by Simon Morden
‘Well, shit,’ said Mary.
‘What are we going to do?’ Mama dry-swallowed.
‘We’re going to do whatever it takes to save our friends,’ said Dalip.
Elena was pushed roughly over the edge of the dune by another man. She ran the first few steps to steady herself, then began the slow walk towards the shore.
‘The maps in exchange for Luiza?’ said Mary.
‘Looks that way.’ Dalip also started to look around for Crows. ‘Do they even know he’s here? If they didn’t hear you shouting for him, then … he might be planning something.’
‘But we don’t know what that’s going to be, do we?’
‘We’re too far away to do anything to them.’ Dalip looked for confirmation from Mary, and she gave a tight, terse nod. ‘Then, as much as I hate the idea, we’ll have to hope Crows has something up his sleeve.’
Elena closed the last of the distance between them with an apologetic run.
‘I am sorry. So sorry.’ She dropped to the ground, and Mama helped her on to the crate. ‘They were everywhere, like before. We could not stop them.’
‘Hush, girl, and tell us what they said.’
‘They want everything.’
‘The maps, right?’ said Mary.
‘No. That is what they want us to believe. That we will give them the maps, and they will give us my cousin. But I heard them say that once they have the maps, they will take all of us too, to kill or keep.’ Elena took several trembling breaths. ‘The only thing they care about is the maps, not keeping their word. I wish we had never taken them.’
‘Avarice, that’s what it is, girl. Avarice and greed.’ Mama rested her hand on her shoulder. ‘We’ve got ourselves a whole passel of trouble here.’
‘Can we fight them off?’ asked Mary.
Dalip clenched his jaw. ‘There are three of them left worth worrying about. And two wolves. If they didn’t have Luiza, then yes. They know us too well, though. We’re not going to try anything with her captive.’
‘What,’ said Mary, ‘what if we threaten to throw the maps into the sea?’
Mama baulked: ‘Those maps are our way out of here.’
‘They’re useless at the moment,’ said Dalip. ‘We can’t even exchange them for Luiza, because as soon as we do …’ He frowned. ‘Hold on. If we give them the maps, they give us Luiza: we can then just take the maps straight back. They can’t fight Mary, and us, at the same time.’
‘What are we missing?’ Mary straightened up and looked around. ‘There has to be something.’
‘This exchange, Elena. How’s it supposed to be done?’
She shuddered and managed to control herself for long enough to say: ‘Take the maps to the middle. Luiza walks to us, they collect the maps.’
‘And they think we’ll trust them to do that?’
‘They will kill her if we do not do as they say.’
Already, there were signs of impatience on the crest of the dune. Shouts drifted across the beach, words blown into incoherence by the wind and the distance, but the gesturing with knives close to Luiza’s stretched-out neck were clear enough.
‘We’re going to have to do something soon,’ said Mary. ‘They won’t wait for ever.’
‘They won’t kill Luiza. Not while we have control over the maps.’ Dalip squared his shoulders, and started towards the Wolfman.
‘What? Wait. Dalip, where are you going?’
‘I’m going to reason with them. If – if it comes down to it, are we prepared to throw the maps into the sea?’
‘No,’ said Mama.
‘Yes,’ said Elena. ‘If it will save Luiza.’
‘I don’t know!’ Mary grimaced. ‘I’ve never been rich before. I don’t know how it feels to just give it all up.’
Dalip kept walking until he was at the base of the dune. The Wolfman’s wolves strained on their chain leashes, baring their teeth at him, but the Wolfman himself laughed.
‘Well met, Dalip Singh. As you can see, your friend is unharmed, and lively.’
The man holding Luiza had one hand tight in her hair, dragging her down to a hunched half-squat. His other held a long, thin knife that hovered against her kidney.
‘Let her go,’ said Dalip, ‘and face me like a man.’
