6
Fasani fell, screaming (to her later shame). She experienced the curious sensation of falling, not just down but backwards; and not just in space but also in time. Before her precipitate fall came to an end, a barrage of memories passed through her mind, at such speed she could not grasp them all. She glimpsed her sisters, her mother, Baradir; the home of her childhood, and the palace, and the Starlight Bazaar; a glance down at her own camel’s feet, and the memory of a night wind over her ears.
She saw the palace as it had once been, before everything had gone wrong.
When at last all this befuddling motion ceased, Fasani was left prone upon some hard floor, her mind whirling with colour and confusion. She lay still for several moments, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, unwilling for the
