The Warrior's Tale Part 14

As quickly as they'd erupted, they fell and became calm pools of blue. I looked and saw the geyser had taken on a similar hue, except it reflected our forms as well as any palace mirror. The music stopped. Not even a hiss from the geyser marred the perfect silence.

A voice welled up in me. And this, I swear on my mother's ghost, was a voice that was not directed by me, or any wizardry tricks. I listened, as if I were another as the words boomed from my lips. 'Oh, great Te-Date. Protector of the wanderer. Lord of horizons yet breached, all mysteries yet revealed. Grant us this boon. Whither do we sail, oh Lord? In which direction is our destiny, our weird?'

The whirling geyser took solid form, and a vision appeared on its mirrored surface. It was our fleet sailing across smooth seas. At its lead was my ship, the flag of Maranonia fluttering in the breeze. And we were sailing west, chasing the setting sun.

The vision vanished and the geyser collapsed into a hissing pool.

I turned back to my audience, overflowing with joy. I spoke again, except this time the words were my own.

'There is our answer, my friends. Te-Date has pointed the way home. We sail west! And praise be Te-Date, we will be lost no more!'

Cheering erupted. The rocky glen echoed with their cries. Some laughed and pounded the backs of their fellows. Others were so overcome they wept.

But as for me a great weariness shook my knees. I collapsed on the rock and all was blackness.

When I awoke, I was aboard the ship and we were at full sail, skimming across the seas under a brisk wind. I was in Gamelan's small cabin, and when I opened my eyes he was dusting my brow with a cloth dipped in a sweet-smelling healing powder.

He smiled when he sensed my eyes fluttering open. 'Ah, you are with us again, my friend,' he said. 'How do you feel?'

I started to rise, but my limbs were so weak I gave it up. 'I feel like I just lost three falls out of three,' I said. 'But that's to be expected, I suppose. Being new to the conjuring arts, and all. A few more hours' rest will put me right.'

'I should hope so,' the wizard chortled. 'You've already slept for nearly a week.'

Stunned, I groaned up to a sitting position. 'A week? How could you let me stay here so long? By Te-Date, there's things to do. Plans to be laid. Training to-'

Gamelan's continuing laughter made me cut short my babbling. 'They just don't make Evocators like they used to,' he said. 'Why, in my youth we acolytes were expected to preside over a Blessing before breakfast, and heal half a hundred before the bell rang us to tenth-hour abas.e.m.e.nts.'

'Stuff a batskin m.u.f.f in it, wizard,' I growled.

Gamelan turned serious. 'I must admit you frightened me with your extemporaneous bit of future-casting. Calling on oracles can be quite dangerous, especially for an ignorant beginner.'

I shrugged. 'It worked, didn't it? The G.o.ds were kind enough to point our way home. We sail west, to find Orissa.'

Gamelan shook his head. 'Not necessarily,' he said.

'Listen here,' I said, a little hot. 'The vision clearly showed us sailing west.'

'Obviously, I couldn't see the vision you conjured up,' Gamelan answered. 'But although I'm blind, my hearing is quite sound, thank you very much. And I clearly heard heard you ask in which direction our you ask in which direction our destinies destinies lay. You said nothing at all about finding Orissa. In fact, I know of no spell that would accomplish such a thing. If there were, I would have had you conjuring up a map or two long ago.' lay. You said nothing at all about finding Orissa. In fact, I know of no spell that would accomplish such a thing. If there were, I would have had you conjuring up a map or two long ago.'

In a weaker voice I asked: 'Then west is not the way home?'

'Who can say?' Gamelan answered. 'Perhaps our fates and our wishes coincide. Perhaps by sailing west - which we know, broadly speaking, is the opposite direction from Orissa - we'll meet someone who knows the way. Or, perhaps we'll encounter some swift current, or pa.s.sage, that will carry us home.'

'Then I accomplished nothing,' I said, feeling a total dolt and failure.

'Oh, but that is certainly not so,' Gamelan protested. 'The others made the same mistake you did. Or, at least believed your interpretation of the vision. Everyone is convinced you showed them the way. No sooner had I ordered you carried back to my cabin, than your legates gathered with Cholla Yi and his officers and it was decided to strike west at once.'

Hastily, I rose up from the bunk. They'd stripped me when they'd put me to bed and I was wearing nothing but a frown. 'Where are my clothes?' I demanded. 'I must stop the fleet at once! We could very well be going the wrong way!'

