fore and aft decks bristling with leadshotters, whose three masts would have hoisted a spread of canvas to put any other ship in the armada to shame. His hull was painted in a pattern of red and gold that glittered in the bright sunlight, making it seem as though fire scorched his flanks.
That fire was now being doused. The great ship tilted at an alarming angle, stern proud of the water, and very clearly sinking. His nearest companions in the fleet were hurriedly readying their boats, getting them into the water as swiftly as possible, to take on the ailing giant’s crew.
Mycella stood at the rail, observing this scene with every appearance of detachment. ‘Clever,’ she remarked, as though they were watching some piece of theatre.
‘It had to be the largest ship in the fleet,’ Stenwold confirmed. ‘It was a reasonable calculation that I’d not be aboard it, when I was brought before you.’ When she rounded on him, he added, still sounding eminently reasonable though his heart thundered, ‘After that, of course, all bets are off. It could be this one next, as easily as any other.’
‘Sabotage,’ she stated flatly. ‘Some spy of yours is amongst us. Well, scuttling a single of my ships shall not save your city, Sieur Maker.’
‘Shall we wait to see which vessel is next?’ he asked her. ‘I predicted that you might need convincing. We won’t wait long now, so I advise you to have all boats ready.’
He had explained everything to Aradocles in great detail. It would have been easy for the new Edmir to forget any debt owed to the land, but whether it was through his service to Salma, or his own good character, Stenwold had never doubted the boy for a moment.
‘My lady,’ said one of Mycella’s crew hoarsely. ‘The Costevan.’ His shaking finger picked out a long-hulled armourclad, an Ant-crewed vessel clad all in metal. What sails could not have shifted had been brought here by engines, showing that the Spiderlands had more at their disposal than mere galleons. Being so armoured, it was sinking far swifter than the Glorious Phaedris, rolling uncontrollably to port as its crew clambered about it, struggling for higher ground. Stenwold grimaced, knowing that the rescue boats would come far too late for most of the armoured soldiers. Then he saw the water ripple at the edge of the sinking boat, and a twisting grey tentacle squirmed its way up the canted deck and whipped about the ankle of one of the floundering Ant-kinden, pulling taut in an instant and yanking the man into the sea. Stenwold felt his stomach lurch with horrible memory.
Arkeuthys.
‘I beg you,’ he said, ‘mobilize your fleet. Take your ships away from my city. Unless you go, they shall all be destroyed before you even touch land. It is set in motion now, and I cannot stop it.’
They had seen Arkeuthys’s contribution to the sinking. What they had not seen was the Gastroi – the tireless, hardworking Gastroi – swimming up to the underside of the hulls, using their Art to cut through wood or metal as easily as they could grind their way into stone. The results of that labour were already plain to see, though: two ships sinking, indeed one very nearly sunk, and every other ship’s captain thinking, And who’s next?
He saw Mycella consider coldly what would happen if she now ordered full sail against Collegium, saw her evaluate the sea wall defences, the time it would take for beach landings where the coast allowed it, both east and west of the city. There were not so many suitable anchorages, only a few rocky coves and the one broad beach that the Vekken had used when they had tried to take the city by land and sea. How long, to disembark all her soldiers, all the machinery of war, the supplies and the ammunition, while all the time her ships were being taken, one by one? How many would be left of her army, to menace the walls of Collegium? Even as she considered it, the cry went out that yet another ship was failing. The sea-kinden were gaining confidence.
‘Up sail, all ships. Send the order through the fleet,’ Mycella said, her tone clipped. ‘Have all boats ready, as well.’ She rounded on Stenwold. ‘And as for you, no doubt this… thing will plague me all the way to Seldis, unless I put you back in the water.’
Stenwold nodded. In truth he suspected the ships would soon enough outpace the sea-kinden, whether he was alive or dead.
‘Put him in one of the boats,’ Mycella instructed. ‘Have him rowed into harbour under a peace flag. Let the legend of Stenwold Maker acquire one more chapter.’ As her sailors scrambled to obey her, she said, ‘My son was right to admire you, Sieur Maker. I do not know how you have accomplished this, what underwater engines your people have constructed, but it is duly noted. Today is yours.’ Only when he was already in the boat, and the sailors were beginning to lower it hand over hand into the water, did she call back to him.
‘There will come a tomorrow, Sieur Maker, when we shall speak again. Remember that.’ And the sheer depth of her pain and anger, shorn for a moment of all her veils, chilled him to the bone.
Glossary
Characters
Aagen – Wasp-kinden ambassador to Collegium Accius – Vekken Ant-kinden ambassador to Collegium
Achaeos – Moth-kinden lover of Cheerwell Maker, died in the war
Akkestrae – Mantis-kinden in Collegium
Albinus – Ant-kinden intelligencer in Kanateris
Aldanrael – a Spider-kinden Aristoi family
Amnon – Khanaphir Beetle-kinden expatriate
Ancient League – the Moths and Mantids of Dorax, Etheryon and Nethyon, allies of Collegium in the war
Aradocles – Krakind heir to Hermatyre
Arianna – Spider-kinden lover of Stenwold Maker
Arkeuthys – giant octopus
Arvi – Fly-kinden secretary to Jodry Drillen
Balkus – renegade Sarnesh Ant-kinden
Berjek Gripshod – Beetle-kinden academic
Bloodfly – notorious Fly-kinden pirate from a generation ago
Caractes – Polypoi hermit
Cardless – Beetle-kinden servant to Stenwold Maker
Cheerwell Maker (‘Che’) – Beetle-kinden, niece of Stenwold Maker
Chenni – Smallclaw Onychoi, Rosander’s artificer
Claeon – Krakind Kerebroi, Edmir of Hermatyre
Cynthaen – Mantis-kinden fisherwoman
Danaen – Mantis-kinden raider
Daven – Wasp-kinden Rekef agent
Despard – Fly-kinden artificer of the Tidenfree crew
Diamedes – Krakind Kerebroi, agent of Hieracles
Ebris of the Ganbrodiel – Spider-kinden pirate
Elder Padstock – Beetle-kinden, Chief Officer of the Maker’s Own Company
Elleria of the Aldanrael – Teornis’s cousin
Elytrya – Krakind Kerebroi Littoralist agent
Epiphona – Greatclaw Onychoi, Nauarch of the Three Red Fish Train
Fel – Swiftclaw Onychoi, of Wys’s crew
Fernaea (‘Fern’) – Fly-kinden seer, of the Tidenfree crew
Filipo – Fly-kinden rogue in the employ of Forman Sands
Forman Sands – Halfbreed assassin in the employ of Helmess Broiler
Geontes – Krakind Kerebroi, agent of Claeon
Grampos – Tarantula-kinden in Kanateris
Greenwise Artector – Beetle-kinden magnate in Helleron
Gribbern – Deepclaw Onychoi Pelagist
