Path of Beasts

by Lian Tanner

She said the same to Toadspit’s parents and to Ma and Pa, who went deathly white when they saw her, and then could not stop crying and laughing and holding her hand. But when she explained what she was doing, they let go immediately and promised that they would make sure all the adults knew what to do.

  And now at last freedom was in sight. Goldie could hear the splash of oars as Mince and Jangle rowed away from the Silver Lining, heading for the distant shore. If only they had taken Double with them!

  Old Lady Skint’s second-in-command was sitting on the deck with her head in her hands. She did not look particularly frightening—in fact, there was something lost and lonely about her.

  “Good!” thought Goldie fiercely. “I hope she’s as miserable as all the slaves she’s captured over the years.”

  And perhaps she was—because now it was Double’s turn to be captured. While Toadspit wriggled free of his ropes, Pounce took out a pistol and aimed it at the slaver. “Don’t you try nothin’,” he said. “This ship’s ours now.”

  Double shrugged. “You’re welcome to it. Give me the other boat and I’ll be gone before you know it.”

  Toadspit and Pounce looked at each other. “All right,” said Pounce, “ya can ’ave it. Now get out of ’ere.”

  “If I could lower it by myself,” said Double in a sarcastic voice, “I’d be gone already.”

  Goldie could hear squeals and cries coming up from below, and she knew that Mouse would not be able to hold the freed children for much longer. She slipped her hands out of the skylight and signaled to Toadspit. Hurry! Get rid of her!

  Toadspit gave an infinitesimal nod. But it was too late. Before the boat could be loosened from its blocks, a horde of children spilled onto the deck from every part of the ship. They were filthy and hungry and bruised, and covered in paint and papier-mâché, but it was as clear as could be that they were not diseased.

  There was no reason now for Goldie to stay hidden. She wriggled out of the skylight and crossed the deck to Double, who greeted her with a peculiar smile.

  “So the Guardian was right about you, Golden Roth,” said the slaver. “You’ve bettered Old Lady Skint, and there’s not many people who can say that.”

  Goldie ignored her. She no longer cared what happened to Double. “We have to get back to the museum,” she said to Toadspit.

  He nodded. He had seen the lie in the Fugleman’s face too. “Well then, you can drop me off—” the slaver began. “Goldie! Sweeting!” It was Ma and Pa. They stumbled

  across the deck, battered and happy, with Toadspit’s parents and Bonnie right behind them. Bonnie threw her arms around her brother’s neck, and their parents embraced both of them. Ma and Pa kissed Goldie. Mouse slipped past them all, and he and Pounce hugged each other joyously.

  Double chose that moment to dive over the side of the ship into the water.

  “Is that one of the slavers?” cried Pa. “It is? She’s getting away!” And with a roar of anger he leaped after Double.

  Ma screamed and ran to the rail. “Harken! Harken, you can’t swim!”

  It was true. Pa sank, then bobbed to the surface, floundering in a frantic circle. Goldie gripped her mother’s arm with white fingers. “Pa!” she whispered.

  Everyone was leaning over the rail by now, shouting advice. Ma screamed and wept and begged them to save her husband, but none of them could swim either.

  It was Toadspit who thought of the ship’s boat. He ran toward it with Pounce and a dozen other children, and began to fumble with the ropes. But his helpers got in each other’s way and tied the knots tighter instead of loosening them.

  Pa sank, rose and sank again, his hands clutching the air above his head.

  All this time, Double had been swimming toward the shore with a steady rhythm. But now she stopped and trod water, and looked back to see what all the noise was about.

  “Pleeeeeease!” wailed Ma as Pa vanished beneath the waves. “Save him, please! I beg you!”

  She won’t, thought Goldie. She’s a slaver. Why should she care about Pa?

  But still she held her breath, and when Double turned back to the ship, thrashing through the water with her powerful arms, she cheered with the rest of them.

  The next minute or two seemed like hours. Double found the spot where Pa had disappeared, and dived beneath the surface. Toadspit and Pounce gave up on the boat and slung a rope over the side. Ma sobbed, and prayed aloud to the Seven Gods, and flicked her fingers. Bonnie slipped her hand into Goldie’s.

