It had been a year of enormous change.
Tab stood on the port-side battlements where she had stood exactly a year before, gazing out over the city. Bathed in brilliant sunlight, the waters of the now-enclosed harbour sparkling, Quentaris was a buzz of activity. It was market day down in the town. A forest of gaily coloured stalls and awnings, not to mention some large outlandish umbrellas, had blossomed in the city square, clustering about the base of the mainmast.
Overhead, vast canvas sails crackled and snapped in the wind. The spider web of rigging bounced. Tab craned her neck, staring up at the colossal world of rope and canvas, of bouncing catwalks, towers, turrets, and a complex bridge structure from which Quentaris was steered. Squinting against the sun's bril liance, Tab saw the tiny figures of riggers, canvassers, splicers, knot-men, dousers, lookouts, mizzen-men and the former roofies who made excellent sky sailors – not to mention officers and midshipmen – crawling and bobbing amidst the broad sheets of canvas.
Quentaris looked exactly like an enormous sailing ship, from the rift hills at the stern, to the jutting bowsprit of the prow, and various great masts in between. And, just like such a ship, Quentaris sailed.
Only it wasn't the sea that it sailed upon. It was the sky. Tab leaned out over the parapet and stared into… space. A cloud wafted past. She looked down as Quentaris cast its huge shadow over the alien terrain far below. A herd of galumphing, three-horned creatures stampeded. The fear-crazed animals left a trail of billowing reddish dust in their wake. Above, a flock of sharp-beaked birds with pink plumage flitted amidst the immense masts and rigging. The fore-topsail and main-topsail were fully bloated. Everyone had become accustomed to the ever-present raucous flapping of the city's sails. With a fresh breeze, Quentaris was travelling at a swift six knots.
Tab never tired of this sight.
She thought Quentaris, a city she had always loved, had become magnificent. Indeed, in some fashion that she couldn't quite put her finger on, Quentaris had come alive. The sails were its lungs, capturing great gasps of air to thrust it on its way; the rigging was its sinews, holding everything together; the masts, its bones; and the great slab of earthen rock upon which the city and harbour and surrounding wall sat, its flesh and organs. The sails crackled, the rigging sang, and the two great engine houses – port and starboard – throbbed rhythmically as they converted the magical energy of icefire into the ire ore that powered the gigantic propellers that were used when the winds died and the city becalmed.
Despite all this, Tab shivered as she remembered the Rupture itself, the wrenching upheaval that had thrown Quentaris into the rift vortex that had formed in the sky. Tab knew that Fontagu and the stolen icefire gem had been responsible. She even knew the name of the spell used, having returned to the slaughterhouse to find both the gemstone and the scrap of paper bearing the words Fontagu had muttered.
Only by then, all the words, except for the sealing phrase, were fading even as she stared at the note. Later she had looked up the remaining words in an ancient book of charms in the library of the Magicians’ Guild. Only one spell used such words.
The Spell of Undoing.
From the entry, she had come to understand that somehow Fontagu had messed up. The Spell of Undoing, used properly, should have ‘undone’ the city: undone its prosperity, its luck, its success in battle, as well as the workings of the rift caves. In the process, many might have died.
But it had somehow gone wrong, perhaps because of Fontagu's nervous mispronunciation of the final words.
Instead, it had ‘undone’ Quentaris in much the way that one popped a cork from a bottle and threw it away. Tab knew this wasn't a very ‘magical’ way of thinking, but it helped her make sense of what had happened.
Of course, no one knew of her involvement in the Rupture, nor of Fontagu's. She dreaded the day the citizens of Quentaris found out. Without a doubt they would hang Fontagu from the nearest spar. Tab, who had merely distracted Fontagu at the critical moment, might simply be thrown overboard or, if the citizens were feeling generous, keelhauled.
Quentaris had a very large keel.
On the other hand, there were a few who pointed out that the theft of the icefire had summoned a great many magicians back to Quentaris, in time to be marooned along with everyone else. And without the magicians, there would be no Navigators’ Guild; without the magicians, there would be no hope of finding their way home.
Without the magicians, Tab would also not have become an apprentice guildswoman, clerical division. Being a runner and a clerk was a long way from being a magician, but at least she got to loiter with magicians and, when she was lucky, to see magic at work in its various forms: Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
A sweeper came slowly towards her along the wall. His cap was pulled down over his face and he seemed intent on his work, though Tab saw that he handled his broom sloppily, almost with disdain – as if he thought himself meant for better things.
