Pazel felt anger tightening his chest. "You want us to go on helping these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds? Helping Rose and Ott, Alyash and Taliktrum and his gang?"

"We cannot proceed without them, Pazel. Of course I don't imagine that they will make it easy. But we must remember the lesson of the fishermen and the crocodile."

"Ah!" said Felthrup. "An excellent parable; I have heard it myself. Two fishermen made long war over a favorite spot to cast their nets. Each day they came and bickered, racing each other in their labors. Finally, at the end of one hot, sticky, altogether infelicitous infelicitous day, they came to blows, and one man clubbed the other nearly senseless, and left him crawling on the banks. There Tivali the crocodile found him, and delightedly feasted." day, they came to blows, and one man clubbed the other nearly senseless, and left him crawling on the banks. There Tivali the crocodile found him, and delightedly feasted."

"Oh joy," said Pazel.

"I have not finished, Pazel," said the rat. "When the other fisherman returned, he was glad to have the spot to himself, and stayed all day, filling his baskets. But in the shadows of evening Tivali crept up and seized his leg. The crocodile was strengthened by his earlier meal, and before he ate again, he remarked through his teeth that he had never dared attack both men together. 'You did my work for me,' he said. 'I knew I could depend on you.' You're right, Master Hercol. Rose and Ott may be monstrous, but without them we cannot face the crocodile. And we all know who that that is." is."

"Arunis," said Pazel, "of course. But Pitfire, there must be a better choice than that."

"There will be," said Hercol, "when Ramachni returns."

"'When a darkness comes beyond today's imagining,'" said Thasha, echoing the mage's parting words. "But hasn't that time come and gone, Hercol? I don't have any intention of giving up-and neither does Pazel, he just talks rot-but Rin's eyeb.a.l.l.s, how dark is dark enough?"

"Ramachni has never failed us," said Hercol, "and I cannot believe that he will fail us now, as the battle of his lifetime nears its conclusion. But we must go. The villains await us in the manger."

"I will be near you, under the floor," said Felthrup. "There are pa.s.sages the ixchel never dared to use, pa.s.sages that belonged to the rats. They are all mine, now."

"For a time, perhaps," said Hercol. "Go softly, little brother."

Felthrup scurried off. The humans returned the way they had come, and proceeded to the aftmost pa.s.sage of the orlop deck. Foul air, sticky floorboards. Pazel knew with a hint of shame that he had not only been worrying for Thasha's sake. He hated the manger like no other part of the ship.

The pa.s.sage brought them to the looted granary, and thence to the manger door. Here the stench was astonishing: fur, blood, bile, ashes, rot. Pazel saw the flicker of lamplight, heard the voices of men and ixchel, arguing.

"-can't let one person beyond this room know what's happened to human beings," Fiffengurt was saying. "I've seen vessels in the grip of plague-panic. They can't be sailed. The men get frightened of every cough, sneeze, hiccup-"

Thasha and her dogs stepped into the chamber. The mastiffs tensed and growled, and the talking ceased.

"At last," snapped Taliktrum's voice. "What took you so long, girl? Do you think we a.s.sembled here for the pleasure of one another's company?"

Pazel and Hercol followed her inside. The manger was wide and deep, built to store fodder for two hundred cattle, in the days when the Great Ship had carried whole herds across the Narrow Sea. Their own cattle had all perished: some had broken legs or hips during the Nelluroq storms and had to be slaughtered quickly; most were savaged by the rats. But no one had yet removed the hay.

Pazel looked at the wall of square bales tied up at the back of the chamber, saw the stain down the front like a dark dried stream. He and Thasha had made their stand on that wall. The rats had seemed endless in number, demonic in their hate. Pazel had fought with every ounce of his strength; Thasha, ten times the fighter he was, had hewn the creatures down like weeds. But the rats had swarmed around them, leaping from behind. They would have perished in minutes without the Nilstone.

It was still there, at the center of the manger, clenched in the stone hand of the s.h.a.ggat Ness, that lifeless maniac, that king become a statue. Pazel could not see the Stone-Fiffengurt had ordered the s.h.a.ggat's arm draped with cloth, and the cloth firmly tied about the statue's wrist-but he could feel it all the same. What was he sensing? Not a sound, not a glimmer. The feeling was closest to heat. With every step into the chamber he could feel it grow.

The s.h.a.ggat himself was kept upright by a wooden frame, girdling his waist and bolted heavily to the floor. He stared at his upraised hand with a weirdly shifting expression: triumph giving way to terror and shock. He had remained flesh and blood just long enough to see the weapon he craved begin to kill him.

