CHAPTER THREE

LEGENDS OF DEAD AIR

There was a commotion when they returned to the ship. All the crew up on the deck crowded round, agog at Evtorr’s resurrection. Evrokk clambered out of his position in the cockpit, amazed, then burst into tears to see his brother alive. He flung his arms about him, shouting incoherently with joy, but Evtorr did not respond. He stood bemused as he was hugged, until finally asking after a time if he could be let go.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Evrokk asked. He was only a couple of years younger than his brother, and they looked very similar: big noses even for duardin, with the dark skin and bright hair common to the people of Thrund. The difference between them, however, was disturbing. Evrokk was neat and shipshape, his brother dirty and dishevelled.

‘He’s had a bit of a shock, that’s all, lad,’ said Kedren. He and Otherek shared a look. They were too wise to say what they were thinking, about the effects of passing through the vast, unstable realmgate of the Eye and what that could do to a mind, even one so unshakeable as a duardin’s. They would discuss that later, out of earshot of the brothers.

‘Hello, I’m Evtorr,’ Evtorr said with a big, stupid grin. ‘I like poems. Who are you?’

Evrokk held his brother at arm’s length. ‘It’s me, Evrokk! Your brother. Don’t you remember me? Evrokk!’ He smiled, willing his sibling to snap out of his fugue, but it faded when Evtorr blinked at him. There wasn’t a glimmer of recognition.

‘Brother?’ said Evtorr. ‘What’s one of them, then, when it’s giving a grobi a hiding?’ He stuck out his tongue in an exaggerated expression of thought and stroked his unkempt beard.

‘You don’t even know the word?’ Evrokk looked at Drekki, tears gleaming in his eyes anew. ‘He don’t even know the word, captain!’

‘One thing at once, lad. We’ll see him right.’

‘You’ll pay for a doctor?’ Evrokk asked.

‘You know he will, lad,’ said Kedren kindly. ‘You’ll send for one, right, Drekki?’

‘Aye,’ said Drekki. ‘Urdi!’

Urdi Duntsson came over. Once upon a time he had been a charming, raffish fellow, renowned for his love of women and wine. Now he looked shifty and downbeat, his eyes bloodshot, his handsome face creased with shame. The others fell quiet at his approach. He walked a little hunched, as if he were expecting rebuke. Drekki looked upon him with hard eyes.

‘Urdi, as you can see, Evtorr has returned.’

‘Marvellous news, captain,’ said Urdi. ‘I’m very glad, really I am.’

‘I bet you are,’ growled Umherth.

‘He needs a doctor. You’re going to go and fetch one,’ Drekki ordered.

Though carrying messages was beardlings’ work, Urdi was under a cloud after the business back in Bastion,[18] and agreed without complaint.

‘While we wait, we’ll quiz him a bit on where he’s been,’ said Drekki. ‘I can’t believe he went into the Eye of Testudinous and survived. It’s impossible, yet there he is.’ Drekki looked around his crew. ‘Otherek and Kedren, let’s go have a talk with him. Evrokk, you come along. Bokko, get us some mulled ale. Umherth, where’s Hrunki?’

‘Down below,’ said Umherth the oldbeard, who’d been standing at the edge of the throng smoking his pipe.

‘Fetch her too, Bokko. She’s got the best grasp of healing.’

Bokko, ship’s endrinrigger, was otherwise engaged. His round, honest little face was creased with worry as he fussed over Khenna, who was leaning against the gunwales.

‘But, captain, Khenna’s hurt too!’

‘It’s just a scratch, Bokko,’ she said, waving him away. ‘Evtorr’s in much greater need than me.’

‘But you’re all pale!’

‘It’s just the way I am,’ she said, patting his arm. ‘They make us that way in Thryng. I’m sure you’ve noticed,’ she teased.

Umherth grinned, his aged, tattooed face creasing with wicked mirth.

‘That he has,’ he said. ‘He’s been mooning over you for months!’

Bokko flushed and looked quickly away.

‘You heard her, lad, she’s all right,’ said Drekki. ‘Now to the stores with you. Never mind that little scratch of Khenna’s, she’s tough as an orruk’s skull. Get Hrunki. Get that ale. Evtorr here’s back from the dead, he’s bound to have a mighty thirst on him.’