‘This is so demeaning,’ said Fontagu, looking up from his broom. He leaned on it, scowling at Tab's big grin. ‘And look what they make me wear. Grey. I ask you, how can you make a statement with grey?’ He brushed some grime from his tunic and sniffed.
‘Well,’ said Tab, ‘that's your lot for my keeping quiet about your causing this mess. I believe the Dung Brigaders still have vacancies, if you'd like to apply.’
Fontagu paled. ‘No, no, not at all! Look, see, see how much I love my work!’ He started sweeping vigorously but only managed to conjure up a dust cloud that sent them both into great splutters of coughing. Fontagu sighed gloomily. ‘I'm not really very good at this.’
‘I would never have noticed.’
‘Did you know that it takes a whole month to walk around the entire perimeter wall? A month. Rain or shine. Around and around, that's what I do, around and around and around… ’
He really did sound depressed. And dizzy.
‘You have only yourself to blame,’ said Tab, trying not to feel sorry for the old scoundrel. Any attempt to find out why Fontagu had tried to sabotage Quentaris had been unsuccessful. But Tab would find out one day. She promised herself that much.
Fontagu sighed again. ‘If only I could wear some thing a little more… stylish. And colourful. And, oh dear, do look at my fingernails! I don't suppose I'll ever be able to enter polite society again.’
‘Well -’ Something in the way she said this made Fontagu's head whip around. He looked at her hopefully.
‘What? You've found me a better line of work? Something in keeping with my sublime talents?’
‘On my errands I noticed a scroll outside the Paragon Playhouse. I asked Lorenzo about it. He needs a -’ began Tab.
Fontagu shivered with delight and clapped his hands. ‘No, no, don't tell me. They need a leading man? Someone commanding, handsome, a man of action, and yet with a heart that melts the ladies.’ He saw Tab's look. Apprehension swept across his face. ‘An understudy? A small part, perhaps -?’
‘They need a prompt.’
Fontagu stared. He mouthed the word prompt in horror, then stamped his foot petulantly. ‘I won't! I absolutely and most assuredly won't. Who do you think I am? Some bit-part actor desperate to get his nose in the business for the first time? Why, once I was the toast of towns. My name was up in candlelight, on the marquee itself! I – I just couldn't… it wouldn't be me… to squander such talent… to be so close and yet so far… to look but not to touch… Oh. Oh. Oh, all right, I'll do it!’ he snapped. ‘When do I start?’
‘Tomorrow. Tell Lorenzo that I sent you. He owes me a favour or two.’
Fontagu grumbled something.
‘If that was a “thank you”, you're welcome.’
Fontagu gave her a sharp look. ‘Well, excuse me for not falling on my knees and kissing your feet. I do believe my present situation is due, in part at least, to your… what shall we call it?’
‘Blackmail?’
‘Exactly. Seems I recall you promising to tell everyone where to find me if I didn't take this job. And for the record, you little vixen, I admit to nothing!’
Tab shrugged, feeling only a tinge of guilt. ‘Admit it, you deserve a lot worse. Anyway, from tomorrow, your situation will be much improved.’
Fontagu looked nervously at Tab. ‘He – he won't change his mind?’
‘The job is yours.’
Fontagu leaned against the outer parapet. He pressed the back of his hand to his forehead. ‘I feel quite faint,’ he said. Suddenly he turned and flung his broom over the low railing. Tab leaned forward and watched it fall, trying not to grin. Five thousand feet below, the huge shadow of Quentaris was sliding over a forest. Clustered on its outskirts were several hamlets surrounded by the ploughed patchwork of fields.
Tab frowned. The broom, now lost to view, would still be falling. She edged back a bit. She didn't have the best head for heights. ‘I hope you don't brain somebody down there.’
‘I will need a disguise of course,’ said Fontagu suddenly. ‘So many know this noble face of mine, it's sure to stand out.’
Tab mentally cringed.
‘I'd better go and prepare,’ said Fontagu. He looked down at himself. ‘And I'll need clothes.’ The excitement in his voice was suddenly cut by a groan. ‘But I haven't the price of an old boot!’
