.

The lock on the cage wasn't even a lock, it was a little swing lock that Miriam could just about reach. Maybe that would work. She spun the cage, slowly, from the bottom, so that the lock faced away from the crowd. Then she reached up and undid the lock. The bird, still thinking she was Echo, affectionately nipped at her finger as she opened the cage, just slightly.

Then it seemed to realise that the cage door was open and burst out in a tumble of feathers. The old man gave a cry of despair. Someone from the crowd tried to grab it but Miriam threw the cage at them, making them fall into someone else. Other people tried to catch it. Others were yelling at the old man, asking him how it happened.

Someone else spoke up to defend him, saying he was talking to them when it happened. The old man wasn't talking to anyone. He watched his bird with a big grin and tears running down his face. The bird flew up, singing, dodging the large and long arms that tried to grab it until it was above them all and getting higher.

Miriam watched it go until someone grabbed her arm. She turned, ready to fight. It was Davis. He looked pissed. He pulled her from the people and into one of the buildings to the side. He didn't say anything to her, just held onto her arm a little too tightly and watched everyone else outside.

Miriam didn't see why it was such a big deal, but every single person seemed interested in what had happened and she could hear people trying to figure out how. They were there a few minutes and Miriam heard five theories on how the animal got out of its cage.

Davis glared at her every now and then. Seeing as he didn't have any right to get mad at her, she got annoyed and pinched the arm that was holding hers so hard that he yelped and let go. That only made him glare at her harder as he rubbed his sore arm. She narrowed her eyes at him. He stuck up his middle finger at her, after clearly taking a liking to the gesture. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"That was a really stupid thing to do," he said, looking to where they had last spotted the brilliant blue light of the bird before it disappeared behind the buildings. He watched the empty sky for a while and sighed. Then he turned to her and smiled.

"Well done, Mir."

She looked at him and scowled a little less fiercely.

It did make her feel better to think of the bird flying away, singing it's Echo-song loudly and joyfully.

She looked away from him and saw graffiti on the walls.

MOTHER OF MONSTERS

DEATH TO THE MONARCHY

TRUTH TO THE FOLLOWERS

"That looks too fresh for my liking," Davis said.

He was right, some patches still looked wet.

"Let's get back to the others," said Davis, taking her hand but still looking at the graffiti.

She absently shook her hand free, reading more of the writing on the wall. What was this about the 'mother of monsters'? She was travelling to meet this woman.

She sighed and ran a hand through her short hair, her wrist brushing against the earring. Davis shuddered when it did, but did not explain why. He was lying by omission because he knew she couldn't ask. It was starting to annoy her.