needed divers, he was so important that I gave him the same power over others that I have over him. You enjoyed that, didn't you, Druffle?'
Druffle gave a puppet's nod.
'But that time is past. Drop a ladder, why don't you, and let us board. We are thirsty.'
'Never,' said Rose.
'I shall board one way or another, you know.'
Sergeant Drellarek lowered his sword to point down at the boat. 'Hear me, mage or mystic, or whoever you are,' he shouted. 'We are on a mission consecrated by His Supremacy, Magad the Fifth. You have nothing to do with that mission, and may not interfere.'
'Such discourtesy, Sergeant,' said the sorcerer. 'And here I stand ready to assist your cause to a degree you can scarce imagine.'
'This ship is the grave of sorcerers,' said Lady Oggosk suddenly. 'All die who seek to use her for their wickedness. It will curse you too, Arunis. Go back!'
Arunis smiled. 'The Great Ship curses those who are not great. It was built for the likes of us. But why should we argue? Our mission is the same: to return the Shaggat Ness to his worshippers on Gurishal. To urge him to war. To see the Mzithrin Kings hurled from their thrones and their power ended in this world. And I have done much for you already, Captain Rose. Each morning, as timid Mr. Ket, I wove the spell that bound the Shaggat to silence. I dare say you've missed that service since I left the Chathrand. And who made sure Sandor Ott caught up with your favorite witch, Captain, and persuaded her to sail with you once more? For that matter, who told Ott where you were hiding? You'd have missed out on the greatest command of your life without my help. I ask you again, Captain: will you let us board?'
'We will not let you.'
Hundreds of men jumped at the unfamiliar voice. There stood Hercуl, with a strange animal perched on his shoulder. It was a mink, black as midnight, white teeth bared. On Hercуl's left stood Pazel, looking sick with worry; and on the man's right Lady Thasha Isiq held a sword in a manner that suggested she knew how to use it. Beside her stood her enormous dogs, Jorl and Suzyt, their eyes fixed on Arunis and low growls rumbling in their throats.
But it was the mink who was speaking. 'We will not let you,' it said again, 'for yours is a mission of death. And your wisdom fades, Arunis, if you doubt the curse in store for you aboard the Great Ship.'
For the first time, and merely for an instant, Arunis looked uncertain. Then he spread his arms and laughed.
'Ramachni Fremken! Rat-wizard of the Sunken Kingdom! Have you come all this way to fight me? Go back to your world, little trickster, and be spared! Alifros is mine!'
Ramachni answered with a soft, single word: 'Hegnos.'
And Druffle was transformed. He leaped to his feet and drew a cavernous breath, like a man pulled from the depths of the sea. Then his eyes found Arunis and swelled with hate. His hand flashed to his cutlass.
And there it stayed. Arunis raised his own hand and Druffle froze, rigid as ice, the blade half drawn from its sheath.
'Yes,' said Ramachni, 'I have freed his mind from your charms. And Mr. Druffle has nursed his hatred of you through months of magical slavery. He will plunge that blade into your heart the moment you tire of that holding spell.'
Arunis shrugged. 'Why should I tire?' And with one hand he pushed Druffle overboard.
In the unnatural stillness Druffle fell like a log. But he did not float like one, although by strange good fortune his face was the last part of him submerged. Men shouted: 'Save him! Dive, somebody!' But not a sailor moved.
Hercуl thrust Ramachni into Thasha's hands and leaped to the rail. But someone beat him to the jump. Neeps was over the side, dropping first onto a cannon jutting from its gunport, then dangling from its stock. He was still over forty feet above the tabletop-flat sea when he let go. Pazel thought he had never looked so small.
He struck the water some twenty feet from Druffle, vanished for a terrible moment, then surfaced again, swimming toward the motionless smuggler. Pazel gasped with relief. Soon Neeps' arm was around Druffle's neck. Fiffengurt tossed a life preserver, and put four men on the line to haul them aboard.