Gamelan grabbed my arm and pulled me back. 'Don't be foolish,' he hissed. 'You have succeeded more than we could have ever dreamed. The fleet is overflowing with confidence, a commodity in short supply these last days. You've put steel in their spines, Rali, and hope in their hearts.'

'But, it's a lie!' I protested.

'Only you and I know that,' the wizard said. 'And perhaps it isn't a lie after all. Only the G.o.ds know the course we're set on. It may end happily. One thing I know for certain, if you tell them the truth they'll hate you for it. Things will be even worse than before. And if that should happen, there's no chance at all that we'll ever find our way home again.'

I sank back on the bunk, pulling a blanket about me, for I suddenly felt very cold. 'What should I do?' I moaned.

'Do nothing,' Gamelan said. 'Just keep a smile on your lips and if asked, lie again. And keep on lying. If fortune blesses us, the lie may yet meet the truth.'

I was well enough to leave my sickbed the following day. Everyone greeted me with such huge enthusiasm, fawning, making sure I had the best morsel of whatever food we had, or rushing to do my slightest bidding, that I felt a complete scoundrel. But I did as Gamelan advised, and only smiled and choked out modest remarks regarding my renewed status as heroine to all. Whenever necessary I sh.o.r.ed up the falsehood I'd created back on the dismal isle.

It got easier as the days went by, because we were the sudden recipients of good luck. Every day was sunny and the winds fair. Our little fleet leaped over the waves, chasing the sun into the most marvellous sunsets anyone had seen in their lifetime. The sea teemed with more fish than we could eat. And the day I arose we encountered an island entirely populated by enormous birds - nearly half as tall again as Polillo - that were not only wingless but so dumb they let you approach and club them down without protest. Their drumsticks were enormous and tasty, and the white meat of their b.r.e.a.s.t.s better than any delicate fowl I'd ever nibbled. We filled our meat casks with their flesh - both smoked and brined. We found sweet water on that island that rivalled any liquor we'd ever drunk. We emptied the sulphurous stuff we'd collected on the geyser island, scrubbed the barrels and filled them all to the brim.

So good was our luck during those days, that it became the norm -the expected. I guess childishness is at the heart of all our natures. Set the most sumptuous banquet before us, and we will marvel at it, revel in the myriad tastes in almost s.e.xual ecstasy. But serve that same banquet every day, and soon we'll begin whining: 'What's this? Honeyed humming bird tongue - againV againV And so it was with my fellow adventurers. The wind was the best any sailor could hope for, but Captain Stryker complained it was so constant he never had time to repair the sails. Duban the rowing master griped that his charges were getting soft. The quartermasters were upset that the rat population had increased because our holds were full of fresh food, Ismet worried that the soldiers were exercising with such enthusiasm they might become overtrained, and my officers fretted something must be amiss because it was not possible for morale to be as good as it seemed. And so it was with my fellow adventurers. The wind was the best any sailor could hope for, but Captain Stryker complained it was so constant he never had time to repair the sails. Duban the rowing master griped that his charges were getting soft. The quartermasters were upset that the rat population had increased because our holds were full of fresh food, Ismet worried that the soldiers were exercising with such enthusiasm they might become overtrained, and my officers fretted something must be amiss because it was not possible for morale to be as good as it seemed.

I did not fall prey to this weakness, but it was not because I am any less petty than my sisters and brothers, but because I knew all was false to begin with.

Then the winds died; and with them our luck.

Eleven.

The Demon and His Favourite ON THE DAY our luck vanished, I awoke just after dawn with a blinding headache. It was hot for such an early hour and I felt short of breath. The air was thick, syrupy. It had an odour of damp things, old things and things long in death or slow in dying. I heard the sails being lowered and stowed. Duban cursed his rowers onto their benches. The drum sounded - increasing the pressure on my throbbing temples - and there was a shudder as the ship pulled slowly forward. It moved with difficulty, as if the water had turned to mud and I heard things rasping along the sides. I groaned up and stumbled into my clothes. As I pa.s.sed Polillo's hammock to go up on deck I heard a piteous moan - I was not the only sufferer that dreaded morning. our luck vanished, I awoke just after dawn with a blinding headache. It was hot for such an early hour and I felt short of breath. The air was thick, syrupy. It had an odour of damp things, old things and things long in death or slow in dying. I heard the sails being lowered and stowed. Duban cursed his rowers onto their benches. The drum sounded - increasing the pressure on my throbbing temples - and there was a shudder as the ship pulled slowly forward. It moved with difficulty, as if the water had turned to mud and I heard things rasping along the sides. I groaned up and stumbled into my clothes. As I pa.s.sed Polillo's hammock to go up on deck I heard a piteous moan - I was not the only sufferer that dreaded morning.

