James Roy - The Gimlet Eye

‘I doubt it. If they’d wanted us dead – and I can’t think why anyone would – they’d have killed us by now. No, I think they’ve got plans for us.’

Plans, thought Tab. She didn’t like the sound of that. There was only one way to deal with a plan, and that was to come up with a better one.

‘Verris,’ she whispered.

Verris grunted.

‘We need a plan.’

‘For what?’

‘To escape.’

She heard him sniff. ‘Tab, how can we possibly plan an escape when we don’t know where we’re being taken, or for what purpose? All we really know is where we are at this moment. So sit tight for now.’

‘Agreed,’ Tab said, suddenly thinking about Philmon. His skill with knots would have been handy.

It was hard to say nothing, so Tab occupied herself trying to mind-meld with the horse pulling the cart. She flicked through the mental noise in her mind like pages in a book, and eventually felt a pressure in her shoulders, a tightness in her thighs, and the cold hardness of a bit in her mouth. She knew she was in the mind of a horse.

›››I hope you don’t mind if I take a look at where we’re going

›››Sorry

After a time – it was impossible to know how long, exactly – the cart began to slow. Then it stopped.

‘Steady,’ she heard Verris murmur. ‘Just do whatever they say, for now.’

The horse stamped and snorted, and the sound echoed about, as if they were in a large room. Tab heard a large, heavy door close. Then the cart jiggled as someone stepped up into it.

‘There they are, like I promised,’ said a thin, copper-coloured voice.

‘Is the pirate here?’ asked another voice, thick, like it was speaking through gruel.

‘Yes, he’s the big one.’

‘So that’s him, huh? I was starting to wonder if he really existed.’

‘Oh yes, he exists all right. They’ve kept him very safe.’

‘And who are these others?’

‘That’s the interpreter there.’

Suddenly Tab felt her arm being prodded with a foot. ‘And who’s this?’ Thick-voice asked.

‘She’s the one we’ve been tailing for a while. The magician.’

‘She’s pretty small for a magician. So, where’d you find her – Skulum Gate?’

‘No, she’s young.’

‘Right. And who’s the runt? What’s the boy’s skill?’

‘Think about it.’

‘Oh, right.’ Thick-voice laughed. ‘Yes, I see now.’

‘All right, let’s get them unloaded. Big one first, I reckon.’

Any thoughts Tab might have had about resisting disappeared as she felt Verris struggling beside her, and heard a dull, thuddy blow, followed by a grunt.

‘What did I tell you about fighting back?’ Copper-voice growled.

Then Tab felt hands reaching under her arms and lifting her by the shoulders. ‘Just you hold tight there, girly, and nothing bad will happen to you just yet,’ Thick-voice murmured in her ear.

Just yet, she thought. That sounds reassuring.

She was lowered to the ground, and staggered for a moment in the darkness of her sack. Then she was directed forward with a hand at the nape of her neck. One step at a time, she began to walk tentatively forward. ‘Step up,’ Thick-voice grunted, and she raised her foot high. The surface on which she stood felt slightly unstable, like she had just walked onto a gangplank. She hesitated. Where were they taking her?

‘Keep going, you’re not there yet,’ Thick-voice said. ‘Big step down.’

Tab took one more step, and found herself falling forward. With her arms tied she was unable to break her fall, and crashed heavily onto the floor of wherever it was she’d been led. Behind her, she heard the men laugh, and she fought back the tears that sprang into her eyes. Even with a sack over her head to hide her face, she wouldn’t allow herself to cry. She had to keep her wits about her.

Somewhere beside her, she heard a thud, followed by another. Someone was sniffling. Footsteps could be heard around them.

‘Barbarians,’ she heard Verris say.

‘Shut up, pirate,’ Thick-voice snapped. ‘All right, listen up, all of you – I don’t want to have to repeat myself. Pirate, you’re in charge.’

‘In that case, I order you to let us go,’ Verris replied. His voice was cut short by the sound of another thuddy blow.

‘Pirate, you’re in charge,’ Thick-voice repeated. ‘You, crying woman, you’ll be interpreting.’

‘In… interpreting? Interpreting what?’

Thick-voice ignored her. ‘And you…’ – here Tab felt a toe poke her in the ribs – ‘… you’re going to navigate.’

‘What?’

‘You used to be a magician, didn’t you?’

‘For a while, but I wasn’t much more than an apprentice -’

‘Don’t worry, you’ll do.’

‘It’ll have to,’ said Copper-voice.

‘Since I’m the navigator, where exactly am I navigating us to?’

‘You’ll work it out.’

‘I’ll work it out? How exactly -?’

Thick-voice cut her off. ‘Now listen up, I’m getting tired of all this back-chat. You’re on a scout-pod, which you’re to crew on a very special mission. We’re about to cut you free.’

‘You’ve got to untie us if we’re going to do as you ask,’ Verris said. ‘And mark my words, you’ll be dead before you’re so much as halfway down that gangway.’

The men laughed. ‘You don’t think that’s been thought of? The ropes that tie you are enchanted. You’ll remain bound until your scout-pod is clear of the city, when they’ll release. Pirate, you’ll find your orders in the mission chest. Oh, and there’s a bag aboard with weapons in it.’

‘And if we choose not to follow these so-called “orders”?’

‘Return prematurely and you’ll go back until it’s done, as many times as it takes. I’d say it’s in your interest to do exactly as you are told, and to do it the first time, wouldn’t you?’

‘That’s all you can tell us?’ Tab said.

‘You’ll not get away with this,’ Verris warned.

‘Oh, I quite suspect that we will,’ Thick-voice said. ‘It’s all at the pleasure of the Emperor.’

‘Shut up!’ snarled Copper-voice.

‘What? It’s all in the orders anyway!’

‘Still…’

‘Well, all the best to you. Quentaris thanks you,’ said Thick-voice. Then he and Copper-voice both chuckled.

Tab heard their footsteps moving away, and a woody scraping noise. Then, somewhere below them, a loud, echoey grinding sound that made Tab screw up her face in the musty darkness of her sack.

‘They’re cutting us loose,’ Verris said. ‘They’re taking away the gangway. Try to stop crying – it’ll be all right,’ he said to the woman. ‘What’s your name, anyway?’

‘Danda,’ she replied, her voice quivering. ‘I’m sorry that I’m being such a cry-baby, but nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Oo!’ she suddenly exclaimed, as the pod shifted slightly beneath them, and began to drop. ‘We’re moving!’

‘Yes, they’re sending us groundwards.’

‘Groundwards?’ said Tab. ‘But there is no ground. It’s just ocean down there!’

‘I don’t like this,’ Danda said.

‘Neither do I,’ said Verris. ‘So, we’ve got Tab the navigator, and Danda the interpreter, and the boy. You, boy – you’re not saying much. What’s your name?’

There was no response.

‘Maybe he’s dead,’ Tab suggested. ‘He hit the deck pretty hard when they threw him on.’

‘Hold on,’ Verris said, and Tab felt him wriggling past her. ‘He’s not dead – I can hear him breathing.’

The scout-pod continued to sink, buffeted and gently tossed in updrafts and air pockets as it descended. Tab closed her eyes under the cover of her sack and stretched her mind in every direction, feeling for anything that had eyes or other senses she could borrow, but there was nothing about. A very slight flicker appeared on the very fringes of her consciousness, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. Either they were already too far below Quentaris to enable her to reach the minds of anything in the city, or there was something about this pod that was blocking her mind-melding skills.