On the mad king's shoulder stood tiny Lord Taliktrum. His consort, Myett, crouched beside him, one hand on his calf, tensed for flight or combat as she always was when humans approached. Pazel felt a keen hatred for the pair. Murderers Murderers. They had not actually slain Diadrelu, Pazel and Thasha's dear friend and the ixchel's former commander. But they might as well have. Steldak, the ixchel man who had jerked the spear through her neck, was deranged, and perished himself in short order. It was Taliktrum and his fanatics who had ambushed Diadrelu, and held her while the deed was done. Pazel would never forgive them.

Around the statue were gathered some twelve or thirteen humans, along with Bolutu and Ibjen. Pazel still marveled at the dlomic boy's willingness to help them. He had said no more about it since the fire on the beach, never explained who had told him that some on the Chathrand Chathrand were trying to "redeem the world." But his courage was being sorely tested. He'd been promised a safe return to the village by nightfall. From the look on his face he was counting the hours. were trying to "redeem the world." But his courage was being sorely tested. He'd been promised a safe return to the village by nightfall. From the look on his face he was counting the hours.

Six Turachs were present, including Haddismal. And there was Big Skip Sunderling: a welcome surprise, for the carpenter's mate was a trusted friend. Not so the bosun, Mr. Alyash, who greeted the newcomers with a scowl: a gruesome expression, owing to the blotchy scars that covered him from mouth to chest. Alyash was a spy in the service of Sandor Ott. The scars, Pazel had heard him claim, were marks of torture with a sarcophagus jellyfish by the followers of the s.h.a.ggat Ness.

Mr. Uskins was here as well-tall, fair Uskins, the disgraced first mate. The man had loathed Pazel and Neeps from the start-they belonged to inferior races, but failed to cringe before their betters-and the tarboys returned the sentiment. But lately Pazel had begun to feel sorry for Uskins. The man looked like a shipwreck. Once fastidious in the extreme, he had neglected both his beard and his uniform. His blond hair dangled greasy and uncombed. When he looked at Pazel his eyes lit with antipathy, but it was a vague, distracted sort of hate.

The last two figures were even more unexpected. One was Claudius Rain-addled Dr. Rain, the worst quack Pazel had ever encountered. Rain had barely stirred from his cabin since the legendary Dr. Chadfallow replaced him as ship's surgeon. But here he was, following the flies with his gaze, muttering to himself. And there beside him, d.a.m.n it all, stood the surgeon's mate, Greysan Fulbreech.

The handsome Simjan youth beamed at Thasha, who returned a brief, uneasy smile. Pazel wanted to smash something. He was visited by the absurd idea that Fulbreech, five or six years older and unbearably decent to everyone, was the true reason Thasha had insisted on attending the meeting. Fulbreech had appeared suddenly one day in the wedding crowd on Simja, bearing a mysterious message for Hercol. Pazel had mistrusted him from that first moment, though he had to admit he had no definite cause. Not for mistrust, anyway; jealousy was another matter. He knew quite well that Thasha had fancied the surgeon's mate-had kissed him once or twice, even, when Oggosk's threats made Pazel treat her with disdain. Of course, that was over now- Fulbreech gave him a frank, friendly smile. "h.e.l.lo, Pathkendle."

Pazel nodded, failing to bring an answering smile to his lips. Do I hate him just because Thasha doesn't? What's the matter with me? Do I hate him just because Thasha doesn't? What's the matter with me?

Behind them, Alyash closed the chamber door.

Taliktrum cleared his throat. "We're alive," he said. "That is something. But no one should suppose that we have earned the right to breathe easy. Only giants think in terms of merits and rewards; our people think of survival. That is what we are here to determine: how to survive together, until we can go our separate ways."

Fiffengurt laughed grimly. "Did you see that G.o.ds-forsaken serpent? Did you hear those drums? We're babes in the woods, Mr. Taliktrum. How in Pitfire do you determine determine the best way to survive in a world you know nothing about?" the best way to survive in a world you know nothing about?"

"You must address him as 'commander' or 'lord,'" hissed Myett.

"You are not equipped to understand," said Taliktrum, "but we are. The ixchel have not grown fat in their time of exile; they have not grown soft and selfish. Every house in Etherhorde, every dog-prowled, cat-infested alley, was to us a place of menace and persecution. Do you see how fortunate you are that we seized your drifting helm? Trust me, you are adrift no longer. The Chathrand Chathrand shall move through this great, strange South as the ixchel move through a city: in the shadows, in darting runs and swift concealments, inch by hard-won inch." shall move through this great, strange South as the ixchel move through a city: in the shadows, in darting runs and swift concealments, inch by hard-won inch."

