The Rats and the Ruling sea tcv-2

by Robert V. S. Redick

  Only twenty or thirty birds heeded him this time, but they were enough. Peeling away from the flock, they formed a racing circle about the ixchel. The Pachet raised his song a whole octave, his face amber-red with the strain.

  Then the birds fell on Taliktrum. They jostled and crowded, vying to seize some part of his shirt or leggings. Dri had coached him for this moment, from the old lore of their House, the memories passed down to her by her great-aunts and uncles. Taliktrum raised his arms as though preparing to dive, and then it seemed almost that he was diving, but upwards, as the swallows bore him swiftly through the tree tops.

  'Gods of earth and air,' said Diadrelu.

  She heard his triumphant laugh. The birds flew where he wished: up the slope of the island, out over the cauldron of waves, down in a plummeting dive from which they were scarcely able to recover.

  Myett approached Diadrelu and gripped her arm. 'My grandfather tires,' she said. 'You must tell your nephew to come down.'

  'Let him cease playing when he will!' Steldak laughed. 'Our commander wears the swallow-suit; if they drop him he will fly back to us himself. And he no longer answers to Diadrelu, girl: she has been sanctioned by the clan, and walks free by his mercy. Aya Rin, see how they obey! It is as if-'

  Steldak never finished his thought. Taliktrum and his swallow-servants raced by overhead, and the young lord swept a hand over the four figures beneath him. And before they could wonder at the move the swallows were boiling around them, black eyes shining with urgency, talons seizing at their clothes.

  They rose together in the grip of the birds. The flock winged after Taliktrum, who was racing out over the sea. We'll die! thought Dri. For the Pachet's music had ceased: he could barely hold onto his instrument, let alone play.

  But the birds still held them tightly, and still flew where Taliktrum willed. He led them far from the cliff, and high into the sky. For Dri, who had flown many times by swallow-suit, it was a frightful but thrilling experience. For the others it was pure terror. Steldak wore the look of a man in free fall, watching his death rush towards him. Myett and the Pachet were reciting prayers.

  Only Taliktrum was fearless: indeed he looked half-crazed with ecstasy. Roaring, he made the birds climb higher still, until they saw beneath them all five Black Shoulder Isles, and the belching cone of an active volcano, and a fantastic mountaintop ruin on Bramian with serpentine walls that vanished in the mist. How is he doing it? Dri wondered. Will they obey him as long as he wears the suit? Then the flock wheeled round and Dri saw fear enter her nephew's face at last.

  Great Mother!

  A human stood atop the hill she and Steldak had climbed an hour before. He was a tall man in late-middle years, head shaved, dressed in a sand-coloured cloak tied with a crimson belt. His hands were raised above his head, and in one of them he held a sceptre of gold topped with a dark and jagged crystal. The furious seabirds whirled about him, fearing for their eggs, and it was a moment before Dri saw his face. When she did at last, she knew with a certainty that it was not the first time.

  The man did not glance skywards; they had not been seen. As Taliktrum brought the flock around for another pass, Dri took out the monocular and trained it on him. The man had lowered his sceptre until it pointed at the Chathrand, and Dri could see his lips moving in some chant or incantation. A moment later he turned and quickly left the hill.

  How had he landed, and where was his boat? Dri could not imagine that such a personage had been aboard the Chathrand all along. But where else could he have come from? And where in the Nine Pits had she seen his face?

  Taliktrum struggled to draw nearer to his aunt, but he could not control individual birds, and merely sent them all zig-zagging above the isle. 'What do we do?' he shouted in the ixchel-voice no human could hear. For a moment all his pride of lordship was forgotten.

  'Land!' Dri shouted back. 'Sweep low around the isle, and land! We must get back to the ship! This magic is no use to us now!'

  Taliktrum nodded, still in shock. He swept his hand in a circle, and as if reading his very thought the birds dived for Sandplume. Soon they were safely out of sight, with trees and hill between them and the stranger above.

  Then Myett screamed like a child, and pointed out over the western sea.

  A warship was racing towards them, around the south shore of Bramian. Dri snapped the monocular to her eye: she was a great sleek predator of a ship, seven falling stars upon her foresail and a hull painted white as snow. It was a Mzithrini Blodmel. No more than twelve miles off. And of course it was not making for them at all — nothing as small as an ixchel was visible at such a distance — but rather for the Chathrand, the unsuspecting Chathrand, still moored on the blind side of the isle.

