Robert Redick - The Rats and the Ruling sea

From one spark a storm of fire, from one womb a nation!

The Shaggat for us is truth entire, for others a conflagration!

Every foe his wrath shall feel, every liar hear him!

Lesser kings to him shall kneel, and fearless warriors fear him!

So ever nearer heaven's door in prayer and blood annointed,

We follow him, we follow him, unto the hour appointed!

The chant had broken up into a high, fierce caterwauling that raised the hairs on the back of Pazel's neck. Ott had explained that the Nessarim had borrowed this last cry from the Leopard People: it was the sound they made when they attacked the colony in force. The Nessarim actually admired the Leopard People's courage and swiftness, he said, and tried to show their respect through the mimicry. Ott's ultimate goal was conversion of the tribes themselves to the Shaggat cult: unlikely, he admitted, but not inconceivable.

Their second journey along the wall was even more spectacular than the first. A rainbow arched over the northern mountains; palms waved their emerald tresses from the ridgetops; a waterfall gleamed in the morning sun. But the beauty only made Pazel feel more sick at heart. He did not know why he had risked so much for a madman, but he knew quite well that he had failed. The man tried to believe me. Why couldn't he face the truth?

He clenched his fingers in the horse's mane, thoughts sliding from mystery to mystery. At last they settled on one that concerned the man behind him.

'Ignus,' he said. 'Tell me about the prisoner exchange, back in Simja. How do you know they had my mother, and Neda? Did you see them?'

Chadfallow tensed. For several minutes he said nothing at all. Then he said, 'Don't be obtuse, Pazel. When could I have seen them? My counterpart Acheleg swore that they were there, both of them, in Simjalla City.'

'When was the exchange supposed to happen?'

Chadfallow sighed. 'The morning after the wedding. Which as it turned out was also the day the Chathrand and the Jistrolloq almost came to blows. The day you translated Rose's threats.'

'Ah,' said Pazel. 'Well.'

'Yes. Well.'

Pazel was glad the doctor could not see his eyes. He was furious. Did Chadfallow think he'd had a choice? Hadn't the man noticed how he'd twisted Rose's words to make them less insulting to the Mzithrinis? Was it his fault that Arunis had dispatched some kind of demon to murder the Babqri Father?

They rode on in silence a while, watching mice and lizards at the horses' approach. Then Chadfallow began to speak again. 'I negotiated the exchange in private. I worked at it for three years — from the moment I heard of plans for a Great Peace. I obtained a writ of extradition signed by His Supremacy, to be presented to the Warden of Licherog. But all that was before I knew of the Shaggat conspiracy.'

'I don't believe a word you say,' said Pazel, his voice tight as a wire. 'You could have ended the conspiracy at the governor's table in Ormael. Instead you denied that the Shaggat was aboard. You laughed at us, said that Arunis couldn't be the real Arunis, called us a bunch of overexcited children. You kept us from exposing the whole festering lie.'

'I saw the Shaggat hanged!' snapped Chadfallow. 'Of course I didn't believe he'd returned! Besides, I was in shock, like you. In shock at the depth of Ott's betrayal.'

'I don't think you were shocked at all,' said Pazel. 'I think you're still a part of the conspiracy. I think your job from the start has been to make me useful to them — me and my gods-damned Gift.'

Chadfallow's knuckles were white on the reins. He was struggling with himself.

'Did you see the list of Mzithrini names, that day?'

'I saw it,' said Pazel, recalling how he and Neeps had pored over the scraps of parchment.

'How many of them did we have on board?'

Pazel hesitated 'Mzithrinis? None, as far as I-'

'None. Exactly. We never collected them — they rot on Licherog yet, if they are alive at all. Ott lied to me as he did to everyone. Three years of talks, and when the day came, I had no prisoners to give the Mzithrinis. What, then, do you imagine I planned to bargain with?'

'I don't know, Ignus. Gold?'

'The Shaggat Ness. The Shaggat, author of eighty thousand deaths in the Pentarchy. Think, Pazel: any Mzithrini old enough to recall that face would give me the keys to the five kingdoms to be allowed to put a knife in his heart! Your mother and Neda — they would have been nothing, no price at all. By now they'd be free, Suthinia would be-'

A spasm shook his body. He dropped the reins from one hand and grabbed Pazel by the jaw.

'But a statue? What in Rin's firebolts could I do with a statue of the Shaggat Ness? You ruined everything when you turned him to stone. You took away the only chance they had.'

The worst of the day's heat lay behind them. This time no rain or wind squalls slowed their progress. When five hours had passed they climbed a crooked ridge and saw the fortress-city looming ahead.

'We'll be back in your caves by nightfall, won't we, Mr Ott?' asked Saroo.

'Unless you prefer to spend the night on Droth'ulad,' said the spymaster. 'It's all downhill after the fortress: that should help us stay ahead of the savages. And with any luck the eguar will remain sated as before.'

'He wasn't sated,' muttered Pazel, still burning with the unfairness of the doctor's accusations.

'Hush!' whispered Swift, glancing nervously at Ott. 'Pazel, you're a hazard to your own blary health. And another thing — you ride like a sack of spuds. Why in the Pits did Ott bring you along?'

'Why'd he bring you?' Pazel shot back.

'Because Saroo and I are great riders, obviously. And because we're small, and that let the horses carry more gemstones. There, now what's your answer?'

Pazel looked away. His Gift was the answer, of course, but what had he done with it except overhear a few shouts from the Leopard People? Probably Ott was wishing even now that he'd left Pazel behind on the ship. Maybe, he thought bitterly, Ignus will offer to force something really strong down my throat, next time…

Perhaps two miles from the city they came to a low saddle in the hill, and Ott called for rest. Pazel could just make out the triple arch they had passed through the day before. He shuddered at the memory of the eguar's voice.

They dismounted, and the boys watered the horses from a feedbag. Alyash tore chunks from a dark loaf of bread and handed them around. It was a gift from the Nessarim, along with two sausages and a clay flagon of wine: as if the forty-year journey of Erthalon Ness back into the fold had been reduced to a barter for foodstuffs.

'Vicious bastards, those Nessarim!' said Drellarek approvingly. 'Scrawny, but bloody-minded; I could see it plain in their faces. They'd fight like wildcats even against my Turachs, I dare say.'

'They have only their faith to live for,' said Ott. 'And if you still wish to know, Doctor, we made this journey in support of their faith. To bring them a sign, a swallow of magic to carry with them into war.'

'A war they can only lose,' said Chadfallow.

Grinning, the spymaster inclined his head.

'A diversion,' said Saroo. 'You built that whole town full of crazies as a diversion.'

Pazel was aghast to hear a note of admiration in the tarboy's voice. His brother Swift was more guarded, however: 'The Shaggat's son would be an old man, now,' he said, 'if he hadn't spent half his life asleep. How do they know it's really him?'

'They knew instantly,' said Alyash. 'He's the son of their god, after all. They knew the birthmark on his elbow, and his tattoos — master-pieces, they were, the artist was blinded when he finished the boys.'

'Will the Secret Fist tell those poor fools when to sail?' asked Drellarek.

Ott shook his head. 'They are their own masters. We shall merely be sure it happens before the Shaggat himself reaches Gurishal. And when they do sail we shall raise the alarm in every corner of Alifros. "The Nessarim! The Nessarim reborn, and howling that their Shaggat is coming back as well!" The world shall hear it loudly. And then we shall help the poor, ineffectual White Fleet to destroy them.'