A bizarre scene awaited me above decks. The light was a murky yellow that blurred detail; our shadows seemed bloated and indistinct. The rowers, working to a slow drumbeat, grunted at their task, rising completely off their benches with each stroke, then digging in hard with their heels as they muscled the oars through the water. Despite their labours, the ship only inched along.

The trouble was apparent. The ship - nay, the entire fleet - was mired in a vast waste of kelp. On other ships I could see men dangling from the sides on ropes, cutting away fleshy vines that'd snared them. Captain Stryker was gathering a similar work party as I approached to ask what had gone amiss.

'It's not my fault,' he growled, surprising me that he thought there was anything to defend. 'I said there was gonna be a squall last night, an' Klisura agreed, but would th' admiral listen to th' likes of us? Me, who's got so many years in th' salt you could stuff me in a brine barrel and sell me for provisions? Why, I was a sailin' master before that d.a.m.ned Phocas was a wet spot on his father's p.r.o.ng, if you'll be beggin' my pardon, Captain Antero. But th' admiral, he just listens to that ignorant son of a Lycanthian wh.o.r.e. Pays no mind when I says we oughta heave to, drop our sea anchors and wait'll she's done.'

The squall had awakened me during the night, but it hadn't seemed too fierce. Actually, it soothed me and I'd been easily coaxed back to sleep by the slow rolling of the ship, while listening to the sounds of the falling rain and hissing seas. As I listened to Stryker I remembered earlier days when the smallest chop sent the landlubbers among us running to spew our guts over the rail. I nearly laughed, covered with a cough, then put on my best Concern-For-My-Fellow-Officer visage.

'You saw danger in the storm, I gather?' I asked.

'Any fool could'a seen it,' Stryker said. Wasn't th' strength of th' winds that troubled me, but th' visibility. Rain was fallin' thicker'n my oldest wife's curses when I'm late from th' tavern. An' it was th' blackest night I'd seen since I was a lad just gone raidin' off th' Pepper Coast. I was fearful we'd lose each other in th' blow, or worse, come up against some reef in th' dark. Best thing to do, I signalled th' admiral, was wait it out and take new bearings in th' morning. But Phocas was all for makin' time, an' Cholla Yi agreed. Time to get where, I ask you? Don't even know where we're goin'! Anyways, we stuck together okay, although I had to practically mutiny to get 'em to hang out lanterns so's we could see each other. Then th' wind quit quicker'n a wh.o.r.e hauls in her t.i.ts when she sees you got an empty purse. Ain't been a breath of wind since. But that's not so bad. What's bad is what we got ourselves tangled into.'

He waved at the kelp forest, so thick that in places you couldn't see water, but only a slow rising and falling as waves pa.s.sed underneath.

'Never seen a thing like it,' he said. 'Not this size and this thick! But I've heard tales. Oh, yes, I've heard things that'd get your heart movin' right sprightly.'

'I'm sure you have, Captain Stryker,' I said. 'But I hope you keep those tales to yourself until we're out of this. No sense frightening people unnecessarily.'

'If we do do get out,' Stryker said darkly. get out,' Stryker said darkly.

I paid no mind to his gloomy words. He was only trying to add drama to the wrong that had been done him and what had come of Cholla Yi ignoring his sensible advice.

'We'll be all right,' he said, relenting to reveal his true thoughts. 'Just need us another good blow and we'll be out and smellin' sweet.'