  A stream of bubbles rose to the surface of the water and burst, and Goldie felt as if her heart were bursting along with them. She closed her eyes, imagining Pa sinking through the darkness, down and down and down. . . .

  “She’s got him!” Toadspit’s father, Herro Hahn, banged his fist on the rail. “She’s got him!”

  Goldie’s eyes flew open. Ma squealed with joy. There was Pa, with Double holding his head clear of the water. He was sputtering and coughing and choking—but he was alive.

  “Over ’ere!” shouted Pounce, from the top of the rope.

  Double swam toward the ship, dragging Pa behind her. When she reached the rope, she tried to push him up it, but he clung to her and would not let go.

  And so, in the end, with a grunt of annoyance, she climbed the rope herself, dragging him with her.

  As they staggered over the rail, Ma and Goldie threw their arms around Pa and wept. “Thank you!” cried Ma, over her husband’s shoulder. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  Double ducked her head and turned away. Pa held Ma and Goldie in his arms as if he would never let them out of his sight again. He was wet and shivering. “What a fool I am,” he whispered. “Trying to play the hero like that.”

  Goldie kissed his cheek. “You have to learn to think before you act, Pa.”

  “I thought you were brave.” Ma laughed shakily. “But perhaps just a little forgetful.”

  “Well,” said Pa, after a moment, “I am still alive despite my foolishness. So let us get on with it.”

  He tapped the slaver on the shoulder. “I promised myself that you would not escape, and you will not.”

  “Harken!” said Ma. “She saved your life!”

  “And I am truly grateful,” said Pa. “But she must pay for what she tried to do to these people. And for what she has done to others in the past.”

  Double said nothing. Her shoulders were hunched and she stared at the deck as if she did not want anyone to see her face.

  “Listen, we have to get back to Jewel,” said Toadspit, pushing to the front of the crowd. “The Fugleman’s going to bombard the Museum of Dunt. We have to stop him.”

  Adults and children gazed at him in dismay. Many of them had taken shelter in the museum during last year’s Great Storm, and although they did not understand its true nature, and what would happen if it was attacked, they did not want to see it destroyed.

  “Then this woman must come with us,” said Pa, looking sternly at Double.

  “We’ll need her anyway,” said Goldie, “to get us to shore. We don’t know how to work this ship.”

  “You think I can work it with a handful of landsmen and a hundred useless snotties?” mumbled Double, without raising her head.

  At the sound of the slaver’s voice, Ma flinched.

  “In that case,” said Pa, “we will chain you in the slave hold and be done with it. I am sure we can manage—”

  “No!” cried Ma. “No more chains, not for anyone.”

  “If we don’t chain her,” said Pa, “she will jump overboard again.”

  Everyone within earshot murmured agreement.

  “No, I don’t think she will,” said Ma, and with a trembling hand she touched the slaver’s arm.

  Double froze.

  “Grace?” said Pa. “What are you doing?”

  Ma ignored him. “You have a good heart,” she whispered, so quietly that Goldie had to lean forward to hear her. “I know you do.”

  “I have no hea
rt,” mumbled Double.

  “If that was true, you would have let my husband drown.”

  Double laughed angrily. “Perhaps I had a heart once. But if I did, it wore out long ago and I threw the useless thing overboard.”

  Except for a few small children, the ship had fallen quiet. It seemed to Goldie that something important was happening, although she did not know what it was. She wished she could see the slaver more clearly, but Double would not raise her head.

  “Please help us,” said Ma. “My daughter is one of the museum’s keepers, and the other keepers are like a family to her. And family is—” Her voice broke. “Family is more important than anything.”

  “You don’t know what you’re asking,” whispered Double. “I do.” A tear rolled down Ma’s face. “I know exactly what I’m asking.” And she raised her hand and stroked the slaver’s cheek.

  “Ma?” said Goldie, shocked beyond belief.

  “Grace, what on earth—?” said Pa.

  “Shhhh!” whispered Ma.

  By now, even the smallest child had fallen silent. The only sounds Goldie could hear were water lapping against the hull and the constant creaking of the ship.