  Taliktrum's gestures became frantic, crude. Wary of being seen by the man above, he drove the flock so low that a few unlucky birds flew full-tilt into the crest of a wave, perishing instantly. Then the nesting-cliff came into view and he veered so sharply that Myett's birds nearly lost their grip. Their landing was rough to say the least. Dri and Steldak were flung against the sides of trees. The old Pachet landed with a grimace of pain, but he kept his instrument safe in his arms.

  Taliktrum ran to Diadrelu's side. 'Get up, Aunt, we have to think! It was a Blodmel, wasn't it?'

  Dri climbed painfully to her feet. 'Not just any Blodmel,' she said. 'That is the Jistrolloq, the White Reaper. And it cannot be here by chance.'

  'But perhaps they still respect the new peace?' asked Pachet Ghali.

  'Yes, and they have come all this way to invite us to a game of pass-the-sandal, ' said Taliktrum acidly.

  'Keep silent, old fool,' snapped Steldak, 'and let His Lordship think.' Taliktrum pulled a large bundle from under a drift of leaves. It was the other swallow-suit, which they had hidden an hour ago. He tore it roughly from its travel sack.

  Diadrelu shook her head. 'No, Pachet, they have come too far for any task but murder. They blame us for their elder's death, and indeed it was Arunis who flung the incubus at their shrine.'

  'How long do we have?' demanded Taliktrum.

  'If the wind does not freshen?' said Steldak. 'Perhaps forty minutes, my lord.'

  'That old giant on the hilltop is in league with them, isn't he?' demanded Taliktrum. 'I know his face, somehow.'

  'He is a sfvantskor,' said Diadrelu. 'It has come back to me at last. He was aboard the Jistrolloq when it came alongside us in Simja. And I would guess that the wand he holds is what Arunis called Sathek's Sceptre, which he dispatched the incubus to steal. But this is no time for guesswork. You must fly to the ship at once, Taliktrum, and take the Pachet with you.'

  'And what then, Aunt? Those devils are going to sink her!'

  Taliktrum's voice had come out shrill. Dri stared at him, appalled: he had the look of a cornered animal. She had any number of misgivings about her nephew's role as clan leader, but paralysis in the face of danger was something she had never imagined.

  'The Jistrolloq is a terrible foe,' she said cautiously, 'but the Chathrand is not defenceless, and she is nearly twice their size. Go, Taliktrum. See the Pachet safely to Night Village, then warn the humans.'

  'Of course!' laughed Taliktrum. 'What other counsel should I expect from you? Talk to the giants, trust them, embrace them! Let them decide our fate!'

  'If you would not do this,' said Diadrelu, 'give me the other suit, and I will.'

  'Do you believe me now, Lord?' said Myett suddenly, her eyes locked on Diadrelu. 'I warned you that she would seek to usurp your place.'

  'Oh child, nonsense,' said Pachet Ghali.

  'Diadrelu has no business here,' said Steldak. 'What is it she advises? To sweep into the ship, crying an alarm? That would bring doom on our clan no matter what followed. If the Chathrand did indeed escape, Rose's first act when out of danger would be to exterminate us all.'

  'Madness,' whispered Taliktrum.

  'Yes, nephew, it is,' said Diadrelu. 'While we bicker they are closing. Our people will be dead by
midday if we do not act. But I never suggested that we abandon secrecy. Go to the stateroom and alert Hercol or Thasha or Neeps Undrabust, or even the woken rat. They may sound the alarm in our stead.'

  Still Taliktrum demurred. Dri fell silent: the facts had all been spoken; he would face the deed before him or he would not. And you, Diadrelu Tammariken? Will you face what must be done, if his will breaks?

  'They cannot see the Jistrolloq,' said Myett, 'and they will not believe the ravings of the Tholjassan or the Isiq girl, to say nothing of the rat.'

  'They are still at anchor,' said Steldak. 'A light anchor, but it will take more than an hour to raise it. And if they should be caught in the cove by the Jistrolloq they will be utterly destroyed.'

  'Then our mission fails,' said Taliktrum.

  His voice was hollow with despair. While the others looked at him, speechless, Dri studied the footing between her nephew and the cliff.