Tab held out several copper rounds.
Fontagu gave her a puzzled look, but quickly pocketed the coins. ‘Happy birthday,’ Tab said.
Fontagu's eyebrows lifted. ‘I don't believe it's my -’
‘No, it's mine.’
‘Oh.’ Fontagu blinked. ‘Well, may you have glad tidings this day and lifelong prosperity. But really, I must dash. I have to see my tailor.’
And with that he hurried off.
Alone again, Tab returned her gaze to the miles of rigging and sails – a world unto itself, which had become known as ‘upside’^** – and wondered if her best friend, Philmon, was on duty right now. She watched sky sailors clambering along spars, amongst rigging, or swaying on rope bridges that stretched between the enormous masts.
The masts themselves were a sight to behold and had been taken from a forest of gigantic trees – each hundreds of feet in diameter and as much as a thousand feet high. They were so huge that rooms, tunnels, stairways and winch-elevators had been hewn into the trunks themselves. The immensely tough but amazingly light trees had been found growing plentifully in the first rift world the Spell of Undoing had flung them into. It was their luck to have found a fairly peaceful world – unlike the one that followed – and thus some time to adapt to their new situation. Tab remembered it clearly…
Quentaris had started to spin as it climbed towards the gaping mouth of the vortex.
Faster and faster it turned, entering the whirlpool and slowly climbing its sides. Here the light was dim, like the light before a storm or a catastrophe. The city shuddered and rocked, and the spinning vortex threw down great lightning strikes which blasted houses and towers. Fires broke out. At the very apex of the whirlpool, where it was narrowest, a peculiar stillness reigned. Below, great chunks of rock fell from Quentaris, plunging down into the gaping chasm left in the land below.
The noise was tremendous. It was a miracle that Quentaris’ under-city had remained pretty much unscathed.
At the very top of the whirlpool, blackness engulfed them. People screamed and all of the city's animals howled, or bayed or cried out in whatever voice they had. Tab's legs shook and she had to clutch the bat tlements to stay upright.
Others had gathered at the wall, and most had shut their eyes in fear soon after the vortex swallowed them, but Tab had resisted the temptation. She wanted to see.
The climactic ending – later called the ‘Rupture’ or ‘Upheaval’ – lasted only seconds. A sickening transition followed, then blinding sunlight burst upon Quentaris.
From all about came the sound of cheering and laughter.
But slowly it subsided. The word spread quickly, and where it spread a hush fell. Everyone rushed to the walls and peered over, to see for themselves.
Quentaris, still spinning, was rapidly slowing. But that wasn't what caused the great silence. Quentaris was now a floating city, drifting amongst clouds. Beneath the level on which the city was built, a great jagged shaft of rock projected downwards for hundreds of feet, much like the roots of a tooth.
No one ever managed to explain why Quentaris floated, why it didn't just crash to the ground, killing everyone. But float it did, and in the end the best theory was the simplest one: that the same magical spell which had torn them from their world and hurled them through the vortex into another, also kept them afloat.
And while fear had come quickly, being airborne also brought hope. A floating Quentaris might one day find its way home… if it survived
…
Indeed, that first day a wind picked up and slowly pushed Quentaris towards a range of high mountains. Fortunately, the wind dropped and instead of crashing into jagged peaks, Quentaris came to a gentle rest against them.
Quickly, the city's engineers made Quentaris fast. The nearby countryside was scoured, the forests of huge trees discovered, a plan hatched. Shipwrights and carpenters plied their adzes, augers and caulking hammers. Sail makers got to work and soon great swatches of canvas and rigging were stretching across the city. The dockyards stayed open day and night.
Quentaris would not just be a floating rock at the mercy of the wind.
It would be controlled. It would be navigable.
And it was the magicians who would do the navigating. Now more than ever, Tab wanted to be one of them…
Tab realised with a start that the morning was passing. She glanced at the scroll in her hand. There was no way she would get far in the Navigators’ Guild if she couldn't even deliver a letter on time.
She headed for the Naval Headquarters, located in and around the mainmast. She made her way hurriedly to the Square of the People, dodging market stalls and managing to buy nothing, which wasn't hard, especially when the vendors saw her apprentice's tunic. Everyone knew how poorly paid apprentices were.