‘I remember, I remember, I remember,’ said Evtorr, his glassy eyes staring off, and full of strange light. ‘I fell, and fell, forever and ever and ever.’ He cradled a mug of warmed ale in his hands. ‘Only, I wasn’t falling, but I was going sideways. Yes,’ he said thoughtfully, and took a gulp of his drink. ‘Right at that wall of fire and nothing.’ He shuddered. ‘It was horrible, going up and up and down and down. I couldn’t see the top or the bottom of it. The Eye! The terrible light! The awful heat! I felt sick, spinning over and over.’ He giggled. ‘Like the aether-whirlers at the trading fairs! Weeeeeee.’ He began to giggle, and didn’t stop.

‘Take a sip of your beer, Evtorr, take your time,’ said Drekki.

Evrokk gave the captain a concerned look and gripped his brother’s wrist. There were six of them crammed into the small passenger cabin, Otherek, Kedren and ‘Hrunki’ Tordis making up the rest. The cabin was tight, the only other private space aboard besides the captain’s quarters. They used it for paying passengers, or the crew when they were sick. Besides a porthole, a bed, a pull-out desk and a compact stool, it was a featureless place of riveted metal plates. Its small aether-heater was turned up to full, roasting them all, but Evtorr would have had it burn hotter still, if there had been a higher setting.

‘Cold,’ Evtorr said. ‘I remember that, so cold! But, um, that came after?’ He took another messy gulp, leaving his dirty beard dripping with foam.

He hummed to himself, a beardling’s tune. Then his head snapped up so hard a plume of ale jumped out of the mug and plopped back down again.

‘Then I hit it. And it all went wrong. All of it. I could see everything,’ he hissed. ‘Everything. Everywhere. All the realms, spinning, spinning, oh spinning through time and the void, and the great light of Azyr burning, and the wounds of Chaos on the world. Then… Then…’

He gulped. Shivered. Evrokk squeezed his shoulder.

‘There, there,’ he said. ‘In your own time, Evtorr.’

Evtorr scratched his beard, and smiled. ‘You’re very nice to me,’ he said. ‘Thank you.’

‘It’s because I’m your brother, Evtorr,’ said Evrokk despairingly. ‘It’s me. Evrokk.’

Evtorr giggled, and hummed the tune again.

‘You remember that one?’ Evrokk said softly. ‘I do too.’ He joined in, giving the words to the song. ‘Gold is gleaming, aether lifts, diamond cuts and shines,’ he sang.

Evtorr nodded happily, and hummed a little louder.

‘Copper glows, and silver bright, steel is hard and strong,’ Evrokk said. ‘Do you remember, our mother used to sing that to us, before we had even a single whisker between us?’

The smile faded from Evtorr’s face. He shook his head. ‘I don’t have a mother. I don’t have a brother. There is only the Eye!’ he shrieked. It was an awful noise, too high for a duardin throat, and full of madness. Evrokk squeezed his shoulder tighter.

‘Captain,’ he said. ‘Please make this quick, I don’t think it’s good for him to be questioned so much.’

Drekki nodded sternly, not a hint of frivolity about him.

‘Evtorr.’

Evtorr didn’t respond. Drekki snapped fingers in front of his nose.

‘Evtorr, what happened next?’

Evtorr started, still staring off past the walls of the cabin. ‘A bang! A flash! I saw a sea, surrounded by cliffs of bone,’ he said. ‘Then that was gone, and… And…’ He frowned. ‘I don’t know. Then I was falling through the cold airs, falling, falling. And down, this time. It was so cold. Cold! Then I saw it.’

All the duardin in the room leaned forward.

‘The Dead Air!’ he said. ‘It’s real. Really real! Lost ships and metaliths, all tangled up. And floating about and in the middle of it, Barak-Minoz! Barak-Minoz the lost! I saw islands in ice. And then…’ He looked puzzled. ‘Then I was in a net with a lot of fish.’

‘How can you be sure?’ said Otherek.

‘What?’ said Evtorr. ‘The fish?’ He gave an indulgent smile. ‘Don’t you know what a fish is?’ He sniffed his armpit. ‘I can still smell them.’

‘No, how can you be sure it was Barak-Minoz?’ the aether-khemist said slowly.