But we didn't get another good blow. Not a breath of air stirred that day, or the next, or for many a day to follow. And it was hot. hot. By the G.o.ds who forsook us yet again, it was hot. The yellow haze that cloaked us only seemed to intensify that heat, making us feel we were simmering at the bottom of a soup kettle. Meanwhile, the kelp prison tightened about us. We found what seemed to be a channel leading out, cut our way to it, then muscled each ship into the pa.s.sage. But that channel, instead of carrying us out, led us into a maze of deadends and narrows that curved back on themselves, and others that went deeper and deeper into that tangle. We had no choice but to go on, for no sooner had we hacked a pa.s.sage and rowed through it, than it closed behind us, with the kelp quickly tangling itself again. By the G.o.ds who forsook us yet again, it was hot. The yellow haze that cloaked us only seemed to intensify that heat, making us feel we were simmering at the bottom of a soup kettle. Meanwhile, the kelp prison tightened about us. We found what seemed to be a channel leading out, cut our way to it, then muscled each ship into the pa.s.sage. But that channel, instead of carrying us out, led us into a maze of deadends and narrows that curved back on themselves, and others that went deeper and deeper into that tangle. We had no choice but to go on, for no sooner had we hacked a pa.s.sage and rowed through it, than it closed behind us, with the kelp quickly tangling itself again.

I cast the bones each day, but they had returned to the stultifying sameness as before. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how I cast them, the identical pattern showed up again and again. And that pattern, Gamelan had taught, showed no change in our near future. As the crew laboured in the awful heat, dragging us foot by foot through the watery forest, Gamelan and I tried every trick the old wizard knew to raise a wind.

We got out the magical wind bags that had been brought along for just this purpose. They were the best Gamelan and his a.s.sistant Evocators could create before we left Lycanth. Much magical talent had gone into them, but all for naught. Each time I performed the ceremony and recited the words to call forth the winds, when the bag was opened only a hot, foul-smelling gas escaped. Gamelan worried over this, saying a spell must have been cast over this immense sarga.s.so to a.s.sure no wind could ever disturb its horrible symmetry.

The deeper we drew into it, however, the more it changed. What had first appeared like a gently rolling plain, soon proved a false perception. Once in the ca.n.a.ls, the seaweed piled higher and higher, in places forming banks that reached half the height of a ship's mast. The kelp branches were tumbled into all kinds of odd shapes. Some appeared to be the turrets of a fleshy, brown-toned castle. Others took on the images of people, or beasts. I pa.s.sed one I swore looked like a woman's torso growing out of a rearing mare's body. Astride that mare was a young woman, b.r.e.a.s.t.s heaving, tresses flying, as if she and her steed were moving at speed. Polillo said I was only seeing such things because I'd been too long without a lover. I laughed, but secretly worried she was right.

A week into our struggle we broke into a channel whose current moved more swifdy. It was still a leisurely pace, to be sure, but to see any motion at all in this swamp was a cheery sight. The joy, however, was short-lived. It was Santh - old Pillow Nose, himself - who ended it. One minute I was conversing with Stryker, the next we were running forward, beckoned by Santh's hoa.r.s.e cry. We had to push our way through a knot of crewmen to reach him at the bow, where he stood pale and jabbering nonsense.

'What is it, man?' Stryker said.

But Santh was too hysterical to respond. 'May th' G.o.ds forgive me,' he wailed. 'I've been such a villain all me life, but no man deserves t' die like this!'

Stryker grabbed him roughly by the shirt front. 'Quit blubberin', you fool,' he barked. 'You ain't dead. And you ain't got no cause to fear it.'

Santh recovered enough to jab a shaking finger to his right. 'Look, Captain,' he cried. 'Look!'

We peered in the direction he pointed. I saw something greyish-white poking through the kelp forest. As I recognized it with a jolt, I heard Stryker suck in a fearful breath.

'By Te-Date, we're in for it now,' he harshed.

We were looking at the picked-clean bones of a human skeleton. A small crab scuttled out of an empty eye socket, waved its claws about, then scurried back inside. I looked closer and saw the rotting rags of the man's clothing scattered about. Just to one side was what appeared to be a belaying pin.

'Th' poor wh.o.r.e's son,' Stryker muttered, pitying his fellow mariner. He turned back to Santh and the others. 'Get your a.r.s.es back to your duties, lads,' he snarled. 'There's no lesson to be learned here, 'cept what's plain as that sack of puddin' Santh calls a nose.' He pointed at the skeleton. 'There's a lad what didn't listen to his cap'n's orders. And his ship had to sail without him, leavin' his bones for th' crabs to sup on.'

He harangued them some more to get some spleen into them and they went back to work - looking nervously over their shoulders as they went about their business.