‘Though you didn’t lack courage when we first met, I could have broken you like a twig. Now, I’m not so sure. So why don’t you stay down there, and do what we told your little friend to do. Give us the maps, and we can go our separate ways.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ said Dalip. ‘I don’t think you’ll stop at the maps, because once we have Luiza back, there’ll be nothing stopping us coming after you.’
‘Good luck with finding us, lion man.’
‘We found Crows. We can find you. And you know that. So stop lying and tell me what you really want.’
The Wolfman jerked at his wolves’ chains to stop them growling. ‘Gloves off, is that it? Cards on the table? Bit of plain speaking needed? It’s like this: we’ll take the maps, and anything else we fancy. If we leave you with anything, you can be grateful for our mercy.’ He laughed again. Mercy was a joke for people like him.
‘Bell wouldn’t have accepted that,’ said Dalip. ‘Certainly not what you’re intending.’
‘She had odd ideas about what you can do to slaves. I don’t share them.’
‘I noticed.’
‘So what’s it to be, lion man? Do we get to stick a blade in your gypsy friend, or do you give us the maps?’
‘You can’t use the maps for anything but starting fires. You’re too stupid, too scared to work out what they mean.’
Crows, rope over his shoulder, pulling the almost-finished boat behind him, crested the dune. ‘I, however, am neither.’
Despite the size and weight of the hull, and Crows’ stick-thin limbs, the boat seemed to move easily enough. The keel balanced on the dune’s apex before the bow tipped towards the sea.
‘You. You’re behind this?’
‘I know, I know. I am betraying everyone yet again, and for what? A few lines on a few sheets of paper or skin. Walk with me, Dalip, while I try both an explanation and an apology.’ He adjusted his grip and leaned against the drag of the rope. ‘Luiza will be perfectly safe. Isn’t that right, Daniel?’
‘Just as long as there’s no shenanigans, Master Crows.’
‘No shenanigans indeed. No more than have already been conceived and put into motion, at least.’
Dalip stared at Crows’ back, then had to move aside for the passage of the boat.
‘Luiza. Just …’ He shouted his frustration and ran to catch up.
‘You will ask me what am I doing?’ said Crows.
‘I was going to put it more strongly than that.’
‘It is very straightforward. I do not want you to make copies of the maps. I do not want to share them with you at all. So I want to take them from you and go to the White City by myself. Daniel seeks someone new to serve, now that you have driven Bell away. I have offered my services as his lord, and he has graciously accepted. So there you have it. When we are safely away, we will drop Luiza off, perhaps on one of the islands out in the bay. In time, a new boat will grow, and you can go and pick her up. That is, in the circumstances, the best I can offer.’
‘The best? The best?’
‘My preference is that you all live, Dalip. I do not wish you dead, any of you.’
Dalip raised the machete, and Crows carried on hauling.
‘If you attack me, Luiza will die. I do not think you want that weight on your soul.’ He glanced around. ‘If you do not lower your weapon, there may be a tragic mistake. Please understand, you have been tricked into giving up what you do not need in exchange for what you most dearly want. Accept it for what it is.’
‘How can I acc
ept this?’ But his arm hung by his side again. ‘This is an outrage.’
‘You are right. Of course you are. You have no choice, though. You are a better man now than I will ever be. You will not risk the life of your friend, and I would, though it shames me greatly to do so, let alone say it.’ He sighed. ‘This would be quicker if you helped me.’
‘No. Pull it yourself.’
‘As you prefer,’ said Crows.
The keel cut a lengthening line through the sand, while the distance to both the map box and the sea was diminishing with every step. Dalip thought so furiously that sweat started to bead on his forehead. He could think of nothing, though, no way out of the trap Crows had so carefully constructed.
And if the others imagined that Crows had, in his own fashion, managed to pluck a victory for them all from the salty air, then they were going to be disappointed.