‘Because I saw it. I saw it and it was there. The lost sky-port… I’ve seen it! I’ve seen it!’ Evtorr shouted. He began to laugh madly, at the same time as trying to drink his entire dwugulk[19] of mulled ale. Beer went everywhere. Evtorr began to choke, and froth boiled out of his nose. He laughed again, then started to cry, hard. ‘I want to go home,’ he blubbed.

‘That’s enough! All right, that’s enough!’ Evrokk shouted, face darkening, shooting to his feet and waving his arms towards the door. ‘Everybody out!’

‘Now hang on, lad, I’m the captain here, we need to be…’ Drekki began.

Evrokk was having none of Drekki’s orders, captain or not, and shooed them all away.

‘What’s the Dead Air?’ Khenna asked, some half a watch later, when a good part of the crew was sat in the captain’s cabin. Khenna hailed from Barak-Thryng, far from the shoals, and was not as familiar with the territory as the crew who were born there.

‘A legend from our parts, lass,’ Otherek said quietly. He carefully filled his long, bronze pipe with fragrant smokeweed, and glanced about to make sure they weren’t overheard, though that was impossible in the confines of the captain’s room. Drekki’s quarters were well sized, occupying most of the space under the poop; even so, the cabin always felt cramped when there were so many of them in there, sitting around the collapsible feast table. Still, it retained a homely air. Drekki’s bunk was curtained off in an alcove at the back. His desk, with its odds and ends corralled by small cages and his book shelves with the little gates across to hold the tomes in place, spoke of a busy, well-organised mind. Drekki often boasted of being lazy, or winging it. One look at his desk suggested another side to that story.

Inside were Otherek, Kedren, Hrunki, Bokko, Khenna, Adrimm, Umherth and Drekki. Locklann, the new purser, was off buying supplies. Urdi still hadn’t come back with the doctor. Evrokk was with Evtorr, and Gord, as much as he would have liked to come to the meeting, couldn’t fit inside.

It was dark. The portholes were shut up tight against the damp. The outside was a lurid glow of aether refracted through the fog.

Otherek lit the pipe and sucked. The smokeweed flared red. ‘It’s a place in the Skyshoals. A strange vortex that moves across the realmscape. There’s supposed to be treasures there, lost ships, rare and wondrous artefacts. It’s rumoured that’s where the lost port of Barak-Minoz wound up.’

Umherth nodded solemnly, cradling his ale in both hands. ‘They say that some of what our kind lost in the fall of the karaks[20] is there. Amazing weapons, forgotten histories…’ He trailed away, lost in imagined treasure hoards.

‘They say there are great machines from old Achromia,’ said Bokko to Khenna. He was acting very peculiarly, half stammering. Drekki gave him a curious glance.

‘Are you all right, edrinrigger?’

Bokko nodded very quickly. ‘Yes, captain.’ He didn’t seem able to look Drekki in the eye.

‘They say a lot of things,’ said Kedren. ‘What do you think, captain?’

‘The lad Bokko here’s really gone sweet on someone,’ Umherth butted in with a leer.

Bokko pulled his head in, and stared into his beer.

‘I’m guessing you think it’s all troggplof?’[21]said Drekki.

‘You know what I think,’ said Kedren. ‘Minoz is a myth. It’s great to have Evtorr back, but it’s obvious the poor lad has lost his mind.’

‘He fell into the Eye,’ said Drekki, ‘and then he came out again. Don’t you think it possible that he saw what he said he saw?’

‘How do we know what he saw was the Dead Air, and not some other place?’ asked Adrimm.

‘It’s long been hypothesised up in the nav-guild that there’s some connection between the Eye and the Dead Air,’ said Otherek. ‘The Eye, you see, is all the old realmgates of Achromia of old, all compressed together into a giant whirlpool of magic at the centre of the shoals. Brokki Zunderdampf’s chronicles say as much, that sometimes, if the gods are with them, things that go into the Eye aren’t destroyed but end up in the Dead Air. Zunderdampf says he saw it. He says he saw Barak-Minoz there. This could be proof.’

‘Zunderdampf was an old fraud!’ said Kedren. ‘His last voyage was a disaster and he died in disgrace. He wrote all that nonsense to make money.’

