Part 61 (2/2)

Neeps slapped a clumsy hand over Pazel's mouth. 'Another drug,' he said heavily. 'Something else. Delay it. Delay.' drug,' he said heavily. 'Something else. Delay it. Delay.'

With that he was gone. Pazel caught him and lowered him to the deck.

Chadfallow was looking at him with wonder. 'This drug they use, this blane blane,' he said. 'Is it magical?'

'Who knows?' said Pazel.

'I do,' said Thasha, 'and it's not. Blane Blane is just brilliant medicine. In fact the ixchel know more about human bodies than we know ourselves. They've experimented on us, over the years, just as we have on them.' is just brilliant medicine. In fact the ixchel know more about human bodies than we know ourselves. They've experimented on us, over the years, just as we have on them.'

Everyone stared at her. It was another of those mystifying certainties Pazel had begun to expect from Thasha. But was she right? He shuddered, remembering the clock.

'Delay it,' said Thasha. 'Is that possible? Even if there's no antidote, couldn't we take something to hold off the sleep? Long enough to build those hatch covers, anyway?'

'A counteragent?' mused the doctor. 'Theoretically, yes. But I know nothing of this blane blane! To find the right compound would take days of testing.' He glanced at Rose, and something in the captain's face made him add, 'Unless I got very lucky.'

Rose seized the doctor's arm and turned him bodily towards the ladderway. 'Get lucky doctor,' he said, 'that's an order.'

He needed help, Chadfallow said, and Pazel and Thasha promised to give it. Hercol, however, lifted Neeps and tossed the small boy over his shoulder. 'I will bear him to the stateroom, and meet you three at sickbay,' he said, and was gone.

It was sickbay and not the surgery that housed the Great s.h.i.+p's medicines. Chadfallow and the youths raced upward again, taking three steps at a time. The middle decks were now completely silent. On the ladderway they pa.s.sed just one conscious man - a Turach, stumbling on his feet, eyes half-closed. As Thasha pa.s.sed he embraced her suddenly.

'Lady Thasha,' he slurred. 'Love you, love you. Goin' t'inherit a farm, see? Make you happy. Lots of kids--'

'Oh good G.o.ds.' Thasha pushed him away.

They reached the lower gun deck, and dashed along the short pa.s.sage to sickbay. There to Chadfallow's delight (and Thasha's, Pazel noted) they found Greysan Fulbreech, wide awake, tending a ward full of sleeping men.

'Doctor!' he cried, 'I have lost three patients! The rats came down the Holy Stair from the main deck. They broke the latch on the door. If the Turachs had not come, everyone here would have been killed.'

'Including you,' Pazel heard himself say. Fulbreech did not even look at him. But Thasha did, reproachfully.

'Clear a table!' shouted Chadfallow, storming in. 'Listen, all of you. We are going to behave like potion-peddlars on the streets of Sorhn. I will hand you something; you will go out and find men on the verge of sleep - not uttterly lost, but failing. Make them take what I give. Tell them whatever you like. Watch them, see if they grow more alert. Then rush back and tell me. And meanwhile send anyone else you can find to me directly. Ah, sheepsgaul! Put this in some water, Greysan.'

Moments later they were out the door. Thasha had a vial of white chilli oil, Pazel a yellow pill the doctor called Moonglow. They ran straight to the topdeck; it was closer than the mercy, and the only other place they knew of where men were still awake in any numbers.

Or had been. Pazel gazed over the deck and felt his heart sink. He had hoped that he would find men still battling the sails, keeping the Chathrand Chathrand from gliding faster towards the Vortex. But there were simply not enough of them. From where he stood, Pazel counted nineteen - make that eighteen, there went another to his knees - largely unoccupied sailors, wandering among the sleepers, shouting out prayers, making the sign of the Tree. Some kicked their s.h.i.+pmates in despair, begging them to wake. Pazel squeezed the pill in his hand. 'This had better work,' he said. from gliding faster towards the Vortex. But there were simply not enough of them. From where he stood, Pazel counted nineteen - make that eighteen, there went another to his knees - largely unoccupied sailors, wandering among the sleepers, shouting out prayers, making the sign of the Tree. Some kicked their s.h.i.+pmates in despair, begging them to wake. Pazel squeezed the pill in his hand. 'This had better work,' he said.

Not two minutes later he had convinced a blinking, frightened man to swallow the pill. 'It's from Chadfallow, it'll keep you awake,' he declared shamelessly. The man gulped it eagerly, then gave him a triumphant smile. He raised both fists above his head. ”I feel it!' he said, and collapsed.

The others fared no better: Thasha's victim cried himself to sleep, having swallowed enough chilli oil to make a fire-eater beg for drink. The man Fulbreech approached vomited on the deck.

None of these fiascos dissuaded the remaining men from following the youths back to sickbay. They had lost hope. Chadfallow was offering a last straw to clutch at, and clutch they did. They waved to their s.h.i.+pmates, this way, this way! The doctor's workin' on a cure!

