‘You must raid it. You must bring me gleaming treasure.’
‘But why?’
‘Why!’ shouted Felthrup. ‘Why, why, why, why! Of all puerile words in the Arquali tongue! Of all vacant, gnawed-off, insipid, animal-mews-’
‘Never mind yer commentaries!’ I barked.
‘So you refuse.’
‘No I don’t mucking refuse! I’d walk barefoot in a bed of razor clams for you, if you care to know. But Rin’s gizzard, just tell me what it’s about!’
‘I would rather face him alone. He is vile and tricky.’
‘Black Pits of Damnation, Felthrup! Are you sayin’ Arunis has his claws in
‘Not Arunis. The Glutton. The Glutton is far more dangerous now.’
‘You can’t mean the Shaggat Ness?’
‘
It was a suspicious box. No latches, no screws, and its lid glued down fast and for ever. It was mounted on the underside of the floor planks of the portside afterhold, about ten feet above the noxious, sloshing bilge well.18 You could easily miss it, even if you had cause to creep down inside that watery space, as few men did. I had noticed the box during the removal of the rat carcasses in Masalym. But I’d never breathed a word, for it could only be one of the treasure chests brought aboard in secret back in Arqual, and would only bring evil and infighting down upon us if its existence became known to the crew.
I’d put it quite out of my mind until my talk with Ratty yesterday. And when I arrived and stuck my head through the little bilge-hatch, I cursed.
‘What’s the matter?’ whispered Marila. I’d brought her with me to hold the hurricane lamp, which we’d only just dared to light. It had taken us the better part of an hour to find this spot, feeling our way down lightless passages. I’d made Felthrup stay behind in the state-room: if the ixchel found him here there’d be no protection we could give.
But it was all in vain: someone had beaten us to the gold. I reached in and felt the hatcheted remains of the box, still dangling from the boards. I cursed again: Felthrup would be apoplectic. Then Marila lowered her face to the hatch and
‘Well ain’t that the devil’s pancake,’ I said. ‘And that gold ain’t no use to anybody while we’re on this ship. Including Felthrup’s own greedy devil, if it exists.’
‘Demon,’ she said, ‘and Felthrup’s only going by-’
She broke off, squinting at the darkness. Then she lowered the lamp into the bilge-well on its chain. ‘Look down there,’ she said, ‘at the very bottom. Aren’t those coins?’
Sure as Rin makes rain, there were gold cockles winking up at us, under twenty feet of frigid, ship-filthy water. The raiders had been sloppy. They’d spilled a part of their takings into the bilge.
‘How much does Felthrup need?’ Marila asked.
I shrugged. ‘As much as we can lay our hands on. But it doesn’t matter, does it? We ain’t collecting those.’
‘Of course we are. Go on, empty the pouch.’
‘See here,’ I said firmly, ‘if you think I’m about to go diving into that slime just because Ratty’s been dream- debating some pot-bellied spook-’
‘I don’t think anything of the kind.’
Before I quite knew what was happening, Marila had stripped down to her dainties and was getting set to leap into the bilge. She was a pearl diver, as I’d nearly forgotten. I told her no, no — get away from there — we’ll find a tarboy, we’ll scoop ’em up somehow — sit down, you’re too fat, you’re a mother-in-the-making-
She jumped. I was so frightened I nearly dropped the lamp chain. Marila struck the bilious water, gasped once, then turned head-down and kicked for the bottom. I must record here that she was lovely, graceful as a murth-girl, for all that her belly was round as a harvest moon. After a few strokes she’d churned up so much flotsam that I could barely see her. But when she surfaced (two long minutes later) there was gold in her purse.
She dived twice more. Then I unhooked the lamp and dropped her the chain. The first tug nearly broke my back — that babe will surely be a giant, parents notwithstanding — but there was no choice, I was going to haul her out or die trying. I fought for inches. There was no good footing; the chain snagged on the edge of the hatch. Just when I feared to disgrace myself by dropping her back into the bilge, out she came: a stinking, beautiful seal. I wrapped my coat around her. In the sack were forty gold cockles and a silver Heaven’s Tree with gems for fruit.
Something is amiss with the little people. This afternoon Lord Talag and the two islanders returned once again, and as usual there was a crowd of ixchel waiting to depart. But as the swallows descended Talag suddenly began barking orders. We couldn’t hear the words of course — it was all in ixchel-speak — and I daresay his native escorts didn’t fully understand them either. But his own clan did. At Talag’s first word they scattered in all directions, and in a matter of seconds they were gone below.
Talag brought the birds swooping down, but his gestures were different this time, more erratic, and the flock surged about in confusion. The islanders were suddenly outraged, screaming and threatening; one even waved a knife. Talag appeared to be protesting his helplessness. But after a moment he reassembled the flock, and the three flew back across the bay.
At my elbow, Sergeant Haddismal turned and gave me an accusing look. ‘What are yer little darlings up to
‘Talag’s no friend to me and never has been,’ I snapped. ‘But Stath Balfyr’s not workin’ out like he planned.’
‘Oh ho,’ said Haddismal. ‘And how do you know
‘By that scene, of course. By his blary face.’
‘You can’t read a crawly’s face. And what’s this plan you’re talking about?’
‘I’m
Haddismal cracked the knuckles of his enormous hands. ‘If they’re fighting, let ’em fight on. Let ’em bleed! I’d step on ’em one by one if I could.’
‘Gods damn it, tinshirt, they ain’t all the same! Talag’s a lunatic, and his son’s a fool, but Lady Dri was-’
‘Scum!’
I jumped a foot in the air. It was Sandor Ott. The snake had slithered up behind me.
‘What is happening?’ he hissed. ‘What message did Talag pass to his clansmen, just now?’
‘How should I know? Do I have crawly ears?’
‘Tell us of their plan, Fiffengurt.’
At that my self-control just snapped, and I raised my eyes to heaven: ‘I DO NOT
His arm moved in a blur. I felt a sharp sting beneath my good eye and recoiled. He had drawn his white knife and cut me, with a surgeon’s precision, just deep enough to break the skin.
‘If I learn that you have conspired with the crawlies again, I will kill you, and slaughter that whore Marila like a pig. Do not imagine my threat is as empty as the sorcerer’s. It will be done.’