‘Maybe he was telling the truth, after all.’ Drekki looked up from his pint, serious faced, but then gave a big grin. ‘Barak-Minoz was stationed very close to the Eye of Testudinous in order to harvest the rich seams of aether-gold that gather round the vortex. It went missing, ooh, about thirty years ago. Now, it’s usually assumed to have gone into the Eye. If it did, then maybe it came out again, just like Evtorr. And maybe things that go in do end up in the Dead Air. I’d say the hypothesis is proved.’

Kedren shook his head. ‘There’s some logic in that, I admit, but there is not enough reason to warrant haring off after the place.’

‘Are there reasons not to go haring off?’ said Drekki. ‘Think! If the Dead Air is real, and it’s got everything that ever fell into the Eye, it’ll be stuffed full of riches, never mind Barak-Minoz!’

‘Sounds dangerous,’ said Adrimm doubtfully.

‘And it sounds like a lot of ifs to me,’ added Kedren.

‘Maybe this’ll change your mind.’ Drekki leaned in. The others followed suit, until the table was hidden by touched heads and beards. ‘It’s a dead certainty that Barak-Minoz was full of aether-gold. There was a kronvoy scheduled to unload days before it went down. So, I say that aether-gold will still be there.’ He looked from face to face. ‘With a bit of luck, some of it will have been refined into solids, and therefore easy to transport.’

‘A dead certainty?’ said Adrimm.

‘Well, almost a dead certainty,’ Drekki said.

‘But how can you be sure?’ said Adrimm. Everyone was looking intently at the captain, but Adrimm looked at the others instead. ‘I mean, how can the captain be sure, right?’

‘Because it went down with all hands, lad,’ said Drekki. ‘No survivors. None that we know of, anyways. Not a single resident of Barak-Minoz has been reported from any sky-port, or anywhere else for that matter. It stands to reason that the aether will be there, either in the tanks, or even better, already refined into ingots and ready for transport.’

Umherth licked his lips. ‘Maybe all of it, like the captain says.’

Gold greed ignited in the eyes of everyone, except Kedren.

‘Insanity,’ said Kedren. ‘You skybeards don’t think things through! Every tavern in Bastion buzzes with tales like these, the Dead Air and a hundred others. You’re making connections that aren’t there. If you ask me, never being in the same location is highly convenient for a place that almost certainly does not exist!’ He harrumphed, and sat back, arms folded. That broke the spell of companionship, and the huddle leaned outward.

Otherek handed his friend his tobacco pouch. Kedren curled his lip, but took the pouch anyway.

‘That’s fairly put, but we’ve got a witness,’ said Drekki.

‘A mad witness,’ said Kedren.

‘True,’ said Drekki. ‘But I think there’s something here the rest of you aren’t seeing.’

‘What’d that be, Drekki?’ Kedren asked.

‘The attack,’ said Drekki smugly.

The others looked to one another.

‘How can someone coming after you be proof that the Dead Air is real and holds Barak-Minoz?’ scoffed Kedren.

Drekki gave a superior smile, the one he had when he’d figured out something that had eluded everyone else. He was feeling clever.

‘Because they weren’t coming after me. Let me explain. Evtorr saw Barak-Minoz. That’s all these people knew. That’s why they tried to buy him from the gaoler, who, lucky for us, had a modicum of honour.’

‘Pffft!’ Kedren said.

‘I’m guessing they wanted to question him. Now, why?’

Once more the crew looked puzzled. Drekki’s smile broadened.

‘Rumours have long suggested Barak-Minoz was sabotaged in order to maintain Barak-Mhornar’s dominance of the region.’

‘Oh, not this again,’ said Adrimm. ‘It’s the captain’s favourite conspiracy theory.’

‘Is it true?’ Khenna asked. ‘Would they do that?’

‘You don’t know what Mhornar’ll do, lass,’ said Kedren.

‘When Sigmar’s armies burst from Azyr and pushed the wickedness of Chaos aside,’ Bokko offered shyly, mostly to the table, because he was very obviously too shy to be looking at Khenna, ‘places like the Skyshoals suddenly seemed like good places to prospect for aether, even more so after the Garaktormun[22] scattered the old seams. The shoals are rich in it, on account of the broken lands. There’s a lot of liberated gas. A lot of floating islands too, and it’s aether that makes them fly.’ He fluttered his hands to demonstrate.

The others sniggered at Bokko’s earnest explanation. The endrinrigger’s smooth, boyish face went a shade darker.