Tab reached the imposing sculpted entrance of the Naval Headquarters, and stopped as she always did to look up. Rising straight and sheer above her, the massive polished trunk of the mainmast – en crusted here and there with barnacle-like dwellings, protuberances and walkways – rose to a dizzying height. The section known as ‘uppermost’ was just a vague shape lost in misty cloud.
Tab gulped, and hurried inside. A moment later…
Uh-oh, she thought as she swept through the doors of the despatches department.
The Archon's nephew, Florian Eftangeny, was on duty. Tab bit her lower lip. She had won her job as Quartermaster Dorissa's personal clerical assistant fair and square, but Florian had been next in line and the Archon's nephew hated her for it. To be beaten by an ex-Dung Brigader!
‘Running little errands, are we?’ sneered Florian, eyeing the scroll in her hand. His slug-like upper lip curled scornfully. ‘Haven't really advanced very far, have we?’
Tab flushed. Florian, a short, plump boy with a moon-shaped face, sour expression and receding hairline, always managed to hit a nerve with Tab. It was as if he could read her mind – or her fears.
Florian snorted. ‘Put it over there,’ he said, pointing languidly to an in-tray.
‘It's to be hand-delivered to First Lieutenant Crankshaft immediately,’ Tab said firmly.
Florian smirked. ‘Is it now? Well I'll deliver it myself then.’ He fingered the jewelled dagger in his belt. All the children wore daggers these days, just as all the adults wore swords. Times were uncertain. ‘Put it in the in-tray and get out of here. I've more important matters on hand than to talk to a witless rift girl.’
Stung, Tab nevertheless dropped the scroll in the in-tray. Such scrolls were usually urgent communiques between navigators and sailors. If Florian failed to deliver it within a set time, she would get into trouble. And that was all she needed.
‘You'll remember it's there?’ Tab pressed.
Florian didn't bother to look up.
Tab slept uneasily that night, tossing and turning. Finally she woke, drenched in sweat. Taking a cool drink of limewater she lay back down, staring at the ceiling. Maybe she should have insisted on delivering the scroll to the first lieutenant. But no, there was no way she could have. Clerical assistants weren't allowed upside. And she couldn't make that idiot Florian do anything. He was almost as useless as his uncle, the Archon.
Tab tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. Almost at once she was conscious of a feathery sensation in her mind. She had felt it many times this past year. Knowing what was about to happen, she tensed, frightened. And with a sickening lurch, she found herself in a dungeon.
She was low down, close to the floor. In her immediate field of vision were flagstones slick with scum, some large metal poles, and a snout from which whiskers jutted. She was seeing with the eyes of a rat. To some extent, she also felt the rat's awareness. The rat was hungry. It had been searching for food for some time now. The sound of water dripping sporadically came to it. Then a scream.
The view froze. The rat, sitting in shadow, did not dare move. There were more screams, hopeless and high-pitched, as if a child were being hurt. Tab's heart ached for the screams’ owner. The rat started to edge back into deeper shadow.›››No›› The other way – find out what's happening!
Tab had no idea of what she had done, but suddenly – back in her room, Tab gasped – the rat obeyed. Tab felt a dizzy excitement. Was she actually controlling the rat? Or had it just decided to investigate the noises itself? That seemed unlikely.
The rat scuttled forward, darting between the metal poles which Tab now realised were the bars of a cell. It crossed a passageway and nosed in between more bars, edging along the wall and into the shadows cast by a bunk bed.
A youth and two men, all with cruel faces, occupied the cell. One was torturing a small boy with a pale, freckled face and sandy-coloured hair. The boy, who must have been about eight years old, screamed again. His face was wet with tears and his upper lip and chin were covered with snot.
‘Where is the icefire?’ demanded one of the men. At a nod from the questioner, a brute of a man tightened a knotted rope around the boy's throat. ‘What did you say?’ the interrogator demanded. ‘Speak up!’
Tab was breathing heavily. An uncharacteristic anger was building up. She could tell from their livery that they were Tolrushians, but how could the enemy be on board Quentaris?
Tab now saw the main speaker more clearly. He was a boy of about fourteen, but dressed in rich clothes. He had a crafty look about him. ‘We know your people have icefire,’ he snarled, ‘and we will have it from them!’
The victim whimpered. Tab could see that he was very, very scared.
