The River of Shadows Part 44

The four youths looked at one another. They were shaken. This was something none of them had foreseen.

"Nothing to decide, is there?" said Pazel, his voice less certain than his words. "We swore an oath. That settles it."

"Right you are," said Neeps. But his expression was hunted. The tarboys looked anxiously at their friends. Thasha found she couldn't speak. Marila's face was a mask.

"It may be less simple than you think," said Hercol. "Grant me this much, boys: that we sit with our choices in silence awhile, until we are all back on the Chathrand Chathrand, at least."

"But Hercol," said Pazel, "we already-"

"Heed his words!" croaked Oggosk with sudden vehemence. The tarboys started; Ensyl stared up at her with great unease. Felthrup looked from Oggosk to Thasha and back again. He rubbed his paws together, a blur before his face.

Mr. Teggatz cooked a vat of pork and snake-bean stew. It was a surprising success in taste, but some kind of gelatin leaked from the bean pods and turned the whole cauldron into a translucent solid. His tarboy aides served it like a jiggling, messy pudding, and the crew devoured it without comment. They were well beyond shock.

The cook kept a few servings aside for the youths and Hercol, but none of them was hungry. They sat quietly in the stateroom, which was unchanged but for the mold in the pantry area, while everywhere else on the ship men labored in their hundreds, shouting, thumping, dragging crates, coaxing animals and once more cursing "the fish-eyed freaks." The dlomu's fear had infected them. Every man aboard knew that they were running from some mortal threat.

Captain Rose would keep them at it all night, and all the next day, Thasha knew. Even after they launched, the work would continue: below the waterline, the crew would keep on shifting and securing the wares by lamplight, all the way across the gulf. And if that work was ever done, there were the forty miles of ropes to double- and triple-check, and paint with tar against the damp; seams to caulk, chains and wheelblocks and pump-gears to oil, extra sails to cut and st.i.tch, hatch-covers to mend, stanchions to sh.o.r.e up; some fifty new animals to fuss over, two surly augrongs to scrub, delouse and copiously feed.

Hercol was right, but so was Pazel. It had been better not to talk anymore, there atop the city with nothing to lay their hands on, no mold to wipe away, no little tasks to hide behind. Still they all knew what the morning would bring. Neeps was putting his clothes in sacks. Hercol was seated on the bearskin, sharpening weapons. Pazel was rubbing oil into the creases of Thasha's boots.

Everyone was on edge. Neeps and Marila bickered when they spoke at all, though they never seemed to be more than an arm's length apart. The dogs lay in deep mourning, unable to bear the sight of the bags and bundles collecting near the door. Felthrup crouched on the window seat, gazing out at the night.

It fell to Mr. Fiffengurt to break the silence, roughly at midnight, when he staggered in from a long work shift and collapsed in the admiral's chair. Pazel silently brought him a mug of dlomic beer-frothy, fruity, black. They had spent the evening developing a taste for it.

The quartermaster drank deeply. "Rose has just let me in on the plan," he said. "It's the d.a.m.ndest bit of hide-and-seek nonsense I've ever heard. And I can't for the life of me think of a better idea."

The Chathrand Chathrand was to speed by night across the gulf, he explained, and land a tiny force, just three or four men, not far from where their little boat had been capsized by the emerald serpent. Those men would hide their boat, hide themselves deep in the dunes "and live off Rinforsaken was to speed by night across the gulf, he explained, and land a tiny force, just three or four men, not far from where their little boat had been capsized by the emerald serpent. Those men would hide their boat, hide themselves deep in the dunes "and live off Rinforsaken mul mul" while the Chathrand Chathrand sped out through the inlet, tacked west and raced along the outside of the Sandwall for a good sixty or eighty miles. There were rocky islets there, like those at Cape Lasung. A hiding place. Every sixth day the men on the Sandwall would climb the tallest dune and look for mirror-signals from Masalym, giving them the all-clear. On the same day, the sped out through the inlet, tacked west and raced along the outside of the Sandwall for a good sixty or eighty miles. There were rocky islets there, like those at Cape Lasung. A hiding place. Every sixth day the men on the Sandwall would climb the tallest dune and look for mirror-signals from Masalym, giving them the all-clear. On the same day, the Chathrand Chathrand would venture carefully out of hiding and creep back along the Sandwall, hoping for a corresponding signal from the landing party. would venture carefully out of hiding and creep back along the Sandwall, hoping for a corresponding signal from the landing party.

