Though the deck was wooden, as soon as Arthur followed Watkingle through a door between the two quarterdeck companionways, his feet rang on iron. Arthur stopped to look around, and felt the rivets in the iron wall. He had to bend his head a lot lower than he had in the Moth, as the ship was built to Raised-Rat scale.
"She's an iron ship, sir," said Watkingle. "Timbered up to ease the sensibilities of Wednesday and her officials. Built by Grim Tuesday himself, four thousand years ago, and still as sound a vessel as anyone would wish."
He knocked on a door at the end of the passage.
"Lord Arthur, Master of the Lower House and the Far Reaches, sir!"
The door was opened immediately by another seaman Rat, dressed like Watkingle but rather more neatly. Beyond him, there was a large stern cabin with dinner-plate-sized portholes on three sides, a map table loaded with charts and augury puzzle boxes with pictures of animals on them, several upholstered chairs, and a couple of riveted iron chests. Two Rats stood over the table, both in blue coats with gold epaulettes. Arthur recognised one of them as Commodore Monckton. The other was a black Rat, not brown, taller and younger-looking, his whiskers shorter and not as white.
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.
"And pirates," added Longtayle. "The Shiver has been sighted too often in recent times for my liking, not to mention some of Feverfew's lesser brethren, such as Captain Blooddreg of the Nightdream."
"That's why I'm here," said Arthur. "Kind of. I need to find Feverfew's secret harbour, and I need to go in there and get something. I must ask for your help."
"We are mercantile Rats," said Monckton. "That is to say, we do not do anything without payment of some kind."
"Do you actually know where Feverfew's harbour is?" Arthur asked. "Or can you find out fairly quickly? I mean, there's no point talking about payment if you can't do anything."
"We think we know where it is," said Longtayle. "That is to say we have deduced its location from some evidence, but we have not actually been there ourselves. As for getting you there... if we're right then that's an even more difficult proposition."
"Okay," said Arthur, ready to bargain. "What payment do you want for the location, to start with?"
"We deal in information," said Monckton. "So if we answer your questions, we'd like you to answer an equivalent number of ours."
Arthur had been expecting to pay a ransom in gold or treasure. This seemed too easy...
"Is that all?" he asked.
"That may be more than it seems," Longtayle advised.
Arthur shrugged. "I don't have anything to hide. At least I don't think I do."
"Then you shall ask three questions of us," said Monckton. "And we shall ask three of you."
"There's no trick to this, is there?" Arthur asked suspiciously. "I mean, what I just asked doesn't count as a question, does it? Because I'm not agreeing to that."
"Only significant questions count," said Monckton. "So, you want to know what we know about Feverfew's secret harbour?"
"Yes," said Arthur. "That's my first question. Where is it?"
In response, Longtayle unrolled a very large map that took up most of the table. It was labelled THE BORDER SEA and was nearly all blue water, with occasional small flecks of land, each neatly marked in tiny cursive script.
Arthur looked over the map eagerly, taking in place names like Port Wednesday, the Triangle, Mount Last, and Swirleen Deep. At first glance, he couldn't see anything labelled Feverfew's Secret Harbour, so he went back to the top left corner to start a systematic search up and down, only to be interrupted as Longtayle carefully placed a small ivory carving of a white whale on the map and tapped it twice.