The Rats and the Ruling sea

9 Teala 941

88th day from Etherhorde

The man with the gold spectacles touched the eyelids of Thasha Isiq. The girl's sleep was restless, busy. He could feel the eyes dart this way and that under his fingertips, mice beneath muslin. Her bed resembled something tossed about in a cyclone. She slept curled on her side in a jumble of sheets, shawls, blankets, pillows, notebooks, discarded clothes. A nest, as it were. The man with the spectacles couldn't have been more pleased.

Thasha's brow furrowed; her lips made sudden twists and contractions. She is reading, he mused: reading a dream text, one that requires all her attention.

In the outer stateroom he found the lamps extinguished. On the bearskin rug, beside the cobalt mastiffs, Pazel slept in a pose quite similar to Thasha's. For that matter, so did the dogs themselves: spines curved, limbs folded, heads drawn down to their chests. And below us, thought the man, rats by the hundred are curled up almost the same. How our differences diminish, once we are still.

As he watched, Pazel's hand rose and gently pinched the skin at his collarbone. A curious, barely audible sigh escaped his lips. Neeps lay under the gallery windows, snoring.

The boy made an unusually feral grunt and woke Suzyt, the female mastiff. She raised her groggy head and looked around. Her eyes settled uncertainly on the man in spectacles.

'Go back to sleep, friend,' he said aloud. 'It's only your Felthrup. Going out for a midnight stroll, a meandering, is that the word I'm looking for?'

The dog made no response whatsoever. Felthrup's voice grew anxious.

'Don't look at me with those accusing eyes. A dozen lashes! Men stroll about when the mood takes them. They perambulate. Go to sleep!'

Suzyt growled low. Felthrup turned quickly and slipped out of the stateroom.

He felt a faint electric shock as he stepped through the invisible spell-wall. The mage will notice that. He will not be long in coming.

On these dream excursions, Felthrup sometimes inhabited a Chathrand as gritty and material as the waking ship. On other nights he turned corners and found himself transported, felt himself rise suddenly on a gust of wind into the high rigging (ghastly, wonderful) or felt the boards melt beneath his feet so that he sank abruptly to the deck below.

This was one of the latter nights. He should have been on the upper gun deck after passing through the spell-wall. Instead he was back in his old netherworld, the hold. He felt an immediate desire to flee, to wriggle into the shadows, out of sight. But that was his rat-self thinking.

I am a man. All things fear me here. I am six feet tall.

He was on a catwalk, a narrow path of planks that jutted from the sloping hull. Beneath him yawned a canyon of shelving and stanchions, wooden crates, grain sacks, lead ballast, sand ballast, tar drums, timbers, barrels of potted meat. He should not have been able to see the hand before his face, but somehow on his dream-walks the dim shapes of things were always visible.

In that time of terror and loneliness before Ramachni (bless him now and for ever) brought him half-drowned to Thasha's cabin, Felthrup had feared the hold most of all. The darkness was often total, and never fully dispelled. Enemies lurked in even more hiding places than on the mercy deck above, where the ixchel had nearly murdered him — and where prisoners in the brig were sometimes given rats to eat, out of malice or pity. Most of these rats were caught in the hold, in razor-toothed iron traps. Others, succumbing to temptation, nibbled at the plates of savoury mush that Old Gangrune the purser set out, telling themselves that perhaps this one, just this plate, would fail to be poisoned…

Felthrup stepped out onto a flying catwalk, one of the flimsy bridges that spanned the depths of the hold. Traps and poison were no use, of course: day by day the rats multiplied, and any fool could see why. Chathrand was provisioned for a voyage across the Ruling Sea. She lacked vegetables, maybe, and certainly limes and pap-root against the scurvy. But she was literally bursting with dry foods, and the rats took their share. More importantly, they were led by a woken rat. Not a cowering, emotional creature like Felthrup: Master Mugstur was fearless and obscenely strong, and ruled his warren in the forward hold with savage efficiency. Mugstur was also a true believer. He claimed to take orders directly from the Angel of Rin, but Felthrup had difficulty believing that the 'Benevolent Bright Spirit' really wanted him to slaughter humans and eat the captain's tongue. I should like to find Mugstur tonight, he thought. To dig him from his nest and fling him to Jorl and Suzyt, if only in my dreams.

