Drowned Wednesday(16)

Sunscorch hesitated, then picked up Arthur in a bear hug and tottered to the starboard rail, crashing into it with considerable force.

‘Sorry, lad,’ he said as he lifted Arthur up and prepared to heave him into the waiting sea. ‘We need the Doctor.’





Six




‘NO! ’ SCREAMED ARTHUR. Then, as Sunscorch continued to lift him up, ‘I’m a friend of the Mariner! Captain Tom Shelvocke!’

Sunscorch lowered Arthur to the deck.

‘Prove it,’ he said coldly. ‘If you’re lying, I’ll carve you a set of gills before I throw you over.’

Arthur reached with a shivering hand into his pyjama top and pulled out his makeshift floss-chain. For a dreadful moment he thought the disc was gone, then it slid free and hung on his chest.

‘What are you waiting for, Sunscorch?’ yelled Doctor Scamandros angrily. ‘Throw him overboard!’

Sunscorch looked closely at the disc, flipped it with his finger, and looked at the other side. Then he sighed and let go of Arthur. Just then, the ship rolled to port and back again, almost sending Arthur over the side anyway.

‘Do as the Doctor says, Mister Sunscorch!’ called Catapillow. ‘We must have a course to get away!’

‘I can’t, Captain!’ shouted Sunscorch. ‘The boy has the mark of the Mariner. If he asks for aid, as sailors we must give it.’

‘I am asking,’ said Arthur hastily. ‘I don’t want to be thrown overboard. I only want to send a message to the Lower House. Or the Far Reaches.’

‘He has the what? The who?’ asked Catapillow.

Sunscorch sighed again and helped Arthur along the sloping deck to the group gathered around the wheel. Doctor Scamandros still had his hand under his arm. He scowled at Arthur.

‘No seaman will go against the Mariner,’ said Sunscorch. ‘The boy has the Mariner’s medal, so you’ll have to figure something else out, Doc. He ain’t going over the side.’

‘The Mariner,’ said Scamandros. ‘A figure of reverence for the nautically inclined. One of the Old One’s sons, I believe?’

‘Yes,’ said Arthur, though the question hadn’t been asked of him. ‘And the Architect’s.’

‘Perhaps I was a little hasty,’ Scamandros continued. ‘I thought perhaps you had something in your pocket we wouldn’t want aboard. But any friend of the Mariner . . . please do accept my apology.’

‘Sure,’ said Arthur. ‘No problem.’

‘Well, ah, welcome aboard,’ said the Captain. ‘We’re delighted to have you here. Though I fear that our voyage is, um, about to be cut short.’

Everyone looked back over the stern. The Shiver had closed in, and was now less than a mile away.

‘She’ll be firing her bowchasers soon,’ said Sunscorch. ‘If they’ve any powder. They’ve the weather gauge too. We’ll have to fight it out.’

‘Oh,’ said Concort. He swallowed and frowned at the same time. ‘That doesn’t sound very good.’

‘Can you get us a better wind, Doctor?’ asked Sunscorch. ‘Untie one of your knots?’

‘No,’ replied Scamandros. ‘Feverfew is already working the wind, and his workings are stronger. There is no escape within the Border Sea.’

‘And is there, er, no plausible course out to the Realms?’ Catapillow pulled his sword partly out of its scabbard as he spoke, and almost cut his nervous fingers on the exposed blade.

‘There is one possibility that I may have overlooked due to extreme pain in my hand,’ said Scamandros. ‘I cannot cast the haruspices because of magical interference. But the young have natural ability, so this boy may be able to. Can you read portents of the future in the strewn intestines of animals, young sir?’

‘No,’ said Arthur with a grimace of revulsion. ‘That sounds disgusting!’

‘They don’t use actual intestines anymore,’ whispered Ichabod. ‘Just magical jigsaw puzzles of intestines.’

‘Indeed, the art has grown more orderly and less troublesome for the laundry,’ said Scamandros, who clearly had very superior hearing. ‘Though personally I believe it is best to be trained the old way, before coming to the puzzles. So you are not a haruspex or seer?’

‘No . . .’

‘Then you shall cast the pieces and I will read them.’ Scamandros took a large box out from under his coat — bigger than the one he’d put away before — and handed it to Arthur. There was a picture of an ox on the box, the back half cross-sectioned to show its innards. ‘Quickly now. Take the box and empty the pieces into your hands.’