'Well dealt with,' I said in praise.

Stryker shook his head. 'I'm a lyin' s.h.i.t, and they knows it,' he said. 'Weren't for th' conjurin' you did back on that island, there'd be no talkin' to 'em.' He shuddered. 'We knows th' G.o.ds be with us. We seen that right plain. But they ain't makin' it easy on us, Captain Antero. Not one bit, they ain't.'

He moved on to keep watch on his men, leaving me to gnaw on my guilty knowledge that my vision had promised nothing. Our future might lie west, but only the G.o.ds knew how it would end - or when. At the moment that future might well be to have our bones picked by the low forms that scuttled about in our prison, just like the mariner we'd seen. I was about to seek out Gamelan for counsel when the uneasy peace was destroyed again. There was a shout from our lookout. I didn't need to be told what he'd seen, because no sooner had the cry burst from his lips than I saw for myself.

Both banks had become an enormous charnel house. Countless skeletons - both of men and animals - littered the scene. Some were whole and still carried the remnants of clothes, others were hurled about, with their large bones burst open, as if cracked by scavengers for the marrow. Some of the crew wept, others spewed their guts over the sides, while the rest stood pale and mumbling prayers to whatever G.o.ds they hoped might rescue them from such an end. As that horror burned itself into our dreams, the channel turned, spreading into a small lagoon, and an even greater terror was unveiled.

The rotted hulks of ships of every age and nation spread out before us. Some were caught in the tangle by the edge of the lagoon, others jutted out of the kelp as far as the eye could see across the slow-rolling plain. Some of the ships were of recent design, but others were - even to my untutored eye - of great age and scabbed with centuries of time. The whole thing was a great graveyard of all the ships that had been lost without a trace since history's beginnings.

Something made me duck and as I did so, a shadow pa.s.sed over me. I heard a squeal of startled pain as an object struck a sailor behind me. I dropped to the deck and tuck-rolled back to my feet, drawing my sword as I rose, and dodging once again as a missile hurled past. A shrill chorus of battle-cries rent the air and scores of heavy objects crashed down. I saw skinny, naked figures swinging from the banks on kelp vines, brandishing all manner of weapons. A rusted spear was thrust at me, I brushed it aside and cut my attacker down, roaring for my Guardswomen to repel boarders.

The deck swarmed with small brown figures with limbs so slender they looked as if you could snap them with two fingers. But they made up for size with fierceness and surprise. Many sailors went down under the first rush, but as my women smashed into our attackers, the crew rallied, clubbing with anything in their reach. I saw Corais and Gerasa - a superb bow-woman - shielded by an axe-swinging Polillo, fire arrow after arrow into our attackers. Three rushed at me. My left hand found my knife and I put my back against the mast as the three crowded in. The one on my left jabbed with a trident. With a quick blow of my sword, I cut it off at the haft, ducked forward and came up to slip my dagger between his ribs. It stuck as he fell, so I left it there and pivoted, making a two-handed slice at the axeman beside him. My blade bit deep, nearly cutting him in two. Blood spurted from his wound, blinding me. As I desperately yanked on my sword to pull it free, I felt the presence of the third man rushing forward. I dropped to my knees and he tripped over me. Before he could recover, I'd ripped my blade free and chopped blindly at him. It was a lucky stroke - lucky for me, at any rate - and it sliced through his kidney as he tried to roll away. He shrieked and before I'd clawed the gore from my eyes he was choking a death-rattle.

Somewhere a horn trumpeted and by the time I'd reached my feet again, our enemies were scuttling away. But as they ran, many were carrying grisly burdens - arms and legs and huge pieces of flesh hacked from the bodies of our fallen comrades. And it was no rout -they were retreating in an orderly fashion, with flying squads to protect those burdened with meat.

I rallied my women and we charged into those remaining on the deck, but we'd only managed to kill a few before the rest scampered off jeering as they scuttled along kelp vines thicker than a large man's trunk. I heard sounds of fighting on the other ships, but that too faded to be replaced by the shrill ridicule of our attackers. I could see lines of naked bodies moving along like ants. They converged into a single column and headed off. I sheathed my sword and swarmed up the foremast to see where they were going.