Arunis did not waste a glance on Neeps or Druffle. He pulled at one oar, turning the lifeboat in a circle until the stern with the Volpek war-shield faced the Chathrand. Then he leaned over the black cloth, and with a sharp tug pulled it aside. The men of the Chathrand gasped. Not a few turned away in revulsion.
The boat was half full of body parts. Feet, fingers, whole hands. Gore-covered ribs, bloated heads. The gulls screamed: clearly this was what had drawn them, and created the terrible stench.
'Those are Volpek faces,' whispered Thasha.
The dead flesh lay piled on a second cloth, spread on the floor of the boat. Arunis bent low over the stinking mass, mumbling to himself. Then he drew up the four corners of the cloth and tied them together, like some hideous picnic bundle.
'Take them!' he shrieked.
The water-weird rose, spinning like a miniature cyclone, and lifted the mass. For a moment the weight appeared too much for the creature-it was only wind and rain, after all-but then it gathered itself and gave a mighty heave. The bundle spun upward along the Chathrand's flank. Men ducked; the bundle just cleared the rail, and with a last rush of speed burst horribly against the mainmast.
Scraps of dead men fell all about them. Pazel had never dreamed of a sight so foul. But what would it accomplish? The crew was disgusted, nothing more.
Ramachni knew, though. 'Into the sea! Into the sea!' he cried. 'Toss it all overboard, quickly, instantly!'
Leaping to the deck, he bit into a severed hand, and with a snap of his body flung it over the rail. Hercуl joined in at once. Thasha and the tarboys, revolted as they were, did the same. But the sailors hesitated. Were they taking orders from a weasel now?
'Do as he says, f'Rin's sake!' howled Fiffengurt, diving into the gory task. A few men followed his lead. But the Volpeks' remains were everywhere-snagged in the rigging, dangling from block and chain and cleat, kicked under tarps and equipment.
Sea-rotted flesh is ugly, but what came next was loathsome beyond words. The heads and limbs and digits began to grow, and melt, and squirm with life. Men dropped what they held, screaming. Body parts flopped about the deck like fish. Then all at once they were men. Not normal men, but full-sized Volpek corpses, bloodless and pale.
'Fleshancs!' cried Lady Oggosk. 'He's turned his own dead warriors into fleshancs! Ay Midrala, we're doomed!'
The first monster to gain its feet rose just in front of Mr. Swellows. The bosun did not even try to run. He looked truly petrified with fear, and the fleshanc reached out rather slowly and crushed his throat with one hand. In ghastly silence, white shapes tumbled one after another from Swellows' open shirt, to bounce like walnuts on the deck: ixchel skulls, slipping from his broken necklace.
When Swellows' lifeless body followed with a thump, four hundred sailors fled for their lives. How many fleshancs there were none could say-perhaps thirty, perhaps twice that number-but the fear they produced was overwhelming. Sailors leaped for hatches; one threw himself into the waves. Even Drellarek's warriors looked terrified.
'Stand and fight!' bellowed Rose, hefting a boarding axe. But most of his officers had already fled, and more fleshancs had sprung to life in the rigging and were climbing down. Uskins ran to the back of the quarterdeck and crouched behind the flag locker, as if he hoped no one would notice him there. Fiffengurt stood his ground, but one swing of a Volpek fist sent him sprawling.
Then Hercуl and Drellarek charged. The battle was joined in earnest, and the two warriors fought side by side, thrusting and hacking with all their might. A number of Drellarek's men rallied at his call, and some of the fiercest sailors with them. But the fleshancs were incredibly strong. A blow from their hand was like the cuff of a bear, and their grip could shatter bone and iron.
Far below in the lifeboat, Arunis stood perfectly still.
Pazel and Admiral Isiq were hauling desperately at the lifeline; the men assigned to it had let Neeps and Druffle plunge back into the sea. Chadfallow drew off the fleshancs nearest them, laying at the creatures with a
