of here?’
‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘There’s no reason to stay any more.’
‘I can think of lots,’ said Pinn. ‘Most of them come in pints or bottles, the rest have big wobbling tits. Come on, how about a little shore leave?’
‘I’m trying to save us all from the noose, Pinn,’ Frey replied. ‘Stay chaste for a day. Think of your sweetheart.’
‘Thinking of her just makes me want to bang a whore even worse,’ Pinn grinned, then held his hands up in submission. ‘Okay, okay. Yes, Cap’n. Back to the Ketty Jay like a good little pilot. But I still don’t get what’s going on.’
‘Alright, I’ll tell you,’ said Frey. ‘We knew that Duke Grephen was planning a coup against the Archduke. What he didn’t have was an army big enough to take on the Navy, or the money to pay for it. Orkmund’s providing the army, and now we know who’s providing the money.’
‘Do we?’ Jez asked. ‘Who?’
‘The Awakeners.’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘That chest on the podium. I saw them bringing it out of the hermitage where Amalicia was being kept. I didn’t know what was in it then, but now we do. Money. And look where it ended up: here in Retribution Falls.’
‘The Awakeners are financing the pirates?’ Pinn asked. ‘Why?’
‘Because they want the Archduke out. Him and his wife.’
‘What’s his wife got to do with it?’
‘The Archduchess is the one who’s got him talking about all these new laws to limit the power of the Awakeners,’ Frey said. He was aware that he was losing Pinn already. ‘Look, the Awakeners run themselves like a business. And there’s no question they make bucket-loads of money from the superstitious. Now if someone as powerful as the Archduke starts saying that the whole idea of the Allsoul is rubbish, people are going to start listening to him. And that means the Awakeners start going the way of all the other religions they crushed a century ago.’
‘You’re remarkably well informed these days, Cap’n,’ Jez commented.
‘Been talking to Crake,’ he said.
‘You know he’s not exactly impartial, don’t you?’ she said. When she spoke of the daemonist, he noted that her tone wasn’t as obviously scornful as it had been yesterday.
‘So why are the Awakeners funding Duke Grephen?’ Pinn piped up.
Frey sighed. This would require careful explanation for Pinn to understand. ‘Because Grephen’s an Awakener. Just like Gallian Thade. If he becomes the Archduke, than the Awakeners gain power instead of losing it. In fact, they’d become pretty much unstoppable.’
Pinn frowned, pondering that for a moment as they hurried through the narrow, filthy lanes, past peeling walls and rusted steps. ‘And the Awakeners hired Dracken to catch us?’
‘No!’ Frey and Malvery cried in unison. It was Frey who continued: ‘Grephen hired her to catch us. Because he didn’t want us talking to anyone and blowing his plan before he could put it into action.’
Pinn thought some more. Frey had a feeling of dread in his stomach, anticipating the inevitable follow-up question.