"What then?" said Thasha.

"Then?" said Fiffengurt, startled. "Why, then we come and get you, m'lady."

"Is that the captain's plan?"

Fiffengurt gazed at her for a long time, his fingers caressing the chair's felt arms. "If Rose tries to sail off and leave you here," he said, "I will put a knife into his heart. D'ye understand me, Lady?"

As if there could be two ways of understanding a statement like that. Fiffengurt drained his mug and pushed to his feet. "Time to check the watch lists," he grumbled. "The off-duty lads won't sleep unless I order 'em to, their heads are so twisted with worry. The d.a.m.ned fools. Won't be any blessed use tomorrow if they don't don't sleep, will they?" sleep, will they?"

When he was gone, Hercol shook his head. "Do not mind Fiffengurt. He is angry at himself for that game leg: he knows it would make him useless on an overland journey. I fear he's in more pain than he cares to admit, both from the leg and the thought of Anni and their child, and the slim chance that he will ever seen them again. But he thinks his own suffering too small a thing to share with anyone, just now."

"Dear old Fiffengurt," said Neeps. "But he's a.s.suming a lot, isn't he? I mean, we still haven't decided to go."

"Haven't we, mate?" said Pazel.

No one answered. Hercol rose and left the stateroom; the others went on with their work.

They were still drinking the black beer when a shout came from beyond the stateroom. Pazel at once felt a tightness in his chest: the voice was Ignus Chadfallow's. He went to the door and opened it. The doctor was crouched by the invisible wall, his lips near the hole Counselor Vadu had made.

"Pazel," he said, "come out here, will you? There is something you should see."

Pazel glanced back at the others. "Go on," said Thasha. He went, but he dragged his feet. He had a strong sense of having wronged the doctor. He had said nothing to Chadfallow about his dream-encounter with his mother; in fact they had barely spoken since their escape from the Conservatory. And Suthinia hadn't admitted everything, to be sure. But clearly Captain Gregory had more than one thing on his mind when he abandoned his family.

He stopped a few feet from the wall.

"It's not the best time, Ignus," he said.

The doctor rose to his feet, watching Pazel gravely. "It is the only time," he said.

Pazel drew a deep breath, summoning all his reserves of patience. Then he stepped through the wall. "Make it quick, will you?" he said. "I'm blary exhausted."

Chadfallow nodded and turned, beckoning Pazel to follow. They descended the Silver Stair to the lower gun deck and set off briskly toward the bows. Even at this late hour the deck was swarming with men. Some were inspecting the gun carriages; others were guiding freight down the tonnage shaft or muscling crates across the floor. There were a few dlomu working among them, and Pazel saw with amazement that they were in uniform-Arquali uniform. Olik's found dlomu willing to sail with us. To run away with the humans, to be hunted by their own people. Rin's eyes, some of them must still love that prince Olik's found dlomu willing to sail with us. To run away with the humans, to be hunted by their own people. Rin's eyes, some of them must still love that prince.

Chadfallow begged a lamp from one of the work crews and led Pazel down a side pa.s.sage into forward first-cla.s.s: a ravaged corner of the ship, burned in the rat-battle, and unoccupied since their landfall at Ormael. The once-luxurious cabins gaped in a line, like five missing teeth. Rose had ordered the doors removed, to prevent the ship's deathsmokers from creeping in and lighting cigarettes-one fire per voyage was more than enough.

Chadfallow sniffed. "The drug is still in the air," he said. "Bring an addict here and he will go feverish before your eyes." Then he froze. "Look, there it is."

Across from the first of the gutted cabins was a waist-high green door. Pazel was startled: he had seen that door before, but not on the lower gun deck. They approached it. The door was untouched by fire, although the wall around it was black with soot. Yet the portal was clearly ancient: warped and cracked, with peeling paint and an iron handle that had rusted to an irregular lump.

"It's exactly like the door on the berth deck," said Pazel. "The one Thasha showed me, the night she fell into a trance."

"Where on the berth deck?" asked Chadfallow.

"Starboard aft, I think," said Pazel. "The odd thing is that I never could find it again."