  'We will indeed sound an alarm,' Taliktrum continued, 'but it must be more than that. Pachet Ghali, you must play for the birds again. What my brother hoped for at Sanctuary-Beyond-the-Sea must happen now, this very minute. We must abandon the ship.'

  'Lord Commander,' said the old man, turning pale, 'I do not know if my skills are equal to such a task! There are so many of us — and the birds heeded me but once out of all my attempts.'

  'They will heed me, I think,' said Taliktrum, 'as soon as you cast your spell.'

  'Are they to bring us… here?' asked Steldak, aghast. 'To this heap of an island, this birdhouse?'

  'Better here than the bottom of the sea,' said Taliktrum. 'And later swallows can bear us to Bramian, a few at a time. We may rebuild our House there, and find some measure of peace, and one day our children may try again.'

  'It is broad daylight,' said Diadrelu, 'and the deed on Sanctuary was to be accomplished under cover of darkness. How many will the humans kill when our people rush to the topdeck?'

  'Not all,' said Taliktrum, 'that is the main thing.'

  'And what of your father's dream, the one he gave his life for?'

  'He gave his life to save Steldak from a cat,' said Taliktrum. 'As for dreams, it is time we woke from them. But providence does favour us in one way — had we not come ashore we would be as ignorant of the danger as the giants, and soon to perish with them. Not even you, Aunt, could prefer that fate.'

  Their eyes met, lady and young lord, the old commander and her replacement. Then Dri shut her eyes, said a prayer to Mother Sky, and leaped at him.

  Taliktrum had a warrior's instincts, if not a leader's. He moved into a whirling sidestep that would have kept Dri's blow from ever landing — had she tried to land one. But her nephew was not the target: she was after the other swallow-suit, gripped under the arm he raised to block her, and in that first split-second leap she snatched it from his hand.

  Taliktrum's reaction was just as she hoped: the young man expected an outright attack, and sought to put distance between them lest she press her advantage. When Dri spun in the opposite direction there was suddenly a yard between them — all the room in the world for a battle-dancer.

  Her second leap brought her between the Pachet and his granddaughter. Myett was quick as a spider: she had her knife out and slashed the air before her, and Dri felt the wind of the blade as she twisted under the blow. No time to parry: she struck the Pachet as gently as she could with her elbow, seized the swallow-pipes and rolled out of range of the girl's next stab.

  She came out of the roll with her feet planted, saw the flash of the descending knife and struck out with a blocking-blow almost hard enough to shatter Myett's forearm. The knife flew from the girl's hand; for an instant she seemed frozen with pain. In that instant Dri seized her by the arm and the belt and hurled her bodily at Steldak, who was sidling towards her.

  A shadow. Dri threw herself sideways, and Taliktrum's sword bit the earth where she had stood a moment before. Gods above, he's drawn his sword against his family!

  The shock of having nearly died at the hands of one she had held as an infant — and one adorned in the ancient feather-coat, like a soothsayer of old — nearly cost Dri her life. Taliktrum was in deadly earnest: he wrenched the blade from the ground straight into an upward thrust. Dri avoided the blow with room to spare, but she was off-balance now, and when the blade came down a third time it missed her chest by an inch. Her third dodge had left her so spread-eagled that Taliktrum was able to kick her right foot out from under her, throwing her backwards over his blade.

  She knew as well as any fighter alive how to turn a setback into an advantage. But once more she hesitated: this time on the point of a crippling kick to her nephew's face. She knew the sound of a snapped neck, and could not live with the sound of his inside her, the knowledge that she had dealt the killing blow. Then Taliktrum wrenched his sword from beneath her, and as he did so the blade's edge tore a diagonal gash across her back.

  What Dri did next she could not afterwards remember. She only knew (in thought too quick for words) that she must be faster than her spilling blood. She did not see her own attack, or how it felled Taliktrum in an instant; only the pain in one foot and one fist told her what she had used to bring him down. She was standing; he lay twisting in the leaves, stunned but not mortally wounded, the sword that had drawn her blood still clenched in his hand.

  She turned and ran, straight out along the edge of the cliff, pulling on the swallow-suit as she went. Behind her Steldak was howling: 'Lord Taliktrum! Murder! Regicide!' And Myett was giving chase. Dri ran so close to the precipice that earth and leaves sheered off with every footfall. How her back bled! The ancient coat would be defiled for ever, and how would their descendents speak of the one whose blood stained the garment? Heroine, traitor, fool?

