ourselves in the same boat with Kulp, and it was Kulp who was looking to collect them.’
‘Kulp? The cadre mage from the Seventh?’
‘Aye, him. He’d been sent by Duiker-’
‘The imperial historian?’
‘Kulp said it was the injustice,’ Truth answered. ‘But you got it wrong-it wasn’t Felisin that Duiker wanted to help. It was Heboric.’
Pella spoke in a low voice quite unlike what she had heard from him moments earlier. ‘If Duiker is going to be made out as some kind of traitor… well, lass, better think twice. This is Aren, after all. The city that watched. That saw Duiker delivering the refugees to safety. He was the last one through the gate, they say.’ The emotion riding his words was now raw. ‘And Pormqual had him
A chill rippled through Lostara. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Blistig loosed us Red Blades from the gaols. We were on the wall by the time Pormqual had his army out there on the plain. If Duiker was seeking to free Heboric, a fellow scholar, well, I have no complaint with that. The trail we are on is Felisin’s.’
Truth nodded at that. ‘Tavore has sent you, hasn’t she? You and that Claw inside, listening to Gesler and Stormy.’
Lostara briefly closed her eyes. ‘I am afraid I lack Pearl’s subtlety. This mission was meant to be… secret.’
‘Fine with me,’ Pella said. ‘And you, Truth?’
The tall lad nodded. ‘It doesn’t really matter anyway. Felisin is dead. They all are. Heboric. Kulp. They all died. Gesler was just telling that part.’
‘I see. None the less, please say nothing to anyone else. We will be pursuing our task, if only to gather her bones. Their bones, that is.’
‘That would be a good thing,’ Truth said with a sigh.
Lostara made to leave but Pella gestured to catch her attention. ‘Here.’ He held out to her the finger bone he had been drilling a hole through. ‘Take this for yourself. Wear it in plain sight.’
‘Why?’
Pella scowled. ‘You’ve just asked a favour of us…’
‘Very well.’ She accepted the grisly object.
Pearl appeared in the doorway. ‘Lostara,’ he called. ‘Are you done here?’
‘I am.’
‘Time to leave, then.’ She could see by his expression that he too had been told of Felisin’s death. Though probably in greater detail than the little that Truth had said.
In silence, they retraced their route through the stables, out into the compound, then across to the gate. The door swung open as they arrived and the soldier named Maybe waved them out. Lostara’s attention was drawn to the bale of straw, which seemed to be wavering, strangely melting where it squatted, but Pearl simply waved her on.
As they drew some distance from the estate, the Claw voiced a soft curse, then said, ‘I need a healer.’
‘Your limp is barely noticeable,’ Lostara observed.
‘Years of discipline, my dear. I’d much rather be screaming. The last time I suffered such strength used against me was with that Semk demon, that godling. The three of them-Gesler, Stormy and Truth-there’s more that’s strange about them than just their skin.’
‘Any theories?’
‘They went through a warren of fire-and somehow survived, though it seems that Felisin, Baudin and Heboric didn’t. Though their actual fate remains unknown. Gesler simply assumes they died. But if something unusual happened to those coastal guards in that warren, then why not the same to the ones who were washed overboard?’
‘I’m sorry. I was not told the details.’
‘We must pay a visit to a certain impounded ship. I will explain on the way. Oh, and next time don’t offer to pay off someone else’s debt… until you find out how big it is.’
‘And stop taking charge.’
She glanced over at him. ‘You advised me to use my charm, Pearl. It’s hardly my fault if I possess more of that quality than you.’
‘Really? Let me tell you, that corporal was lucky you stepped between us.’
She wanted to laugh, but pushed it back. ‘You clearly did not notice the weapon under the man’s bed.’
‘Weapon? I care-’
‘It was a two-handed flint sword. The weapon of a T’lan Imass, Pearl. It probably weighs as much as I do.’
He said no more until they reached the
The ship’s berth was well guarded, yet clearly permission for Pearl and Lostara had been provided earlier, for the two were waved onto the old dromon’s battered deck then left deliberately alone, the ship itself cleared of all others.
Lostara scanned the area amidships. Flame-scarred and mud smeared. A strange pyramidal mound surrounded the main mast, draped in a tarpaulin. New sails and sheets had been fitted, clearly taken from a variety of other vessels.
Standing at her side, Pearl’s gaze fell upon the covered mound, and he voiced a soft grunt. ‘Do you recognize this ship?’ he asked.
‘I recognize it’s a ship,’ Lostara replied.
‘I see. Well, it’s a Quon dromon of the old, pre-imperial style. But much of the wood and the fittings are from Drift Avalii. Do you know anything of Drift Avalii?’
‘It’s a mythical island off the Quon Tali coast. A
‘Not mythical, and it does indeed drift, though the pattern seems to describe a kind of wobbly circle. As for demons and spectres… well…’ he strode to the tarpaulin, ‘hardly anything so frightening.’ He drew the covering back.
Severed heads, neatly piled, all facing outward, eyes blinking and fixing on Pearl and Lostara. The glimmer of wet blood.
‘If you say so,’ Lostara croaked, stepping back.
Even Pearl seemed taken aback, as if what he had unveiled was not entirely what he had expected. After a long moment he reached down and touched a fingertip to the pooled blood. ‘Still warm…’
‘B-but that’s impossible.’
‘Any more impossible than the damned things being still conscious-or alive at the very least?’ He straightened and faced her, then waved expansively. ‘This ship is a lodestone. There are layers upon layers of sorcery, soaked into the very wood, into the frame. It descends upon you with the weight of a thousand cloaks.’
‘It does? I don’t feel it.’
He looked at her blankly, then faced the mound of severed heads once more. ‘Neither demons nor spectres, as you can see. Tiste Andu, most of them. A few Quon Talian sailors. Come, let us go and examine the captain’s cabin-magic tumbles from that room in waves.’
‘What kind of magic, Pearl?’
He had already begun walking towards the hatch. A dismissive gesture. ‘Kurald Galain, Tellann, Kurald Emurlahn, Rashan-’ He paused suddenly and swung round. ‘Rashan. Yet you feel nothing?’
She shrugged. ‘Are there more… heads… in there, Pearl? If so, I think I’d rather not-’
‘Follow me,’ he snapped.
Inside, black wood, the air thick as if roiling with memories of violence. A grey-skinned, barbaric-looking corpse pinned to the captain’s chair by a massive spear. Other bodies, sprawled here and there as if grabbed, broken then tossed aside.
A dull, sourceless glow permeated the low, cramped room. Barring strange patches on the floor, smeared with, Lostara saw, otataral dust. ‘Not Tiste Andu,’ Pearl muttered. ‘These must be Tiste Edur. Oh, there are plenty
