‘Then they’d not fix their eyes there, would they? No, these damned things are my first gifts of diplomacy. Just seeing those dilated pupils is a victory.’
The handmaid brought over the hookah. She’d already drawn it alight and aromatic smoke spread out through the cabin. She had been doing this for her mistress for four years now. Each time, it preceded an extended period of intense discussion between her and the princess. Plans were created, tested, every detail hammered into place with the steady tap-tap-tap of rounding a copper bowl.
‘Hethry views you with great envy, Highness.’
‘She’s an idiot so that’s no surprise. Have we heard from Mother’s cedas?’
‘Still nothing. The Wastelands seethe with terrible powers, Highness, and it is clear that the Queen intends to remain there-like us, she seeks answers.’
‘Then we are both fools. All of this is so far beyond Bolkando’s borders that we would be hard pressed to extend any legitimate reasons to pursue the course we’re on. What did Kolanse contribute to our kingdom?’
‘Black honey, hardwoods, fine linens, parchment and paper-’
‘In the past five years?’ Felash’s eyes glittered in a veil of smoke.
‘Nothing.’
‘Precisely. My question was in fact rhetorical. Contact has ceased. We acquired nothing essential from them in any case. As for the Wastelands and the motley armies crawling about on them, well, they too have left our environs. We dog them at our peril, I believe.’
‘The Queen marches beside some of those armies, Highness. We must assume she has discovered something, providing a compelling reason for remaining in their company.’
‘They march to Kolanse.’
‘Indeed.’
‘And we don’t know why.’
The handmaid said nothing.
Felash sent a stream of smoke ceilingward. ‘Tell me again of the undead in the Wastelands.’
‘Which ones, Highness?’
‘The ones who move as dust on the winds.’
The handmaid frowned. ‘At first I thought that they alone were responsible for the impenetrable cloud defying my efforts. They number in the thousands, after all, and the one who leads them emanates such blinding power that I dare not look too long upon it. But now… Highness, there are others. Not dead to be sure. Even so. One of darkness and cold. One of golden fire high in the sky. Another at his side, a winged knot of grief harder and crueller than the sharpest cut diamond. Still others, hiding in the howl of wolves-’
‘Wolves?’ Felash cut in. ‘Do you mean the Perish?’
‘No and yes, Highness. I can be no clearer than that.’
‘Wonderful. Go on.’
‘Yet another, fiercer and wilder than all the others. It hides inside stone. It swims in a sea thick with the pungent flavours of serpents. It waits for the moment, and grows in its power, and facing it… Highness, whatever it faces is more dreadful than I can bear.’
‘This clash-will it occur on the Wastelands?’
‘I believe so, yes.’
‘Do you think my mother knows?’
The handmaid hesitated, and then said, ‘Highness, I cannot imagine her cedas to be anything but utterly blind and thus ignorant of that threat. It is only because I am able to see from this distance, from the outside, as it were, that I have gleaned as much as I have.’
‘Then she is in trouble.’
‘Yes. I think so, Highness.’
‘You must find a way,’ said Felash, ‘to reach through to her.’
‘Highness. There is one way, but it risks much.’
‘Who will bear that risk?’
‘Everyone aboard this ship.’
Felash pulled on her mouthpiece, blew rings that floated, wavered and slowly flattened out, drifting to form a chain in the air. Her eyes widened upon seeing it.
The handmaid simply nodded. ‘He is close, yes. My mind has spoken his name.’
‘And this omen here before us?’
‘Highness, one bargains with an Elder God at great peril. We must pay in blood.’
‘Whose blood?’
The handmaid shook her head.
Felash tapped the amber tube against her teeth, thinking. ‘Why is the sea so thirsty?’
Again, there was no possible answer to that question. ‘Highness?’
‘Has the damned thing a name? Do you know it?’
‘Many names, of course. When the colonists from the First Empire set forth, they made sacrifice to the salty seas in the name of Jhistal. The Tiste Edur in their great war canoes opened veins to feed the foam, and this red froth they called Bloodmane-in the Edur language that word was
‘And on.’
‘And on, Highness.’
Felash sighed. ‘Summon him, and we shall see what cost this bargain.’
‘As you command, Highness.’
On the foredeck, Shurq Elalle straightened as the lookout cried out. She faced out to sea.
Skorgen Kaban clumped into view from amidships. ‘Seen it, Cap’n!’
‘Swing her out, Pretty. If it’s gonna bite, best we lock jaws with it.’ The thought of the storm throwing
The black wire-wool cloud seemed to be coming straight for them.
‘Piss in the boot, this dance won’t be fun.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