Where was he going? He never knew until he arrived. The marvellous thing, though, was that the more he walked, the longer it took Arunis to find him. But I must never run. If he thinks I'm avoiding him his wrath will be hideous. Everything in balance, Felthrup my dear.

'Fall back! Fall back! Mission aborted! Kalyn, Sada, Ludunte!'

The voices were sweet and faint, like the piping of swallows from somewhere deep in a barn. But they were not birds, they were ixchel, and suddenly they were flowing past him, sprinting for their lives, more than he had ever seen in one place. There were archers and swordsmen, spear-carriers, and some with tool cases lashed to their backs. They ran in diamond formation, over and around his calfskin shoes, oblivious to his presence. Some were bleeding; one young woman ran with a groaning man slung over her shoulders.

Where was Diadrelu? It would have been a comfort to see her, even though they could not speak. But of the dozens of ixchel Felthrup saw just one face he recognised — that of her nephew Taliktrum, who paused at the bridge's centre and urged his people to greater speed.

The others shouted as they passed him. 'Ambushed, m'lord! They knew we were coming! What shall we do?'

'Kill them, but not today,' said Taliktrum. 'Get to safety, run!'

Soon all the little people were gone into the shadows — all save Taliktrum. He stood foursquare in the centre of the bridge, sword in hand, looking through Felthrup, waiting for something. It was not normal ixchel behaviour, to stand still in the open. Nor did Taliktrum look certain that he should be there, although he had struck a courageous pose for his kinsmen. Felthrup bent down: the young man's bright-penny eyes were full of rage, and some fear, but most of all agonizing doubt. He gritted his teeth, cut the air before him with his sword. What had led him to this pass? Felthrup wondered. And where in Alifros was Diadrelu?

Rat! Where are you?

Arunis' voice burst like a thunderclap in his skull. Felthrup shot to his feet — too quickly. His head spun. He fell, his flailing hand missed the rail, and he only just managed to seize the catwalk itself as he tumbled. And dangling there over the depths, two feet from the grim-eyed Taliktrum, Felthrup realised that he was about to betray the little people to the sorcerer. The ixchel were geniuses at avoiding detection — but how could you hide from a dream figure you couldn't see? And while Arunis prevented Felthrup's waking self from remembering any of what occurred in the dream-time, the sorcerer had made it clear that he remembered everything.

Rat! Answer me!

The mage would be here in seconds. And in the morning he would tell Rose of the 'infestation.' They would seal the lower decks, smoke the ixchel out. And murder them all.

A scraping noise made Taliktrum raise his head. And then the last thing Felthrup ever thought he would see took place. Master Mugstur himself slouched from the darkness and onto the bridge.

'Ay! Help! Help!' squealed Felthrup, utterly forgetting himself.

Stay where you are! boomed Arunis' voice in his head.

The great bone-white rat dragged his thick belly along the catwalk, his purple eyes locked on the young ixchel lord. His hairless head and chest gave him a strange resemblance to a shaved monk.

'The One who planted the Tree of Heaven frowns on you, Talag's son,' said Mugstur, his voice rasping and low. 'Do you pray for your soul's deliverance, or make haste for the Pits?'

Taliktrum fingered his sword hilt, but made no answer. Mugstur waddled closer. A rust-coloured stain surrounded his mouth.

'I am the instrument of Rin's Angel,' he said. 'You will know this to be true, if you but look into your soul.'

Felthrup tried to swing a leg onto the bridge, and failed. A rat would have pulled himself up in half a heartbeat. But he was no longer a rat.

Mugstur took a step closer, and Taliktrum raised his sword. 'You live in doubt,' said the white rat. 'Your life is an endless torment. But if you call to Rin, He will answer you. He will make you whole again. You have but to ask.'

'If he were to alter one drop of my blood to resemble yours, I should slit my own throat,' said Taliktrum, breaking his silence at last. 'But instead I have a mind to slit yours. I possess the skill. Has your Angel promised to keep me from doing so, this very moment?'

'Yes,' said Mugstur, his confidence absolute. 'For she has given unto me the one thing you cherish above yourself, little lord. Steldak has seen the proof — he will tell you. But you blaspheme when you talk of suicide. To harm the body is a sin.'

He belched, and spat some chewed and bloody flesh onto the planks.

Felthrup squirmed and struggled, fearing his arms were about to break. I must go, I must flee, I will doom them.

