'The ambassador may go ashore as well,' Dri added. 'See that you notice who goes with him, and who returns.'
'Of course, m'lady.'
'The way is clear below?' Talag demanded.
'Safe and clear, Lord Talag. A rat limped by on the gun deck, nothing more. My brother Malyd is on watch.'
'Go swiftly, then.'
Midryl bowed his head and vanished into the crevice above. Dri and Talag reached the floor and hurried to the foot-drain. They could hear the voices of giants on the topdeck, the hiss of rain, the soggy, low-spirited gulls.
But the drain's lid would not open. Normally it swung with almost no effort at all, but though Dri and Talag pushed with all their might, it would not budge an inch.
'That fool!' Talag raged. 'He's broken the hinge from the inside!'
Together they hurled themselves against the metal lid, but to no avail.
'We're trapped!' said Dri. 'But what happened? How could this be an accident?'
'It was not an accident, Lady Dri,' said a voice from the foot-drain.
'Who goes there, damn it-a rat?' snarled Talag in disbelief.
'No, Lord Talag,' said the voice. 'I am Felthrup Stargraven, and I must thank you for teaching me a great-nay, a vital-nay, an indispensable lesson! You see, I am not a rat. And yet I suffered so very long believing that I was. Believing, babbling, drowning in kelp-'
'Vermin!' shouted Talag. 'Get your mange-rotted bodies out of our pipe!'
'I am quite alone, Lord Talag. I have jammed the door with a timber-screw.'
'Remove it now,' said Diadrelu quietly. 'We are in danger, here.'
'I regret that, m'lady,' said Felthrup. 'But surely you understand my own desperate circumstances? Once Lord Talag explained to me that I was not a rat, I realized it was madness-literally madness! — to go on pretending. The warren is no place of safety if you rouse the suspicion of Master Mugstur, as I have, or bear any disfigurement or sign of weakness, as I do. Are you aware of how you marked me, Lord Talag?'
Dri looked sharply at her brother. 'You've spoken to this creature before!'
'Souls aflame!' shouted Talag. 'It can't be that one! The same prattling, snooping rat we caught in Night Village?'
'The one who came looking for you,' said the voice, 'in such terrible need. Poor, frightened Felthrup, always drowning, so close to despair. But not a rat, m'lord. Have you forgotten your lecture? Rats do not think; they only appear to think. But I most certainly think-deep, true, tireless thoughts, machinations, meditations, bursting rockets of the mind! Therefore, despite my appearance I cannot be a rat. I think.'
'You told me nothing of this,' said Dri to Talag.
'Of killing a rat? Why should I? There was no bloodshed, even. We sealed him up in a bilge-pipe to suffocate.'
'You see how I failed to oblige him, m'lady? I do so deeply regret it.'
Dri could not tell if the voice was laughing or crying. 'We have no time for this,' she said. 'What do you want?'
A sniffle. 'You won't believe me,' said the voice.
'OPEN THIS DOOR ERE WE SLAUGHTER THE WHOLE FESTERING HORDE OF YOU!' bellowed Talag.
The laughter or tears grew nearly hysterical.
Dri hissed at her brother: 'Haven't you done enough? It's your cruelty drove him to this act!'
Talag opened his mouth to speak, but did not. The human voices on the deck outside grew louder.
'You there, Felthrup!' said Dri. 'A giant comes! Speak now, or we both must flee. What is it you would ask of us?'
'A small thing,' said the choking voice. 'Your oath on the clan: not to hurt me, and to listen.'
'You have my oath on the clan,' said Dri.
'You cannot give your oath to a rat,' said Talag.
'I am NOT A RAT!'
'Talag!' said Diadrelu. 'Stop taunting him! Where is your wisdom gone? Speak your oath, quickly, or mount to the crevice! Decide!'
Talag's fists were clenched so tight that veins stood out on his hands. 'You have my oath by clan and kin,' he said.
That very instant the outer door banged open and the pockmarked clerk appeared. At the same time they heard a scraping behind the foot-drain. The boy fumbled with the door in the slashing rain, still turned away from them. Talag pushed: the lid was free, and both ixchel dived into the pipe. Beside them, Felthrup let the lid snap shut. Brother and sister lay motionless where they fell, holding their breath. From inches away came the sound of the boy's heavy footfalls. He was swearing at the weather-Salvation! — for if he had just seen two crawlies he would have forgotten all about a little rain.
Quiet as shadows, the ixchel crawled down the pipe; Felthrup scurried behind them with a strange hopping sound. Only after fifty feet, where the pipe took a bend in a cable shaft far from human ears, did the odd threesome pause. They were as safe there as anywhere. Diadrelu struck a match and saw two black eyes gleaming next to her.
'But of course you're a rat,' she said.
Then she winced. The beast's left forepaw was hideously mangled. That explained the hopping. Felthrup saw her look and nodded.
'The price of living,' he said. 'Four days I lay trapped in that pipe, m'lady. Clearing the dried blood with my teeth, so air might trickle in.'
'Your name,' said Diadrelu. 'It sounds like a Noonfirth word.'
'How wise you are, Lady!' said Felthrup in delight. 'For I am a Noonfirther, and the name I chose myself. The word means 'tears.' Do you know what a miracle tears are, Lord and Lady? Rats do not shed them: rats cannot grasp what they are for. And I was no different from any other beast in Pуl Warren until the sunrise I tried to steal crumbs from a bakery. The fresh bread smelled so very tempting that morning, honeyed and butter-kissed-'
'Memories of the stomach,' said Talag. 'Is that why you risked our deaths?'
'No, Lord Talag, but it is part of why you should not wish to kill me.'
'Tell your tale,' said Diadrelu. 'But quickly, pray.'
Felthrup bowed. 'It was still dark. By a broken window I leaped into the basement, then crept up the stairs and peeped into the bakery proper. There she stood! By the clay oven, her black face glowing by firelight. The first thing I saw was that she was alone. Always before her husband had worked beside her, but now he was gone. Why did I even notice? He had not taken the crumbs with him; there was plenty for me to eat. But somehow I could only stand there, watching, wondering. And the woman went into another room and returned with a painting of the two of them in wedding finery-how did I know, how? — and with a strange moan she threw the painting into the oven. Then she sat back on a stool. And cried!
'I saw her tears, cousins. And in that instant the great change occurred. I was shaken, terrified. I thought some parasite was erupting in my bowels. Yet it was not an affliction but a miracle: I had noticed tears. She was weeping for love and I understood it. And so much else, miracle after miracle! Her noise woke her little girls, they came thumping down from the loft-and suddenly, family! I grasped that, too! And names-she spoke their names, and I knew they were permanent names, not made up on the spot like wart-face and slop-head and other names used by rats. I sat there as the daylight grew, blind to my danger, hypnotized. She told them their father had run off with the butter-churn girl, and that they must all go to temple and pray that he quickly tired of that fat, faithless slut and came back to them. And then she pulled the picture from the oven and smothered the flames with her apron. But his head and feet were burned off already, and she cried to wake the dead. And I understood it all!'
Dri looked at her brother. 'Are you satisfied, Talag? The rat is clearly woken. You tried to kill an innocent, thinking soul.'
Talag looked away. 'Next it will be fleas,' he said. 'And then barnacles, cabbages, scraps of wood. This ship is infested with freaks. In all history there has never been a truly woken rat. How was I to know this babbling thing possessed reason?'
'By using your own.'
