The black rat said, ‘Thank you, Watkingle, that will be all. Lord Arthur, welcome aboard the Rattus Navis IV! I am Captain Longtayle, and may I introduce Commodore Monckton.’
Both Rats inclined their heads and snapped their tails like whips, the crack echoing through the cabin. Arthur jumped in surprise, then bowed.
Longtayle pulled out a chair from the table and offered it to Arthur. When he sat, so did the two officers. The Rat who had opened the door immediately put a glass in front of Arthur and poured what looked like red wine from a silver jug.
Arthur looked at it and wished it wasn’t wine.
‘Cranberry juice,’ said Longtayle, correctly judging Arthur’s expression. ‘An antiscorbutic for our rare ventures into the Secondary Realms. While we are Raised, we are not Denizens. Like the Piper’s children, some diseases may still get hold of us out in the Realms. Scurvy is one of them.’
Arthur nodded over the rim of the glass. The juice tasted very good indeed.
‘Before we go on to discuss your particular business, Lord Arthur,’ said Commodore Monckton, ‘I believe I should tell you that we have been employed by Monday’s Tierce, Miss Suzy Blue, to find you and accordingly I have just a few minutes ago sent a message to the effect that you have been found. We have also claimed a reward.’
‘That’s okay,’ said Arthur. ‘I knew you were working for Suzy. What I want to know right now is what’s happened to my friend Leaf.’
The two Rats exchanged a surprised look.
‘We are expert searchers and finders of information as all else,’ said Monckton. ‘But clearly your sources are as good. It was only five days ago that I entered into an agreement with Miss Leaf.’
‘Five days,’ Arthur repeated, mystified. Yet again the weird time shifts between the House and the Secondary Realms were confusing him.
‘Yes, five days,’ Monckton confirmed.
‘That was for her court thing, right?’ said Arthur impatiently. ‘What happened?’
‘The court was held this morning, before Captain Swell chose to sail away. Miss Leaf was charged with being a stowaway —’ ‘I know! What happened to her?’
‘With the potential punishment being a death sentence for a mortal, I was acutely aware of the stakes. However —’ ‘What happened? Is she . . .?’
Sixteen
‘NO, NO, SHE’S NOT DEAD,’ replied Monckton. ‘But she has been pressed.’
‘Pressed!’ Arthur exclaimed. ‘What do you mean? Like crushed?’
He couldn’t believe it. Whipping was bad enough, but to be pressed flat —
‘No, no! Pressed, as in forcibly enlisted,’ said Monckton. ‘I was able to prove that she did not go aboard the Flying Mantis of her own free will, so she was not a stowaway. But she was not a passenger either, nor a distressed sailor. Ultimately the only thing she could be was one of the crew. So she was pressed into service as a ship’s boy.’
‘Ship’s girl,’ said Arthur.
‘Ship’s boy,’ said Monckton. ‘They’re always called ship’s boys, even when they’re girls. There are plenty of both aboard the ships of the Border Sea. Though apart from your friend Leaf, they’re all the Piper’s children, of course, and therefore our brethren. We help one another, where we may.’
‘But what will happen to her?’
‘It’s a hard life, but the Mantis is a well-found ship and a fair one,’ said Longtayle. ‘Your friend might work her way up, become an officer, even captain her own ship in time. Mortals learn much faster than Denizens, so there’s no knowing where she’ll end up.’
‘But she won’t want to be a ship’s boy! She has to get home! She has a family and friends!’
‘She signed the ship’s articles,’ Longtayle reported. ‘There’s no breaking them.’
‘Except by executive order from Drowned Wednesday,’ corrected Monckton.
‘So I could release her once I get the Will to make me Master of the Border Sea,’ said Arthur. ‘Or Duke, or whatever it is.’
Both Rats nodded in agreement. They didn’t seem surprised that Arthur was planning to assume control over the Border Sea.
‘I suppose Leaf will be safe enough on board the Mantis,’ Arthur said in a hopeful tone. She was probably better off than he was, being out of the trouble he was heading into, but still he wished he’d got to the Triangle earlier and could have helped Leaf get off the ship and go home.
I’ll have to check, he thought. With the mirror and the shell …
‘She’ll be safer than most at sea, for the Mantis is a good ship, but there’s always storm and wrack,’ said Monckton.