| |
Otec hadn’t been gone half a span before there was hammering on their door. Ixxy knew it was him, his scent was odd: a faint scent of all things sweet and all things decaying. Beside him, when the door opened, was another guard who said nothing, but moved mutely to Otecs commands.
“Quickly, we go to Her,” said Otec. “We must not keep her waiting.”
Wenna harrumphed, “I think you’ll find it was us that was kept waiting.”
She got a prod in her back with a spear for that, “Move!”
Ixxy could smell the anger hanging tense. One of the Captain’s outbursts of violence was long overdue now, but she seemed to keep herself in check. Their guards urged them along a flat, wide corridor towards an imposing doorway with another guard outside. Otec went inside, leaving the second guard standing with them.
Hydn leaned over to Ixxy, “Is it just me or does this whole place seem—underguarded to you?”
“That’s not a real word,” Ixxy replied.
“Shh!” said the very present guard. Then, at some signal Ixxy didn’t hear, the guard said, “Go in.” They did.
Through the massive doorway, the room beyond was even grander. An enormous domed ceiling towered over them, and filling the end of the room was the most massive pile of—well everything—that Ixxy had ever encountered. And above that—along with a stronger version of the stink that clung to Otec— there was a bizarre noise. Like murmuring in a thousand different Folk voices and accents. She clicked her tongue and listened to get a better Air-sense picture, but the detail just flummoxed her. She figured the pile would be just as detailed close up. She briefly heard Wenna and Hydn click too, but then their efforts were drowned out by a massive whirring and clattering, then a piercing noise that could have been wailing, or a shrieking laugh, from high up above the mountain of things.
“Checking out my treasures, eh? Everything gets caught by the net! Everything! Even you!” More shrieking, echoing laughs followed, then swooped towards them, along with their creator. Ixxy reflexively backed away, but then stopped when she smelled the proximity of Otec and a guard on each side of the doorway. The shrieking ball whirred to a halt above them and in front of the pile. Was it a Folk? What tribe, Ixxy couldn’t tell and they were suspended in some kind of frame in mid-air. No, not mid-air. When Ixxy concentrated, she could Air-sense wires going off into the roof in various directions, terminating at the flying frame thing the person was suspended in.
“I’m sorry,” said Wenna, sounding unimpressed, “Is the net here a thing or a person?”
“YES!” the flying frame shrieked. The voice was distorted too in some strange way. It was female though, and older, Ixxy thought, but modified through something on her face maybe? “I am the Net, here is the Net, everything ends in the Net!”
“That’s all very well but—”
More shrieking laughs cut her off, “Oh I know who you are little Wenna Cox and I know why you’re here!”
“I never told you—”
Again more hysteria, “You don’t need to tell me anything. All the little sounds? They vibrate the mesh. When the net pulls tight, it sings to me. Songs of the little lives in the Dark. Like you Wenna Cox, Admiral of two boats.”
“How do you—?”
“All the little sounds, Wenna,” she swooped across everyone’s soundscape back up into the roof. She sounded like she was rummaging through the pile up there. There was a brief intake of breath, then she swooped gracefully down in front of them and hovered like a raptor. There was the faintest waft of a strong, sweet smell, drowned by the miasma of rot and decay in the chamber. “You!” she landed abruptly in front of them. Ixxy jumped, though the words were aimed at Wenna. “You are fa-ding! The last of your cloak is unravelling. That magic you apply to cover the old, and the sweat and the fish. You’ve run out.” She was close enough to touch noses with The Captain. A sharp ‘crack’ noise and their crazy floating host was laughing again.
“Shreds! That hurt,” Wenna was shaking her hand.
“Don’t touch The Net. She is crackly. Bitey.” She whizzed upwards as she spoke, “Now where was I? Ah yes. Thisss...” and she swung theatrically from left to right, trailing a strong, resinous perfume. Wenna was carried forward in its wake. Hydn put out a hand to stop her. She let herself be stopped. “I don’t use the stuff myself. I prefer my redolence: the sweet scent of decay...” She had in her hands a bottle, star-shaped and smooth, she turned it over and over, “...but I know value and I know scarcity. This is the only bottle left in existence.”
Wenna made a wordless groan.