'What do you want from us, you foul sack of grease?' demanded Taliktrum.

'Peppermint oil,' said Master Mugstur.

'What?'

'Or brysorwood oil, or red lilac. We are tortured by fleas. They have always been vicious on Chathrand. But lately they have become unspeakable.'

'It's true!' croaked Felthrup.

What is true, rodent? The sorcerer was in the hold, his footfalls ringing on the catwalk, seconds away.

'They gnaw us like termites,' said Mugstur. 'They will drive us mad. Do this, and with the Angel's consent I shall give you what is in my keeping. Fail and my people shall devour it.'

'But where in the black Pits am I to get peppermint oil?' demanded Taliktrum.

Felthrup saw Arunis across the hold, a few steps from the bridge. With a wrenching final effort he shot out a hand and grabbed Taliktrum about the waist. The ixchel's eye's went wild, Mugstur leaped snarling into the air, Arunis shouted, ' There you are! ' And Felthrup dropped like a stone into the darkness.

He was flat on his back, his hand empty. No longer in the hold — the dream had moved him again. He blinked. A crystal chandelier. Scent of leather and ladies' perfume. He was in the first-class lounge.

He sat up, straightening his glasses. Taliktrum and Mugstur were gone. He had done it; he had saved the ixchel for another day.

'Witless oaf,' said Arunis.

Felthrup jumped violently. The mage was seated in an elegant chair, eyes fixed on him. His pale hands issued from the black sleeves of his jacket like two cave creatures, unused to the light. His tattered white scarf was knotted at the throat. A second chair stood near him, and between the two was a little table supporting a round silver box.

'How did you manage to fall like that?' Arunis demanded.

Felthrup scrambled to his feet. 'I saw — a rat! A number of rats! They startled me.'

'So naturally you leaped into the hold.'

'I-'

'What did you mean by shouting It's true?'

Felthrup chuckled nervously, brushing himself off. 'It's true that they're loathsome — that we are loathsome, we rats. Once you're used to human form.'

'Do not get used to it,' said Arunis. 'You will not get to play at being a man much longer, unless you give me what I seek. But I shall not threaten you tonight, Felthrup. I think we both understand the situation. Come and sit beside me.'

His eyes indicated the empty chair. Felthrup did indeed understand the situation. He could refuse, he could turn and walk away, but Arunis had found him now and would not lose him until he woke from the dream. Better to keep the mage from anger, if he could. He went to the chair and sat down.

'Try these candies, won't you? Men call them pralines.' Arunis raised the lid of the silver box and chose one of the multicoloured sweets within. Felthrup hesitated, but only for a moment. He chose a large square candy and bit it in half. Despite himself he gave a whimper of delight.

'Raspberries above, hazelnuts below! It is two delicacies in one!'

'And you are two beings in one, Felthrup. A rat who collaborates with fools, plagued by dreams he cannot remember. And a man who remembers everything, what the rat sees and what Arunis teaches, the shame of being a filth-creature and the nobility of human form. A man who could spare the rat much agony, and make him the loved and lauded scholar he was meant to be.'

'Please don't, Arunis,' said Felthrup softly.

'And all so simply, what is more. No one need ever know what he'd done. Why, the rat himself would never know. Do you realise that, Felthrup? Your dream-self can do everything. Your rat-self will not even be aware that it has happened, and none of his friends will suspect a thing!'

'I am one being, not two. You have interfered with my dreams.'

The mage shook his head. 'I have but listened to them. We want our dreams heard, after all. It's the deepest wish of every woken creature, to be heard by those with power to make dreams come true. I alone have paid attention to the longings of your heart.'

Felthrup smiled oddly. 'That's not true, not true in the least.'

'But of course it's true. Felthrup, you give your loyalty too cheaply. What has it brought you? Ramachni saved your life — but only because you knew about the Shaggat Ness, and could inform him. What I ask is no different, except that I put our relations on a more honest footing.'