The torturer tightened the rope. The boy choked, and fainted. The boy-leader scowled. ‘Leave him for now,’ he said, spitting on the straw-strewn floor. ‘There are other matters at hand – prey, for instance.’
One of the men cleared his throat. ‘You still mean to attack, then?’
‘I do.’
‘Is that wise, m'lord, when our own icefire fuel is so depleted?’
The boy-leader stopped at the door, eyeing his advisor. ‘There is more than one source of icefire, Genkis. There is also the matter of revenge.’
The boy stalked out of the cell. No one noticed the rat watching from the shadows.
Abruptly Tab's vision lurched again. This time she was wheeling through the sky. On either side, great bat-like wings slowly flapped. The view banked hard, and into her line of sight swept something that left her stunned.
Floating in dense cloud was a city.
Above it stretched enormous sails, torn and tattered and filthy. A grim castle bulged from the port side prow, and huge grappling arms like crab claws projected forward on either side of the bowsprit. The whole thing had an evil look. Like a sky pirate's ship. Or a man-o’-war.
Tab had never seen such a place, but she recognised it immediately.
Tolrush.
It couldn't be, but it was. Tolrush had become a flying city, just like Quentaris. And slowly it dawned on Tab that Fontagu had inadvertently pulled Tolrush into the spell so that the two cities had, in that moment of Rupture, been magically joined. What had happened to one, had happened to the other. And who knew what other cities had also been ripped into the vortex?
Tab's heart thudded with sudden realisation. Judging by what the boy-leader had said, the Tolrushians blamed Quentaris for their misfortune.
Which could only mean…
Tab sat bolt upright.
She dressed hurriedly and ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the Navigators’ Guild headquarters. She didn't stop at the gates. A guard yelled a warning and she felt an arrow hiss swiftly past her shoulder. Angry shouts followed. She ran faster.
Breathless, she skidded to a stop outside the operations room. By now alarms were clanging. The doorway opened suddenly, revealing several guards.
‘Gotcha!’ someone snarled from behind. Tab was whisked off her feet.
‘Put her down,’ said a calm voice.
The guard dropped her and Tab went sprawling. When she looked up she saw a navigator staring quizzically down at her. She's scanning me – seeing if there's any danger, Tab realised.
‘What is it, child, that brings you here in the dead of night?’ The woman's face was gentle and her voice soothing. But Tab knew that with one flick of her finger, the magician could kill her.
Tab took a deep breath. ‘I've seen Tolrush,’ she said quickly. ‘It was pulled into the rift worlds at the same time we were. They're after icefire and… they blame us for what's happened to them. We have to do something, they're coming for us!’
One of the guards sniggered but was cut short by a stern glance from the navigator. ‘How is it that you know these things? You're a clerical assistant, are you not?’
Tab looked down at her feet. ‘Yes, ma'am.’
‘You were tested for ability with mage-craft?’
Tab's voice grew smaller. ‘Yes, ma'am.’ It had been one of the worst days of her life. She had actually managed to persuade Dorissa to have her tested, only to discover that she lacked even a speck of magical skill. She had cried for a week.
‘And you say you had a vision?’
Tab paused before answering. So far she had told no one about her odd ability, not even Philmon. At first, it had scared her. She thought she was going mad. And then she had feared what others might think. Mind-melding with animals was almost unheard of. She was scared that people would think she must be evil to have such a talent. Sometimes she thought that too.
And so she lied. ‘I had a vision – yes… ’
The magician did not appear to be angry. She patted Tab's shoulder. ‘Your heart was in the right place, child. You feared for your city and for your friends and family -’
And why should this child fear?’
Tab gaped. Stelka had arrived. Tab had seen the Chief Navigator many times, but never this close. She didn't seem too pleased either.
Her hair was dishevelled and her usually powdered face was pasty, her pouting lips pallid. The middle of the night was not kind to Stelka, and she knew it.
‘Answer my question,’ demanded the head magician.
The kindly navigator, who seemed a little cowed by Stelka's presence herself, quickly related Tab's story.
Stelka eyed Tab for several long moments. Tab found herself blushing.
‘Is this so?’ she finally asked, directing her question at Tab.
Tab nodded, then blurted, ‘And they're really close. We have to do something.’
