Part 61 (1/2)

Pazel whirled on Taliktrum. 'You vicious little fool. It's blane blane, isn't it? You shot them with blane.' blane.'

'We shot no one,' said Taliktrum. 'You drank it yourselves. All of you. In your water, over the last many days. A slow-acting variety; we had to make sure everyone aboard got a taste, before you saw what was happening.'

'Abandon masts! Abandon masts, you fools! Climb down before it hits you!'

It was Fiffengurt, hobbling aft at a near-run, and leaving a b.l.o.o.d.y footprint at every other step. His voice snapped the men out of their shock; they began to swarm downwards towards the deck.

Thasha was still looking at Taliktrum. 'You blary idiot idiot. We're sliding into the Vortex.'

'Get down,' said Taliktrum once again, 'we can't talk if you fall to your deaths.'

'What's there to talk about?' Neeps shouted. 'You've got to use your antidote, that's all. Otherwise we all go down together.'

'd.a.m.n you, giants! There is no more antidote! Dri stole the last of it for your little caper in Simja! But we're not butchering you, as you planned to do with us! It's a dilute formula. You'll all wake naturally, perfectly unharmed.'

'How soon?' asked Pazel.

Taliktrum was staring at the Vortex. 'Not very soon,' he said.

He let go of the rigging, teetering a moment in the wind. 'You can't judge me,' he said. 'This is war. I'm a general, and more than a general. I've been selected - yes, selected, chosen, to lead my people home. Don't deceive yourselves. If it was your family you'd have done exactly the same.'

The three friends were wide awake when they reached the topdeck, but scores of others were not so lucky. A man from Tressek Tarn had dropped from the mizzenmast and struck the rail; the fall killed him instantly. Fiffengurt was organizing men with safety lines to climb up and rescue those tangled in the rigging. Even as he did so another man vanished from the bowsprit into the sea.

Taliktrum had vanished; several Turach archers had fired arrows in his direction. What had he wanted to tell them? Pazel wondered desperately. Could it have been some clue as to how to beat the drug?

'I'm not sleepy,' said Neeps. 'Maybe they didn't manage to get it in everyone's water.'

'He sounded sure that they had,' said Pazel. 'Come to think of it, that was the only only thing he sounded sure of.' thing he sounded sure of.'

'They had this in mind all along, didn't they?' said Thasha. 'Ensyl and her friends knew about it - why else would they say the ixchel didn't need our protection? Which means Dri must have known too. Oh, how could she keep it from us? How could could she?' she?'

Pazel had no answer. All he felt certain of was that Taliktrum had unleashed forces beyond his control.

Fiffengurt came stumbling back their way, his wounded foot making a squilch squilch each time it touched the deck. 'Lord Rin, children, what now?' he cried. 'Sleeping sickness?' each time it touched the deck. 'Lord Rin, children, what now?' he cried. 'Sleeping sickness?'

'Not quite,' said Pazel. They told the quartermaster about the ixchel's drug. Fiffengurt pulled miserably at his whiskers.

'It's not too late,' he said. 'We're still thirty miles from the eye of the Vortex. Elkstem worked miracles with the lads he could muster, but the best they could do was hold us steady. To break out we need hands on deck now now. We can work the sails with safety lines, bring the lads down when they pa.s.s out, send others up in their places, but--Lo, there, mids.h.i.+pman! Don't lean over that blary shaft!'

A young man swayed away from the gunner's-pole hatch. The salute he tried to give Fiffengurt dissolved into a half-hearted wave. And when Pazel looked back at the quartermaster, he found to his shock that the man had sunk to his knees.

'Not too late,' he repeated, and collapsed.

Over the next quarter-hour, most of the s.h.i.+p's company joined him. The topdeck looked like a battlefield without victors, just a few shocked refugees wandering among the dead. Uskins snored upon a mound of dead rats. Bolutu lay curled by the No. 3 hatch, as if he had just managed to crawl into the open air before the sleep took hold. Elkstem dropped on the quarterdeck, hands clenched on a rope. He had apparently intended to lash the wheel (and hence the rudder) in a fixed position, but no one knew just what position, or what spread of sail might have accompanied it.

Neeps had begun to stumble and blink. 'Marila,' he said, again and again.

