“Is that a famous saying?”
“Maybe if I say it often enough.”
“What did she say?” Malingo asked Candy.
“How did you know she said anything?”
“I’m starting to see it on your face.”
“She said you were very clever.”
Malingo didn’t look convinced. “Yeah, I bet she did,” he said.
Their route took them back to the harbor via a selection of much smaller streets than those by which they had ascended to the Council Chamber. There was an air of unease in these narrow alleys and tiny yards. People were going about anxious, furtive business. It was, Candy thought, as though everyone was making plans for what to do if things didn’t turn out right. Through partly opened doors that gave access into shadowy interiors she even caught a glimpse of people packing up in preparation for a hurried departure. Malingo clearly interpreted what they saw the same way because he said to Candy:
“Did the Council talk about evacuating The Great Head?”
“No.”
“Then why are people getting ready to leave?”
“It makes no sense. If anywhere’s safe, it’s the Yebba Dim Day. Lordy Lou! This is one of the oldest structures in existence.”
“Apparently old age isn’t what it used to be.”
They walked on in silence then, down to the harbor. There were a dozen fishing boats or more trying to find docking places so that the cargo of detritus could be unloaded.
“Bits of Chickentown . . .” Candy said grimly.
“Don’t let it bother you. The people here have heard so many things about your people over the years. Now they’ve got something to actually hold in their hands.”
“It looks like trash, most of it.”
“Yeah.”
“What are they going to think of Chickentown?” Candy said sadly.
Malingo said nothing. He hung back to let Candy go on ahead to examine the stuff the fishermen had scooped from the waters of the Izabella. Did the people of the Abarat think any of this was of value? Two pink plastic flamingos, washed away from somebody’s garden, a lot of old magazines and bottles of pills, some bits of bashed- up furniture, a big sign with a stupid bug-eyed chicken painted on it, and another that announced the subject of the Sunday sermon at the Lutheran Church on Whittmer Street:
Somebody among the crowd, a golden-eyed, green-bearded individual lubricated by several bottles of the Kid’s Best Ale, had decided to take this opportunity to pontificate on the subject of how dangerous humankind and its wicked technologies could be. He had plenty of supporters and friends among the crowd, who quickly provided him with a couple of fish crates to stand on, from which perch he let loose a venomous tirade. “If the tide carried their treasures here,” he said, “then it’s going to bring some of their owners too. We need to be ready. We all know what the people of the Hereafter will do if they come back. They’ll be after the Abarataraba again.”
He had only got that far when Candy heard somebody nearby murmur her name.
She looked around, and quickly found a friendly face, that of Izarith, who’d taken the trouble to look after Candy when she’d first ventured into the chaotic interior of The Great Head. She’d fed Candy, and given her a warm fire by which to dry herself, even given Candy her first Abaratian garments to wear. Izarith was a Skizmut; her people were born from the deep waters of what Izarith had called Mama Izabella. Now she came through the crowd toward Candy, wearing what looked like a homemade hat, sewn from different kinds of seaweed. She was cradling her baby Nazre with one arm and holding the little hand of her daughter Maiza with the other.
She was very emotional about seeing Candy again. Her eyes filled with silver-green tears.
“I’ve heard so much about you since you first came to my house. About all the things that you’ve done.” She glanced at Malingo. “And I’ve heard about you too,” she said. “You’re the one who worked for the wizard, right? On Ninnyhammer?”
Malingo made a little smile.
“This is Izarith, Malingo,” Candy said. “She was very kind to me when I first got here.”
“I did what anybody would have done,” Izarith said. “Do you have time to come back to the house and tell me whether all the things I’ve heard are true? You both look hungry.”
“Actually, I am a little,” Malingo said.
But in the short time since Izarith had called to Candy the mood of the crowd had changed, influenced by the anger toward humankind pouring from the man with the green beard.
“We should hunt them down, every last one of them humans, and hang them,” he said. “If we don’t it’s only a moment of time before they come looking to steal our magic again.”
“You know, I don’t think we have time to eat, Izarith, much as we’d liked to stay.”
“You’re worried about Kytomini aren’t you?”
“Is he the one saying he’d like me hanged?”
“He hates everybody. Right now it’s your people, Candy. It could be geshrats in five minutes.”
“There’s a lot of people agreeing with him,” Candy said.
“People like to have somebody to hate. Me, I’m too busy raising the little ones.”
“What about your husband?”
“Oh, Ruthus is working on his boat right now. Patching it up for selling. We’re getting out of the Yebba Dim Day as soon as we have the money. It’s getting too dangerous.”
“Is his boat seaworthy?” Malingo said.
“Ruthus says it is.”
“Then perhaps he’d take us to the Nonce, for a price.”
“The Nonce?” Izarith said. “Why are you going there?”
“We’re meeting friends,” Candy said. She reached in her pockets as she talked, and brought out all the paterzem she had. Malingo did the same. “Here’s all the money we’ve got,” she said to Izarith. “Would that pay for the journey?”
“I’m sure it’ll be more than enough,” Izarith replied. “Come on, I’ll take you to Ruthus. The boat’s nothing fancy, just so you know.”
“We don’t need anything fancy,” Candy said. “We just need to get away from here.”
Izarith lent Candy her wide-brimmed hat, to keep anyone in the increasingly agitated crowd from realizing that they had a member of humankind in their midst, then led Candy and Malingo down the quay, past vessels large and small to one of the smallest of the lot.
There was a man on board doing some final work on his vessel with brush and paint. Izarith called her husband away from his work, and quickly explained the situation. Meanwhile Candy watched Kytomini’s audience from the corner of her eye. She had a nasty feeling that she and Malingo had not passed through the crowd entirely unnoticed, a feeling that was lent weight when several of the crowd’s members turned to look in Candy’s direction, and after a moment, started to walk down the quay toward them.
“We’re in trouble, Izarith,” Candy said. “Or least I am. I think it would be better if you weren’t seen with me.”
“What,
“Candy’s right, love,” Ruthus said. “Take the children quickly and go around the back of the fish market. Hurry.”
“Thank you,” Candy said. “Next time it won’t be so rushed.”
“You tell my husband to come back to us as quickly as possible.”
“He will, don’t worry,” Candy replied.
The man with the green beard, who had first incited the anger with his speechifying, was now breaking through the approaching little mob of bullies to lead it.