I found Santh's tall skinny friend cowering on the foretop. He was blubbering something, but I paid no attention as I peered this way and that until I spied the line of men. In the distance I saw an enormous mound shaped like a ship. I looked closer and saw it was was a ship - like no other that I'd ever seen. It was so huge it could have housed our whole fleet. The top consisted of a crazy sc.r.a.p-wood edifice that formed three turret-like structures - the one in the centre towering twice as high over the others. Smoke curled out of its peaked roof. The line of men snaked towards the strange ship and in a few minutes I saw them disappear into a huge maw of a hole that pierced the side. a ship - like no other that I'd ever seen. It was so huge it could have housed our whole fleet. The top consisted of a crazy sc.r.a.p-wood edifice that formed three turret-like structures - the one in the centre towering twice as high over the others. Smoke curled out of its peaked roof. The line of men snaked towards the strange ship and in a few minutes I saw them disappear into a huge maw of a hole that pierced the side.

I shinned down, ordering my officers to set guards and see to the needs of my troops, and sent for Cholla Yi. As I waited, I learned that I'd only suffered a few wounded, and those were minor. Poor Stryker, however, had lost ten men - and all of their corpses had been carried away.

'But we gave better'n' we took,' he said with grim satisfaction.

Our attackers had left thirty-six bodies behind, but I saw no cause for celebration. They were hardly in mourning when they'd fled with their booty of limbs and flesh hacked from our comrades. That they were cannibals was no great revelation. What puzzled me more was why they all looked like such starvelings, with arms and legs like twigs and swollen bellies. Water was a problem in these plant-choked seas, but not food. There was much edible life among the kelp vines, and a plenitude of fish to be got out of the channels. But all of the corpses sported the orange-tinted hair and swollen bellies of malnutrition and the running sores pocking their skin would've never healed if they'd lived.

Admiral Cholla Yi arrived shaken by the encounter, but spoiling for a fight.

'They're nothing but bags of bones,' he scoffed. 'They caught us by surprise, is all. Who'd expect anything human to be living in this perdition? They're probably nothing more than survivors off those wrecks. And they aren't trained fighters. Most of those hulks look like merchantmen.'

I agreed. 'It's not likely they've ever encountered a war fleet before. If we try to work our way back out, they'll pick us off a few at a time. But if we put the fear of the G.o.ds in them now, they'll cower in their bolt-holes until we're well gone.'

'One thing to take note of,' Gamelan broke in, Ms they seem to act in concert, and with purpose. Which means they have leaders - perhaps even a master.'

I nodded. 'Probably makes his headquarters in that big ship I saw them parading into. Maybe that's where we strike.' 'It would seem so,' Gamelan said. 'But that's not what I was getting at. What occurs to me is this might be the opportunity we've been hoping for. There's no doubt in my mind there's some kind of magical force at work in this place - the permanent lack of wind, this maze of vegetation. It was created, not formed by nature.' 'A wizard?' I asked.

'Perhaps,' Gamelan replied. 'It could be other things, of course, but I'd really prefer it to be someone we can bargain with to find a means to escape this place.'

'Far as I can see,' Stryker said, 'we got nothin' they want, but th' skin we're walkin' around in. So there's nothin' to bargain. I'm with th' admiral. I say we fight.'

But I had glimmer of what Gamelan was getting at. A plan began to form in my mind. 'I'm in complete agreement, gentlemen,' I said. 'But perhaps there's also something in what Lord Gamelan says. I propose we try to accomplish both. Cow our enemy, and find pa.s.sage out at the same time.'

I laid out my plan. There was some grumbling, but gradually agreement was reached - we would attack that night.

I took nine of my best soldiers, including Polillo, Ismet, and Jacara, a swift, sure-footed runner. I left Corais in charge of the others and had her post archers to watch for our return, making sure Gerasa was among them.

We wore only what was needed for modesty, darkened our skin -except for Ismet, who had no need - and blackened our weapons. Gamelan helped me conjure up a tarry substance that we painted on our bare feet and when we went over the side onto the immense ropes of kelp, our footing was as secure as it could be on the pitching, slippery terrain. We had a full moon to contend with, but the mist rising up from the cooling vegetation nearly obscured it. Jacara took the lead. I followed, with Ismet close behind, and Polillo - her big axe strapped to her back - protected the rear.

