Robert Redick - The Rats and the Ruling sea

So easy to get lost. His fingers read the walls: old tar, bent nails, cool brass of a speaking-tube. Time and again he had to stop and feel the pitch of the ship. Several times he heard gasping exhalations in the dark: addicts tended to hold the smoke in their lungs as long as possible, wanting every last iota of pleasure from the drug that was killing them.

Then at last he caught the faint mix of smells he had been sniffing for: woodsmoke, ham, salted fish. His fingers touched a door: the smells were stronger when he pressed his nose to the crack. Pazel sighed with relief: it was the smoke cellar, where meat was cured and kept for lean times far from land. That meant the ladderway was just ahead. He could scurry up them to the orlop, slip across to the Silver Stair, and race straight to the upper decks. No one would see him, and if they did he could just say he was making for the heads, which come to think of it, wasn't a bad idea'Stop right there,' someone whispered.

Pazel froze. He gave a silent but very passionate curse. The voice was Jervik's.

The big tarboy stood right in front of him. Pazel could hear his breath, though he could still see only a slight perturbation in the darkness where he stood, arms spread wide across the passage.

'Don't you blary move,' said Jervik. 'I'll make a scene, I will. I know where you've been, and what you've all been doing. Your mates have been bumping around here for twenty minutes. I watched 'em all go by.'

We're dead, Pazel thought. But his new training did not fail him: before Jervik could move Pazel had sprung back two steps, and his hand, almost of its own accord, had drawn his father's knife. The knife Jervik had stolen once, and threatened to use on Pazel himself.

'What are you waiting for Jervik?' said Pazel acidly. 'Run off and tell Arunis. Get yourself another gold bead. Maybe two, if Rose actually executes one of us.'

He crouched, waiting for the attack. To his great surprise Jervik neither moved nor spoke. It occurred to Pazel that the big tarboy must actually have heard very little: they would all have known better than to talk, while still so deep in the ship. Jervik was sneaking and spying, that much was obvious. But he'd hardly be standing here, confronting Pazel in pitch blackness, if he knew what had happened in the liquor vault.

With the thought, a great rage boiled up in Pazel's chest. Always Jervik. Every time things started to go right.

'You're fishing for clues, aren't you?' Pazel said, barely able to keep his voice down. 'You didn't hear us at all, and now you're hoping I'll cough up something Arunis will pay you for. No matter what he can do with that something. No matter what he's trying to do to us all. The world can burn on a stake, can't it, Jervik? You'll still have your gold.'

'Muketch-'

'My name is Pazel, you useless sack of slag. Pitfire, I'm sick of you. Go on, get out of here. You want to make a scene, is that it? Right here?'

'Put your muckin' knife away. I want to switch.'

'I'll put it away in your god's-damned — what?'

'Switch,' whispered Jervik, his voice barely audible. 'I want to switch sides, is what. Rin slay me if I'm lyin' to you.'

Pazel had to steady himself against the wall. 'Jervik,' he said, 'are you ill?'

Jervik was silent, and when he found his voice again it was as tight as a backstay.

'Arunis was goin' to let me hang. He told me to watch you there on the bowsprit, but he never said you was stiff as a corpse. He wanted me to take the blame when you fell into the sea. He's unnatural bad.'

'You're just figuring this out?'

Jervik leaned closer; Pazel felt his hot sapwort breath on his face. 'He tries to get inside my head,' he whispered. 'To reach inside and take the wheel, you understand?'

'Maybe, yeah,' said Pazel, retreating a step.

'I won't let the son of a whore. He can't make me. But it hurts, Pathkendle. He pick-picks, pick-picks. Day and night. Sleepin', wakin', eatin'. I don't let no one use me that way. He's a beast from the Pits and I wish him death.'

Jervik was halfway to tears. Pazel wished he could see the older tarboy's face, although he feared what he would see there was madness. But mad or not, Jervik had never come closer to sounding sincere.

'I've been a pig,' said the older boy, wringing the words out of himself. 'A stump-stupid pig. I been tearing you down for years. Woulda knifed you back on the Eniel, with your daddy's own knife. No Arquali on that boat had such a fine knife, my own was rusty trash. You didn't even know how to use that knife. You shouldn't have owned it, nor been such a cleverskins. Arqualis own things, Ormalis get owned. You shoulda been a slave, not educated, not booklearned and special. I was boss of that ship until Chadfallow put you aboard.'

'I know that,' said Pazel.

'Couldn't get you to blary respect it,' said Jervik with a sour laugh. 'You fought like a wee girly, but you always fought. I hated you. Rin's liver, I hated you so. It got to where I thought I'd kill you, in some dark place like this, the way a coward would do it, and — you're better, Pathkendle, better than me.'

'Jervik,' said Pazel, 'I'm not special. Things just keep happening to me. Ever since I was small. It's not me, mate. It's just — what happens.'

Jervik pulled himself up straight. 'I don't know what the blary hell you're talking about.'

'Well, look,' said Pazel, 'I — Pitfire, Jervik, what do you want to do now?'

'Told you already,' said Jervik. 'Switch sides.'

'Right,' said Pazel, thinking in a desperate rush, glad the dark was hiding his panic. There was no question whatsoever of trusting Jervik with their secrets. But he had to say something, and fast.

'Right, Jervik, here's the thing. We have this — circle, that's true. But there's so few of us, and if they catch us talking, they'll just stab us dead, or lock us in the brig and torture us until we snap.'

'That's plain as piss,' said Jervik.

'Exactly,' Pazel agreed, 'so you can bet nobody wants to get caught. That's why we made this little rule, Jervik. We have to all come together and talk it through, you see, before we bring anybody else into the circle. One mistake and we're dead, after all. You understand?'

'Yeah,' said Jervik, his voice abruptly subdued, 'I'm hearing you, loud and clear.'

He'd blown it. He'd said the wrong words, talked down to him a little too much. Jervik had risked everything to trust his old enemy. He'd never be able to stomach the humiliation of not being trusted in turn. Pazel braced himself. Jervik always fell silent like this, before he went off like a bomb.

Then Pazel started. Jervik was poking him in the chest. 'Tell me when,' he demanded.

'W-when?' Pazel echoed.

'When I can help. What needs doing, who you want out of your way. That's all I need to know, see? Just what you want done — you or Undrabust, or the Isiq girl. Now tell me if you understand.'

Pazel was utterly stunned. 'Yes,' he said after a moment, 'yes, I do.'

'All right then.' The shadow that was Jervik straightened and turned away. Pazel listened to his footfalls. Then, on an impulse, he hissed: 'Jervik! Wait!' and rushed up to him again.

'Well?' said Jervik.

'Listen, please,' said Pazel. 'If we're going to stand a chance, there's something I have to ask you. It's important, so don't take it the wrong way. Arunis chose to come after you — why you, and not somebody else? Do you have any idea?'

Jervik nodded at once. 'That's an easy one. But I won't tell you, 'cept you swear on your mum's heart not to repeat it to nobody.'

'I swear it, Jervik. I swear on her heart.'

Jervik paused, then made a sort of grunt of acceptance. 'It's like this. Arunis thought I weren't afraid.'

'Of him?'

'Of nothin'. And it's true, I ain't afraid of that much. Spells and sorcerers, aye — those spook me, and the Vortex would scare any man who ain't plum crazy. But that's just it. He hoped I was crazy-brave, inhuman like. Maybe-' Jervik hesitated, his voice suddenly strained. '-because of how I act. Fightin', talkin' proud. But soon enough he found out I weren't crazy, and he stopped payin' me so much attention. I been wondering why that is. Do you know?'