His words tumbled out like an unpracticed speech, or a man trying to convince himself of his own consequence. When he finished, he appeared at a loss. Without releasing his leg, Myett looked up and caught his eye, and then subtly directed his attention to Old Gangrune.

"I have asked our purser," said Taliktrum at once, "to remind us of the a.s.sets that remain aboard this ship. That is the purser's duty, among other things. Are you prepared, Mr. Gangrune?"

The old, bent fellow nodded sourly. He was fussing with an extremely tattered and dog-eared accounting book.

"Well, proceed," said Taliktrum.

Gangrune took a pair of horn-rimmed gla.s.ses from his vest pocket, considered the filthy lenses, folded them anew. He opened the logbook and considered it for nearly a minute with the deepest disappointment. At last Haddismal s.n.a.t.c.hed the book, flipped it right-side up, and placed it again in Gangrune's hands. The old man glared at the sergeant as though he had been tricked. Then he cleared his throat.

"It is my joy," he shouted, "in this, my thirty-seventh year as purser aboard the Imperial Mercantile Ship Chathrand Chathrand, registration four-o-two-seven-nine Etherhorde, to present you with another exact exact and and impeccable impeccable accounting. To begin with the human a.s.sets, gentlemen: our splendid vessel currently boasts three hundred and ninety-one ordinary seamen, one hundred and forty able seamen, twenty-two midshipmen, sixteen lieutenants and sub-lieutenants, two gun captains, six deck officers in full command of their mental faculties, another deck officer, a glorious and decorated captain, a famous and educated sailmaster, a doctor and another who pet.i.tions our belief that he is such, a surgeon's mate, two ill.u.s.trious pa.s.sengers ent.i.tled to partial refunds due to our tardiness in returning to Etherhorde, nine specialists, seven mates, a veterinarian with webbed fingers, a master cook, a tailor, thirty-four tarboys of no distinction or morals, ninety-one Turach marines with full mobility and one who suffers headaches and is p.r.o.ne to falling forward, a regimental clerk, a foul witch, an experienced whaling-ship commander and his nineteen surviving crew members, including four Quezan warriors indecently fond of nakedness, thirty-three steerage pa.s.sengers, among them twelve women, four boys, three girls and an infant with a cleft lip, eight-" accounting. To begin with the human a.s.sets, gentlemen: our splendid vessel currently boasts three hundred and ninety-one ordinary seamen, one hundred and forty able seamen, twenty-two midshipmen, sixteen lieutenants and sub-lieutenants, two gun captains, six deck officers in full command of their mental faculties, another deck officer, a glorious and decorated captain, a famous and educated sailmaster, a doctor and another who pet.i.tions our belief that he is such, a surgeon's mate, two ill.u.s.trious pa.s.sengers ent.i.tled to partial refunds due to our tardiness in returning to Etherhorde, nine specialists, seven mates, a veterinarian with webbed fingers, a master cook, a tailor, thirty-four tarboys of no distinction or morals, ninety-one Turach marines with full mobility and one who suffers headaches and is p.r.o.ne to falling forward, a regimental clerk, a foul witch, an experienced whaling-ship commander and his nineteen surviving crew members, including four Quezan warriors indecently fond of nakedness, thirty-three steerage pa.s.sengers, among them twelve women, four boys, three girls and an infant with a cleft lip, eight-"

"Silence!" screamed Taliktrum. "Mr. Gangrune, what are we to do with such a rubbish heap of detail? I asked you for a summary statement."

Gangrune countered that he was presenting a summary, that a full company report would have required him to be "rather more specific." He was about to resume his reading, but Taliktrum cut him off.

"That will do, Purser, thank you ever so much. Post your summary summary in the wardroom as I requested. Now then-" The young lord's eyes swept the room, and at last settled on Thasha again. "Step forward, girl." in the wardroom as I requested. Now then-" The young lord's eyes swept the room, and at last settled on Thasha again. "Step forward, girl."

Thasha hesitated, then moved toward the ixchel and the s.h.a.ggat Ness. She regarded Taliktrum coldly.

"We have decided to keep this plague of idiocy a secret from the crew of the Chathrand Chathrand. Have you or your friends spoken of it to anyone?"

"Of course not," said Thasha.

Nothing about the time-skip, Pazel thought. Hercol's right. It's safer this way Hercol's right. It's safer this way.