"Then it is is the same," said Chadfallow. He pointed down the corridor. Twenty feet from where they stood, someone had drawn a rectangle in chalk upon a bare stretch of wall. The shape was roughly the same size as the little green door. the same," said Chadfallow. He pointed down the corridor. Twenty feet from where they stood, someone had drawn a rectangle in chalk upon a bare stretch of wall. The shape was roughly the same size as the little green door.

"I drew that not an hour ago," he said, "around this very door. It moves, Pazel. It slides, and melts away, and reappears on other decks."

"A vanishing compartment?"

Chadfallow nodded. "They are quite real. And they lead to other places, other Chathrand Chathrands, lost in both s.p.a.ce and time. Some are reached through doors like this one, others merely by walking pa.s.sages in a prescribed order. Some flare to life when a mage is near, or a powerful spell troubles the firmament. Others flicker in and out of existence like an erratic flame, as though the well of their enchantment is running dry."

Pazel looked again at the door. Suddenly it felt menacing, like a trap waiting to break the leg of an unlucky dog. "How do you know all this?" he asked.

"I made it my business to know," said Chadfallow, "and I would have told you myself ere now, if you had not tried so hard to avoid me. There are benefits to a life spent in diplomatic circles. One is the chance to collect on favors. I have a friend inside the Trading Company-a record keeper, and a man obsessed with the magical architecture of this ship. Not long after I received my orders to report to Chathrand Chathrand I paid him a visit." I paid him a visit."

Chadfallow looked at the green door. "He told me about that one. It is unlike any other magical portal on this ship. It is part of a relic spell, I think, laid down even before Erithusme's time, by the mage-shipwrights who built this ship for war."

"Ramachni warned Thasha not to open that door," said Pazel.

"Hercol informed me," said Chadfallow, "but I am not Thasha, am I?"

He put his hand on the corroded k.n.o.b. And Pazel was suddenly flooded with apprehension, with outright fear. "Don't do it!" he shouted, seizing the doctor's arm.

Chadfallow gave him an unpleasant smile. "What awful thing do you imagine lying in wait?"

"Pitfire, Ignus, do we have to find out? If Ramachni said to avoid it that's blary well good enough!"

"Normally, yes," said Chadfallow, "but I have an equally valid reason to want to proceed. I was told that finding this door might prove the key to our success. To ridding the world of the Nilstone, that is, and perhaps Arunis as well."

"Told, were you? By whom?"

"By Ramachni," said Chadfallow. When Pazel gaped at him, he added, "It was a dream, some months back, as we drew close to Bramian."

Pazel quickly averted his gaze. "You can't trust dreams," he said.

"Ah, but can we afford to ignore them?"

"You're absolutely cracked," Pazel heard himself say. "That dream could have come from Arunis. We know he's been getting inside people's minds."

"The minds of the weak and the ill," said Chadfallow, "or do you count me one of those?"

Pazel turned away, a string of florid Ormali curses on the tip of his tongue. "d.a.m.n it all, I don't feel like arguing," he said at last. "Just stay away from that door, wherever it turns up. Ramachni didn't warn Thasha through any blary dream."

"True," said Chadfallow thoughtfully, "it was a message in an onion-skin, wasn't it?"

Not waiting for an answer, he walked on. After a minute Pazel hurried after him. Soon they reached the entrance to sickbay. Pazel could hear someone groaning within.

The doctor opened the door but did not enter. Pazel looked in and saw that the beds were almost full. Men and tarboys glanced up miserably, holding their stomachs, leaning over buckets and pans. Two or three called out to Chadfallow.

"I will attend you presently," said the doctor to the room at large. Then he closed the door and looked at Pazel. "Thirty patients," he said. "The water at the Tournament Grounds was unclean. Some sort of parasite, I expect."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Pazel, wondering if they were finished.

Chadfallow leaned against the pa.s.sage wall. He looked at Pazel with great melancholy. "I am still a hostage, you see: this time to the well-being of the ship. Rain is no use. I am the only reliable doctor this side of the Ruling Sea. The only human human doctor, I mean." doctor, I mean."

"And you sure are reliable," said Pazel, looking away.

Chadfallow's voice grew hard. "I know what you're thinking: that unless Arunis is stopped and the Nilstone recovered it will not make any difference whether or not these people live or die. That is true. But my own choice is not between defeating Arunis and saving these souls. It is between the certainty of saving lives here, and the small chance that I will be of decisive use on the expedition."

"Glad to know how carefully you've weighed all this."

