"It's there," he said. "We believe Feverfew's secret harbour must actually be inside Drowned Wednesday."
"Inside her!"
"More exactly, we believe the secret harbour is a miniature worldlet that is anchored inside Drowned Wednesday's stomach. It can be accessed in only two ways. One is via a unique augury puzzle that Feverfew possesses, made for him by Grim Tuesday, like the worldlet itself. The other is directly from Wednesday's stomach."
"But it can't be inside her," said Arthur. "She returned to her normal human form. How could a whole secret harbour still be in her stomach?"
"I am not a metamathic sorcerer," said Longtayle, "but I believe the explanation is something like this: The secret harbour is contained within a bubble of the Secondary Realm that has been brought into the House. The size of that bubble may change from minuscule to gigantic without affecting the world it contains. When Lady Wednesday used the Third Key to return to her former shape, the bubble shrank with her. When she grew again, it grew. But the world inside the bubble did not change."
"And you can get into it from Wednesday's stomach?"
"We believe so," said Longtayle. "Or out of it. We think Feverfew had the worldlet sorcerously placed inside Wednesday for two reasons. It would be the ideal hiding place, but also would provide unparalleled opportunities for recovering salvage. You are aware that anything lost always turns up eventually in the Border Sea?"
Arthur nodded. He'd been told that by Sunscorch.
"A great part of what is lost lies in the very deeps and is unrecoverable, unless it floats up before it sinks to one of the places where the Sea now impinges upon Nothing and is dissolved. But there is still considerable salvage in shallower water, and it, along with everything else in Wednesday's path, ends up in her stomach, at least for a time. Feverfew uses his slaves to harvest the salvage Wednesday has swallowed, adding greatly to the plunder he takes from the ships of the Border Sea."
"How do you know about this?" asked Arthur.
"One of the advantages granted us by the Piper is the ability to return to our former shape and size for a time," explained Monckton. "It is unpleasant and potentially dangerous, should we forget that we are Raised, but we are able to masquerade as normal rats. One of our number managed to infiltrate the Shiver in this fashion, and observe the transition to the secret harbour. While there, she also saw slaves being sent out somewhere, the survivors returning with salvage. Later, we deduced the location of that harbour and the nature of the slaves" activities. Captain Longtayle, show Lord Arthur the map and the sketches."
Longtayle took a leather case from under the table, opened it, and took out several rolled-up pages. He laid these out on the table.
The first one was a map, drawn in pencil and entitled in large uneven letters FEVERFEW"S ISLAND. It showed a body of land shaped like a skull. Under the title there was a note that read: The isle is roughly 4,500 double paces long and 3,200 double paces wide.
The left eye socket of the skull had LAKE LEFT written on it. The right eye socket was broken and open to the sea. This was labelled HARBOUR and there were some smaller notations indicating a jetty, a shipyard, eight warehouses, a dozen large buildings marked as slave quarters, and a star-shaped construction called Feverfew's Fort.
The nose cavity was labelled as HOT MUD CRATER a note underneath that said Nothing?
Down by the skull's jawbone, there were lots of squiggly lines described as TEETH MOUNTAINS and Followers of the Carp. Escaped Slaves.
There was sea around the island, but it only extended for about eight hundred and fifty double paces according to the indicated scale, till it met a line marked Extent of Bubble that circled the map. Not far from the harbour mouth, near this line, there was a narrow peninsula that thrust out into the sea, with a dot on the end of it and the inscription: Exit to salvage grounds.
The second page Longtayle unrolled showed several rough charcoal sketches. One drawing showed the harbour with half a dozen ships present, one of them easily recognizable as the Shiver. The other ships looked derelict, and were all piled up against one another in one corner of the harbour, while the pirate schooner was tied up to the jetty.
The second drawing showed a line of slaves wearing bizarre-looking diving helmets, each of them hobbled with a long chain and equipped with a sack and net.
The third drawing was incomplete, a partial scene captured over the shoulder of a pirate who was kneeling on the deck of a ship. He had the lid of a box next to him, the lid illustrated with something that looked like a cross between a squid and a man.
The fourth and final drawing showed a line of small mountains or large hills, which were covered in thick jungle. The caption under the drawing read Followers of the Carp must be escaped slaves. Potential here.
"How did your spy get back out with these?" asked Arthur.
Longtayle shook his head.
"She didn't. The map and the drawings came by simultaneous bottle."
"By what?"
"Simultaneous bottles are a form of communication we developed ourselves, with some assistance from certain parties. Essentially, they are pairs of magical bottles. Anything put in one simultaneously appears in the other bottle as well. But they do not work outside the Border Sea, and are very expensive to construct, so only our most important agents are equipped with them. Our various vessels also use simultaneous bottles to keep in touch. We have over a hundred simultaneous bottles aboard."
"So these two papers were the last thing to come through from your agent with Feverfew?"
"Not quite," said Monckton grimly. "The last thing to come through before the bottle shattered was a severed tail. So you see, one gallant Rat has already given up her life for this information."
"This drawing, is it of Feverfew himself?" Arthur asked, indicating the sketch of the pirate kneeling on the deck. "And what's on the lid of that puzzle box?"
"We believe it's Feverfew," said Longtayle. "He was once a mortal man, though greatly changed by sorcery and his long existence in the House, and this drawing shows a man of mortal dimensions. The augury puzzle he is using is not one that is listed anywhere we can find. The creature it portrays is a Gore-Draken, a rare form of Nithling that is very occasionally created when certain lost items within the Border Sea come in contact with Nothing. This suggests the augury puzzle was created from the intestines of a Gore-Draken specifically for Feverfew, which could only have been done by a very superior Sorcerer or one of the Morrow Days. Since Feverfew's private bubble was made by Grim Tuesday, it's likely the Grim made the augury puzzle to go with it. Who paid for it to be made is another question, which we do not know the answer to."
"Probably Superior Saturday," said Arthur. "That's who Drowned Wednesday went to in the first place, to get his help to return the Keys to the Will."
"Her help," said Monckton. "Superior Saturday is female. Or she was, last we heard. Now, I think you will agree, we have answered your first question. So we shall ask one in return. Why do you want to go to Feverfew's secret harbour?"
Arthur thought for a moment. There seemed to be nothing to be gained from trying to not answer the question, or fudging the answer. He liked the Rats. They seemed very straightforward, and he knew he would need more of their help.
"I believe the Third Part of the Will is there. Drowned Wednesday doesn't have it anymore, and she says Feverfew took it, with help from the Morrow Days. I want to get to the Will and release it. Then I can get the Third Key from Drowned Wednesday, fix her up, get Leaf back, and..."