Pinn dimly discerned a pattern there for the briefest of instants, but the thought was slippery and he lost it.
Lisinda. She’d promised she’d wait for him. Well, actually, she hadn’t, he just expected her to, since she’d told him she loved him. Seven years wasn’t that long. But anyhow, she’d gone and married someone else or something, so she could piss off now. He’d found out in a letter she’d sent him. A letter! She didn’t even have the decency to tell him to his face! Faithless wench.
He crumpled up her picture and stuffed it in his pocket so he could deface it later. Then he took up the flight stick again. Lately, a notion had been growing in his mind. Maybe all this heroism and fortune-hunting wasn’t getting him anywhere. Maybe there was something bigger than all this. And maybe there was another woman out there for him, a woman far more intelligent and beautiful than Lisinda or Emanda. A spiritual woman.
Stuck to his dash was a piece of paper. Written on it in barely legible script were several short phrases in penciclass="underline"
Jurny.
Deth.
Dark hared stranger (not hot)
Find sumthin important
Trajedy on sum-one deer (emanda?)
You will beleeve!!
The first three lines had been crossed out. He reckoned that Korrene counted as a journey to a place they’d never been to. The dark-haired stranger was obviously Pelaru. And death was probably to do with Osger, since he was dead. Pinn couldn’t understand why Pelaru had been so broken up about some shit-ugly half-Mane with a face like a maggoty bollock, but Thacians were a strange lot.
‘There’s the fleet,’ Frey said in his ear, startling him out of his reverie. He lifted his head and saw a knot of lights on the horizon, above the cloud line. It seemed like their hostage’s information about the rendezvous was good.
He dug around for a pencil and crossed out the fourth line. Find something important? That was surely the Awakener base they were heading for. He stared at the paper and shook his head in amazement. This prophecy stuff was really pretty incredible. There had to be something behind it. After all, how did she know?
He looked at the next line of the prophecy.
Tragedy will fall on someone you hold dear.
He stared at the words with an expression of deep thought, then slowly lifted one of his buttcheeks and farted.
‘Here they come,’ said Frey.
Ashua watched the Awakener cruiser approach through the windglass of the cockpit. It had broken away from the main mass when they turned on their lights, and set course towards them. This fleet didn’t have anything as big as a Coalition frigate, but they had guns enough to blow up the Ketty Jay several times over.
‘Stay due north of the fleet. That’s the approach pattern for today,’ Abley told Frey. He was sitting in the navigator’s chair, within easy reach of the press-switch that operated the electroheliograph.
‘Don’t try anything,’ Ashua warned him darkly. ‘They try to board us, I promise they’re gonna find you with a hole in the back of your skull.’
Abley didn’t say anything. He looked cowed enough, though. Ashua was a big believer in threats. You had to make sure people knew their situation. Hostages got it into their heads to try the stupidest things when their backs were against the wall. Their consciences made them brave, so they screwed it up for everyone, and almost invariably ended up dead. She’d seen it happen enough on the streets.
Ashua wasn’t a big fan of the Cap’n’s latest plan. She didn’t want to take sides in this war. Having grown up in the violent slums of Rabban and later in Samarla, she didn’t feel she owed Vardia much. Archdukes or religious fanatics, rulers were all the same to her. Her inclination was to sit back and see who was going to win, then join them.
But the Cap’n called the shots, and he wanted his pirate lady. Ashua had only ever met Dracken briefly, and then Dracken had threatened to have her nails pulled out. Ashua didn’t know what the Cap’n saw in her. Still, she must be quite a woman, with all that Frey was willing to go through to get her. That, or he was just desperate.
Well, at least while he was after Dracken, he wasn’t after her. That made for a more pleasant travel experience all round.
A light began to blink on the cruiser’s electroheliograph mast. Abley watched it closely. Ashua watched him, just as closely. She was good at spotting liars and tricksters. She’d been surrounded by them all her life.
When the blinking stopped, Abley set to work, tapping away. With Jez still out of action, they had no way of telling what he was communicating. Of those in the cockpit, only the Cap’n had any knowledge of EHG code, and he’d relied on navigators for so long that he was abominably slow at it. Ashua exchanged a glance with Silo, who was standing next to her, his arms crossed. No sign from him to betray his emotions, of course. If he was tense, she couldn’t tell.
Abley finished up. They waited. Then the cruiser began flashing again. Abley picked up a pencil and scribbled down the message. Then the cruiser swung away from them, heading back towards the aircraft hanging in the distance. Ashua noted that several of the bigger craft were departing the fleet and heading away, going dark as they left the main mass.
‘They’ve accepted the code,’ said Abley, his shoulders slumped in evident relief. He held up a piece of paper. ‘These are the coordinates for the next rendezvous. Looks like it’s due west of here, over the Splinters. We have to be there by dusk.’
‘The Splinters?’ Ashua said. ‘I thought we were meant to be going to the Barabac Delta.’
‘I don’t know! That’s just what they told me!’ Abley protested.
‘Can’t move a whole fleet all the way ’cross Vardia by daylight,’ Silo rumbled. ‘Least, not without someone takin’ note.’
‘So everyone makes their separate ways to the rendezvous,’ Frey mused, thinking it over. ‘Then they fly down the length of the Splinters by night. Lights off, no one’ll see them.’
‘Makes sense,’ said Ashua.
‘Looks like we’ve got an appointment to keep, folks,’ said Frey. He waved a hand at Silo. ‘Put the lad somewhere he can’t cause any trouble, will you? We’ll sort out what to do with him later.’
‘You said you’d let me go!’ Abley protested, as Silo pulled him to his feet.
‘We will, if you behave,’ Frey replied.
Abley hobbled away with Silo. Ashua, deciding that the danger had passed, went with them down the corridor, then split off and headed to the cargo hold.
She emerged on a walkway overlooking the dim, echoing chamber that had become her home. Below her she heard thumping and clanking: Bess, restless, as she’d been ever since they’d taken off. Ashua spotted her stomping about near the lashed-up crates of Awakener relics they’d pulled off the freighter a few days ago. The weak hold lights reflected from her dull and battered armour.
‘He’s not here, Bess,’ she said quietly to herself. ‘He left you behind. People do that.’
She was a little sad about Crake. She’d liked him. Maybe it was his aristocratic style, but he reminded her of a younger, finer Maddeus, before he’d wasted away. Now he was gone, and Malvery wasn’t half as much fun since he’d started brooding about the war. The others were still along for the ride for now, but she wondered how much longer they’d stick with the Cap’n if he didn’t find Trinica soon. Or maybe the Cap’n would dump them once he got his woman. Being saddled with a bunch of reprobates was hardly conducive to romance, after all.