‘Is she? Why?’
‘Women like her don’t need reasons, Corabb. She’s set booby traps. Poison, is my guess. Because I was staying behind, you see? She’s set a trap to kill me.’
‘Oh,’ said Corabb. ‘That’s clever.’
‘Not clever enough, friend. Because now you’re here.’
‘I am, yes.’
Bottle edged back from the lockbox. ‘It’s unlocked,’ he said, ‘so I want you to lift the lid.’
Corabb stepped past and flung the lid back.
After he’d recovered from his flinch, Bottle crawled up for a look inside.
‘Now what?’ Corabb asked behind him. ‘Was that practice?’
‘Practice?’
‘Aye.’
‘No, Corabb-gods, this is strange-look at this gear! Those clothes.’
‘Well, what I meant was, do you want me to open Smiles’s box next?’
‘What?’
‘That’s Cuttle’s. You’re at Cuttle’s bunk, Bottle.’ He pointed. ‘Hers is right there.’
‘Well,’ Bottle muttered as he stood up and dropped the lid on the lockbox. ‘That explains the codpiece.’
‘Oh… does it?’
They stared at each other.
‘So, just how many bastards do you think you’ve sired by now?’
‘What?’
‘What?’
‘You just say something, Corabb?’
‘What?’
‘Before that.’
‘Before what?’
‘Something about bastards.’
‘Are you calling me a bastard?’ Corabb demanded, his face darkening.
‘No, of course not. How would I know?’
‘How-’
‘It’s none of my business, right?’ Bottle slapped the man on one solid shoulder and set off to find his boots. ‘I’m going out.’
‘Thought you were sick.’
‘Better now.’
Once he’d made his escape-in all likelihood narrowly avoiding being beaten to death by the squad’s biggest fist over some pathetic misunderstanding-Bottle glared up at the mid-afternoon sun for a moment, and then set off. All right, you parasite, I’m paying attention now. Where to?
‘It’s about time. I was having doubts-’
Quick Ben! Since when were you playing around with Mockra? And do you have any idea how our skulls will ache by this evening?
‘Relax, I got something for that. Bottle, I need you to go to the Old Palace. I’m down in the crypts.’
Where you belong.
‘First time anybody’s expressed that particular sentiment, Bottle. Tell me when you get to the grounds.’
What are you doing in the crypts, Quick Ben?
‘I’m at the Cedance. You need to see this, Bottle.’
Did you find them, then?
‘Who?’
Sinn and Grub. Heard they went missing.
‘No, they’re not here, and no sign that anyone’s been down here in some time. As I’ve already told the Adjunct, the two imps are gone.’
Gone? Gone where?
‘No idea. But they’re gone.’
Bad news for the Adjunct-she’s losing her mages-
‘She’s got me. She doesn’t need anyone else.’
And all my fears are laid to rest.
‘You may not have realized, Bottle, but I was asking you about your furry lover for a reason.’
Jealousy?
‘Hurry up and get here so I can throttle you. No, not jealousy. Although, come to think on it, I can’t even recall the last time-’
You said you had a reason, Quick Ben. Let’s hear it.
‘What’s Deadsmell been telling you?’
What? Nothing. Well.
‘Hah, I knew it! Don’t believe him, Bottle. He hasn’t any idea-any idea at all-about what’s in the works.’
You know, Quick Ben, oh… never mind. So, I’m on the grounds. Where to now?
‘Anybody see you?’
You didn’t tell me to do this sneakily!
‘Anybody in sight?’
Bottle looked round. Wings of the Old Palace were settled deep in mud, plaster cracking or simply gone, to reveal fissured, slumping brick walls. Snarls of grasses swallowed up old flagstone pathways. A plaza of some sort off to his left was now a shallow pond. The air was filled with spinning insects. No.
‘Good. Now, follow my instructions precisely, Bottle.’
You sure? I mean, I was planning on ignoring every third direction you gave me.
‘Fiddler needs to have a few words with you, soldier. About rules of conduct when it comes to High Mages.’
Look, Quick Ben, if you want me to find this Cedance, leave me to it. I have a nose for those kinds of things.
‘I knew it!’
You knew what? I’m just saying-
‘She’s been whispering in your ear-’
Gods below, Quick Ben! The noises she makes aren’t whispers. They’re not even words. I don’t-
‘She gives you visions, doesn’t she? Flashes of her own memories. Scenes.’
How do you know that?
‘Tell me some.’
Why do you think it’s any of your business?
‘Choose one, damn you.’
He slapped at a mosquito. Some would be easier than others, he knew. Easier because they were empty of meaning. Most memories were, he suspected. Frozen scenes. Jungle trails, the bark of four-legged monkeys from cliff-sides. Huddled warmth in the night as hunting beasts coughed in the darkness. But there was one that returned again and again, in innumerable variations.
The sudden blossoming of blue sky, an opening ahead, the smell of salt. Soft rush of gentle waves on white coral beach. Padding breathless on to the strand in a chorus of excited cries and chatter. Culmination of terrifying journeys overland where it seemed home would never again find them. And then, in sudden gift… Shorelines, Quick. Bright sun, hot sand underfoot. Coming home… even when the home has never been visited before. And, all at once, they gather to begin building boats.
‘Boats?’
Always boats. Islands. Places where the tawny hunters do not stalk the night. Places, where they can be… safe.
‘The Eres-’
Lived for the seas. The oceans. Coming from the great continents, they existed in a state of flight. Shorelines fed them. The vast emptiness beyond the reefs called to them.
‘Boats? What kind of boats?’
It varies-I don’t always travel with the same group. Dug-outs. Reed boats and bamboo rafts. Skins, baskets bridged by saplings-like nests in toppled trees. Quick Ben, the Eres’al-they were smart, smarter than you might think. They weren’t as different from us as they might seem. They conquered the entire world.
‘So what happened to them?’
Bottle shrugged. I don’t know. I think, maybe, we happened to them.
He had found a sundered doorway. Walking the length of dark, damp corridors and following the narrow staircases spiralling downward to landings ankle-deep in water. Sloshing this way and that, drawing unerringly closer to that pulsing residue of ancient power. Houses, Tiles, Holds, Wandering-that all sounds simple enough, doesn’t it, Quick Ben? Logical. But what about the roads of the sea? Where do they fit in? Or the siren calls of the wind? The point is, we see ourselves as the great trekkers, the bold travellers and explorers. But the Eres’al, High Mage, they did it first. There isn’t a place we step anywhere in this world that they haven’t stepped first. Humbling thought, isn’t it? He reached a narrow tunnel with an uneven floor that formed islands between pools. A massive portal with a leaning lintel stone beckoned. He stepped through and saw the causeway, and the broader platform at the end, where stood Quick Ben.