Part 55 (1/2)

'One more word in that tongue--' growled Haddismal.

Hercol switched back to Arquali. 'He is alive, I promise you.'

'Who's alive?' demanded the Turach.

'And he told me something worrisome. He said, ”It's starting, Hercol.” Those words, and no more.'

Thasha (who did not speak Tholja.s.san either) squeezed in on Chadfallow's right. 'What friend?' she said. 'And what is it that's starting?'

Hercol freed a hand from the doctor's ministrations, and gently touched her cheek. Pazel was astounded by the gesture, and the affection so suddenly visible on the warrior's face. Clearly Thasha was startled as well; she gazed at her old tutor as if afraid to speak.

'Something dreadful, I fear,' said Hercol. 'Ignus, stay close to them - and Pazel, you must must let him help you. No matter what has pa.s.sed between us before, we must stand together or die.' let him help you. No matter what has pa.s.sed between us before, we must stand together or die.'

'Die?' barked Haddismal, pus.h.i.+ng Thasha aside. 'What is all this, traitor? What are you telling them?'

Hercol stood straight, looking into the Turach's bulging eyes. 'Just this,' he said quietly. 'That the s.h.i.+p is in danger, imminent and terrible. I do not know from what quarter it comes, but if you do not find out soon, Haddismal, I fear you will be too late.'

Bolutu was not in his cabin, nor on the topdeck, nor eating breakfast. The four youths had scattered about the s.h.i.+p, looking for him everywhere, but it seemed no one had lain eyes on the man since early the previous evening, well before their council meeting. They tried sickbay, the wardroom, the lounge. There was not a trace of him to be found.

But traces of Mr Fegin's 'something irregular' were plentiful. When Marila poked her head into the first-cla.s.s lounge (the luxuries of which were much reduced since Simja, along with the girths of those accustomed to them), she found Thyne and Uskins squatting in the corner, nibbling stale jelly biscuits as they examined a jagged hole in a corner of the wall. In the galley, Thasha stood where the little green door with the peeling paint had been, and saw only a wall where spoons and soup ladles dangled from hooks. Outside the forecastle, Mr Fiffengurt heard the blacksmith complaining that his a.s.sistant, Big Skip, had gone missing as well.

Neeps' discovery was the ugliest. He had gone to the live-animals compartment in search of Bolutu, and stumbled upon carnage. Something had broken into the cage where Latlzo housed his prize sapphire doves; there was nothing left but blue feathers and a great deal of blood. A number of the other animals had been terrorised as well. The pair of gold foxes from Ibithraed were cowering at the back of their cage. The Red River hog was berserk, snorting and spinning in its wooden crate, which it had kicked half to pieces.

At noon Thasha and Pazel went to Chadfallow and begged him to do what he could for Felthrup. The doctor turned gravely from his desk, regarding them over his reading-gla.s.ses.

'I hold myself bound to aid a woken animal as I would a man,' he said. 'But you must never forget that a woken animal is not not a man. Felthrup is a tiny creature with a volatile heart. I may only be able to end his suffering.' a man. Felthrup is a tiny creature with a volatile heart. I may only be able to end his suffering.'

'He's a tiny creature with an enormous heart,' said Pazel, 'and how can you say that, anyway, when you don't know what's wrong with him?'

'I say it because because I don't know,' said Chadfallow. I don't know,' said Chadfallow.

The single Turach left outside the brig would not let the youths enter a second time, and only admitted Chadfallow under his supervision. Pazel and Thasha stood outside the door, listening, but all they could hear was Magritte's wails about his visions, and his fleas.

Sighing, Thasha leaned back against the wall. Only then did Pazel notice the redness of her eyes. He could not tell if it was the result of exhaustion or tears.

On an impulse, he said, 'You were brilliant at the council.'

She looked at him warily, as if he might be mocking her. 'I made a hash of it,' she said. 'I almost got us killed.'

'Not your fault.'

Thasha flushed. 'I was so certain he would come when I called him. Ramachni, I mean. But I was dead wrong.'

In the brig, the guard was bickering with Chadfallow. You want to what? You want to what?

'Thasha, you and Ramachni have some sort of . . . bond,' said Pazel. 'And Bolutu says he's a follower of Ramachni. You sensed him instead of his master. Anybody could have made that mistake.'

Her eyes were unmoved; she didn't believe he meant it. 'You know I don't blame you,' she said.

'For what?'

'Giving me the cold shoulder. I'd do the same thing if I were you.'

'Would you?' The idea made him feel a little better.

'I drank before the wedding ceremony,' she said. 'I got myself trapped in the stateroom while you were being dragged off to Bramian. I'm afraid to read the Polylex Polylex, afraid of learning too much. And then last night, the clock . . . no, I don't blame you one bit.'

'What are you afraid of learning?'

'That I'm not . . . who I'm supposed to be. Who Ramachni was counting on me to be, from the start.' Her voice quickened nervously. 'That no matter what anyone says to make me feel better, I'm going to be the reason we fail, the reason Arunis gets the stone and learns to use it and destroys everything, and it will happen because I'm broken inside. Which is to say crazy. I'm afraid I'm going crazy.'

'Well you're not,' he said firmly. 'You're just rattled, like all of us.'

Thasha shook her head. 'You closed the clock, before it was too late. You cleaned up the mess I caused, again. Oh Pazel, the dreams, the noises. The things I keep seeing. Words painted on the anchors. Doors, where there aren't any doors. And all those ghosts - n.o.body sees them but Rose and me. Do you think I've caught whatever he has?'

'You're not crazy,' he said again, taking hold of her shoulders. 'You blary well ran the show down there in the liquor vault, even after things went so wrong. And Captain Magritte sees ghosts as well.'

'I see a light in your chest, Pazel.'

'What?'

Tears were welling in her eyes. She was looking at the spot below his collarbone, where Klyst's sh.e.l.l lay embedded beneath his skin. But it was not glowing; it had never glowed; there was nothing to see but flesh.

'I am am crazy,' she said, trembling. 'I see a little sh.e.l.l inside you.' crazy,' she said, trembling. 'I see a little sh.e.l.l inside you.'

'Listen,' he said, tugging down his s.h.i.+rt collar. 'I don't know why you can see it, but the sh.e.l.l is real. The murth-girl put it there.'

'Oh come on.'

'You're not crazy. You can feel it with your hand.' Pazel took a deep breath. 'Touch it. Go ahead.'

She looked at him. He nodded, and guided her hand with his own. She moved slowly, fearfully - and stopped, her fingers not an inch from his skin.

'It will hurt you,' she said, as if the knowledge had just come to her. 'Rin's teeth, Pazel, it will hurt like Pitfire. And you knew that, and you didn't mind.'

'No,' he said, breathless, 'I don't mind.'

Thasha looked at him with a warmth he knew Oggosk would never forgive. 'I mind,' she said, and dropped her hand.

They stood, holding each other's gaze for the first time in weeks. And Pazel knew it was over. The farce, the poor acting job he'd tried to make her believe in for the sake of the ixchel. He would hide what he could from Lady Oggosk, but there was no point in lying to Thasha any more. Not when she could see right through his skin.

'All right,' he whispered. 'You've got to listen to me carefully. Will you do that?'

Before Thasha could answer a noise erupted from the brig. It was an animal's screech, blood-curdling, over the shouting voices of the men. Hercol was urging someone to be careful; Magritte wanted something killed; the guard was swearing; Chadfallow was crying, 'I'll get him, stand back!'