‘Lord Arthur!’ he exclaimed, using his stick to balance in order to offer a low bow. ‘I am most pleased to see you recovered. I cannot thank you enough for my timely rescue, as it is clear that without the friendly and most expert attentions of Mister Yongtin — worth every silver real, I may add — I would have expired quite rapidly from Nothing poison.’
‘I’m glad you’re okay,’ said Arthur. ‘I mean, that you’re all right. You are basically all right now, aren’t you?’
‘Indeed, “basically all right” describes my condition quite well.’
Arthur looked dubiously at the little Denizen. Scamandros hadn’t fully straightened up after his bow, and the tattoos on his face showed derelict hulks barely afloat amid the wreckage of battle, with sunken masts poking up through matted rafts of debris populated by desolate castaways.
‘I was hoping you might be able to help me get into Feverfew’s secret harbour,’ said Arthur. ‘But you don’t look well enough —’ ‘Poppycock!’ snorted the Doctor, wincing as he put his shoulders back and stood to attention. A tattooed wind blew across his face, and the hulks sprouted jury-rigged masts and sails. ‘Why, an hour or two of rest aboard these kind Rats’ submersible and I’ll be right as a trivet.’
‘You’ll be at least a day aboard the Balaena unless Drowned Wednesday changes her course dramatically,’ said Longtayle. At the same time, Arthur asked, ‘What’s a trivet?’
‘There you are, at least a day’s more rest and I shall once more be fighting fit. As to trivets, they are three-legged stands that are notionally most sound but in practice tend to fall over, so perhaps I erred in my metaphor. Right as rain is what I meant.’
‘What — oh, never mind. I’ll be happy with whatever help you can give me. Particularly if you can disguise me. With sorcery, I mean. To fool the pirates.’
‘Sorcerous disguises? A snap!’ declared the Doctor. ‘Though to be entirely accurate, while I could weave a most excellent disguise over you, it would not stand up to Feverfew’s burning gaze. Ordinary pirates, yes. Feverfew himself, no.’
‘I don’t plan to let Feverfew get a look at me,’ muttered Arthur. He glanced over at Monckton and Longtayle, who were taking delivery of another scroll from a messenger, clearly the latest arrival from a simultaneous bottle.
‘One of our ships is shadowing Drowned Wednesday,’ said Monckton, indicating the ivory whale on the chart. ‘She is maintaining her usual course for this time of year, following fish patterns, and the Balaena should be able to intercept her without trouble. But we need to get you on board immediately. Drowned Wednesday moves far more swiftly than any ship, so the submersible will have to get in position directly in front of her and then steam full ahead in order to navigate the great intake of water through the straining bones of the great creature’s mouth.’
‘Straining bones?’ asked Arthur. No one had mentioned anything about straining bones. ‘What. . . what are they?’
‘Drowned Wednesday in her Leviathan form is not just an overgrown Earth whale,’ said Monckton. ‘But she has some similarities with the larger types. As far as we have been able to ascertain, she does not have teeth as such, nor the typical baleen structure of some whales. But her upper and lower jaws hold vast vertical sheets of perforated bone, which form a lattice that strains the water that rushes into her mouth. The holes aren’t big enough to admit any ship larger than a brig, but the submersible should fit easily. Provided it can aim at one of the holes, of course. It is possible that the rush of water may be too fast for the submersible to have any steerageway, and it will smash into the bone. Or end up between the upper and lower plate and be ground to pieces.’
‘But you think your submersible has a good chance of getting through?’ Arthur hadn’t thought getting swallowed by Drowned Wednesday was going to be easy, but he hadn’t considered the possibility of smashing into some weird whale-teeth or getting crunched up. ‘What comes after the straining plates? Do we just keep on going with the flow into her stomach? And is that completely full of water or does it ebb and flow like a tide?’
‘We don’t know,’ said Monckton. ‘One of the reasons we have agreed to supply the Balaena to your expedition, Arthur, is that it will provide us with new information. The Balaena will send us reports via simultaneous bottle for as long as it — that is to say, we will be very interested to see what else is inside Drowned Wednesday in addition to Feverfew’s private worldlet.’