  Something was happening to the slaver. A tear ran down her cheek and fell to the deck. Slowly—oh, so slowly—she raised her head.

  Goldie looked from Double to Ma, and from Ma to Double, and a dreadful knowledge uncoiled within her. Now that they stood side by side, the likeness between the two women could not be hidden, not even by slaver tattoos. Old Lady Skint’s second-in-command was—

  “Auntie Praise,” whispered Goldie, staring at the slaver in horror. “You’re my long-lost Auntie Praise!”

  Bold Auntie Praise

  Every plank and nail of the Silver Lining seemed to vibrate with the shock of it. The adults gaped their disbelief. Favor and Bonnie cried out in dismay. The smallest children burst into tears, as if their world had been turned upside down yet again.

  Goldie felt like bursting into tears with them. She could see the appalled judgment in people’s eyes, and knew that her own face carried the same expression.

  Ma was the only one who didn’t seem to notice. She took her sister’s hands in hers. “I have missed you every day since you disappeared,” she whispered. “What happened to you? How did you—how could you have become a slaver?” Everyone on the ship craned to hear the answer.

  “Won’t you tell me?” said Ma.

  Double shook her head, but the words burst out of her anyway, as if they had been stuck inside her all these years, like an abscess waiting for the knife. “It—it was the day after my Separation,” she mumbled. “They—they grabbed me off the streets and were going to sell me. But Old Lady Skint took a liking to me for some reason and decided to keep me as a sort of pet.”

  She grimaced. “I was still a captive, of course, and couldn’t escape, though I tried. I tried many times, and whenever I was brought back, Skint would laugh and say I had spirit. After six months she asked me to join her crew. I refused.”

  Herro Hahn grunted in disbelief. “Shhhh!” said Ma with a glare.

  “She asked me again three months later,” continued Double. “Again I refused, and again and again. But sometime in the second year I began to wonder why I was refusing. They were not cruel to me, you see. They were kind, in a rough sort of way. And after a while, what they did began to seem normal. They gave me another name and I forgot who I was. Kindness can do that to you, quicker than cruelty.”

  Her fingers twisted in her lap and she laughed bitterly. “You want my advice, people? Watch out for kindness! In the wrong hands, it can be deadlier than a gun, and far more subtle. I’m witness to that. Remember what happened to Praise Koch and hold to your true self, no matter how sweetly those around you talk.”

  She fell silent for a moment or two. Then she muttered, “So there you are. The not-so-grand story of my downfall. It was only when we sailed into Jewel that I truly remembered. . . .”

  Ever since she was small, Goldie had used the thought of her bold aunt to give herself courage. In times of danger she had clutched the bluebird brooch and whispered her aunt’s name. She had tried to be like her. She had been proud when Ma said she was like her!

  Now the very idea made Goldie feel sick.

  A warm hand gripped hers, and Toadspit put his lips to her ear. “I’m jealous,” he murmured. “All my relatives are so boring.”

  Goldie knew he was trying to comfort her, but nothing could make her feel better. “She’s not really Auntie Praise,” she whispered fiercely. “She’s Double, and that’s what I’m going to call her.”

  She turned away from the awful sight of Ma embracing the slaver and raised her voice above the hubbub. “We must get back to Jewel as quickly as possible,” she cried. “We must stop the Fugleman from destroying the museum.”

  Everyone stared at her in confusion, as if the revelations of the past few minutes had driven the museum from their minds.

  “ Can we stop him?” asked a girl’s voice from the back of the crowd.

  “Not likely,” muttered the boy beside her. “He’d turn Frow Carrion on us!”

  There was a murmur of agreement from those around him. Feeling a certain gratitude to the museum for sheltering them was one thing, but standing up to Frow Carrion was a different matter altogether.

  “What’s the matter with yez?” demanded Pounce, jumping up onto the rail. “We fooled Old Lady Skint, didn’t we? I reckon that means we can do anythin’ we like.” He raised his eyebrows. “Unless, of course, yez are gunna lie down like a bunch of idjits and let the Foobleman walk all over yez?”

  Goldie jumped up beside him. “Pounce is right. If we want our city back, we have to fight for it.”