  She stumbled. Her shoulder met the cliff's edge, and then she was falling, spinning, the boiling waves rushing towards her. She closed her eyes and extended her arms, thrust her hands into the wing-bone gauntletsAnd soared.

  'What do you mean, refuses?' said Neeps.

  'I mean he refuses — he flat-out won't come near her,' said Fiffengurt with a significant look at Thasha's cabin. She had retreated there well before sunrise, with Felthrup and her dogs, and had only responded to their knocking with irritated grunts. Felthrup's muffled voice went on and on, however, as if the rat were delivering an endless speech.

  The quartermaster entered the stateroom and closed the door behind him. He looked worried and morose. 'As a matter of fact, Pathkendle doesn't want to see any of you. He's asked for his hammock to be brought to the midship compartment on the berth deck. He says he'll be as safe there as he would in the stateroom, because there's always hundreds of sailors around. And of course no woman may set foot there. I don't think he's in his right mind, Undrabust, if you want the truth. He says Alyash is a Mzithrini! And he says he watched Drellarek get eaten.'

  'Did Pazel get bumped on the head, maybe?' asked Marila sensibly.

  Fiffengurt shook his head. 'He looks like he's been wrestling snakes in the bottom of the Pits. And there's more, by Rin.' He lowered his voice, although they were quite alone. 'Pathkendle says Rose has got a wolf burned into his forearm. How d'ye like that development, lad? Rose carries the same mark as you and Pathkendle and Thasha and Mr Hercol. Does that mean what I think, now — that the captain's going to help us?'

  Neeps' eyes widened in disbelief. 'Pazel must be wrong,' he said. 'He saw some other scar on Rose's arm, and got carried away.'

  'I'm sure you're right, Undrabust,' said Fiffengurt uneasily.

  'Hang that fool, he's impossible!' Neeps exploded. 'Gone for three days of Rin-knows-what on Bramian, and he can't even bring himself to say, "Hello, I survived? " '

  'Obviously not,' said Marila.

  Neeps glared at her. 'Anything else obvious to you?'

  Marila nodded firmly. She began to count on her fingers.

  'Pazel won't actually be safe on the berth deck, because it's full of violent men. And all that chatter from Felthrup �
� it's just like the night before last. He's reading to her from the Polylex, Neeps. And Thasha must have asked him to, because who could put up with it otherwise? And Rose hasn't imprisoned you yet because he thinks you'll be useful to him, just like Pazel must have been on Bramian.'

  'Finished?' Neeps demanded.

  'No,' said Marila. 'It's also obvious that you and Pazel had a fight before he left — you get angry whenever he's mentioned. And one more thing: since Ramachni left we haven't won any battles, unless you count what happened on Dhola's Rib. Mostly we've been fighting just to stay alive. We're… lost, and our enemies are stronger than ever.'

  Fiffengurt sighed and worried his beard. 'That last part's certain,' he said. 'But they did take one hit on Bramian: Sergeant Drellarek met his death, in some horrid way no one wants to explain.'

  Thasha's door creaked open. There she stood, bedraggled and wild-eyed between her dogs.

  'Where is Pazel?'

  Awkward silence. Neeps and Fiffengurt glanced sidelong at each other, as if each was hoping the other would speak first.

  Marila came to their rescue. 'He's annoyed with us — with the two of you, anyway. He and Neeps got into a fight-'

  'What?' cried Thasha.

  '-and Pazel's mad at you for kissing Fulbreech-'

  'What? ' shouted Neeps. 'Thasha, you kissed that snake-tongued stooge? That palace bootlick?'

  Thasha looked ready to smack him. 'You don't know a thing about Greysan. He's no more a bootlick than you, he's worked for what he's got-'

  'Aye,' laughed Neeps acidly. 'I've no doubt he earns his wages. Just didn't imagine you'd be paying 'em.'

  'You pig!' Thasha took a step towards Neeps. 'Did you try to strangle Pazel too?'

  'Are you both touched in the head?' cried Fiffengurt, stepping between them. 'I've never seen such a pair of beasts! Enough, enough, or by the Night Gods you can have done with any help from this old man!'