The Rats and the Ruling sea

Bolutu dropped his gaze a moment. Then he gave a small laugh. 'He was the ship's veterinarian. It's our family trade.'

'You're not a mage, then?' asked Thasha. 'Or… trying to be one?'

'Trying?' Once more Bolutu looked at her in confusion. 'My dear lady, no sane person would try to become a mage. Would you try to drown yourself, to learn what fishes think and feel? Trying to be a mage! What one gains in power and wisdom is taken away tenfold in other ways! Do you really mean to say you don't know?'

Thasha closed her eyes, remembering. 'Felthrup read me something from the Polylex, about a mage from Auxlei City, who talked to his followers before he died. The only questions he refused to answer were about his childhood. He said, "My first life" — that's what he called it — "is my own. It is the only thing that was ever mine, and it was over before I knew I could lose it." '

'Many wizards say as much,' said Bolutu. 'if they say a word about themselves. No, I do not long to be a mage. It is hard enough being the object of an enchantment. Wouldn't you agree, Mr Pathkendle?'

Pazel looked at him uncomfortably. 'When it's bad, it's pretty bad,' he murmured.

'Bad or good, alteration by magic is for ever,' said Bolutu. 'When my disguise-spell breaks, will I look like a proper dlomu again, or will something of this face remain? Will women find me hideously human? Will children scream at me in the streets?'

'Gods below,' said Druffle, 'and you say being a mage is worse?'

'Different,' said Bolutu, 'more painful. But if I am called to the mystic order, I will serve. That is the way of things. It is not a matter of choice.'

'And Ramachni?' asked Thasha.

A hint of pride entered Bolutu's voice. 'Lord Ramachni saw the potential mage in me. He came to Bali Adro in my youth, and identified a handful of us. Some became mages, others did not. But all of us have tried to prepare ourselves for the possibility — for example, by studying Nemmocian, the language of spellcraft.'

'Listen!' said Fiffengurt suddenly.

The sound came from eighty feet overhead, but they heard it plainly: ten sharp notes from the Chathrand 's bell.

Time to go, Pazel, said Diadrelu.

It was time for everyone to go; men inspected the hold every morning as part of the dawn watch. The circle shifted nervously. The council had provided no answers, only frightening questions.

Once again it was Thasha who took the lead. 'All right, listen. One part of the plan hasn't changed, despite-' She gestured helplessly at Bolutu. '-what we've learned. We're still just ten people, against eight hundred. We can't wait any longer to build up our numbers. And at the same time, we can't make any mistakes. Remember, you only have to choose one new person to trust. So choose well.'

'Twenty people, crammed in here?' said Dastu, worried.

'Sure, mate,' said Neeps. 'It can't be worse than dinner shift.'

'Dinner shift is loud,' said Marila.

'It will be the last time we all meet here, that's for sure,' said Pazel, glancing around the vault. 'Right, Mr Fiffengurt?'

'Here or anywhere else,' said Fiffengurt. 'It'd be suicide, even on this monster of a boat, to bring forty mutineers together. Somebody would hear us, or chance by. We'd be strung up by our heels in no time.'

'Then our first task when next we meet,' said Khalmet, 'should be to decide a means of communicating without coming together. A way to pass messages, and spread the word.'

Hercol is the one to ask about that, said Diadrelu.

Marila gave Thasha's arm a gentle squeeze, a reminder of the hour. 'Right,' said Thasha. 'Mr Fiffengurt, if you'll just remind us?'

'We'll leave in pairs, just as we came,' said Fiffengurt. 'Two minutes between each pair, so that we don't stumble on top of each other in the dark. Khalmet and Big Skip will go first; they're the most likely to be missed up above. Go your separate ways at the top of the scuttle — one forwards past the smoke cellar; the other off to starboard. And for Rin's sake don't use the top step — it groans like a bull with a bellyache.'

Khalmet and Big Skip rose to their feet.

'We meet in eight days,' said Thasha. 'Moon or no moon.'

'And we will stop them,' said Khalmet, with a sharp glance at Bolutu, 'help or no help, allied or alone, no matter the cost in blood.'

The words were a Turach motto; Pazel had heard it chanted by the whole battalion when their new commander was sworn in. Khalmet and Big Skip stepped out the door and were gone. Two minutes passed in silence; then Druffle and Marila followed. Neeps gave Marila's hand a squeeze as she slipped away. 'Be careful,' he said, and Marila whispered, 'Obviously.'

Fiffengurt blew out his candle. 'We're next, Dastu,' he said. Then, with a nervous edge to his voice, he addressed Bolutu. 'You're not about to, eh, quit pretending to be — you know what I'm saying-'

'Human?'

'Tongueless, man, that's all.'

Bolutu shook his head. 'I had hoped my disguise would last across the Ruling Sea. It still may. In any case I see no reason to give it up before I must.'

'Good,' said Fiffengurt. 'Usually best to keep things simple. Let's be off, then, lad.'

They stepped out of the room. Dastu glanced back at the remaining faces. His usual strong, steady look was nowhere to be found. 'Simple?' he whispered, closing the door.

Now the three friends were alone with Bolutu. Neeps cradled a last stump of candle. Thasha caught Pazel's eye again, plainly begging for contact, for an end to his severity and distance. Miserable, raging inside, Pazel looked away.

Bolutu cleared his throat. 'One thing more. I regret I must say this now, in haste.'

In great haste, said Diadrelu sharply. Tell him, Pazel. There are sounds of waking from the berth deck.

Pazel felt a tightening in his stomach. 'Oh Gods,' he said. 'Be quick, Bolutu. Is it more bad news?'

Bolutu looked at him, and the pride gleamed again in his eyes, stronger than before. 'On the contrary, I have saved the best news for last. You can forget organizing a mutiny, forget Rose and Ott and their schemes. Arunis alone concerns us now. For I have not failed, Pazel. The good mages of Bali Adro, who sent me north two decades ago — they are expecting us. They see through my eyes, listen with my ears. As soon as we make landfall, and I spot a mountain or a castle or other landmark familiar to my masters, they will inform our good Emperor. His highness will dispatch a mighty force to surround and seize the Chathrand, and the full might of Bali Adro wizardry will fall on Arunis, and he will be crushed. And this time my masters will not allow the Nilstone, or Arunis himself, to vanish and plague them another day. They will take this burden from you, as they should have done for Erithusme centuries ago.'

Pazel could scarcely breathe. He turned to Thasha, and she looked back at him, alarmed and uncertain. Neeps was studying Bolutu, his face blank with shock. Wheels within wheels within wheels, thought Pazel.

At last Thasha broke the silence. 'Why didn't you tell the whole blary council?' she said.

Bolutu gave her another glance of surprise, as if Thasha should have no need of asking such a question. But he said, 'I am under orders to confide in as few as possible. My masters' only fear is that the wrong persons aboard Chathrand might learn that they are watching and waiting. Of course Arunis is the most dangerous in this regard.' Bolutu's voice lowered grimly. 'He has proved it, these last twenty years. We were forty sent to slay him, but in the court of the Shaggat Ness Arunis had grown more powerful than we ever suspected. All those who had hunted him inside the Mzithrin he killed in a single week — all but one, who fled with a broken mind, and sought to warn Arqual of the Nilstone.' Bolutu looked gravely at Thasha. 'He died at your feet, m'lady.'

Thasha gasped. 'Him! That tramp who shouted at me in the garden? The one who knew about the Red Wolf?'