A spasm of irritation pa.s.sed over Chadfallow's face; then his look became resigned. "You will believe what you wish of me," he said. "I could change your mind, perhaps-but I would prefer you reached your own conclusions. That has always been my aim: to give you the freedom to think for yourself, and all the tools I could to make that thinking fine."

"Ignus," said Pazel. "We're not going on that expedition, either."

The doctor stared at him, taken aback. "None of you?"

"How could we, d.a.m.n it?" said Pazel. "We cause a panic everywhere we go. It will be a hundred times better if the dlomu go by themselves."

"You were chosen by the Red Wolf."

"So was Diadrelu," said Pazel, "and look where that got her. And credek credek, you just finished talking about choosing for oneself. Did you mean a single word? Because it seems to me I do just fine when I make choices alone. The trouble is when all of you try to choose for me. If it's not the Wolf it's Ramachni, or Ott, or Captain Rose. Or you." Then Pazel added wildly, "Neeps and Thasha feel the same way I do. We're humans. We belong on this ship. It's not as if we brought the Nilstone into this world."

"What does Hercol say to this?"

"You'd better ask him."

Chadfallow straightened his back. He looked down at Pazel and nodded. "I understand your reasoning perfectly," he said. "Your decision mirrors my own, after all."

No words could have been less welcome to Pazel's ear. "I think I'll go back to the stateroom now," he said.

"May I walk with you?" asked the doctor.

Pazel shrugged. He set off, retracing their steps, and Chadfallow walked at his side. Pazel had the grating feeling that he'd just been outmaneuvered once more by a man who'd made a lifetime game of needling him. Had someone told the doctor about his own dream of Suthinia? Was this his way of gloating over how wrong Pazel had been?

"Ignus," he said through his teeth, "I'm going to ask you a question. And if you answer with anything but yes yes or or no no, I'm not sure I'll ever speak to you again."

"Mercy me," said Chadfallow.

"Are you the reason my father abandoned us?"

Chadfallow stopped in his tracks. He looked like a man who has suddenly been hurled a great distance, and is surprised to find himself on his feet. He opened his mouth and closed it again, never breaking eye contact with Pazel.

Then he said, "Yes, I am."

Something exploded in Pazel at those words. He flew at the doctor, aiming for the nose he had broken once before. Chadfallow jerked back his head just in time.

"Son of a wh.o.r.e!" Pazel shouted, lunging again. "He never mucking spoke spoke to me again! Did you do it in his G.o.ds-d.a.m.ned bed? Did he think I was your brat, your b.a.s.t.a.r.d child? Did he? Am I?" to me again! Did you do it in his G.o.ds-d.a.m.ned bed? Did he think I was your brat, your b.a.s.t.a.r.d child? Did he? Am I?"

"No."

"No to what what, you blary pig?"

"No, you're not my son."

Pazel stood frozen, his hands still in fists. He had seen Chadfallow enraged, pompous, indignant, even suicidal. But he had never heard such sadness in his voice.

"You're sure?" he said. "How can you be sure?"

Chadfallow blinked at him slowly. "Your father," he said, "is Captain Gregory Pathkendle."

Men were staring. Pazel looked at them until they turned back to their work. Chadfallow stepped forward and placed a nervous hand on his shoulder.

"Captain Gregory doesn't give a d.a.m.n about me," said Pazel.

Words he'd never meant to speak. Words too plain and factual, a truth too obvious to bear.

"Some men are not born to be fathers," said Chadfallow. "Very few rise to all the challenges of the task."

"Some men try."

Pazel felt hot tears on his face. Now that they had started what could ever make them stop?

"Why...do you say you're the reason he left?"

Chadfallow gazed into their sputtering lamp. "Because I shamed him, once. Before your mother, whom he revered even more than he loved. You know what your mother is, now, Pazel: a warrior in the fight for the soul of Alifros. That is what made me fall in love with her, by the way-not her beauty, not at first. I was swept off my feet by her goodness, the mission that had brought her over the sea. It was all I could think about. It exposed my diplomatic charades for the petty game they were. And there she was, giving it up for a commoner, a sailing captain! What was worse, she wanted wanted Gregory, and he her. So I shamed him, purposefully. It was the lowest act of my life." Gregory, and he her. So I shamed him, purposefully. It was the lowest act of my life."

"Tell me," said Pazel, nails biting into his palms.