“It seems I have your attention.” There was a whirring of lines as Net got as close as possible to Wenna, knowing that she dare not touch her now. “I may be prepared to part with it—if—” there was a click and the lines lifted Net high into the air. She hung there for what seemed an age.
“What?” said Wenna. “If?”
She didn’t reply, but instead slowly turned in the harness, hanging upside down now.
Ixxy was too dumbfounded by the Captain’s reaction to speak. Hydn spoke into the Captain’s ear, “You know she’s playing you, right Cap?”
“What? Oh—yes.”
“And you’ve got a plan right?”
Before the Captain could reply, the harness with Net in it fell from the sky, hissing as she plummeted towards them. “Whisper, whisper, whisper—what are they whispering about? What’s the catch? Is it... is it a trap? OF COURSE IT’S A TRAP!”
Ixxy gasped. Hydn kicked her.
“But here’s the beautiful thing. Like the stinkhorn attracts the fly, they know what they walk into, but they must have it. The intoxicating perfume. They know, but they must have.”
Wenna spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, “What do you want done?”
“That’s my girl. We’re going to get along just fine! There is a problem I need disposed of. You are going to do it.”
“Ok,” said Wenna, deflated.
“But then she gets the stuff, right?” Hydn said.
“What? Oh yes, sure.” Net had hoisted herself above head height again to begin her next speech. “There is a malign creature in my net. It has killed many of my Folk. We cannot get to our net to haul in our catch. And without a catch, we cannot prosper.”
“You have some people left?” said Ixxy, confused.
“We lost six this cycle, plus one this very span.” Net genuinely sounded sad. Though Ixxy thought it was truly difficult to tell with this person whose emotions and expression of them were all over the place.
“Why us?” said Hydn.
“You’re expendable.”
“Yeah, what makes you think that a random group of pirates is going to be any better at disposing of whatever this thing is, than your trained guards?”
“Desperation.”
A fan kicked in somewhere in the roof and pulled some air over them. It was the same dank, rotting atmosphere at exactly the same temperature, but at least it was something.
“What is it?” Wenna asked.
“What is what?” Net sounded cross again.
“The malign creature. You know very well what it is. Tell us.”
“I don’t know. Something nasty. I have sent many to investigate. None have returned to tell me.”
“Shreds,” hissed Hydn.
“Wait a click,” said Wenna, “I didn’t agree—”
“—And yet you have,” said Net.
“That’s unfair,” said Ixxy.
“I decide what is fair in my own domain, UPSTART! Your Captain agreed. I intend to hold her to it.”
“What if she just says ‘No’?” Hydn said.
“SILENCE, UPSTARTS!” The guards behind them flinched at Net’s shout. Once the slapback had echoed off the walls and died away, she continued. “This is how it will be. Wenna Cox will stay as my hostage, she is too old.” The guards behind them moved immediately. When Ixxy whipped her head back at the sound, she Air-sensed two spears across the doorway in a big ‘X’. “You two will dispose of the creature. You may borrow anything from my hoard to help you. When you have done this, you will have your Captain returned. You all must obey, or else I go to the vents and announce to the world and announce the faithless Captain and crew of the Razor. You would be banished from the River-folk in disgrace.”
They all knew it was true. Ixxy hung her head. The captain spoke gently to her, “You don’t have to do this.” That seemed to come with some implication that Hydn would have no choice.
“If Hydn’s got to go, I’ve got to go,” she said firmly.
“There is no nobler cause than defending your Captain’s honour,” Wenna laid a gentle hand on Ixxy’s shoulder. “Gods go with you.”
The whole interaction sounded an awful lot like a goodbye. A shiver ran down Ixxy’s spine.
“Bring me my chariot!” said Net. The guards wheeled out something that had two great wheels near the middle and smaller ones at front and back. Once it was in place, Net deftly manoeuvred her flying cradle into it and there were clicks as she unhooked various lines. “Wenna Cox, you come with me. You two, the falls and the net are beyond my hoard. Take what you need. You have till next work span; till this bird next speaks.” She kicked a small box on the floor that made a ‘coo-coo’ noise and ticked loudly in response. “If you’re not back with proof of it’s death, the whole crew of the Razor are finished!” She turned and Wenna walked ahead of her and the guards fell into step. Ixxy and Hydn were left alone in the cavernous room with the biggest pile of treasures they’d ever encountered. They were as unhappy as they’d ever been.