"When we fought the rats in this chamber," Taliktrum went on, "I saw a thing I cannot explain. Pathkendle saw it too, and my father, and a handful of my guards. I am not sure whether you saved our lives or inspired the rats to start the bonfire that nearly killed us all. Will you tell us what happened?"

A brief pause, then Thasha shook her head.

"Perhaps you distrust certain persons here?" suggested Taliktrum. "Will you speak to me privately, to help me better command this vessel?"

Grunts and murmurs escaped the humans. Command, he says Command, he says. One of the Turachs turned aside to spit.

"No," said Thasha, "I won't."

"Do not toy with us," said Taliktrum, his voice rising. "By now you of all people must know that we of Ixphir House do not bluff. We have no desire to see any more of your people killed-"

"What about your own?" muttered Fiffengurt.

"-but if you refuse to face the truth of your situation, you will leave us no choice. Look at me when I address you, girl."

"Her name is Thasha Isiq," said Hercol.

Every head in the chamber turned. Taliktrum started; Myett's hand went to her bow. Hercol had spoken quietly, but Pazel had rarely heard such depths of hatred in a voice.

Hercol and Diadrelu had been lovers. Pazel did not know what that meant, between a human and an eight-inch-tall ixchel queen. A few months ago he would not have believed it possible: it was the stuff of tarboy jokes. But he had seen Hercol when they found her, hours too late but still beautiful, naked save for her bandaged neck, surrounded by those of her clan who had loved her to the end. Hercol's agony had been like a second death, and Pazel had felt ashamed of his doubt.

That courage, he thought, and that proud, quiet loneliness. She was perfect for him and that proud, quiet loneliness. She was perfect for him.

A sudden rustling from the hay bales. Pazel raised his eyes: eighty or ninety ixchel had materialized there in an eyeblink, ranged like a miniature battalion, armed and silent. Every one of them was focused on Hercol.

Alyash gestured irritably. "We're all on the same blasted ship, Stanapeth. We've the right to know what her game is."

The right to know! Pazel was speechless at the bosun's gall. But he wouldn't be speechless, not this time, he- Pazel was speechless at the bosun's gall. But he wouldn't be speechless, not this time, he- "Awful, isn't it," said Fulbreech, his voice dripping sarcasm, "when people keep secrets?"

Thasha smiled at Fulbreech again.

"You shut your G.o.ds-d.a.m.ned mouth, boy," said Alyash. "You've no business here anyway."

"We were summoned, we were dragged," Dr. Rain protested.

Thasha just shook her head. "I won't explain because I can't. I simply don't know what happened that day. I touched the Nilstone and it didn't kill me, though it should have. And I told the rats I was the Angel they worshipped, and they believed me. Of course I didn't know that the Angel's coming would make them want to go to heaven on a puff of smoke."

Taliktrum stared at her a moment, then nodded to Myett. Agile as spiders, the two ixchel crawled onto the s.h.a.ggat's arm and set about untying the ropes.

The cloth slithered to the ground. "Behold your ally, men of Arqual," said Taliktrum.

The hand, etched in stone but withered to a skeleton, was every bit as hideous as Pazel recalled, but now he saw long cracks extending down the arm, nearly to the shoulder. And there, clenched in the fleshless fingers, was the Nilstone. It was no larger than a walnut, but terrifying all the same, for the Nilstone was black beyond seeing. To look at it was like staring at the sun: a black sun, that dazzled without light.

"Oh," said a man's voice, weak and troubled. "Oh dear, that is wrong wrong." It was Dr. Rain. He was shaking his head and pointing at the Stone. "Crawlies, Mr. Fiffengurt-that is all wrong all wrong. Do you hear me? Wrong! Wrong!"

Suddenly he was shouting, red-faced, hands in fists, stamping his foot so hard on each Wrong! Wrong! that his body jerked in a kind of circular war-dance. that his body jerked in a kind of circular war-dance.

"Get him out of here!" snapped Haddismal, gesturing to his men. But before any of them could move Rain straightened up, drew a great sucking breath and fled the chamber.

"Why in the belching Pits did you summon that fool?" said Alyash.

"He's a doctor," said Myett, her voice low and feline, "and your precious s.h.a.ggat is disintegrating."

"From his dead hand down," said Taliktrum. "Mr. Fulbreech, Mr. Bolutu, you're the only medical men left here. What do you see? What would happen to this madman should the enchantment end?"

Fulbreech and Bolutu approached the s.h.a.ggat, flinching when their eyes pa.s.sed over the Nilstone. Bolutu, among so much else, was a renowned veterinarian. Fulbreech, by contrast, was a mere surgeon's mate, and a new one at that. But his tutor over the past four months of storm and combat had been none other than Ignus Chadfallow, and Pazel well knew what a driven teacher the doctor could be.

