The Rats and the Ruling sea tcv-2

by Robert V. S. Redick

  Thasha smacked herself furiously on the head. 'Wrong again! This wasn't where he was going at all!'

  'But it is where you are going to die, giants,' said a voice behind them.

  They whirled: alone in the doorway, bare feet in the pool of blood, stood Steldak. He had never looked more vicious or depraved. His gaunt lips were stretched wide and grinning, and his pale eyes shone with glee. Before Pazel or Thasha could move, he turned and shouted:

  'Come, Mugstur! I told you it was not Arunis! It is but two humans — the last, maybe, to have escaped our vengeance.'

  A great screech went up behind him, and rats began to pour through the doorway. With a decisiveness that saved both their lives, Thasha grabbed Pazel by the arm and pulled him to the back of the chamber. They clawed their way up a stack of hay bales, then turned and raised their weapons. 'Strike first!' Thasha whispered to him. 'Every gods-damned time!'

  The rats were on them in seconds. Pazel fought even more desperately than he had on the mainmast, driving Isiq's sword into one set of snapping jaws after another, struggling for balance on the shifting bales. As scores of rats converged on the youths, Mugstur himself waddled into the chamber. He was astonishingly swollen and ugly. His transformation in the liquor vault seemed to have closed the wound Hercol had given him, leaving only a purple scar on his bone-white chest. But something had changed: Mugstur, and indeed all the rats, had become slick and slimy, as if coated with some viscous substance. Hallucination, thought Pazel, as a rat prepared to spring.

  He killed that one, and the next, by stabbing downwards with both hands on the sword hilt. There were four scrambling to take their place, however, and eight or ten attacking Thasha. And the creatures were still shoving through the door.

  He had stabbed his fifth rat when Steldak let out a piercing cry. At almost the same time a voice shouted, 'Hold! Hold, beasts, or your master dies!'

  Mugstur snarled, and his servants froze where they stood. Clinging to Mugstur's shoulder was Taliktrum. The ixchel twisted the rat's loose flesh with one hand, while the other reached around the hairless neck, to the base of his jaw. There he held a long knife, point upwards. One sharp thrust would bury it to the hilt in Mugstur's brain.

  Four other ixchel — Dawn Soldiers, all — were racing up Mugstur's hairy sides to stand with their leader, weapons drawn. On the floorboards, Steldak lay with an arrow in his chest.

  'Surrender, vermin,' said Taliktrum.

  Master Mugstur reared suddenly on his hind legs. He had been thrice an ixchel's size before his transformation; he was thirty times it now. But the five ixchel held fast, and Taliktrum remained poised for the kill.

  Mugstur flexed his claws, one by one, a weirdly human gesture. Then he laughed, deep in his throat.

  'Talag's son,' he said. 'You should have brought that peppermint oil. Now you see what comes of defying a servant of the Most High. Tell us, crawly: when did you fall in love with giants?'

  'I did not come for them,' snapped Taliktrum. 'If they had been killed months ago my clan would still be safely hidden from the giants. It is you I am here for.'

  'Yes,' said Mugstur, 'for me. But not in the way you imagine. You have come because Rin willed it, and his Angel's power has brought it to pass. You are here because you are part of my destiny.'

  'Mad creature!' said Taliktrum. 'Aren't you ashamed to peddle that pap — that watery stew of giant beliefs? Order your rats back to their warren, or my knife will decide your destiny once and for all!'

  'Bring him in, my children,' said Mugstur calmly.

  Noises from the granary: then a new clutch of rats entered the chamber. Two of the creatures, walking on their hind legs, carried a wooden staff between them. An ixchel man was bound to that staff, head to toe. He was gagged, and nearly as wasted and filthy as Steldak had been when Pazel first saw him in Rose's cage. All the same his look was regal. His angular face and haughty eyes resembled Diadrelu's, and Taliktrum's own. His grey beard was a wild tangle.

  Taliktrum gasped. 'Father!'

  'It's Talag!' whispered Thasha. 'Sniraga didn't kill him! Oggosk lied to you, Pazel!'

  'Your father has been our guest since Uturphe,' said Mugstur, 'The witch gave him to Steldak, in exchange for information. And Steldak wisely brought him to me.'