Stelka snorted, and signalled two guards over. ‘Escort this girl back to her lodgings.’ To Tab she said, ‘You had a nightmare, child. Quentaris is the only enchanted city in this rift world. And no one is coming after us.’
‘But it seemed so – real,’ Tab protested.
‘As the best nightmares are,’ said Stelka. ‘Go now, and be thankful I don't have you flogged for charging in here and waking everyone.’
When Tab reported for duty the next morning, Quartermaster Dorissa looked up tiredly from her charts. Tab saw immediately that all was not well.
‘Sit down, Tab,’ Dorissa said, indicating a chair.
Tab felt her insides go cold.
‘I'm really sorry, Tab, but I must relieve you of your duties.’ She held up a hand when Tab opened her mouth to speak. ‘It isn't just about last night. Yes, I've heard. I don't know what you were thinking!’
She sighed. ‘But this other matter… I gave you an important duty yesterday. I was obviously in error to do so. I have been duly chastised.’
‘But I -’ ‘The scrollarrived too late, were observed could forgive your dalliance, as I have on previous occasions. But added to the events of last night… ‘ She shrugged.
‘You caused quite a stir. Wild talk of Tolrush. Our imminent peril. We simply cannot have guild members, no matter how insignificant, opening us to such ridicule.’
‘But it's true,’ cried Tab. ‘Tolrush is out there, and they're coming after us!’
‘Enough,’ said Dorissa. She almost glowered, which Tab had never seen her do before.
‘But what I saw -’
‘Was nothing more than a bad dream. Face it, child.’ Dorissa's voice grew stern, though not unkind. ‘Don't you think I know it broke your heart when you failed the magicians’ test?’
‘But -’
‘I have no choice in this matter,’ said Dorissa sadly. ‘Stelka has spoken. I'm sorry, Tab, but you can no longer serve this guild.’
Tab's vision blurred. She got to her feet unsteadily, blinking back tears. Slowly, in a kind of stupefied trance, she walked to the door. There she stopped, turning.
‘They're coming,’ she said quietly, then ran from the guildhall as fast as she could.
Tab fled through the streets of Quentaris. She didn't stop till she had reached the fifth floor of the lodging house where she lived. She collided with Philmon as he was leaving his room. Philmon was tall and skinny with a mop of brown hair. He was wearing his sky sailor's uniform.
‘Ho, Tab,’ he said. ‘Sorry, can't stop. My shift starts in twenty minutes.’
Tab puffed like a pair of bellows.
‘You all right?’ asked Philmon.
‘Nothing's all right,’ Tab gasped. She quickly told him everything that had happened, including the truth about the visions. He looked hurt when she admitted that she had been getting strange ‘visions’ through the eyes of animals for quite some time.
‘Philmon, I'm sorry I didn't tell you.’
He scowled. ‘I thought we were friends.’
‘You know as well as I do that Tolrushians are reviled for their mind-casting. They control animals with their minds, hideous race that they are. So I was scared… ’
‘Of what I'd think? Of me?’
Tab looked away. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Of me… I thought I was going crazy… I thought you might not… ’ Her voice trailed off.
‘Might not what?’ asked Philmon, hands on his hips. ‘Might not want to be friends with somebody who can see what animals see? Sometimes, Tab, you're as thick as two planks, you know that. I know you're not Tolrushian. It's plain to see!’
Tab smiled, and wiped at her eyes.
‘So you'll help me?’
Philmon blinked. ‘What can I possibly do?’
‘You can get me in to see First Lieutenant Crankshaft.’
Philmon's eyes boggled. ‘Are you joking? He'd have me tossed overboard!’
‘It's important, Philmon. The safety of Quentaris rests on us alerting somebody.’
Philmon was shaking his head. ‘You're asking too much. I mean, what you've told me is so fantastical, even I don't know what to think. Is there any proof?’
He looked at her hopefully. She shook her head. ‘I'm not lying,’ she said stubbornly.
‘I'm not saying you are,’ said Philmon. ‘But you could be wrong. Stelka could be right. Maybe it was just a nightmare.’
‘I'd know the difference,’ said Tab. ‘This was real. They're coming, Philmon. And they're going to catch us unprepared, ‘like sitting ducks.’
Philmon gave a small shuddering sigh. He could imagine what would happen to Quentaris if Tolrush attacked right now. Total panic, and defeat. They would all be killed. And those who weren't would end up as slaves.
