Shadow of the Warmaster

3

Bolodo Man live in love

gold fine gold

Bolodo Man live in love

pearl and emarald.

Churri’s rich resonant baritone filled the hold; around, beneath, above it, the Omperiannas improvised a driving support (Tom’perianne, lectric harp, Nym’perianne, tronc fiddle, Lam’perianne, the flute).

Tribulation, sufferation

Boring blaggard Bolodo Man

Sing I sing thee sing we

Bloody bane for Bolodo Man

Get cold get old, senility

Cankers chankers dropsy pox

Virus venin worm and tox

Bolodo Man live in love

gold fine gold

Bolodo Man live in love

pearl and emarald.

Kante Xalloor stretched her restraints to the utmost, standing on her cot, dancing with the twanging ties, her body singing a wordless answer to the chanted curse.

Malediction, imprecation,

Jerk his melts, the B’lodo Man,

Mockery, indignity, calumny and ban

Rash and rumor, rancid liver,

Bob Bob B’lodo Man

Rot and rancor, snarl and spoil

Ulcer, abcess, fester, boil,

Epilepsy, apoplexy,

Indigestion, inflammation,

Fecculence and fulmination

Dilapidation, moth and rust

Treachery, atrocity, malignity and lust

Bolodo Man live in love

gold fine gold

Bolodo Man live in love

pearl and emarald.

Jaunniko snapped thumb and forefinger, diving headlong into the music; when Churri paused and looked at him, he began his contribution:

Wa ha wa hunh

Sibasiba Bird

Come out

Come from the river come

Wa ha

The bird come from the river

Wa hunh

Sibasiba

Eat gold

Eat gold

Eat gold

Eat fat greedy soul.

The bird come from the river

Eat those pearl those emarald

Eat you bare, Bolodo Man

Bare ass, Bolodo Man.

Churri laughed, his booming laughter filling the hold, filling that echoing impossible space.

Execration, vituperation

Call your curses, raise them high

Bolodo Man live in love

gold fine gold

Bolodo Man live in love

pearl and emarald

Fulmination, imprecation

Curse him up and

Curse him down

Curse him neck and

Curse him thigh

Curse him heel and

Curse him crown

Bolodo Man live in love

gold fine gold

Bolodo Man live in love

pearl and emarald.

Parnalee stood on his cot, straining his restraints, hunched over, slapping his shovel hands against his massive thighs, his burring basso waking echoes until his words got lost in them.

Thump them, dump them

Down among the dead men

Ekkeri akkari oocar ran

Down among the dead men

Bolo Bolo B’lodo Man

Down among the dead men

Blood and bone, heart and stone

Down among the dead men

Fillary fallary hickery pen

Down among the dead men

Blackery luggary lammarie

Eat the brain, the bod dy

Gut and liver, black kid ney

Rowan rumen mystery

Down among the dead men

The Curse Song went on and on, the transportees taking turns at soloing, their curses growing more extravagant, more surreal as each dipped into his or her culture to surpass the contribution of the last. The rest belted out the refrain until the hold rocked with it. Round and round, Churri playing variations on his verses, the Omperiannas adding flourishes, round and round until, finally, the transportees collapsed in exhaustion and laughter and fell into extravagant speculation about where Bolodo was going to dump them.

“Yo, I remember you. May’s Ass.”

“Aslan.”

Abruptly realizing what he’d said, Jaunniko went bright red, so red his ears and the tip of his long nose were nearly purple. “Ah,” he said. “Thing is,” he said, “May sort of went round saying you had the neatest ah um derriere he uh… He turned even redder. “The time we met,” he went on hastily, “it was at a party, you probably don’t remember me, you brought your mother along and that wasn’t being too successful, I talked to her a while, she was bored out of her skull, one icy lady…” He sneaked a look at her. Her expression must have been rather daunting, because he stopped talking altogether.

After she calmed down, she took pity on him and changed the subject. “How’d Bolodo get you?”

He stretched out on his cot, crossed his ankles, laced his fingers over his flat stomach. “I’d just got my papers. Junior Master. May found me a commission, he’s good about that, you know, Jeengid in the Blade, the Keex of Jelkim. I was one of about fifty she hired, she liked my part of the piece well enough to give me a little bonus, I was feeling whoooo no pain when this stringman came on to me. Woke up in a Bolodo scout tied down and sick as a… well, sick.”

“Any idea where we’re going?”

“None. Except we aren’t coming back from it.”

“So Xalloor thinks. I expect you’re right.