  'Liar!' spat Taliktrum. 'No ixchel, not even mad Steldak, could betray one of his own in this way!'

  'Steldak did not wish to,' Mugstur admitted. 'He was tempted by the worship of a false prophet: you, Taliktrum. But I had hope for him always. He was a visionary like me. Weaker, of course, but as his fear left him his visions grew clearer. They gave him the strength to kill Talag's sister, when the time was right. Above all he was committed to the death of the arch-heretic Rose. It is a pity you murdered him before he could stand in triumph on Rose's corpse. But my children will not weep for him. True servants of Rin's Angel fear no death.'

  'Fear no death!' howled all the rats together, as though the words were a slogan.

  'Notice the ropes at Talag's wrists and ankles,' said Mugstur. 'Harm me, little lord, and my children will tear him limb from limb before your eyes.'

  Pazel put a warning hand on Thasha's arm. This was going to get ugly.

  'It is not I who will surrender, it is you!' roared the white rat suddenly. 'Stand aside and let us finish our kill! We are here because Steldak heard the voice of the Angel. And the last humans standing, a dark boy and a fierce pale girl, were here awaiting us — a fitting sacrifice, at the end of ends. The other humans fell before we reached them, struck down by the Angel's wrath-'

  'By us, you fool!' said Taliktrum.

  But Mugstur was no longer listening. 'Our wait is over, children! The sky has turned to blood, and a great mouth has opened in the sea! Everything is clear at last! It is the promised hour! The Angel comes!'

  'The Angel! The Angel!' shrieked the rats, twitching with ecstasy.

  Talag clung helplessly to Mugstur's neck. His eyes swept about the room, as if searching for an exit he might have overlooked. On the wooden staff, his father desperately shook his head. Taliktrum caught his eye, and a look of shame swept over him.

  'I can't obey, Father,' he said. 'I can't let you die. Withdraw, soldiers! Your next commands will come from Lord Talag. Release him, Mugstur, and take me instead.'

  'No!' shouted Thasha suddenly. 'Do not move, any of you! I forbid it!'

  Rats and ixchel alike looked up in shock. Pazel gaped as well: her voice was astonishingly changed. This was Thasha speaking, and at the same time it was not: just as a fiddle becomes something utterly new when passed from a novice to a master.

  There was a strange, bright light in her eye. She lowered Ildraquin until it pointed at Mugstur's heart. 'You read the signs correctly,' she said, confident and commanding. 'All but the last one, that is. Your wait is over. I have come.'

  Such a cacophany of squeals and howls and perplexed roars followed that not even Mugstur could make himself heard. Some of the rats had dropped on their bellies, cowering. Pazel was frightened half to death. What was happening to her? Where could she take this bluff?

  'Back!' Thasha shouted with a sweep of Hercol's sword. The rats who had been attacking her and Pazel leaped away. Then in one bound Thasha jumped to the floor, landing just beside the Shaggat Ness.

  Mugstur dropped to all fours and backed away. His eyes shone with doubt and wonder. 'You… you are the Angel? The Blessed One, the spirit who woke me, when I was a common rat?'

  By way of an answer, Thasha spread her arms wide, and in that strange, powerful voice, began to sing:

  I come as a shadow o'er the sea

  Swift and certain, my decree:

  None who would with Rin abide

  May from his chosen servant hide.

  Neither from his justice cower:

  For in that final earthly hour,

  Earth and ocean are as glass;

  Through them my burning gaze shall pass

  And scour all beasts from haunt or lair,


  Their souls to free upon the air.

  It was a liturgy of the Rinfaith — Pazel had heard bits of it before, chanted by devout sailors or travelling monks. But in Thasha's voice the words were frightful. Mugstur crouched low, tucking his tail and holding his head with his paws. Taliktrum and his warriors still clung to him, too shocked to do anything but watch.

  'Angel,' whimpered Mugstur. 'How can I know you? How can I be sure?'

  'If you do not know me, then you were never my true servant,' said Thasha.

  'That girl… she was always aboard!' squeaked one of the rats. 'She's Thasha Isiq, the Treaty Bride!'

  Thasha looked at the deformed rats. She was in a trance, Pazel thought. Then — before he could do more than scream a despairing No! — she reached out and touched the Nilstone, between the dead stone fingers of the Shaggat Ness.