‘Go on, Bokko,’ said Khenna tiredly. It had been a long day, Drekki thought. She’d probably drunk her first six pints a bit fast.

Stammering again, Bokko went on. ‘M-Mhornar and Nar staked simultaneous claims, and established outposts in the shoals. Barak-Thrund was founded by Barak-Mhornar, that’s where we’re all from,’ he added for Khenna’s benefit. It was a bit patronising, as she already knew that, but she didn’t seem to care, and nodded encouragingly.

‘I’m not from any flying boathouse,’ muttered Kedren. ‘Madness.’ The others ignored him. He’d been aboard the Aelsling for such a long time, it had got to the point where Kedren said these things for the sake of it.

‘Barak-Minoz was founded by Barak-Nar,’ said Bokko. ‘There was a big fight about the claim in the Geldraad,[23] both sides saying their claim preceded the other. In the end, it looked like they were going to split the find, according to the Code, but then Minoz disappeared.’

‘And it fell into the Eye?’ Khenna gave a delicate burp. She swayed in her seat, though she was trying very hard to concentrate on what Bokko was saying.

‘It’s a bit convenient,’ said Umherth.

‘So,’ said Drekki. ‘We come back to what I was saying. There’ve been rumours going round for a long time that someone sabotaged Minoz.’

‘I never believed it,’ said Adrimm. ‘It’d be an open act of war between the baraks.’

‘A covert act,’ Otherek retorted. ‘But war nonetheless,’ he admitted.

‘You ain’t lived, lad, if you believe that would make a difference to the bosses here!’ Umherth cackled. ‘Dark doings here in the City of Shadows.’

‘Not everyone cleaves to the Code,’ said Drekki. ‘Barak-Thrund was backed by the Admiralty Council and guilds of Mhornar, but ultimately the outposts are funded by private enterprise, and private enterprise plays dirty when profit’s on the line, and that goes doubly so here.’

‘Oh, come on!’ said Adrimm. ‘We’re from one of Mhornar’s holdings! I admit we might bend the Code a little to our advantage, but it’s only because the others are so uptight. We’d never stoop to murder.’ He frowned. ‘Well, not on that scale, at least.’

‘Don’t dismiss the idea, lad. A lot of venerable beards had a lot to gain playing dirty, and they now have quite a lot to lose if it can be proved Barak-Minoz was sabotaged,’ said Drekki. ‘Nar would go for damages, at least. The costs could run into millions of shares. We’re talking about major uproar on the Geldraad. Then there’s criminal charges against the individuals involved. They’ll not let it lie. They’ll grudge-mark Mhornar.’

‘Such duardin would be much happier if Minoz remained safely lost,’ mused Otherek. ‘A solid sighting might lead to an expedition, and awkward questions, and even more awkward answers.’ He sucked his pipe. ‘So, what you’re saying, Drekki, is that our Evtorr turns up ranting about the place, up prick all the wrongs ears, they try to get to him to find out more, the gaoler refuses to release him to unknown parties, so they wait until we get him out of the very well-protected prison he’s been kept in, and try to kill him with a load of mercenary elgi[24] to keep his mouth shut.’

‘Well done. That’s exactly it,’ said Drekki. ‘That brings me to my proof.’

‘Spit it out!’ grumbled Kedren.

Drekki stabbed his finger into the table. ‘The attempt on Evtorr’s life proves that it’s there. Why else would anyone want him dead? For crimes against poetry?’

‘It’s possible,’ said Adrimm. ‘He was a notoriously poor unki-skold.’[25]

‘What else does he know that would convince somebody to spend that much money on trying to get him?’ Drekki went on. ‘Not that it worked, because they reckoned without Drekki Flynt… And his bold crew,’ he added hurriedly. ‘I think it’s compelling.’

‘You would, it’s your idea,’ said Kedren.

‘Could have been Throkk. Could have been any one of your enemies, captain,’ said Adrimm, but he was beginning to look uneasy.

‘Elgi assassins don’t strike me as Throkk’s style,’ said Kedren grudgingly. ‘Like Drekki says, you need a lot of money to hire shadow-killers, not to mention a brass skin to try that kind of shenanigan. Throkk’s far away in Chamon. Even his reach ain’t that long. Then there’s the question of why Throkk would try to get Evtorr out before we got there. It serves no purpose for him, nor for any other party I can think of.’

