Stephen Hunt - Secrets of the Fire Sea

Jethro wrinkled his nose in distaste. This was the sort of man that prospered in the chaos of war. One week a murderer, the next a war hero. It was only society's judgement that separated the two.

'I recognize this canal,' said Jethro. 'This is the way we came down from the harbour.'

Boxiron nodded. 'The Purity Queen. She must still be docked in Jago's u-boat pens or we would have been extradited on her.'

The convict by their side sneered. 'Did they have you two lads in solitary? Haven't you heard? You aren't sailing out of here. Knipe jammed the sea locks to stop the wet-snouts sailing into the city. And even if the locks weren't jiggered, there's the whole wet-snout fleet sitting out under the cliffs. You're bottled up here same as us. Best you keep your eyes on the main chance. Slit a few wet-snout throats and put your hand up for a pardon when it's done.'

'And what makes you think Jago is going to win, good sir?' asked Jethro.

'Wet-snouts, they're just savages,' said the convict, shaking his head at Jethro's ignorance. 'They only got this far because the free company swapped sides. Bastard traitors let the fleet sail through the coral line yesterday, is what I heard. Stuck the First Senator's head on a pole on the battlements. No loss there, eh? But now they're fighting the people, not a bunch of gold-pursed idiots sitting around in senator's robes. Wet-snouts think the sky's going to fall on their heads if we stay on this island. Ignorant heathens. Been here two thousand years, ain't we, and we'll make the world end all right. For any dimwit wet-snout jigger left on Jago!'

Shouts of indignant anger were raised all along the line of convicts in support of this foul-mouthed oratory.

'I don't know what these people will do to the Pericurians,' Jethro said to Boxiron, 'but by the Circle, I know that they scare me.' Commodore Black brushed his fingers along the warm iron wall of the brig, wiping off the tears of water crying out of the rivets. 'This is second-rate work, lass. They've got water as hot as the Fire Sea right off the coast of Pericur, and the Pericurians can't even fit their boats out with a cooling system worth a spit.'

Hannah found it hard to find words to answer with. Her mother's loss, Alice's murder, Nandi's body lying dead and abandoned in the wastes. All gone now. Even her country was going to be taken away from her.

The commodore banged the hull and listened to the echo of the metal. 'But still, when I was a lad the wet-snouts couldn't have done this. You could still see wooden submersibles in their ports in those days, like blessed oak bathtubs they were. Someone has been helping the ursine and you don't have to look far to see who. This tub is a bad copy of a Cassarabian Ad-Dukhan class boat. Aye, the caliph's boys have been up to mischief across the sea in Pericur. A strong Pericur on the borders of the Jackelian colonies causing trouble for us will suit the caliph just fine.'

'It hardly matters,' said Hannah. 'Does it?'

'Take heart now, Hannah Conquest,' said the commodore, trying to put a brave face on their plight. 'We've got your mortal clever church-trained mind to rely on, and these ursine might have faced a few foes in their time, but they've never had Jared Black against them before.'

From outside their cell door there was the sound of the viewing panel being drawn back. Ortin urs Ortin's face appeared at the gap.

'The author of our wicked misfortunes,' said the commodore. 'Have you come to gloat over us, ambassador?'

'I see little misfortune in your situation, old fruit. You are under our protection and safe with the fleet. Given the alternative for you is being caught up in the reconquest of the island, you have little to complain about.' He waved Hannah forward. 'I am afraid I am the bearer of bad news for you. In the expedition's absence, the body of Chalph urs Chalph of the House of Ush was handed over to us. He had been murdered, knifed to death. The capital's grain dole ran empty when we were away and there were a number of attacks on members of the trade mission and its warehouses. I suspect Chalph urs Chalph's death can be counted among the disturbance's fatalities.'

'I knew it,' sobbed Hannah, falling to her knees while the swollen skin of her cheeks burned. 'Chalph came to me in a dream. He told me that he was dead.'

The ambassador's eyes widened in appreciation through the viewing slit. 'Reckin urs Reckin allows favoured souls a final moment of their choosing. You have been blessed.'

'Let us count our bloody blessings alone,' growled the commodore.

'You have my condolences, dear girl,' said the ambassador. 'I will ask the vessel's master to take you off prisoner's rations. You shall be the fleet's guests until you are repatriated.' His footsteps echoed away down the corridor.

'Guests,' spat the commodore. 'With three inches of steel to keep us safe and a bucket to relieve our bowels.'

Hannah stood up, the last tears she would shed falling onto the deck. Her very last tears. 'I have to do it!'

'What, lass?'

'Nandi, Alice, Chalph, my mother. I can save them all. Bring them all back. End this insane holy war.'

'Sit down, Hannah. Those wet-snouts must have rattled your head mortal bad when they gave us our pistol whipping.'

'Everything is my fault. Nandi was killed because I got her involved in my life, but I can make everything right again. I can save Nandi. I can save Chalph, I can resurrect all of them. I know where it is!' said Hannah. 'The last piece of Bel Bessant's god-formula. If I can get to it, I can use it. I'll make everything right.'

Hannah had to. Nandi had risked everything to save her from the guild and Vardan Flail; and if Hannah could just bring the young academic back, then she could make everything right again.

'You don't, lass,' said the commodore. 'Say you don't know where it is. Say that wicked scrap of dark mathematical art rotted to dust under the bones of William of Flamewall.'

'It didn't,' said Hannah. 'It was always concealed here. It never left Hermetica City – the secret was hidden in the third painting all the time.'

Commodore Black was shaking. 'It was blank! The third painting was blank of any cipher.'

'No,' said Hannah. 'We just didn't look deep enough.'

'Don't do this thing,' begged the commodore. 'That terrible weapon isn't meant for us. You knew that back on Bloodglass Island when you had us blow those queer singing buildings to pieces.'

'We didn't look hard enough,' said Hannah. 'Just like you've been keeping your eyes off this cell's transaction-engine lock since they threw us in here. All your boasts, your stories about how there isn't a lock that can stand up to the genius of the great Jared Black.'

'We're safe here, lass. The ambassador's a double-dealing jigger, but he had that much right. We could die outside in their terrible war.'

'Nandi already died for us,' pleaded Hannah. 'You were sworn to protect her, to help her, and I can bring her back when I complete the god-formula,'

Commodore Black sobbed and he seemed to crumple before her, placing himself over the transaction engine lock. 'An oath taken. It always comes down to duty. Poor old Blacky, he's been crushed by it. Everything lost to it.'

Hannah watched curiously as the old u-boat man pulled off one of his jacket's buttons, using the edge of the metal circle to lever out the nails holding down his boot's heel. But the nails were longer than they should have been, with ridges and serrations and wardings along their length. He used one of them, a long flat piece of metal, to lever open the escutcheon protecting the lock's cylinders, then got to work inside the mechanism of the frame plate that had been exposed. Hannah stared suspiciously when she saw how smoothly he removed the plate to expose the transaction engine's punch-card injector, and her suspicions turned to incredulity when he pulled a strip of leather off his boot heel and began punching holes through it with one of the tools that had been concealed as a nail.