  Pazel thought he was seeing her die. Something like that withering flame that had consumed the Shaggat's hand raced from the Nilstone down Thasha's arm. But it did not kill her. It swept over her body like a cold flame. All colour went out of the room, but Thasha's skin took on an unearthly glow. The black radiance of the Nilstone flowed through her fingers, brighter and brighter.

  'Do you believe?' Thasha demanded.

  'We believe, great Angel,' said Mugstur, squirming and grovelling at her feet.

  'We believe you! We believe!' squealed the rats.

  Thasha frowned. 'I do not trust in words. We shall see if you stand ready to prove your faith in deeds.'

  With that she wrenched her hand away from the Nilstone. She cringed, cradling the hand, as a peal of thunder rolled through the ship. Pazel slid from the hay bales and caught her before she could fall. Then the room was still.

  Mugstur leaped to his feet.

  'Yes!' he cried. 'I am ready! We are all ready! It is time for deeds! We will show you, Mistress of Heaven! After me, rats, the hour is come!'

  He turned and flew from the chamber. Their foes forgotten, the other rats pursued him. Their cries were taken up by the horde in the outer compartment: 'The hour is come! The hour is come!'

  Thasha put her arms over Pazel's shoulders. 'Well,' she said, leaning into him.

  It was her old voice; he could have wept with relief. He looked her over, head to foot. She had touched the Nilstone; she should have been dead. And yet she was not even visibly wounded, although he was rather sure she would collapse if he released her. 'What… what did you do?' he whispered.

  Thasha looked up at the Nilstone in the Shaggat's hand. 'It was nothing I'd planned, believe me. I just thought it was the only chance we had.'

  Beside them, Lord Talag (dropped by the rats in their haste) began to moan and twist with great urgency. Taliktrum bent and slashed at his father's bonds.

  Pazel looked out through the doorway. 'Where in Pitfire did they go? What did you tell them?'

  'Nothing!' Thasha protested. 'I just said obey me, didn't you hear? I don't know what command they think they're obeying.'

  Talag retched and shouted, tearing at his gag. Taliktrum wept openly as he cut him free. 'You lived,' he managed to say. 'The rat taunted me, said he had something I wanted more than life itself. I never dreamed it could be you.'

  The gag parted, and Talag spat it out. He made a raw and painful sound.

  'Don't try to speak too soon, m'lord,' said one of the Dawn Soldiers.

  Talag shoved him away. He bolted upright, even though his legs were still tied to the staff. 'The rats!' he croaked, his voice a husk. 'They go to die! Stop them, girl, stop them! Bring them back!'

  'Father, you're ill!' cried Taliktrum. 'They're our enemies, even though they kept you alive!'

  'Ill, am I?' snapped Talag. He drew his hand roughly over Taliktrum's chest, then rubbed his thumb and finger together. 'Lamp oil, you fool! Every rat aboard has bathed in it! They're killing themselves! They're going to free their souls upon the air! They're going to heaven on a plume of smoke!'

  The horror of what he was saying struck Pazel like a club. Thasha gasped and sprinted from the room. Pazel chased after her, amazed that she had found yet another reserve of strength. 'Mugstur!' she shouted. 'Stop! I command you!'

  But the power had left her voice, and the rats were far away. As they neared the Silver Stair Pazel realised he did not even know if they had run up or down. They skidded to a halt, listening.

  'They're beneath us!' said Pazel, starting to plunge downwards. But Thasha caught his arm, and he listened again.

  He cursed. 'And above us! Mugstur could have gone either way, and-Oh, damn it all! Look!'

  Three hundred feet away cross the central compartment, flames leaped suddenly in the gloom. They were rats, burning like living torches, and they were running this way and that, biting one another, setting each other alight. Those not yet on fire screamed at those that were: 'This way! Bless me, cleanse me, brother!' Then twenty or more rat voices rose in song:

  Faith on fire, smoke on high,

  Rin's first Angel, see me die.

  Rise in ash to heaven's nest,

  Rin's Rat-Angel, love me best!

  Pazel would have found it hard to imagine things getting much worse. But they did, considerably. Thasha was still holding his arm, and when he looked at her he saw tears of frustrated rage.

  'No good,' she said, nearly sobbing. 'I'm no good, I wreck everything, you're about to die, do you love me?'