‘There is one ray of sunlight in the darkness, of course. When you give me the maps, I will take Daniel and his men along. They will never bother you again. Is that not fair? And if I discover the secret of the portals, then surely that will benefit all? Yes: you can go to whichever time you wish. Come and find me, and collect your favour.’ He nodded to himself. ‘You see? I am actually helping you, even though you refuse to help me.’
Dalip was in agony. He knew – knew in his heart – that the maps needed to be saved, not just in exchange for Luiza, but for their own sake. The answer to Down was hidden somewhere in their ink-scratched surfaces. Yet to capitulate so thoroughly? Defeat was as bitter as bile.
As they came down to the strand line, where Mary and Mama and Elena stood, hopefully, expectantly, he could barely bring himself to speak.
‘Give him the maps.’
7
Mary watched it all unfold: the sudden appearance of Crows, his dragging the boat – their boat – down the beach, his conversation with Dalip and the boy’s animated response, and at one point she thought that Dalip was going to attack Crows. She held her breath, but was confused by the slump of Dalip’s shoulders. This didn’t look like they were winning.
Mama strained to see. ‘What is it? Why does Dalip look so angry?’
‘I don’t know. I can’t tell.’
‘It is Crows,’ said Elena. ‘He has done something, made a deal without us.’
‘He wouldn’t do that,’ said Mary, and reconsidered very quickly when Mama and Elena both stared at her like she was mad. ‘Okay. Let’s not lose our shit before we find out what’s happened.’
Crows hesitated as he walked – slowly, he was dragging a boat – up to them. He almost looked Mary in the eye, but turned his head away at the last moment and kept going to the water’s edge.
‘Crows? Crows, what the fuck have you done?’
Dalip chewed at his lip and rubbed his fist over his chin. He seemed close to tears.
‘Give him the maps.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me. He’s … I should just kill him, I—’
Elena dragged his arm down. ‘No. Luiza.’
‘And that is the only reason he’s still got his head on his shoulders.’
They watched as Crows dragged the boat to the line where the waves broke and ran up the beach. The boat itself looked perfectly seaworthy, sturdy and with enough room for all of them. Except, Mary realised, that was no longer her, Dalip and the others.
‘The Wolfman?’
‘Apparently so. Crows has hired him like some henchman.’
‘But why?’
‘It’s the maps. He doesn’t want to share.’ Dalip barely controlled himself. ‘Isn’t that right, Crows?’
‘The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that someone will have an accident. Please, Elena, put the box of maps in the boat.’
She didn’t. She spat on the sand instead.
‘Your cousin is still captive. She is in grave danger.’
‘You are a bastard, Crows,’ she said.
‘Very well, I will do it myself.’ He left the boat, with the waves washing up around and under it, and came back up the beach. ‘If you could all step back two or three paces. I am afraid I do not trust you.’
‘Well, that’s rich,’ said Mama, and put her hands on her hips.
Dalip waved them all back. ‘Let’s just get this over and done with. There’s no point in arguing. They’ve got Luiza, and they’ll kill her if we don’t do as Crows says.’
They were a sullen group, standing away from the crate as Crows took hold of both handles and staggered with it to the side of the boat. He lifted it up as high as he could, then pinned it there with his scrawny chest while he adjusted his grip. He pushed it up to the gunwales, and it teetered for a moment before falling inside, thumping its way down to the deck.
‘They will let her go now?’ asked Elena. The Wolfman and his crew started towards their vessel, Luiza still with them, held captive by her long hair.
‘If they did, then maybe Mary could follow them, maybe even sink them. They’re going to take her with them and kick her out on one of the islands.’
‘That is not right. We have done everything he asked. She should be free.’
‘I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.’ With that, Dalip walked away and stared at the beach rather than witness Luiza being put into the boat and it sailing away with her.
‘Mary, you must think of something.’ Elena’s fingers closed tight on Mary’s bare shoulders and shook her. ‘You cannot allow this.’