"If those cracks become lesions?" mused Fulbreech. "No question, gentlemen. He will lose the arm."

"And his life, should the cracks spread greatly," added Bolutu.

"A tourniquet can stop the bleeding only if it can be fastened to a stump."

"Then what're you waiting for?" growled Haddismal. "Patch up his blary arm! G.o.ds of death, Bolutu, the fortunes of our Empire rest on that man!"

"Your Empire," said Bolutu. "I came north to fight Arunis and the evil he would do to Empire," said Bolutu. "I came north to fight Arunis and the evil he would do to all all lands. But Arqual has never been my home. Your contempt for my skin a.s.sured that, as much as your vile ambition to destroy the Mzithrinis." lands. But Arqual has never been my home. Your contempt for my skin a.s.sured that, as much as your vile ambition to destroy the Mzithrinis."

"Why has no one stabilized the arm?" demanded Taliktrum.

"Chadfallow warned 'em off," said Alyash. He waved a hand imperiously, spoke in a fair imitation of the doctor's stentorian voice. "'Nothing you do will slow the decay. Plasters, splints, bandages-none of these can help. You'll only crumble him the faster, mark my word, mark my word.'"

Bolutu and Fulbreech looked at each other and frowned, as though they doubted the verdict. But Alyash pointed irritably at the s.h.a.ggat's hand.

"It's that Stone we have to deal with, if we want to save the monster," he said. "He'll be dead before you can sing him a fare-thee-well, if he turns back to flesh with that thing in his hand. And if Arunis is is still aboard-" still aboard-"

"He is," said Mr. Uskins suddenly.

Pazel started; he had almost forgotten that Uskins was in the room.

Alyash, fl.u.s.tered, carried on: "-then we know he's toiling away in a fever, trying to learn how to use it."

"And failing, so far," said Haddismal. Turning Thasha a skeptical look, he added, "You expect us to believe that you did something that mucking sorcerer won't even try?"

"I touched the Stone," Thasha stated flatly, "once."

"Just reached up and gave it a squeeze," scoffed Haddismal. "On a whim, like. The deadliest blary thing in Alifros."

"If I hadn't we'd have died anyway," said Thasha.

"Do it again," said Taliktrum.

Uproar, loud and general. Taliktrum and Myett leaped straight up from the s.h.a.ggat onto a crossbeam above. Every human voice (and two dlomic) in the chamber cried out against the notion, and Jorl and Suzyt erupted in howls. Pazel squeezed Thasha's elbow. No, no, no No, no, no, his shaking head proclaimed.

"You'll shatter the arm!" shouted Alyash.

"Be quiet!" Thasha bellowed, and everyone obeyed. Thasha handed the dog's leashes to Pazel. Then she walked right up to the s.h.a.ggat Ness, raised a hand and touched the statue's arm, spreading her fingers wide. Thasha bellowed, and everyone obeyed. Thasha handed the dog's leashes to Pazel. Then she walked right up to the s.h.a.ggat Ness, raised a hand and touched the statue's arm, spreading her fingers wide.

"Thasha, don't!" hissed Pazel.

Thasha closed her eyes, tracing the stone bicep, sliding her fingers around and upward in what was almost a caress. She reached the elbow, lingered there, then moved her hand slowly higher.

"I could," she said, and as she spoke Pazel thought the manger darkened, and a cold, p.r.i.c.kling sensation swept over his body. The men looked at one another, aghast. Thasha reached higher still, until her fingers rested atop the s.h.a.ggat's own, with the throbbing blackness of the Nilstone lancing between them. "I could take it from his hand, right here and now. But what would be the point?"

She dropped her hand, and a sigh of relief pa.s.sed through the room. Pazel felt light-headed, as though he had just caught his balance at the edge of a cliff. But Alyash gave a mirthless laugh.

"You're lying through your pretty teeth," he said to Thasha. "You know what the point would be. You could send Arunis flying from this ship like a cannonball. The rest of us, too. You could get your friends out of the crawly trap, whisk us home across the Nelluroq and be sittin' down to tea and toast with Daddy by New Year's Day. Pitfire, you could topple Magad the Fifth and take his place as Emperor of Arqual. The whole blary game's up if someone masters the Nilstone."

"I never said I could master master it," said Thasha. "I'm no mage. I only told you I could claim it." it," said Thasha. "I'm no mage. I only told you I could claim it."