‘There's no evidence,’ Philmon said, but his resolve was weakening. ‘We've been travelling a whole year and not set eyes on them… ’
‘They might've been sucked into a different rift world to begin with. But it doesn't matter, because they're here, in this one.’
‘I'll lose my job,’ Philmon said despondently. ‘I mean, First Lieutenant Crankshaft… ’
Thirty minutes later, Philmon was standing to attention on the lower bridge while Tab concluded, once again, her outrageous story.
First Lieutenant Crankshaft nodded when she had finished. ‘Thank you for bringing this to my attention.’ He glanced at Philmon. ‘At ease, ensign.’ He steepled his fingers. ‘Now, although the protection of Quentaris is in our hands, the Admiralty cannot mobilise the city's defences on the basis of a dream.’ As with the magicians, Tab had not explained exactly what kind of vision she had had. ‘And from a non-accredited person at that.’ He shook his head. ‘We have little enough crew to man the rigging, girl. If I take them shipside Quentaris will be compromised. A sudden squall could see us crash. And if that happens… well, it doesn't bear thinking about.’
‘So you won't do anything?’ said Tab. She knew Philmon was glaring at her.
Crankshaft stood. ‘Not won't, child. Can't. Ensign, take this girl home.’
Philmon snapped to attention. ‘Aye-aye, sir.’
‘When you're done, return here immediately,’ said the first lieutenant. ‘And think long and hard on why I'm not relieving you of your duty.’
As soon as they were outside, Philmon rounded on Tab. ‘See? You almost cost me my job. Oh, why did I listen to you?’
Tab ignored him. She looked scared. This made Philmon shut up. ‘So the navy doesn't have enough crew to defend Quentaris,’ said Tab. The idea staggered her. She had never given any thought to their defences before, had never realised just how vulnerable they were.
‘We've never met an enemy we couldn't handle, so what's the -?’
‘Where would you find an extra crew, if you needed one?’
Philmon looked at her balefully. ‘Huh?’
‘Answer me,’ said Tab, urgently.
Philmon scratched his head. ‘I don't know. You'd need people who've got naval experience, I guess.’
Tab's face lit up. ‘That's right,’ she said. ‘You would.’
‘But there aren't any,’ said Philmon. ‘I mean, the Sky Sailors’ Guild is what used to be the Merchant Navy. We've already got everybody with shipboard time, even the deck scrubbers!’
‘Not everybody,’ said Tab, and she turned and sprinted away. Philmon stared after her, frowning.
‘Absolutely not!’ Fontagu said crossly to Tab. He always got cross when he was frightened. ‘Count me out. There is nothing you can say to change my mind.’
An hour later, Tab was creeping along a wall, keeping to the shadows. She came to a sudden stop. Somebody bumped into her from behind.
‘Fontagu!’
‘You said to stay close,’ came his nervous reply.
‘Not that close!’
Fontagu grumbled, backing off an inch or two. He looked furtively about in all directions. ‘This is a big mistake,’ he hissed, not for the first time. ‘They'll slit our throats and make us beg for mercy!’
‘Probably not in that order,’ said Tab, but she kept her voice too low for Fontagu to hear. She had to admit it was a crazy plan. Even stage one was crazy: that is, enter the Thieves’ Quarter unarmed and at night. It was well known that the city watchmen themselves avoided the quarter after dark, unless they were at least a squadron strong, or on a suicide mission.
Tab gave Fontagu a quick look. Once again, she nearly laughed. He had donned a thief's outfit, as he called it. He wore baggy pantaloons, a gold-braided vest with brass buttons and puffed sleeves, a head scarf, and – as usual – a fake wooden sword painted silver to look real. Tab had had a big job talking him out of wearing an eye patch.
‘You read too many trashy stories,’ she had told him in exasperation.
It wasn't hard finding the tavern called The Purple Wart, partly because some enterprising owner had paid to have a gigantic nose bearing a wart, complete with little wart hairs, erected above the main door. By some magic, the wart even changed colour, from red to blue to glorious purple.
‘Charming,’ said Tab, eyeing the monstrosity. ‘You sure that's the place?’
Fontagu nodded. ‘Can I go now?’
‘Sure.’
‘Really?’ Fontagu seemed surprised.