‘That’s it,’ said Otherek. ‘The captain’s right. This is local trouble. The target was Evtorr, not Drekki.’

‘Do you believe that story? It’s mighty nice of the gaolers not to flog him off to the highest bidder,’ said Adrimm, suddenly getting into the conspiratorial aspect of things. He could be like that, Fair-weather, swapping from one side of the debate to the next with every switch of the wind. ‘It could be a trap.’

‘It’s not a trap. We’re due a bit of luck,’ said Drekki.

‘How is it lucky getting caught up in something like this?’ said Adrimm. ‘If they want Evtorr, now they’ll want us.’

‘Then we’d best grab opportunity by both horns, my lad,’ said Drekki. ‘There’s money in this, mark my words.’

‘But, but, what if they come for us?’ asked Adrimm, aghast, his miserable mind now working out all the worst possibilities.

Drekki raised his hands. ‘You don’t need to ask that question. Because they will. We can all agree that whatever we do, we need to leave Mhornar tonight.’

‘Right,’ said Otherek, nodding sagely. ‘So, assuming this is all true, then we are in trouble again, but equally we are presented with an opportunity. The question remains, how in the hells are we going to get to Barak-Minoz?’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ said Drekki innocently.

‘Don’t give me that. You’ll have plotted a course already. If we take Evtorr’s tale at face value, then he must have materialised high up in the Fifth Air, which means that’s where the Dead Air is.’

‘That’d explain him complaining about the cold,’ said Bokko. ‘It makes sense. And colpfishers brought him in. They only live up high. Cold-air fish, they are. They can’t live at low altitude.’

Wise heads nodded at Bokko’s ichthyological expertise.

‘Difficult, getting up that high,’ said Otherek. ‘Lot of perils in the parts where he was found. And we’ll have to be quick.’

‘Because if we aren’t, we’ll find out the whole place vanished.’ Kedren put down the pipe he was filling and clapped his hands. ‘If it exists at all! Another bloody wild vron[26] hunt!’

‘What about Brokki Zunderdampf?’ said Drekki.

‘A load of old cobblers is what I say to Brokki Zunderdampf,’ huffed Kedren. ‘Let’s not forget the rest of the legend either. The Dead Air is haunted, stuffed full of gheists gathered up on the Dead Air’s wanderings through the sky.’

‘That might not be true,’ said Drekki.

‘I see, we’re picking and choosing what bits we fancy of this legend, are we? Skybeards!’ Kedren threw up his hands. ‘You know the stories. The Dead Air plies its ghostly way across the Skyshoals, compelled from place to place by the will of Nagash, its wrecks and rocks infested with the spirits of all who foundered there. It lingers awhile in the most desolate places, luring in the greedy and curious to grow its armies with more doomed souls.’ His voice grew louder, his eyes wilder, and he banged his hand on the table. ‘There’s even a bloody song, which I remind you all ends badly! I’m sure Evtorr would recite it to us, if he weren’t half out of his mind.’

‘Come on,’ said Drekki. ‘A fantastic quest, set against the clock, to unravel a mystery that’s been the talk of the baraks for years, with untold riches at the end! What’s not to like? Sounds like just the sort of adventure for Drekki Flynt’s crew!’

‘Aye, icebergs, freezing temperatures, monsters, no air, and legions of ghosts,’ said Kedren. ‘And that’s just for starters.’

‘This is a real opportunity. I won’t braid the beards of fate all pretty, tie them up in a bow and tell you to follow me into a hole,’ said Drekki.

‘That’s because we’re already in one,’ grumbled Adrimm.

‘You’re tempted though, Fair-weather! I can see it,’ said Drekki, wagging a finger. ‘You all are. I can feel a change in the wind. The aether-veins are shifting our way. I’ve got the itch in my nose.’

‘It’s too risky,’ said Kedren.

‘No great quest is risk free,’ said Drekki, tapping the table. ‘Do you want to keep on running errands for the merchants here? Do you want to keep on with kronvoy duty? I know I don’t. The famous Drekki Flynt is nobody’s messenger beardling!’

‘Famous is a push. Nobody’s heard of you round here,’ said Adrimm. ‘Not like at home.’

‘Let’s go home then,’ said Drekki.

‘You’ll never find the Dead Air,’ Kedren said.