  'What?'

  Thasha fell asleep in his arms.

  He shed her father's sword, and thrust Ildraquin through his belt in its place. He caught her under the arms. What could he do, and what did it matter, now? It didn't, he thought. The fog was in his brain again; he felt stupid and slow. But he would not abandon her. He would not let her burn among the rats.

  The first climb was easy. He kept her body high, and bore much of her weight against his chest. But after the berth deck he slipped in blood or oil, and fell painfully, and when he lifted her again she felt heavier, somehow. At the lower gun deck he had to put her down and clear dead rats from the ladderway. The upper gun deck was bright with flames.

  When he emerged into the open air the scene was infernal. The sky throbbed red in the south; lightning crackled over the still-closer Vortex. At least fifty rats had clearly made straight for the topdeck, and set themselves aflame when they reached it. Many had not stopped there, but had pulled themselves burning up the masts and shrouds. The tarred rigging snatched at the flame; already the mizzen topsail was alight.

  Hallucination? thought Pazel hopefully. Then he gave a sobbing laugh. The stench of burned fur, the wafting heat, the swollen, blazing animals leaping crazed from the yardarms: it was all too abominably real. And so was blane. He stumbled, rose with effort, dragged Thasha a few more yards. Then he sat down and propped her head on his lap, brushed her dirty hair from her eyes, and kissed her the way he'd wanted to for so long.

  This is where it ends, Thasha.

  The flame was widespread, fore and aft. Somewhere ixchel were shouting, cursing, muttering their ambiguous prayers. He thought, My mind is the ship. Three hundred cabins full of smoke, full of fog. Nothing stirring much longer. No more fighting to be done.

  A rat lumbered towards them in flames, shrieking. Pazel watched it, too sleepy even to move his hand to Ildraquin. The creature stopped a few yards from their feet and bowed its head, and Pazel realised he was looking at Master Mugstur. The white rat settled on to his thick stomach and lay burning like a hideous beacon in the wind. Most of the others were already dead.

  Pazel bent and kissed her once more. He closed his eyes, shutting out the world, shutting out everything but Thasha's lips, her gentle breathing. They should have done more of this. What exactly had they been waiting for?

  The fog crept into the last chamber of his brain. He rested his forehead on her shoulder, and was still.

  And then he raised his head, mouth agape, and blinked at the raging fire. And very much as a question he spoke the Master-Word.

  39

  Cold
Comfort

  He stood alone on a blackened ship, among the sleeping and the slain. Ashes, stone cold, were blowing from tattered sails that a moment ago had been sheets of fire. The Chathrand pitched and wallowed on the swells, revolving, perhaps accelerating. He looked for Thasha but could not find her. The deep thunder of the Vortex was the only sound.

  He staggered to portside, gazing at the Red Storm, so close now that he could make out the texture of the light within it. Somehow it was both gaseous and glass-sharp, cloud and broken mirror at once. He wondered what it would do to them, if they reached it at all.

  Portside was east when he started walking, but with the spin of the ship it was west before he arrived. He turned on his heel and ran in the opposite direction, and was quick enough this time to glimpse the Vortex, hideously close, a malevolent hole too big to contemplate, inhaling everything. It was a flaw the size of Rukmast, an obscene violation of the shape of the sea.

  Not out of the saucepot yet.

  An ixchel raced across the quarterdeck. Pazel raised a hand in greeting, but he might as well have been a shred of flapping sailcloth for all the notice the runner took. The ash coated the deck like dirty snow. He came to where Fiffengurt lay sleeping, bent and wiped his face, and shook him gently.

  'Wake up.'

  Fiffengurt slept on. Ten yards or so from the quartermaster a boy he didn't recognise lay in a strange, half-seated position, bending over another figure, who looked in danger of being smothered. Pazel crossed the deck and pulled the boy upright by the shirt.

  Oh.

  He jerked his hand away. The boy fell back on the deck, and it was him, it was Pazel himself. Asleep like everyone else on the deck. He lay with Thasha's head in his lap, just where he'd spoken the Master-Word.

  He felt a slight tingling at his shoulder, and realised that he had sensed his own touch. And yes, even as he stood here, he was dimly aware of the weight of Thasha's head upon his thigh.