‘Yep,’ said Tab. ‘If you want to walk all the way back through the Thieves’ Quarter by yourself wearing those ridiculous clothes, be my guest.’
Fontagu straightened up and looked down his nose at her. ‘My clothes are not ridiculous,’ he said.
‘I take it that means you're coming with me?’
Fontagu sniffed. ‘As concern for a child of your tender years is always my first priority, I do believe that in this case my presence is required, in spite of the obvious danger to my person.’
‘Could you repeat that?’ asked Tab. ‘No, don't bother. I'll remind you of it later if I need to.’
Fontagu bristled but said nothing.
Tab checked the street. All was clear. ‘Ready?’ she asked Fontagu.
He gulped and nodded. He appeared to have something wrong with his voice.
Tab hurried across the street to the tavern and pushed open the door. The hubbub dwindled gradually. All eyes were fixed on Tab and Fontagu, and not all of them were friendly. In fact, very few of them were.
Tab took a deep breath and headed across the room. According to Fontagu, who seemed to have an uncommonly detailed knowledge of the Quentaran underworld, the man Tab sought kept a booth at the back of The Purple Wart once or twice a week.
She was almost across the room when a thickset troll stepped out of an archway in front of her. His broad shoulders blocked out the door. By the smell of him, he was a drainer.
Tab looked up into the troll's mad, blazing eyes. She swallowed. No one in their right mind messed with a troll. Especially one with such disgusting breath and so many teeth.
‘Er, hello… ’ said Tab, sounding as friendly as she could.
The troll thrust out his hand and growled. His blubbery mouth twitched. Tab got the definite impression he was about to bite off her head, when -
‘Leave her be, Vrod,’ said a voice.
‘Sweet meat, good eating,’ the troll said. His voice sounded like gravel being crushed.
A hand tapped Vrod on the shoulder and the troll stepped grudgingly aside, though he never took his mad eyes off Tab.
Tab shifted her gaze to the man now standing before her. His eyes suddenly flashed in recognition. ‘You?’ he said in amazement. It was the same man who had tried to steal the magicians’ icefire gem more than a year ago, the same man she had locked in the pantry.
Great, Tab thought to herself. Just great.
She started to back away. ‘Uh… I think I made a mistake.’ She turned, intending to dart for the door.
‘Seize her!’ yelled the man. She felt vice-like arms close around her and she was lifted off the floor. ‘Bring the other one too.’
Tab heard Fontagu's whinnying whimper close behind as they were taken to a booth against the far wall. Tab was shoved into a seat and Fontagu squeezed hurriedly in next to her, looking as if he was ready to burst into tears. ‘Don't hurt me, please, please don't hurt me,’ he wailed over and over.
‘Vrod,’ said the tall man. ‘Shut him up. Nicely.’
Fontagu suddenly found a wad of phlegm-smeared cloth had been shoved in his mouth. His eyes widened indignantly but Vrod leaned down close to his face. Fontagu tried an unsuccessful smile.
‘That will do, Vrod.’ The tall man seated himself opposite them. His eyes narrowed as he looked at Tab. ‘I don't take kindly to being locked in a closet and left waiting for the tender attentions of magicians!’
‘Sorry about that. But I did set you free. You know, the string -?’
‘Ah, yes. The string. I suppose I do have you to thank for that. Imprisoned me, then freed me. Well, in that case, drinks all round.’ He shouted orders. When he turned back he saw a look of such confusion on Tab's face that he burst out laughing.
‘Come now, we must have honour among thieves. There is so little any place else!’
‘Does that mean you're not going to kill us?’
‘Kill you? Why, perish the thought. Not only do I owe you my life, twice over – for I would never have made it out of there alive had I had the gem with me! – but I bow before a greater thief than I.’ And he did just that. He stood up and bowed to her in a princely fashion.
Tab squirmed uncomfortably.
Fontagu gurgled something. ‘I think he's trying to say he helped,’ said Tab. Fontagu nodded vigorously. The tall man saluted him.
‘Now tell me why a slip of a girl like yourself, and one such as he’ – he indicated Fontagu – ‘would take such a risk as to come to a place like this at night?’
‘Are you Lord Verris?’
The tall man blinked. ‘I am he indeed. And at your service.’
‘Then I need your help,’ said Tab. ‘Quentaris needs your help… ’