‘Colpies migrate, regular as aetherwork,’ said Drekki. ‘I can narrow the location down enough.’ He pulled out a chart from his back pocket. ‘And a little Aqua Ghyranis bought this from a certain colpfisher captain. I’ve enough to work out where it is.’

‘When did you get that?’ Hrunki asked.

‘Before we went to the prison,’ said Drekki.

‘Why?’

‘It pays to plan ahead.’

Kedren gave him a hard stare.

‘What? I was curious!’ Drekki unrolled the map. ‘You know, in case our mystery inmate proved to be of importance. Which he did.’

Kedren looked at the map, then back at the captain.

‘Are you serious? Have you shown this to Evrokk? That course goes right to the High Ice Bight!’

‘It’s the only way we can be sure to get there before the Dead Air moves on,’ said Drekki. ‘The stories suggest it never stays anywhere longer than a few months. Based on the timings of Evtorr’s retrieval, we’ve got six weeks maximum, I reckon. Which is enough, as long as we go the shortest route.’

‘The most dangerous route,’ said Hrunki with a grin. She was more up for adventure than Kedren. Umherth, who was of similar mind, chuckled.

‘Gold!’ he said. ‘There’ll be lots of gold.’

‘Nobody knows the Bight,’ said Otherek.

‘I know someone who knows the high parts of the shoals better than anyone alive.’

Kedren narrowed his eyes in thought, then widened them with realisation. ‘Oh no, come on, Drekki, you can’t be serious. Not Ramarius. Not again.’

Drekki gave his most winning of winning smiles, with extra twinkle. ‘Come on, where’s your sense of adventure? I’ve called in a favour from Rungazak Dwinrin’s Chandlery. I’ve already secured the goods we’ll need to pay. They’ll be here in an hour. If we keep Ramarius happy, he will see us right.’

‘Did you know that it was Evtorr in that cell? Have you been planning this all along?’ Kedren asked suspiciously.

‘Might have done. Might have been.’ Drekki winked. None of the others could tell if he meant it.

‘I’m inclined to think there’s some money in this, but I agree with Kedren on Ramarius. He’s unreliable. He’s dangerous. He’s expensive, in all the worst ways, and on top of that he’s a funti–’

Otherek’s reply was cut off by a groan and the clatter of a mug being knocked over. Beer pattered to the floor. Khenna lay slumped face down on the table.

‘Khenna!’ Bokko cried.

‘Ah, she’s just drunk,’ said Umherth. ‘It’s about time she loosened up a bit. Not got a gut for proper ale, them Thryng traditionalists.’

‘Shut up, you old fool!’ Hrunki was on her feet. ‘That’s not because of ale,’ she said. She pushed past Umherth and bustled over.

‘Khenna can’t be drunk. She’s hardly had a gallon!’ said Bokko. He got on his knees and lifted up her arm, and gasped. ‘Grungni’s mercy! It’s the cut. Oh, she should have got that looked at!’

‘Cut?’ Hrunki said with a frown. ‘Nobody told me she’d been cut. Show me where.’

Bokko pointed at the skin just below her hand. ‘It was only a nick. Now…’

Hrunki shook her head and sucked her remaining teeth. She lifted up Khenna’s limp wrist and turned it gently. The wound had swollen, gone purple and puffy round the edges, so what had been little more than a thin slice now gaped wide, like a mouth.

‘Don’t matter how small,’ said Hrunki. ‘It’s those aelf shadow bozdoks. They don’t fight fair.’

‘Gord was hit twice and he seems fine. It didn’t seem important,’ said Drekki.

‘Gord’s an ogor, chuff[27] for brains,’ Hrunki scolded. No one else but her could get away with speaking to the captain like that. She pressed down on the skin either side. A clear, yellowy liquid oozed from the wound. Hrunki looked up sharply at Drekki. ‘Yeah, she’s been poisoned all right.’

‘Grimnir’s flaming beard,’ said Bokko, scrambling to his feet. ‘I’m going to get the doctor.’

‘He’s coming anyway, for Evtorr!’ Drekki shouted. ‘Urdi’s bringing him.’

Bokko had already leapt over the side of the ship.

Hrunki sighed and shook her head. ‘I think someone’s got it bad,’ she said. ‘And I’m not talking about this poor poisoned lassie here.’