‘I can’t even begin to imagine such suffering as he experienced,’ said Janer, watching the sun descend into dull sunset.
‘None of us can,’ replied Erlin. ‘It’s beyond even his understanding — which is why his mind died, why he became Ambel.’
‘I’m confused,’ said Janer.
‘That’s not surprising,’ said Erlin. ‘It’s a very long and involved story.’
‘No, not about that — just about a couple of other points,’ he said.
Erlin watched him and waited.
He continued: ‘I know Hoopers have a very high pain threshold, but obviously they do suffer pain.’ He nodded towards Forlam who stood at the stern, near Keech. ‘I saw him get his guts pulled out in a contest, yet that was an arranged bout he got into willingly. Was it just for the money, or what?’
‘Some of them do have a strange relationship with pain,’ said Erlin. She seemed uncomfortable with the knowledge.
‘What kind of relationship?’
‘Some of the neural pathways get mixed up. Severe injury can cause it. They get hurt time and time again, then find themselves going on to put themselves in more danger. It’s unconscious, mostly, though some of them begin to realize what they want.’
‘They want pain?’
‘It makes them feel alive.’
Janer shook his head and stared down at the sea.
‘Maybe that’s why they want to keep on pursuing that dreadful thing,’ he said.
‘Maybe, but it is something that has to be done. It must be killed.’
‘Why?’ asked Janer, surprised at her vehemence.
‘The head will go to where its body is, and its body is on the Skinner’s Island. They intend to go there and destroy the Skinner completely.’
‘This Skinner is Jay Hoop, then? You know I never believed that story until now.’ He paused for a moment. ‘And now it’s… heading for its own body—?’ He allowed himself a weak grin at the unintended pun.
‘To rejoin it, yes. And that cannot be allowed to happen.’
Janer studied her for a long moment. He felt as if someone must have shoved him into one of the weirder type of VR scenarios. Every time he thought he had a handle on the situation, it just got stranger.
‘What about this Convocation?’ he asked, trying instead for a discussion of the prosaic.
‘The Old Captains will meet and sit in judgement on Ambel. They might decide to throw him back into the sea — or into a fire. But they might decide he’s suffered enough.’
Janer studied her again.
‘How do you feel about it?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Erlin.
Janer nodded and toyed with the Hive link in his pocket. He did not know how he himself felt either. Ambel he considered a rival for Erlin’s affections but, like Ron, with his slow, huge power and calm assurance, the Old Captain was difficult to dislike.
Frisk playfully burnt holes in the deck as Svan dived for cover. The shot Svan returned splayed mini-lightning along a rail but caused no damage. Her second shot hit Drum, and the Captain coughed as if slapped across the chest, but he remained by the helm as steady as a monolith.
‘Come out, come out, wherever you are!’ shouted Frisk, and burnt a couple of holes through the captive sail. The sail’s wings hung flaccid, but its stapled neck quivered.
‘Frisk!’
Frisk turned just in time to see Shib straddling the port rail. The pulse hit her in the chest and knocked her backwards. She tried to raise her weapon, but a second and a third pulse struck her. She staggered away while Shib made an adjustment on his weapon. Then the fourth pulse slammed her back against Drum, and blackness engulfed her.
‘Got her,’ yelled Shib, and went to stand over the woman. Svan came out of hiding and climbed on to the cabin-deck. She glared down at Frisk.
‘What setting?’ she asked.
‘Six,’ Shib replied. ‘Hooper.’
‘No sign of leech marks on her though,’ said Svan, ‘but maybe that doesn’t mean anything. We’ll have to remember that.’ They both turned as Speaker made her way precariously up the ladder.
‘What now?’ Svan asked.
‘Repair the damage to this ship. Using AG will bring us unwanted attention. Then we wait for my shuttle,’ said Speaker.
‘One thing,’ said Svan as Speaker turned to go. ‘To bring about this Convocation, you spoke of the Captains needing to know that Frisk is here. Our pursuit of Keech brings you no closer to that goal.’
‘The Captains do know that she is here, but even that is now unnecessary since a Convocation has been called at our next destination. It would seem Rebecca is not the only remaining member of Hoop’s crew here, beside himself. Gosk Balem has been found, alive.’
‘Hoop is here as well?’ said Shib, but Speaker descended to the lower deck without replying, then quickly returned to the hold.
‘I’ll watch her,’ said Svan, nodding at the prostrate Frisk. ‘You go and get on with the repairs.’
Shib glanced down at his mutilated hand. After a moment, he stepped closer to Frisk and trod his heel down hard on her face. He was about to do so again when Svan pulled him back.
‘I wouldn’t bother,’ she said. ‘If she’s Hooper, she probably won’t even notice when she wakes. Now, as I said, the repairs?’
Shib stared at her hard.
‘She’ll pay,’ he snarled.
‘Repairs,’ Svan repeated, her voice flat.
Shib retained enough survival instinct to recognize her tone, and moved off to do as he was told. With her hand resting on the butt of her pulse-gun, Svan watched him go. Unnoticed by the both of them, a seahorse the colour and texture of the sky, had drifted to the top of the main mast and settled there. It immediately changed appearance to the colour and texture of the mast, providing it with a baroque and somewhat odd adornment. The sail opened one crusted eyelid to expose a dark red pupil, then quickly closed it. Drum’s glance flicked impassively to the top of the mast, then down to his hands on the helm. With painful slowness, he lifted one finger from the wood, then returned it. At the back of his neck, a hole had appeared, exposing the dull metal of the spider thrall.
With a fair wind in all her sails, the Treader moved out of the atolls and into Deep-sea. The sun set in a silent viridian explosion and thick clouds hauled a deeper darkness up behind the ship. Keech shivered at the rail, testing the fingers of his injured arm.
‘Hurt?’ asked Forlam with undue interest.
Keech nodded, closing his hand into a fist. He wanted to be fully functional for what was yet to come. He hadn’t decided about Ambel yet — but if his eventual decision went against that of this Convocation, he wanted to be ready and able to carry it through.
‘The Skinner gives pain,’ said Forlam.
‘You don’t say,’ replied Keech.
Forlam went on, ‘They say it caught Peck, stripped him completely of his skin and ran around waving it about like a set of overalls. Peck’s never been the same since.’
Keech didn’t suppose he would be. He also wondered about the reason for Forlam’s intense interest.
‘Why was it allowed to live for so long? Didn’t you all know about it?’ he asked.
Behind and to either side of the ship, the sea reflected a yellow glow as Peck and Pland moved about lighting lanterns. Keech glanced around the ship. Anne was standing by the mast, cutting up rhinoworm meat for the sail. Janer and Erlin had gone below, and Keech wondered if they would be sharing a bunk this night. From the cabin-deck could be heard the low murmur of Ambel and Ron in conversation. Ambel was at the helm: his huge bulky shape silhouetted against the sunset. When Ron moved up beside him there was little to distinguish between them.
‘Not everyone knew about it. Kept it to ‘emselves’ said Forlam, as if bemoaning that the location of some treasure had been withheld from him.
‘Who did, then?’ asked Keech.
‘The Old Captains mostly.’
‘That still doesn’t tell me why it was allowed to live.’