Apparently satisfied, Threnody too took her leave and went off to find a place to make her plaudamentum.
Rossamund was left to be shown to his billet-box alone.
22
Rimple a curious-looking hairy-leather purse made from the entire skin of a small rodent, shaved, with a drawstring at the neck hole, and the skin of one limb sewn back on itself as a loop to fix on to a belt. Actually looking like some bloated rat, a rimple is all the fashion as a coin-bag among the wayfaring classes.
The new day and Europe, teeth still blackened from her morning dose of plaudamentum, met the two frowsty young lighters as they were arranging themselves in the stabulary to leave with the first post.
"How was your night in the dog-dens?" she asked a little tartly.
"Like sleeping inside a sideboard drawer." Rossamund yawned. "I do not fathom how older folk can manage a single blink."
Europe simply nodded. That was the sum of her sympathy. "I will be answering a plea for aid from some sorely put and well-heeled people from Bleak Lynche," she explained to the sleep-deprived pair. "They need help with a gudgeon, wouldn't you know. It would appear we are going on a concomitant path, little man." Europe looked at Rossamund pointedly. "So you shall wait for me as I complete my dealings with the knavery-underwriter and we shall travel together."
Rossamund agreed readily.
Threnody did not even acknowledge that the fulgar had spoken, speaking only when Europe had left them. "So we are to do everything she says, are we?"
"Hmm" was all Rossamund replied as he stretched, arms in the air, to rid himself of the kinks and knots gained through his insalubrious night's sleep.Their arrival at Wormstool was not expected; the delay of an hour or two would change nothing.
They waited in the knavery. There, as Threnody penned a letter to her mother, Rossamund wrote two of his own, one to Sebastipole and the other to Doctor Crispus. He told them in guarded terms of his suspicions regarding Swill and the rever-man beneath Winstermill. It was worth running the risk of prying eyes if someone who might be able to do something were to know.
During the delay Threnody decided to liberally apply some flowery-sweet perfume, splashing enough to challenge the salty-sweetness of bosmath, Europe's signature scent.Where she had procured the essence from Rossamund did not know, but the funk of it filled the knavery waiting room.
The morning was well advanced by the time Europe's negotiations with the knavery-underwriter were completed. With the proof of the head she carried in the sack, her prize was paid and her forearm etched by the punctographist on hand, with another small cruciform of monster blood. One less monster to trouble the lives of man. Consequently the three left with the third post of the day.
"It's a post-and-six," Threnody declared optimistically. "We should make good time."
Leaving the missives with the knavery-clerks, to whom they paid 4g a letter to have them properly sealed, they ventured out under a flat gray sky to the cheerful, unseasonal warbling of a magpie. The carriage was badly sprung and very noisy, rendering conversation below a constant shout impossible. For Rossamund this was a small mercy, filling the frosty, aromatic silence between fulgar and wit with welcome clamor.
Across the Sourspan and over the Bittermere the lentum-and-six jerked and shuddered uncomfortably. No longer following a watercourse, the Wormway traversed hill and dale, the apex of most rises giving Rossamund a grand view of the land about.The green upon the downs was grayer, the trees sprouting from them sparse and gnarled, growing in the shadows of enormous granite boulders lichen-blotched and anciently weathered. Indeed, the entire quality of the land declined markedly only a few leagues east of the Bittermere. There was a rumor of loneliness here, Rossamund growing more certain of it the farther the lentum carried them-an absence of people, yet an absence of monsters too. In the struggle to possess it, the land had become useless to both.
They passed Bitterbolt and watered horses at the sturdy sprawling fortalice of Mirthalt. There the lighters wore dogged expressions and barely reacted to the premature advent of the young lighters.
They arrived at Compostor in the mist of day's end. Bigger than Hinkerseigh, it was built on a broad hill, its curtain walls descending into foggy vales on all sides. There was a genuine air of money in this small city of long, broad avenues of stately sycamores and multistoried manors, of wide parks as green and tame as the land without was gray and wild.
"Tonight we shall stay somewhere out of the way," Europe pronounced as they were granted entry to the city by the heavy-harnessed watch. She directed the lentermen to a hostelry called the Wayward Chair. From the outside it was a modest establishment, but the room proved of a high standard at odds with the humble facade. Regardless, Threnody oozed dissatisfaction. Throughout the leg from the Brisking Cat to here, she had sat gingerly, leaning forward to spare herself the bumping of the carriage seat. Now she looked terribly wayworn and irritated, lagging behind as they were shown to their rooms by a pucker-faced bower maid.
They were successfully installed in the apartment: luggage deposited, beds turned, the fire stoked, food brought and Europe's treacle brewing in the kitchens. Without a word, Threnody exited the room, her makings in hand, slamming the door as she left.
"I don't know what ails her." Rossamund felt he needed to apologize.
"It is just night-pains, little man."
"Night-pains?"
"Indeed." Europe sat in a glossy leather recliner before the hearth. "All lahzars must endure them and wits more so than fulgars. It is the cost of having these unusual organs inside-the price of power, if you like. A little bit of justice, I do not doubt some might think."
After about as much time as it took to brew plaudamentum the girl returned, still in foul spirits. She stomped right past the two, glaring at them both, and disappeared into the adjoining room where a bower maid was turning down the beds.There was a shout and the maid hurried out, looking even more puckered and near tears.
"That will be all, my dear," Europe said, handing the quickly brightening maid a whole sou. "You may go."
Listening to the thump and bluster of the girl in the bedroom, Rossamund asked, "Miss Europe? How can we stop Swill and the Master-of-Clerks?"
"I have warned that Saphine lass you may remember from the Cat, and you have written your letters." Europe peered at him, her hazel eyes intent, thoughtful. "Beyond that there is not much else, and even what we have is insubstantial. I think you will find it very hard to lay a solid accusation against Swill or his clerk-master. If they have been able to carry on as black habilists right under the lighters' feet, then you may be certain, Rossamund, they will have all traces of their dabblings well in hand and can easily obliterate any trails that might lead to them."
"But I fought with their rever-man!" Rossamund persisted. "I saw the flayed skin! There-there was even that butcher's truck that smelled of swine's lard, just like Poundinch used to hide in his cargo, that's why the Trought attacked!"
"At this instant it would be what you say against what they would say," Europe countered calmly.
"But we have Sebastipole! No one doubts a falseman!"
The fulgar took a deep breath. "And I am sure they would have a falseman of their own. Use one falseman to cancel the other out-typical Imperial politics."
"Who can stop them, then?" Rossamund despaired, an image of Laudibus Pile's sneering face looming in his imagination.