Of the fourteen men who set off for sickbay, just eight reached it. Among them were Mr Fegin, Byrd the gunner - and, Pazel saw with outrage, Dastu. The elder tarboy's feet dragged; he was fast succ.u.mbing. But as the others shuffled into sickbay he held back, wary eyes on Pazel and Thasha.

'Come on, mate,' jeered Pazel savagely. 'Don't be shy. For you we'll find something extra extra strong.' strong.'

Dastu gave Pazel a heavy-lidded stare. 'Think you're better than me, don't you, Muketch? After all the Empire's done for peasants like you. All the doors its opened, all the helping hands.'

Something inside Pazel came apart. He crossed the floor to Dastu and with a cunning he never knew he possessed, made as if to draw Isiq's sword. But as Dastu's eyes snapped to his sword-hand, he struck the older boy's chin as hard as he could with the other. Dastu's head jerked sideways. Then he fell.

'How courageous,' said Fulbreech. 'You've just knocked out a sleepwalker. And taken someone from us who could have tried a remedy.'

Pazel shut his eyes. b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Cretin. When he opened his eyes he saw Thasha watching him, shaking her head.

'Next!' shouted Chadfallow, pounding his fist on a table. 'Who's nearest to sleep? Raise your heads, look me in the eye!'

An a.s.sortment of oddities lay spread before him. Pills, potions, creams, a jar of blue seeds, a dry and blackened lungfish. The men raised weary hands. One man swallowed seeds, and dropped in mid-chew. Another bit off part of the lungfish, chewed with great concentration, and dropped to the floor. Fegin drank something from a green flask. He groaned and turned rather green himself, then lowered himself to the wall. 'I'd like to . . . apologise,' he said, as his head lolled forwards.

Chadfallow's speed increased. He popped items into waiting mouths. 'Swamp myrtle,' he said. 'Bodendel marshfly. Endolithic spore.' But the men continued to drop. In frustration Chadfallow swept all the failed substances to the floor. He tore at his hair. 'All right, d.a.m.n it: Thermopile Red - that should keep a man working for a week! Drink it, Byrd ! Drain the cup! Don't shut your blary eyes!'

When Byrd fell, unrevived by Thermopile Red, the doctor let himself sink into a chair. Only he, Thasha, Pazel and Fulbreech remained. He looked at them and sighed. But before the sigh ended it had become a yawn.

That yawn frightened Pazel immensely. At the same time he felt a cloudiness descend on his brain, and a weight in his limbs, and knew his time was close.

He staggered forwards and shook the doctor. 'Fight it, Ignus! Think! We're counting on you!'

'Don't,' muttered Chadfallow.

'None of these are strong enough,' said Thasha. 'What have you got that's stronger stronger?'

'Nothing,' said the doctor, shaking his head. 'No use . . . too late.'

'The Chadfallow I know would never talk that way, while life remained in him,' said a voice from the pa.s.sage.

It was Hercol, supporting himself with a hand on the doorframe. He lurched into sickbay, jaw clenched and eyes heavy, as though staving off the blane blane through sheer force of will. 'What's left?' he said. 'No - don't answer. What is dangerous, ludicrously dangerous? What is against your ethics to try?' through sheer force of will. 'What's left?' he said. 'No - don't answer. What is dangerous, ludicrously dangerous? What is against your ethics to try?'

At the sight of his old friend the doctor opened his eyes a little wider. He looked sceptically at the items before him, understanding Hercol's challenge, and appalled by it. He fumbled through the items, knocking several irritably aside. Suddenly he stopped, and looked at Pazel in wonder.

'A c.o.c.ktail,' he said. 'A blary three-part heathen c.o.c.ktail. Fulbreech! The key, my desk, the black bottle. Hurry, run!'

Fulbreech ran across the ward. The doctor, meanwhile, lifted a tiny, round metal box, with a painting of a blue dragon on the lid. 'Break the seal,' he said, pa.s.sing it to Pazel. 'My hand shakes too much; I will spill it, and there is precious little.'

'What is it?' asked Hercol.

'Thundersnuff. A stimulant, putrid, exceptional. Part of a mad Quezan c.o.c.ktail, they use it as punishment for sloth. If only I can remember the third ingredient. Something very common, it was . . . cloves, or horseradish . . . .'

Fulbreech returned with a bottle, black and unmarked. 'There's some mistake, sir, this is grebel.'

Grebel! Pazel nearly dropped the little box. It was the nightmare liquor, the madness drink. He'd had it forced on him as punishment, by certain s.a.d.i.s.tic men on other s.h.i.+ps. Fear, panic, hallucinations - these were all he recalled of the experiences. Except-- 'I didn't sleep,' he said. 'I didn't sleep for days! But that was just because of the fear, wasn't it?'

'Salt!' said the doctor, ignoring him and surging to his feet. 'The third ingredient is salt! I have gypsum salt, it will do, we can chew it - here!'

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