Robert Redick - The Rats and the Ruling sea

The boys walked to the forecastle, where they sat down beside a sleepy Mr Fegin, who had the dawn watch. No one spoke: man and boys simply gazed at the cyclonic motions of the clouds over the Vortex, in the east; and the Red Storm, burning across the southern sky, and fading slowly with the dawn. Both the storm and the whirlpool were distinctly closer.

'Somethin' irregular goin' on,' muttered Fegin at last, in what struck Pazel as a triumph of understatement.

When the half-hour was up, the boys made their way down to their old place on the berth deck, under the copper nails. Dastu had slung their hammocks already, and Pazel fell at once into oblivion, despite the daylight and the milling hundreds of sailors and boys. He dreamed that a multitude of blacker-than-black dlomu, with shark's skin and double-lidded eyes, were surrounding his old house in Ormael, raising black spears and chanting a single word, like a war cry; but the word was Sleep!

Three hours later Mr Fiffengurt turned them out of their hammocks again, with many a groan and recrimination, for he had obtained Rose's leave for a short visit to Hercol. 'The girls are waiting outside,' he said. 'Come on, before these apes get too excited by their proximity.'

The girls were puffy-eyed and bedraggled. The five of them stumbled towards the ladderway together, barely speaking, and began the descent into the depths they had left a few hours before. At the mercy deck someone was waiting with a lamp.

'Step lively, there,' said Ignus Chadfallow.

What an unpleasant surprise, thought Pazel numbly, but he knew the doctor's presence was for the best. Chadfallow and Hercol had always been close, and there was no telling in what condition they'd find the swordsman.

His condition, of course, was that of a man with mangled fingernails. Five Turachs in helmets and mail were on hand as well, to supervise the doctor's access to his dangerous patient. Sergeant Haddismal, the new commander of the regiment, was among them. He was every bit as large as Drellarek, and had a belligerent, bug-eyed expression that Pazel found quite unsettling.

'You didn't mention the brats,' he accused Fiffengurt.

Chadfallow caught sight of Hercol's hands, and shoved past the commandos with a florid curse. 'Put your hands through the bars, Hercol, let me at those bandages. This is Ott's doing; I've seen his work before. Criminal! By the verdant Tree, one day I'll have his head!'

Captain Magritte was standing at the front of his cell. 'Doctor, you must attend me next! Give me something for delirium! I've seen the ghost of some old skipper, dressed like a pirate's woman. And fleas the size of kidney beans!'

'That last is no illusion,' said Hercol. 'The fleas are that big. And they bite like the very devil.'

Pazel thought Hercol might be close to delirium himself. Too many emotions played over his face: guilt and ecstasy, pleasure and regret. 'Hello, Thasha, boys!' he called out, beckoning with his bandages. 'Pathkendle, come here. I must tell you something.'

Pazel slipped around the watchful Turachs. 'What is it, Hercol?' he said.

The Tholjassan switched to his native tongue. 'Don't shout, lad, and don't turn your head to look when I speak. The first thing I need you to know is that I can escape at any time, and come to your aid.'

Dr Chadfallow glanced up quickly. 'Do nothing foolish, man, I pray you,' he said in the same language.

'How could you get out?' said Pazel.

'Never mind that now,' said Hercol. 'Just remember: if you're in danger, a shout down the secondary cargo hatch will bring me quickly. The other thing I must tell you is that the cell to my right is not quite empty. Our missing rat friend is crouched there at the back.'

Pazel seized the bars. 'No! Felth-'

'That's enough!' Haddismal broke in. 'Speak Arquali, if you're going to speak at all!'

Hercol continued in Tholjassan. 'He is not well at all. I'm afraid he may be rabid, or worse.'

Pazel discretely shifted his gaze. 'I see him. Aya Rin, he looks dead!'

'One more word in that tongue-' growled Haddismal.

Hercol switched back to Arquali. 'He is alive, I promise you.'

'Who's alive?' demanded the Turach.

'And he told me something worrisome. He said, "It's starting, Hercol." Those words, and no more.'

Thasha (who did not speak Tholjassan either) squeezed in on Chadfallow's right. 'What friend?' she said. 'And what is it that's starting?'

Hercol freed a hand from the doctor's ministrations, and gently touched her cheek. Pazel was astounded by the gesture, and the affection so suddenly visible on the warrior's face. Clearly Thasha was startled as well; she gazed at her old tutor as if afraid to speak.

'Something dreadful, I fear,' said Hercol. 'Ignus, stay close to them — and Pazel, you must let him help you. No matter what has passed between us before, we must stand together or die.'

'Die?' barked Haddismal, pushing Thasha aside. 'What is all this, traitor? What are you telling them?'

Hercol stood straight, looking into the Turach's bulging eyes. 'Just this,' he said quietly. 'That the ship is in danger, imminent and terrible. I do not know from what quarter it comes, but if you do not find out soon, Haddismal, I fear you will be too late.'

Bolutu was not in his cabin, nor on the topdeck, nor eating breakfast. The four youths had scattered about the ship, looking for him everywhere, but it seemed no one had lain eyes on the man since early the previous evening, well before their council meeting. They tried sickbay, the wardroom, the lounge. There was not a trace of him to be found.

But traces of Mr Fegin's 'something irregular' were plentiful. When Marila poked her head into the first-class lounge (the luxuries of which were much reduced since Simja, along with the girths of those accustomed to them), she found Thyne and Uskins squatting in the corner, nibbling stale jelly biscuits as they examined a jagged hole in a corner of the wall. In the galley, Thasha stood where the little green door with the peeling paint had been, and saw only a wall where spoons and soup ladles dangled from hooks. Outside the forecastle, Mr Fiffengurt heard the blacksmith complaining that his assistant, Big Skip, had gone missing as well.

Neeps' discovery was the ugliest. He had gone to the live-animals compartment in search of Bolutu, and stumbled upon carnage. Something had broken into the cage where Latlzo housed his prize sapphire doves; there was nothing left but blue feathers and a great deal of blood. A number of the other animals had been terrorised as well. The pair of gold foxes from Ibithraed were cowering at the back of their cage. The Red River hog was berserk, snorting and spinning in its wooden crate, which it had kicked half to pieces.

At noon Thasha and Pazel went to Chadfallow and begged him to do what he could for Felthrup. The doctor turned gravely from his desk, regarding them over his reading-glasses.

'I hold myself bound to aid a woken animal as I would a man,' he said. 'But you must never forget that a woken animal is not a man. Felthrup is a tiny creature with a volatile heart. I may only be able to end his suffering.'

'He's a tiny creature with an enormous heart,' said Pazel, 'and how can you say that, anyway, when you don't know what's wrong with him?'

'I say it because I don't know,' said Chadfallow.

The single Turach left outside the brig would not let the youths enter a second time, and only admitted Chadfallow under his supervision. Pazel and Thasha stood outside the door, listening, but all they could hear was Magritte's wails about his visions, and his fleas.

Sighing, Thasha leaned back against the wall. Only then did Pazel notice the redness of her eyes. He could not tell if it was the result of exhaustion or tears.

On an impulse, he said, 'You were brilliant at the council.'