I knew if we were successful, our return trip would be at a dead run. To help, Gamelan had me mix special oil, which Polillo carried in a leather flask. She sprinkled drops on the vines as she went. They were nearly invisible and Polillo groused about what seemed to be a pointless task, but I a.s.sured her at the right time the purpose would be quite clear. I'd also ordered scores of fire beads hung from the mast of our ship so it would be easy to find our way. As for our target - that monstrous ship - getting to it would not be difficult. At dusk the high centre tower had ht like a huge beacon. Strange raucous music trumpeted out, interspersed with wild, blood-chilling howls. Some kind of victory feast, we surmised. Or perhaps our skinny friends were working themselves up for another attack on the morrow. In either case, I fully intended to spoil their celebration.

It took time to get used to clambering across the odd terrain. The whole ma.s.s was in constant motion, rolling with the seas. In places where the growth was thinner the water would geyser up without warning and it was all we could do to keep our balance. To make things more difficult, a foot might go through a s.p.a.ce between the vines, threatening to pitch us on our faces, or smaller tendrils might tangle in our harness. There were also weak places where you could plunge down into the depths below. I had to be hauled out once, and Polillo, with her greater weight, went in three times. It was not a pleasant experience. The water was warm and viscous and filled with scuttling little things that nipped at me with sharp claws and teeth. Instead of a pool, the hole was more like a watery nest, choked with barnacled vines that rasped on the flesh. As I fell through and the water rose above my head, I was overcome by fear something was watching. As my head emerged I sensed it was slithering for me. It was all I could do to force myself to remain calm so my companions could haul me out. As I lay panting by the side of the break, bubbles rose on the surface and when they burst there was a smell of rotting things. I shivered and nearly retched as my imagination supplied several unpleasant sources of the bubbles and the smell. The loathsome sensation of being in that nest troubles my sleep to this day. The whole time I had the disgusting notion that not only was I about to become something's dinner, but that I'd first be humiliated in the foulest ways possible before I was fit for it to eat. Each time Polillo went in I knew what she suffered and nearly lost my rations as I worked frantically with the others to get her out.

Eventually we discovered the easiest method to make our way was to trust to instinct and go full force. With the agile Jacara at the lead, we ran along the vines, hesitating only when we'd reach the top of a rolling ma.s.s of kelp, then leaping forward to the next and running until another wave caught up to us. It took us over an hour to learn this method of locomotion and in that time made only a short distance. But once we abandoned clumsy caution it took us less than fifteen minutes to reach the hulk.

We dropped to our bellies and crept cautiously towards the gaping entrance. Corais hand-signalled an absence of guards, but that didn't ease my worry. I was heeding Gamelan's warning before we left that traps can take many more forms than nature and the ugly side of human ingenuity can create. I motioned a halt and slipped up to where Janela waited. I made signs for her to stay and crept onward, moving only a foot or so at a time, then stopped, pushing out with all my senses.

I felt dusty threads touch my cheek and adhere like a spider web. I nearly brushed them away, then froze. I backed up slightly, then slowly reached a hand forward - closing my eyes and concentrating. It was difficult because the strange music had grown even louder, hurting my ears and scratching at my bones. Finally my fingers touched the sorcerous web. I stopped. My fingers began to tingle. Very slowly I drew them back, feeling the magical threads cling, then fall gently away.

Gamelan had instructed me what to do before we left the ship. 'Since I have no powers,' he'd said, 'I cannot tell you what kind of sorcery awaits. You will need to adapt yourself to what you encounter. To elude our enemies, you will have to wear their skin.'

I signalled the others to join me. Making motions, I alerted them to the trap, then had them huddle around me in a tight knot. I pulled a small balloon of spun gla.s.s from my belt pouch and shattered it in my palm with my knife haft. A speckled powder spilled out. It smelled of fish bone and insect parts. The bone, Gamelan said, was actually the ground beaks of cuttlefish, mixed with a bit of their dried ink. The insects were the similarly treated husks of a beetle that lives in great colonies on flowering plants. To feed and live in safety, they'd learned to form themselves into green twigs and leaves and the multicoloured flowers of their host. I stretched my palm flat and blew the dust into my companions' faces. Then I sprinkled the residue - gla.s.s and all - on my head, and whispered the spell: Form and Shadow, Shadow and Form Paired wings that Carry the night-bird In my mind I became small and weak and without pride. Hunger burned in my gut. A voice wept inside: I am dying!

Poor me. Poor dying me.

The weeping turned into a wailing plea: Help me, Great Master.