Supporting him, they ran down the No. 4 ladderway. There were bodies spread-eagled on the stairs; one man lay sleeping with a biscuit clenched in his teeth. The gun decks lay silent as a morgue. Lonely cries of Help! Help! and and Wake up! Wake up! echoed from the darkness. echoed from the darkness.

But farther down there were signs of life. On the orlop, men shouted and lanterns blazed. Turachs were dragging sleepers into cabins with st.u.r.dy doors. Far below, Pazel could still make out the howling of the rats.

They descended the narrow ladderway to the mercy deck, and hurried to the central compartment. Just inside the doorway they met Hercol and Chadfallow. The doctor spoke with quiet urgency. 'Get to the stateroom, you three! The fight here is lost!'

Lost? Pazel looked past the doctor. Sailors and Turachs filled the deck; the only rats in sight were dead ones. But of the hundreds of men, only a few dozen remained on their feet, and most of these were cl.u.s.tered about the tonnage hatch, staring into the hold, weapons in hand. The voices of the rats issued up from this darkness, cursing and insulting the men.

Even as Pazel looked, one of the men on guard began to sway. At once another sailor came forwards and and took his spear, pus.h.i.+ng him away from the hatch.

'Rose and Haddismal are doing their best to keep up appearances,' said Hercol. 'The rats do not yet suspect what is happening. They They are not affected: the ixchel did not bother to poison whatever slime or sludge they find to drink.' are not affected: the ixchel did not bother to poison whatever slime or sludge they find to drink.'

'How many rats are left alive?' said Thasha.

'Too many,' said Hercol. 'A hundred, perhaps more. They are thick about both hatches, and both ladderways, yet hiding from our archers. We can kill no more without an a.s.sault on the hold, and there are not enough of us for that. I doubt, in fact, that we could stop the creatures, if they attack in force. Only their ignorance protects us now.'

Captain Rose walked the perimeter of the compartment, issuing calm orders as though nothing were amiss. Haddismal was peering down side pa.s.sages, signalling his Turachs, pulling in every last man.

'There is another threat,' said Chadfallow. He leaned closer to the youths, and sniffed. 'Oil,' he whispered. 'Can you smell it? The s.h.i.+p's lamp oil is stored in the hold, and it has been spilt. Maybe the rats simply ruptured a barrel or two by accident. But we have seen them running with mouthfuls of rags and straw. And caught glimpses of firelight as well.'

'What's happening?' said Pazel. 'When they attacked in the hold they were like a pack of mad dogs. No plan, no clear thinking, except for Mugstur.'

'That has changed,' said Hercol. 'You can hear that they are screeching less. Bolutu thinks that Master Mugstur is calming them, giving them a way to understand the terror of their altered minds. If so they will become more dangerous by the hour.'

'Breathe not a word of this,' added Chadfallow. 'The men's spirits are low enough already.'

At the hatch, another man staggered away from his post. Seething, Captain Rose watched him fall. Then he turned and stumped towards the group at the doorway. His eyes were fixed on the youths.

'This is crawly work? You admit as much?'

A pause. Then Hercol said, 'Yes captain, it was done by ixchel.'

For a moment Pazel thought Rose would strike him. But just then Mr Alyash ran up to them, bearing a bright fengas lamp.

'The barricades are ready, Captain,' he said. 'They'll not be able to swarm up the ladderways again. Provided we have men left to seal them, after our retreat.'

Rose nodded. 'That is something. But not much. We must poison them, by the Night G.o.ds, we must drop sulphur into the hold. You have found no way to seal the hatches against them?'

Alyash huffed. 'Without men to stand guard? There is is no way, sir. They've shown us how fast they can chew through sailcloth and oil skins. We could cannibalise planks from the upper decks and nail 'em across the hatches, but that job would take half a day - even if we lost no more men.' no way, sir. They've shown us how fast they can chew through sailcloth and oil skins. We could cannibalise planks from the upper decks and nail 'em across the hatches, but that job would take half a day - even if we lost no more men.'

Pazel felt Neeps' hand squeeze his arm. The small boy was just barely awake.

'A drug,' he murmured.

'Yes, Neeps, it's a drug,' said Pazel.

Neeps gave his head a drunkard's shake. 'Find . . . . . another drug.' . another drug.'

'An antidote, you mean? No chance, didn't you hear Taliktrum? They never had very much, and it's all gone now. And even if he's lying, we'd never find--'