‘What am I supposed to do?’ Her voice was high and tight. ‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.’
‘Something. Anything!’
Mama folded her thick arms around Elena’s body and gently eased her away. ‘We’ll get her back. We’ll get her back and it’ll be fine. No point in getting angry with anyone but Crows – we’ve been played, and that’s all there is to it.’
Mary whirled around. Crows. She started towards him but he held up his finger.
‘They are warned, Mary. They know what you are capable of.’ He waited until she reached a fist-clenching stop, then reached up and pulled himself up into the boat. He disappeared for a moment as he swung over the side, then his head reappeared.
‘I can’t believe you’re doing this,’ she said.
‘You know me well enough to know I was always going to.’ The sea seemed to slap the hull hard, and it lifted a little. When it fell back down, it was deeper in the wash. ‘Let me tell you one last story before I go.’
‘I don’t want to hear it, Crows. Shut the fuck up.’
‘Ah well. Perhaps another time then.’ The next large wave sucked the boat out further.
‘There won’t be another time. When I see you next, I …’
‘What? You will kill me? I have done you no harm, Mary. I have saved you three times now. Once from Daniel, once from Bell, and now from the maps. They would have only brought you misery: best to let them go without regret.’
‘They were our maps. We were going to use them to go home.’
‘They were Bell’s maps. Then my maps. Then your maps. They were other people’s maps before they were Bell’s, and now they are mine again.’ The boat rocked, and Crows held on to the side. It was properly afloat now, and there was clear water between it and the beach.
‘Crows?’ Mary looked behind her. The Wolfman and his men were barely halfway towards them. ‘Crows? What are you doing?’
‘It is a shame you did not want to hear my story,’ he called. ‘It would have explained much.’
She walked into the sea up to her knees, but she knew the beach shelved away steeply after that. If she went much further, she’d have to swim.
‘Crows,’ she called. ‘What about the Wolfman?’
‘Please extend to him my deep sorrow at having to break our contract so early on. Such is the ever-changing nature o
f life.’
The boat was moving further away, and though his voice carried clearly, Crows was dwindling into the distance.
‘Crows. You have to stay.’
‘I regret that I am done on this shore. Farewell, Mary.’
‘What about Luiza?’
‘They will release her. They have no reason not to.’ With that, Crows’ head dropped from view.
Dazed, she reached out her arms and shouted: ‘Come back. Crows. Come back.’
She lost her footing, and the next wave bore her up and back towards the beach. She floundered to her feet, dripping wet, to see the Wolfman running past Dalip, towards her – no, towards the shrinking shape of the boat.
‘Hey!’ He splashed into the sea, raising a wave of his own. ‘Hey! Crows! We had a deal!’
Without sail or oars, the stern moved steadily away. White water started to break around it as it bobbed through the region where the waves started to rise, towards the open sea. The Wolfman pushed out further, his wolfskin cloak becoming more bedraggled with each step.
‘Crows!’
His wolves remained on the beach, running backwards and forwards, heads rising to yelp and yip. Their chain leashes rattled.
‘He’s not coming back,’ said Mary, to herself and the Wolfman. ‘He’s leaving without us.’
The Wolfman found the drop-off, and went from thigh-deep to neck-deep in a matter of moments. He gasped and splashed.
‘Crows!’
She turned her frustration on him. ‘Don’t you get it, you fucking idiot? He played you just like he played us. He’s got everything he wanted, and we’ve got nothing.’
The Wolfman found his feet and waded quickly back to dry land. His jaw was set and he was breathing hard. Further away, the man holding Luiza had come to a halt, uncertain what to do. The other man with him was, in turn, shouting back to the two more distant figures at the top of the dune.
Mary took a second to register the situation: everyone was angry, afraid, and upset. She’d seen this before: yes, it was a beach, but it was also very street. As much as she wanted to set off after Crows – and she could, she realised – it would mean leaving this incendiary mix to combust all on its own.