'Honest?' Felthrup wrung his hands, still smiling. 'You say you will make me a man for ever, but you never say how you would accomplish this miracle. You cannot even make your Shaggat back into a man.' He looked up, suddenly fearful. 'Pardon my bluntness, sir, I didn't-'

Arunis lifted a reassuring hand. 'No need to apologise; it's a business-like question. And I'm happy to answer, since you have no means of passing on what I say to your waking self. I shall make you a man by the power of the Nilstone. I am destined to wield it, Felthrup, and by its might I shall remake the world. Your friends have not the least inkling of my purpose. They are the rodents, truth be told. They are ground-hugging mice; they see but inches through the grass. You have chosen to stand up, to comprehend a larger world. You see further, Felthrup — but I see for ever. I see the grim truths, the choices, the destiny of Alifros. With the Nilstone I can guide that destiny as surely as the gods themselves.'

'Do the gods require such assistance?'

Arunis' smile disappeared. After a pause, he said, 'Isiq's stateroom. It is the one place on the Chathrand that I cannot see, cannot enter. Give me this simple gift, won't you? Tell me what happens in that stateroom, and the world is yours.'

'I suppose,' said Felthrup, averting his gaze, 'that you want to know if they speak of when Ramachni might return, and how they shall fight you in the meanwhile — that sort of thing.'

The sorcerer's soft jowls broke once more into a smile. 'Exactly so — and you have just answered the first question I would have put to you, without my even asking. You have told me that he is not back yet.'

He appeared immensely relieved. He laughed, gazing almost fondly at the other man. Felthrup laughed too, but only to disguise his horror at what he had just said.

'Not back,' said Arunis, 'and perhaps never to return at all. I knew it. Deep inside, I always knew he was not so great a mage as they claim. Now then, my good rat, there is one thing, one very essential thing, that I am certain is never discussed outside that room. Who is Ramachni's spell-keeper? Whose death will turn the Shaggat back into a living man?'

Felthrup snatched another candy and popped it into his mouth. He didn't know; as far as he was aware it was a secret kept even from the spell-keeper himself. Felthrup swallowed the candy and smacked his lips.

'You're very clever, Arunis,' he said.

'I am three thousand years old,' said the sorcerer amiably.

'And what would you do if I couldn't help you? If I couldn't bring myself to say another blessed word about the stateroom, or my true and only friends?'

Arunis considered his nails for a moment. Then he too reached for the candy box, and lifted the lid.

White froth erupted from the container. Felthrup tried to leap up, but found his arms and legs bound to the chair by iron shackles. The mage rose and stepped away as the cascade poured from the little table to the floor. Not froth, but worms: slick, ravenous white worms, gushing into the room through the silver box like the sea through a hull breach. Felthrup was screaming, he could see their faces, their barbed and distended mouthparts, their intelligent eyes. They reached his right ankle first, punctured the skin there like nails through dough, he pleaded, howled, they were tunnelling deep into his human flesh, scaling him by the hundreds, thousands, he was being devoured and he felt every point of mutilation, he was vanishing, vanishing into the bodies of the worms.

Thasha was wrenched from her own troubled sleep, in which she was puzzling over the entry 'Fulbreech' in the Merchant's Polylex, by a sudden jolt she couldn't identify. It was still night. The dogs were barking. Her hand closed on her knife hilt before her feet touched the floor.

But in the outer stateroom she found the tarboys stumbling and swearing, and Jorl and Suzyt desperately licking Felthrup, who had exploded from his basket moments before with a bloodcurdling squeal.

'Another nightmare,' groaned Pazel, who had bashed his knee on the samovar. 'At this rate we're going to have to take him to Chadfallow.'

'Or Bolutu,' said Neeps. 'Maybe a horse pill would keep that rat asleep.'

They were trying not to look at Thasha — or trying to seem as though they weren't. She was wearing lace underthings and no more. Irritated at everyone, she fell back into her room, laid down the knife and pulled a dressing robe over her shoulders. Then she crossed the stateroom and gathered Felthrup into her arms.

He was shaking uncontrollably, drenched in cold sweat. 'The w-wor… ' he stammered.

'The worst one yet?' she asked, stroking the lame little creature. 'You poor thing. Tell me about it; that always helps with nightmares.'

'Don't remember. Never can remember. My legs hurt. Oh Thasha!'

'Hush now. It's over.'

'All over. All finished, done.'

'Felthrup,' she said gently, 'can't you remember anything? It really might do some good, you know — like coughing up a poison, rather than keeping it inside.'

The rat squirmed in her arms. His stump-tail twitched. He made an obvious effort to still himself, to bring something, anything back with him from the darkness.

'Where are my spectacles?' he said.