  Another murmur ran through the crowd. “But we don’t know how to make this ship go,” said Toadspit’s mother.

  “She is going to show us.” Goldie pointed at Double, who sat stiff and silent in the circle of Ma’s arms, clearly regretting her public confession.

  “She’s going to take us to a safe landing,” continued Goldie. “She owes it to us.”

  She glared at the slaver. You’re not my aunt!

  Double pushed Ma to one side and stood up. “You want to get to shore? I’ll take you there. But I won’t go to prison.”

  “And neither you should,” said Ma in a tremulous voice. “You didn’t choose to be a slaver. It could have happened to any of us.”

  Disbelief rustled through the crowd. Pa shook his head. “We make no promises. But if you help us now, it will count in your favor.”

  Double stared at him for a long moment. Then she said, “That’s something, I suppose.” And she shoved her way through the crowd and leaped up onto the quarterdeck. “Who knows a bit about gas engines?”

  She didn’t really look like Ma, thought Goldie. Ma was all sweetness and warmth, whereas the slaver’s face showed nothing but hardness.

  “Me!” cried Pounce, jumping down from the rail.

  “And me!” shouted Toadspit.

  “Get below, then, and see if you can restart the engines. I’ll give you ten minutes, and then I’ll come after you with a belaying pin!”

  Toadspit and Pounce raced off. Everyone else milled around, glancing first up at the quarterdeck and then at Ma and Pa, who stood in silence with their arms around each other. Ma was glowing with confused happiness. Pa just looked grim.

  Goldie had lost sight of Bonnie and Mouse, but now they wriggled through the crowd to stand beside her. Mouse patted her arm and hummed, as if he knew how miserable she was feeling.

  Bonnie whispered, “I bet Old Lady Skint wouldn’t have saved your pa. There must be nice slavers as well as nasty ones.”

  She was wrong, thought Goldie. And so was Ma. Auntie Praise was lost for good. The best thing to do was forget about her and concentrate on stopping the Fugleman and Frow Carrion.

  It was nine minutes, by Goldie’s calculation, before the gas engines rumbled to life. Nearly everyone on
deck let out a shriek of delight.

  Double pointed to a group of older boys and girls and shouted above the noise, “You lot! Get over by the anchor. What do you mean, where? There, of course! What are you, blind? No, don’t touch anything until I say so. And you!” She pointed to Bonnie. “You’re my runner. Go and tell those two snotties I want quarter-speed ahead, nothing more. If they try anything fancy I’ll sling ’em over the rail and whip ’em. Understand?”

  Bonnie nodded and ran for the hatchway. “Come back as soon as you’ve told ’em,” shouted Double.

  Then she pointed to Mouse and Goldie. “Up here. Now.”

  Goldie didn’t move.

  “I said now! Or don’t you care about your precious museum as much as your ma thinks you do?”

  Mouse grabbed Goldie’s hand, and she let him drag her toward the quarterdeck. Double’s voice rose to a bellow. “The rest of you stay out of the way until you’re told different. And get those snotties out of my rigging!”

  As Goldie and Mouse mounted the steps to the quarterdeck, the engines rumbled louder. Double swung the great wheel as if it were no heavier than a child’s hoop, and the Silver Lining began to turn.

  “This is a bad coast for ships this size,” said the slaver. “I need to know how much water we’ve got under the keel. You two are going to take soundings.”

  She pointed to the bow of the ship and explained what she wanted. Without a word, Goldie spun on her heel. She could feel Double’s eyes on her back, but she did not turn around.

  The shore was not as far away as it looked. With everyone following instructions as best they could, Double brought the Silver Lining safely into the middle of a rocky cove. The engines cut off abruptly. A moment later, Toadspit and Pounce reappeared on deck, looking pleased with themselves.

  As the anchor chain began to unwind, Double drew Goldie and Toadspit to one side. “It’ll take a while to disembark everyone,” she said, “seeing as we’ve only got the one boat. And then you’ve got to get them all across country to Jewel. In that time, the Fugleman could bombard a dozen museums.”

  “He has to get Frow Carrion up Old Arsenal Hill,” said Toadspit. “That’ll slow him down.”