Hugh Cook - The Walrus and the Warwolf

And won his freedom with a head-butt and a savage elbow blow. Then he backed off some more. He saw lanterns weaving through the night, drawn to the noise of combat. Then he heard the voice of Slagger Mulps raised above the confusion:'With me, boys! Time to go!'

Feet pounded away into the night. Drake followed as best he could. Tripped. Fell. Rose. Blundered. Which way was which? He was disorientated. Lost. Some lanterns were coming his way. He scuttled away into the dark. Was brought up hard by a building. Sat down, half stunned.More lanterns!Help!Drake eased himself along the side of the building until

he found a doorway. He slipped inside. The building felt

empty. He risked snapping his fingers, once. The crisp

sound confirmed his impression of any empty, unfurnishedbuilding. He sat down in the shadows, and began to wait.

Near dawn, light began to filter through gaping cracks in the roof and walls of the building Drake was sheltering in, and he understood the reason for its emptiness – it had been abandoned because of earthquake damage. Shivering, he slipped outside.

A glance at the sea told him the Walrus was gone. He was marooned on Burntos! What now? Hide? Impossible. Swim for the shore? It was too far – particularly with his wounded arm. There was only one choice: to surrender.

Accordingly, Drake surrendered himself to the wizard Miphon, who took the matter lightly.

'While there was a brawl last night,' said the wizard, 'nobody was hurt. Your ship has escaped with all her crew, so there'll be no trials or other nonsense.''What happens to me, then?'

'Why, you'll stay with me till you leave the island. I should by rights report to the Confederation regarding our earthquake damage. So . . . tomorrow will be as good a time as any. We'll leave Burntos then.''Where going?' said Drake.

'Why, to Drangsturm, of course,' said Miphon. 'To the Castle of Controlling Power. That's where the Confederation's based.'

'So that leaves me with a day to look around the island,' said Drake, thinking he had better make the best possible use of this one last chance to hunt down Zanya Kliedervaust and make her his.

'Not so!' said Miphon. 'It gives you a day to scrub out myelinic'

'Man,' said Drake, 'you can't make me work! I'm injured! I was wounded by that Neversh, you sewed up the wound yourself.'

'You're fit enough for trouble,' said Miphon, 'so you're fit enough to work.'

Drake was determined not to work – but the green-eyed wizard proved to have an unexpected amount of willpower. Much sweeping, cleaning, scrubbing and polishing later, night came. And, after night, the morrow.

After a lean breakfast of rice and fish, Drake and Miphon went and sought out the cutter which was going to take them to the mainland. She was commanded by a jowly, sunburnt boatman, and had a crew of three. The only passengers were Miphon, Drake, Zanya Kliedervaust and Prince Oronoko.

'Zanya!' said Drake, delighted to see his truly beloved once again. 'You!'

'Who is he?' said Zanya, who was naturally suspicious of the rough-dressed fair-haired fellow who was gawking at her charms with such obvious lust. 'What's he doing here?''You'd better ask him that yourself,' said Miphon.

Oronoko, speaking softly in his native Frangoni, asked Zanya if the youth with the degenerate eyes was troubling her, and if §he wanted him broken in half. Zanya, speaking in the same Frangoni, reminded Oronoko that the pure did not kill. Except, replied Oronoko, when confronted with the impure.

'Have you two begun to argue theology?' said Miphon, who had a fair command of Frangoni himself. 'If so, get in the boat – we can't wait thrice seven years for your wills to come to agreement:'

All embarked on the cutter, which set sail. As the frail vessel ghosted along, Drake listened to Zanya's incomprehensible argument with Oronoko, and watched some soldiers who were beginning to demolish an earthquake-damaged building. Unless he was mistaken, it was the same structure which had housed the captive Neversh before the unfortunate brute was loaded with chains and hauled aboard the Walrus. He shuddered.

'Man,' said Drake, to Miphon, 'I've been thinking about this Neversh you let loose by way of trade. That's a mighty strange thing to do, isn't it?''Why so?' said Miphon.

'Well, I mean – wizards built Drangsturm to keep the Swarms south. Right? So why sell one of the monsters north? Surely that's as bad as breaching Drangsturm.'

'If Drangsturm were breached,' said Miphon, 'then the Swarms would come north in their thousands. One single monster is little danger – for the Neversh, brute for brute, are weaker than dragons. Such sales give the Confederation profits. Also, they serve a wise purpose – they help remind the rest of the world what task we do here.''Why should the world need reminding?' said Drake.

'Because,' said Miphon, 'since people are as they are, some refuse to believe that the Swarms exist at all. They think we fake nightmare through lies or rank exaggeration to preserve the wealth of the south of Argan for ourselves.''I never thought such!' said Drake.

'I never said you did,' said Miphon. 'But there are those who believe the Confederation does not protect the north, but, instead, keeps the north in poverty by frightening honest men away from southern wealth. Ah . . . the fair lady Kliedervaust seems to have a question.'

Zanya Kliedervaust did indeed have a question. Her argument with Oronoko concluded, she was ready to interrogate Drake Douay.'Explain yourself,' she said.

Drake cleared his throat noisily, hawked, then spat to the dark green sea. This was a very sticky situation. Zanya was a disciple of Gouda Muck. She believed that the infamous Drake Douay was the accursed son of Hagon. Beside her sat the formidable Oronoko, he of the purple skin and the violet eyes. And Drake was in no condition for fighting.

'My name,' said Drake, 'ah, that's not given lightly to strangers. But I've given it already to the wizard Miphon, aye, for I'm a friend to wizards and trust them well. So I'll give my name to you. It's Arabin. Or, to be exact, Arabin lol Arabin.'

'There was a pirate named Arabin,' said the jowly, sunburnt boatman who commanded the cutter. 'I knew him well when I were of the Greaters. But he were black, not blond.'

'Yes, well,' said Drake, 'that must be coincidence then.

Though I've had affairs with pirates, aye, I'll not deny it.'

'Affairs?' said Zanya, with an expression of disgust on her face. 'Affairs of lust?'

'Nay, woman,' said Drake. 'Not thus but otherwise. I was a swordsmith of Stokos, where I trained under Oleg the Blademaster. He sent me to 'Marphos on a mission, aye.'

'Androlmarphos,' said Zanya, 'is a seething brew of vices, a den of iniquity, a pit of poxed spirits and demented souls.'

'Very likely,' said Drake, 'but I can't speak for that myself, since I never reached the place. The ship which bore me was taken by pirates.'

'Yet you lived,' said Zanya, her voice accusing. 'You did not die in the defence of your ship against evil.'

'I had no chance to die,' said Drake. 'For I were below decks, helplessly seasick. Thus I was taken prisoner. Since then, I've slaved for the pirates as a cook's boy, working under pain of death. But now I've made my escape, and hope for gainful employment elsewhere.'Prince Oronoko addressed Zanya softly.'We've met before, haven't we?' said Zanya.'Tell me about it,' said Drake.

'You were that demented fisherman's boy we dragged out of the sea near a horizon from Cam. That was before I'd first set foot on Stokos.''Aye, that was me,' said Drake.

'Then you came to me again,' said Zanya, with undisguised anger in her voice.'I did?' said Drake, all injured innocence.'In the leper colony. You tried to rape me!'