Adrian Tchaikovsky - The Sea Watch

Rosander heard Chenni make an approving sound. ‘I’ll get you one, never fear,’ he assured her, and then applied himself to ascending the ladder. It was an awkward climb, swaying and creaking, and he took it steadily to avoid looking foolish before his own people. The ladder was as strong as the landsmen claimed, confirming that they were an ingenious lot, which fact would make the impending land campaign all the more profitable. About time that worm Mandir was knocked off his pedestal, Rosander reflected. Perhaps the booty from this land venture would be enough to break the Hot Stations’ stranglehold.

He hauled himself over the rail which, being less cunningly reinforced than the rope, snapped in three places. Nevertheless, he was left standing on the deck of the land-kinden ship: he, Rosander, Nauarch of the Thousand Spines Train and future conqueror of the land.

‘Bring on your warriors,’ he instructed, waiting for the lower reaches of the vessel to disgorge further land-kinden. All around the ship his people waited, ready to dig their claws into the hull and haul themselves over the side, to butcher every landsman on board. Rosander glanced around, the narrow eyeslit of his helm sweeping the deck, but no angry hordes of landsmen became apparent. Indeed he saw only two men, dark and stout the pair of them. The nearest, who had let down the ladder, was now edging backwards, staring at Rosander with alarm, while the other…

‘Hah,’ Rosander grunted. ‘And it is you, at that. I didn’t believe it.’ He stomped his way forward, hearing the deck beneath him creak, while Chenni pattered along beside him. This particular landsman faced up to his scrutiny without fear, as well he might. ‘You escaped,’ Rosander rumbled. ‘I heard the news. You escaped the Edmir and you escaped the Man of the Stations too, all the way back to your home on the land. You’ve warned your people, no doubt. They’ll give us some sport, then, which is all to the good.’ Rosander reached up and tugged his helm off, squinting a little in the bright sun. ‘You impress me, landsman.’ He grinned abruptly, showing surprisingly delicate teeth in his narrow mouth. ‘Kneel, kneel before me now and swear yourself one of the Thousand Spines, and I’ll make you my deputy on land when I’ve conquered it.’

The land-kinden regarded him with a slight smile. ‘I fear that’s an honour I can’t accept, Nauarch Rosander,’ he said. ‘Even so, I’m glad you remember me. My name is Master Stenwold Maker of Collegium and I am here to speak for my people. Will you hear me out?’

Rosander regarded him almost fondly. ‘You were free,’ the Nauarch said. ‘You had escaped, and now you come back. My warriors surround this ship. Are you so eager to rejoin us down in Hermatyre? Hear you out? Oh I’ll hear you out, Master Stenwold Maker, but I make no promises.’

He saw a gratifying twitch in the man’s expression when return to Hermatyre was mentioned. Rosander couldn’t blame him, for Claeon was never a kind captor. Well, let us see how my becoming master of the land tilts the balance against Claeon. Perhaps my next campaign will see me take Hermatyre and bring some justice to that wretched place.

‘Perhaps we should go below,’ Stenwold suggested, ‘out of the sun.’

‘Get him to show me the engines of this contraption,’ Chenni prompted.

‘Do it,’ Rosander ordered the landsman, and Stenwold nodded and gestured them to a hatch that led below. Before heading down, he glanced over at the other land-kinden present.

‘Master Allanbridge?’ he said, making the name a question.

‘I’ll be fine,’ the other replied, obviously uneasy all the same.

Stenwold nodded and set off into the ship’s interior. ‘I had forgotten your companion for a moment,’ he confessed as they descended, every step of Rosander’s eliciting a groan of tortured wood. ‘She piloted the barque that brought me to Hermatyre. She also did her best to keep me out of Claeon’s hands. For that she’s earned a look at our engines, if nothing else.’

The space below had only two rooms, one of which housed the engine. The other, Rosander saw as they reached the foot of the stairs, had a table set out, and furniture that he identified after a moment as designed for sitting on. Apparently these land-kinden believed that there really was something to talk about. Surrender terms, perhaps? Or maybe this Stenwold will sell his people yet.

‘Come on, then,’ Chenni prompted. ‘Let’s see what you’ve got.’

Stenwold paused, then called back up. ‘Jons! Are you done there?’

‘As much as,’ came the reply.

‘Would you come down here and show Mistress Chenni how the engines work?’

‘With pleasure.’ A moment later they heard the man stomping above their heads, and then he was letting himself down the ladder.

‘We should talk,’ Stenwold told Rosander, gesturing at the table. ‘Amongst the land-kinden, one debates with one’s enemies around a table, to try and find another solution than war.’

Rosander grunted and went over to one of the chairs, reaching out for it and turning it between armoured finger and thumb. As Stenwold headed about the far side of the table, the giant Onychoi brought his fist down on it, with no great display of force, and instantly reduced it to matchwood.

‘Got anything stronger, or should I stand?’ he growled.

Stenwold, not the least put out, sat down across from him. ‘You are Rosander, Nauarch of the Thousand Spines Train.’

‘Well done.’ Rosander put his helm down on the table. ‘What do you want, Stenwold Maker? Amongst the sea-kinden, the Kerebroi may talk and talk, but we act. Debate is a coward’s excuse for putting off the strike.’

‘I’m sorry that you feel that way,’ Stenwold replied. ‘Nauarch, you are not Claeon.’

Rosander’s lips twisted into an unwilling smile. ‘Nicest thing anyone’s said about me for at least a moon,’ he shot back. ‘So what?’

‘I mean you are not consumed by malice, nor are you terrified of losing your power. You are secure in what you possess, whereas Claeon is not.’

‘A fair assessment.’

‘Neither, unless I guess wrong, are you one of the Littoralist movement,’ Stenwold went on. ‘You don’t lap up all that business of theirs about the destiny of the sea-kinden to reclaim the land from the hated land-kinden, who drove your ancestors from it a thousand thousand years ago, or whatever.’

‘Fools and madmen,’ agreed Rosander.

‘So, why do you make yourself my people’s enemy?’ Stenwold asked him.

Rosander shrugged, stone pauldrons moving massively. ‘I bear your kinden no ill will. Surrender to me and you’ll not be ill-treated, though we’ll be disappointed if we don’t get our fight. As you say, I’m no tyrant, but I am an adventurer, Maker. And now I know the land is there for the taking, that is the new adventure I choose. To be the man that conquers the land! To be remembered for ever as he who took that great step.’ Rosander was grinning even at the thought. ‘And my Train would follow me even beyond the sea, despite all the tales they have been told at their mother’s tit. I would reward them for that loyalty, because I would make them all princes of the land, with landsmen to wait on their every need. And I would do this, Maker, because I can.’

There was now an odd vibration running through the wood of the vessel, which he assumed to be the engine working. ‘If your servant has any ideas about taking us elsewhere, be assured my people have orders to hole this barque and take it to the bottom, if necessary,’ he warned Stenwold. Listening out, he could hear voices over the rumble of the engine: Maker’s man explaining something to Chenni. ‘I thought it was the sails that made these things go, anyway. Obviously I was misinformed.’