Part 32 (2/2)
”Don't touch it! Don't touch touch it! That's St. Ungulant's Fire, that is! It means we're going to die in a dreadful storm!” it! That's St. Ungulant's Fire, that is! It means we're going to die in a dreadful storm!”
Vimes looked up. Clouds were racing across-No, they were pouring into pouring into the sky in great twisting billows, like ink streaming into water. Blue light flashed somewhere inside them. The s.h.i.+p lurched. the sky in great twisting billows, like ink streaming into water. Blue light flashed somewhere inside them. The s.h.i.+p lurched.
”Look, we got to lose some sail!” shouted Jenkins. ”That's the only way-”
”No one touches anything!” shouted Vimes. Green fire skimmed along the tops of the waves now. ”Detritus, arrest any man who touches anything!”
”Right.”
”We want to go fast, after all,” Vimes said, above the hissing and the distant crackle of thunder.
Jenkins gawped at him as the s.h.i.+p lunged beneath them.
”You're mad! Have you any idea what happens to a s.h.i.+p that tries to-You haven't got any any idea, have you? This ain't normal weather! You have to ride it out careful! You can't try to run ahead of it!” idea, have you? This ain't normal weather! You have to ride it out careful! You can't try to run ahead of it!”
Something slippery landed on Detritus's head and bounced on to the deck, where it tried to slither away.
”And now it's raining fis.h.!.+” Jenkins moaned.
The clouds formed a yellow haze, lit almost constantly by the lightning. And it was warm. That was the strangest thing. The wind howled like a sack full of cats and the waves were turning into walls on either side of the s.h.i.+p, but the air felt like an oven.
”Look, even the Klatchians are reducing sail!” shouted Jenkins, in a shower of shrimp.
”Good. We'll catch them up.”
”Mad! Ouch Ouch!”
Something hard rebounded from his hat, hit the rail and rolled to a stop by Vimes's feet.
It was a bra.s.s k.n.o.b.
”Oh, no no,” moaned Jenkins, putting his arms over his head. ”Now it's b.l.o.o.d.y bedsteads again!”
The captain of the Klatchian s.h.i.+p was not an argumentative man when he was anywhere near 71-hour Ahmed. He just looked at the straining sails and calculated his chances of Paradise.
”Perhaps the dog who cut the sail loose did us a favor!” he shouted, above the roar of the wind.
Ahmed said nothing. He kept looking back. The occasional burst of electric storm light showed the s.h.i.+p behind, aflame with green light.
Then he looked at the cold fire streaming behind their own masts.
”Can you see that light on the edge of the flames?” he said.
”My lord?”
”Can you, man?”
”Er...no...”
”Of course you can't! But can you see where the light isn't?”
The captain stared at him and then looked up again in terrified obedience. And there was was somewhere where the light wasn't. As the fizzing green tongues waved in the wind they seemed to be edged with...blackness, perhaps, or a moving hole in s.p.a.ce. somewhere where the light wasn't. As the fizzing green tongues waved in the wind they seemed to be edged with...blackness, perhaps, or a moving hole in s.p.a.ce.
”That's octarine!” shouted Ahmed, as another wave sloshed over the deck. ”Only wizards can see it! There's magic in these storms! That's why the weather is so bad!”
The s.h.i.+p screamed in every joint as it hit the waves again.
”We're coming right out of the water!” wept Jenkins. ”We're just going from crest to crest!”
”Good! It won't be so b.u.mpy!” shouted Vimes. ”We should pick up speed again now we've got those bedsteads over the side! Does it often rain bedsteads out here?”
”What do you you think?” think?”
”I'm not a nautical man!”
”No, rains of bedsteads are not not an everyday occurrence! Nor are coal scuttles!” Jenkins added, as something black crashed off a rail and over the side. ”We just get the normal stuff, you know! Rain! Snow! Sleet! Fis.h.!.+” an everyday occurrence! Nor are coal scuttles!” Jenkins added, as something black crashed off a rail and over the side. ”We just get the normal stuff, you know! Rain! Snow! Sleet! Fis.h.!.+”
Another squall blew across the bounding boat and the deck was suddenly covered with flas.h.i.+ng silver.
”Back to fis.h.!.+” shouted Vimes. ”That's better, surely?”
”No! It's worse!”
”Why!”
Jenkins held up a tin.
”These are sardines!”
The s.h.i.+p thumped into another wave, groaned, and took flight again.
The cold green fire was everywhere. Every nail of the deck sprouted its flame, every rope and ladder had its green outline.
And the feeling crept over Vimes that it was holding the s.h.i.+p together. He wasn't at all sure that it was just light. It moved too purposefully. It crackled, but it didn't sting. It looked as though it was having fun- The s.h.i.+p landed. Water washed over Vimes.
”Captain Jenkins!”
”Yes?”
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