Robert Redick - The Rats and the Ruling sea

'Destroy them!' cried Pazel, his voice cracking. ' You're going to destroy them?'

'The Mzithrinis will do the bulk of the work,' said Ott, 'but we shall sink a ship or two — visibly, of course — and chase them into the line of fire. They'll have their moment. They'll take a bite out of the Sizzy fleet. But that will be trivial. The real wound to the Black Rags will be the humiliation. Forty years after the war, men will say, and they still can't eliminate the Shaggat cult! Best of all, the Five Kings will believe it themselves. As our other dogs begin to nip and bite, rumours of the Shaggat's return will spring up throughout the Crownless Lands. The Sizzies will be looking everywhere for the source of the rumour — and meanwhile they'll redouble the blockade between Gurishal and the eastern lands. But they will not be able to stamp the rumour out. And each time a dog sinks its teeth into that bear it will respond with greater desperation.'

'A diversion,' said Alyash, 'You're right, Saroo my lad. But what a diversion! The first bay, the first howl from the hunting pack. The Five Kings will hear it and tremble.'

'And those other dogs?' said Chadfallow, with quiet rage. 'Who are they, and where are they hidden? Are they to be sacrificed as coldly as the men in that settlement?'

Ott shook his head, smiling. 'Would you deprive me of all my surprises, Doctor?'

'I would deprive you of more than that.'

'Ha!' laughed Sandor Ott. 'My woman, for example? And my liberty? You have attempted both of these, and failed. And even if you had persuaded that useless Ormali governor to clap me in irons, how long do you think I would have been held?'

'Two days,' said Chadfallow. 'After that I would have seen you locked in the brig of a packet boat making for Etherhorde — with an ample guard. I paid them in advance: the guards, and the owners of that boat. I had a letter prepared for His Supremacy, with all I knew of your betrayals. Particularly how you and that-' Chadfallow bit off the word, '-viper, spent the last year poisoning his good friend Eberzam Isiq.'

Pazel was suddenly afraid for Chadfallow. His fury had hardly vanished — Chadfallow was one to talk of betrayals! — but in spite of everything Pazel somehow felt he would be lost without the man. Can't you see what you're risking, fool? he wanted to shout. Ott's probably killed more people with his bare hands than you've saved in surgery.

For the moment, however, Ott just looked amused. 'His Supremacy would have consigned your letter to the fire. He knows quite well the necessities of this campaign to perfect his dominion. You, for starters, are certainly expendable. As for his friendship with Isiq-' He looked at Alyash and Drellarek, and suddenly the three of them began to laugh, low and hard. Pazel watched them, recalling how Niriviel had taunted Thasha. The Pit fiends. They have done something to the admiral.

Chadfallow's face was darkening with rage. 'What of future "necessities?" ' he asked. 'How many leeches will you affix to the body of the Empire? Will you have the territorial governors assassinated? The lord admiral, perhaps? Will you decide that Magad's sons are unworthy to inherit the crown, and kill them as you did Empress Maisa's?'

The men's laughter redoubled. 'Oh Doctor, stop,' said Alyash, wiping tears from his eyes.

'Yes, Ignus, stop,' said Pazel. 'They're not worth it.'

The doctor turned him a tortured look. And suddenly Pazel recalled something Chadfallow had told him years ago, about the oath Arquali doctors took before their titles were conferred: Life in all its loveliness shall I defend, even at the cost of my own. Did Chadfallow think he had broken that oath too many times?

'Ott kill Maisa's brats!' said Drellarek. 'That's priceless! Why don't you tell 'im the truth, Master Ott?'

Ott shook his head again. 'There are things I won't discuss with a man who'd try to brand me a traitor.'

'You are a traitor,' said Chadfallow, his control slipping further. 'You are a weak, grasping, small-minded man. You have perverted all that I lived for and held most dear. I will name your dog, Sandor Ott: it is Arqual itself. You have trained it with cruelty and fear. You have made it vicious, ready to bite anyone who crosses its path.'

The spymaster's laughter was abruptly gone. Drellarek and Alyash fell silent. Ott rose to his feet, eyes locked on Chadfallow.

'Not just anyone,' he said.

Pazel leaped up and grabbed Chadfallow by the arm. 'Please,' he hissed, 'don't say any more.'

'We're going to need him, Ott,' said Alyash, still smiling.

'There is a field surgeon here at Bramian Station,' said Sandor Ott. 'He can serve the Great Ship, in a pinch. Chadfallow, you have twice defamed me with the one insult I swore never to bear. Call me a traitor again, and you will see if I am weak.'

'You're a tr-'

Pazel struck Chadfallow as hard as he could. There was a sound like a snapped branch, and blood gushed from the doctor's nose as he stumbled to the ground. He stared at Pazel, amazed, not even trying to staunch the flow.

'Shut your damned mouth!' screamed Pazel at the doctor. 'Wait, Mr Ott, he'll take it back, please, please, I'll make him-'

Sandor Ott drew his long white knife. Pazel stood between them, arms thrown wide, pleading with the assassin. There was a dream-like quality to his voice; it sounded soft and far away, like an echo. Behind him, Chadfallow rose and tugged out his sword.

'Put it down, Doctor!' laughed Drellarek. 'That's blary suicide, and you know it. Come to your senses and apologise, if you want to live.'

'Will one of you,' said the spymaster, 'kindly take Mr Pathkendle aside?'

Alyash started to rise, but Drellarek waved him off. 'Rest that leg while you can. I'll get him.'

'Decent of you,' said Alyash.

The Turach stood and lumbered towards Pazel. He did not bother to draw a blade. When he saw Pazel's fighting stance, he pointed and grinned. 'Look at this one, Master Ott. I'm done for!'

Pazel blocked his first blow with an upraised arm, but the strength behind the Turach's fist was crushing. The second blow found his stomach; the third, to the back of his head, came close to knocking him out. As Ott sidled towards the doctor, turning the knife casually in his hand, Drellarek grabbed Pazel by the shirt and lifted him clear of the ground. Pazel lashed out with his legs and caught the man in the stomach. Drellarek winced and struck him again.

Chadfallow was backing away from Ott, sword up, body rigid, boots shuffling awkwardly on the stones. His face was frozen, like an actor's mask: the kind depicting some elemental sin, like folly or despair. Ott, however, looked like a man who had shed every worry. He was by far the older, but as he drove Chadfallow before him he was returned astonishingly to his youth. Relaxed and graceful, he took a dancing side-step, and lunged.

Something terrible and bloody occurred, but it was not what anyone foresaw. Drellarek, Ott and Chadfallow simply disappeared. Where the party had stood an instant before there was only darkness and a blast of heat. Pazel felt himself thrown backwards with terrible force. When he landed his upper body was dangling over the rimless edge of the wall, and a screaming horse lay sprawled across his legs. The animal surged to its feet, and Pazel, blind with pain and sliding towards death, flailed out with his hands and caught a stirrup. The horse spun on its hindquarters, eyes mad with terror, wrenching him back from the precipice even as the animal's own forefeet slipped over the edge. Pazel could only let go the stirrup as the horse crashed into the trees below. Then he felt heat on the back of his neck, and turned.

The eguar stood over him. Its white-hot eyes blazed in the dark crocodilian head. Pazel clawed at his throat, choking, and his eyes streamed with tears. He was inside its cocoon of vapours, and the smell was like acid thrown on hot coals; he was amazed not to have died already.