Robert Redick - The Rats and the Ruling sea

'Fleas.' Neeps sat back on his heels, squeezing his eyes shut with the effort of memory. 'I'll be damned if someone else wasn't talking about them. Who was it? Pitfire.'

'There is another matter,' said Dri. 'Too strange for coincidence, I think. Both the Shaggat's son and Arunis mentioned something called the Swarm. The mage said that "armies would wilt before it" like flowers in winter. Can he mean that a horde of such insects is breeding somewhere? Or is it another kind of threat altogether? Whatever the truth, this Swarm has something to do with the Nilstone, and that sceptre. I know no more than this — but be on your guard, and learn all that you can.'

'Lady Dri,' said Pazel with a certain reluctance, 'there's something I have to tell you. We're not the only ones who know about your people any more.'

The ixchel woman turned to face him. A look of pure dread appeared on her face.

'What are you saying?'

Pazel told her of their summons by Oggosk, and how the witch spoke of Diadrelu and Taliktrum by name, and how she claimed Sniraga had brought Lord Talag's body to her in her jaws. He left out only her final threat, concerning Thasha and himself. Dri listened, mute as a stone. Something close to disbelief shone in her eyes.

When she spoke at last her voice was changed. 'The witch told you one of us came for my brother's body?'

Pazel nodded.

'And she gave it to him?'

'That's right, Dri. I'm sorry.'

Suddenly Diadrelu began striking violently at her own head and face. The humans cried out. Thasha raised her hand — and dropped it just as quickly. There could be no graver insult than to use force, even loving force, against this tiny queen. 'Stop, stop!' they begged her. A moment later she did, and stood with moist and furious eyes, looking at nothing.

'He will have been parcelled,' she said. 'I was not told. I should have been there, done him that last service, or shared it with his son at least.'

'Parcelled?' asked Neeps quietly.

'Drained of blood, then cut into twenty-seven pieces and incinerated. There is never any delay, no time of mourning such as you have. The pieces are bound in clean cloth, with private messages from the twenty-seven closest to the dead one tucked within. If a clan is at sea, where burning is difficult, the pieces are tied with stones or bits of lead ballast, and sunk in the dead of night. It is always done thus, so that the body may not be found by your people, and our loved one's souls may depart without fear for the clan.'

She dried her eyes with a sleeve. 'You must find it a grisly custom. But it is how we say goodbye.'

'No people should have to face the choices yours have,' said Hercol. 'It is not for us to judge you, ever.'

Dri looked up at the swordsman with affection. Just a month ago he had been struggling with a deep distrust, perhaps a hatred, of ixchel, born of some long-ago tragedy of which he never spoke. Ramachni had chastised him: who among them took the greatest risk in giving trust? The mage's reprimand had shaken Hercol. Solemnly he had asked Dri's pardon, not denying the anger that dwelt in him but swearing to defeat it, and he had proved better than his word. Give me one flawed but honest man, she thought, and keep your legions of hypocrites.

She took a deep breath. 'Now for my plea,' she said, looking at the three youths. 'It is a bloody thing I ask, but you are the only ones who might accomplish it.'

'Tell us,' said Thasha.

'My nephew has made many errors in his first weeks as commander,' said Dri. 'I did not want to admit the extent of them. I told myself they were flaws of inexperience, that he would grow into wisdom as he faced the daily urgencies of leadership. I believed this despite my own arrest, despite his denial of the menace of the Nilstone, despite misgivings about his every action since the death of his father.

'Until today. With my breakfast Ensyl slipped me a note, revealing that Taliktrum has been meeting in secret with the rat-king, Master Mugstur. The same animal who has murdered twelve of our people since we boarded in Sorrophran, and left their nibbled corpses outside our dwellings. The same creature who ambushed and nearly killed his father, to say nothing of his aunt. The same Rin-obsessed lunatic who has sworn to kill Captain Rose for his "heresy", and to eat his tongue. And Taliktrum calls me a traitor!

'He has tried kept these meetings secret, of course, and Ensyl could not get close enough to hear what he and the rat discussed. But Mugstur will keep no promises, except possibly those he makes to the Angel of Rin.'

'What do you want us to do about all this?' asked Pazel.

'I want you to lure Master Mugstur into the open,' said Diadrelu, 'before some terrible harm is done to us all. Use blasphemy, use bribery — use your Gift, Pazel, if it gives you rat-speech, although Mugstur speaks a passable Arquali. Say whatever you must to coax that murderous beast out of his warren and into the cabin of your choice. And be sure he does not leave that cabin alive.'

'You're asking us to kill a woken animal?' said Thasha, frowning. 'The only woken rat on the ship besides Felthrup himself?'

'Mugstur's fate is sealed already,' said Diadrelu. 'He thinks himself the instrument of divine retribution. When he attacks Rose he will die, but what harm might he do with my nephew's help before then?'

'Incalculable harm,' said Hercol.

Dri nodded. 'Together they might even deal the Chathrand her fatal blow. Yes, I am asking you to commit a murder, if by that act you prevent many hundreds more. Have no illusions, my friends. We shall all of us be murderers before this voyage ends.'

'You sound like my father,' said Thasha, 'telling Pazel why he had to destroy Ormael before someone else did. Well, I don't believe anyone's fate is sealed.'

'Mugstur's is,' Dri insisted. 'He has sealed it himself, and tightens the screws every waking hour.'

'But that's the point, he's woken. You know what Ramachni told us, that when these creatures suddenly-' Thasha waved her hands '-erupt into consciousness, after years as simple animals, they're so frightened it's a wonder they don't all run mad. It must be horrifying! Like your mind-fits, Pazel, but with no escape.'

Pazel shuddered. 'What would you have us do?' he said to Thasha. 'Go down into the hold and reason with him? Tell him this Angel business is all in his head?'

Thasha looked wounded by his spiteful tone. 'We could trap him,' she said. 'In a box, or something.'

'We're talking about a rat,' said Neeps.

'Oh, just a rat!' said Thasha furiously. 'Just another vermin. Not worth the air he breathes. Where have I heard that before?'

'Everywhere,' said Hercol. 'It is the false, cursed verdict of our times. Somewhere in Alifros one resentful soul inflicts it on another, every minute of every day. Thasha, the moral point is yours, but the tactical goes to Diadrelu. Mugstur threatens the very survival of this ship — and intentionally so. He must therefore be stopped.'

'Mugstur's too smart to crawl into a box,' said Pazel.

'Oh, can't you blary concentrate,' snapped Thasha. But in fact she was finding it difficult to concentrate herself: the axe-man's cries of agony still rang in her mind. 'Listen, Hercol. I can kill if I have to. You've been teaching me how to do it for years. But I'm not a murderer.'

'I am,' said Diadrelu. 'And I dare say so is your tutor.'

'I will speak for myself, Lady Diadrelu,' said Hercol quietly.

Dri gave him a startled glance. 'I mean no insult. You come from a warrior people, and have lived a warrior's life. This is not a secret, I think?'

'There is more to the Tholjassan Dominion than warcraft,' said Hercol, 'and more to me as well. I must agree with Thasha in this matter: our fates are what we make of them.'