CHAPTER FIVE
It took the Breathless two days to reach the Farrows. It would usually have taken much longer but, after that first day, Heetha’s sun fled far from the sky to be replaced with Holli’s — Goddess of Tranquillity and Gentleness. Hers was a mild, lukewarm sun at the best of times but, as often happened, she was closely followed by her jealous sister, Gersha. It was said that Gersha had originally been the Goddess of a noble and virtuous province. But in the aftermath of her jealous rage at not being given her own sun along with her sister, Gersha had evolved into the Goddess of Resentment and Bitterness and her savage gales were often twinned with Holli’s sun so that what little warmth the gentle Goddess gave was quickly snatched away by her poisonous sister.
But this was so much the better for Lex, who was eager to reach the Farrows quickly. He did not suffer from seasickness and, on the contrary, keenly enjoyed standing at the prow of the ship as it bucked, flew and crashed back down upon the ferocious waves. There had only been one spare cabin on board and Lex had let Mr Schmidt claim this without argument. This wasn’t due to any particularly charitable outburst of feeling on Lex’s part but rather a certain disinterest, for Lex enjoyed sleeping in the huge storage room. Not only was it much bigger than the tiny, claustrophobic cabins, but it was also closer to the cold sea and so was probably the coolest part of the otherwise stuffy ship. The gypsies gave him some spare blankets and pillows and with these he was able to make himself quite comfortable down below.
But he wasn’t accustomed to living on the sea and, although he enjoyed it during the day, at night he had trouble adjusting to the bucking movement of the ship, for Lex was a light sleeper and often found himself jerking awake from dreams of falling. But the storage area was comfortable and it was at least a large area all to himself. There were even a few useful things stored away down there that he took the opportunity of placing, solely for safekeeping, in his own bag.
Lex hadn’t seen her Ladyship since the night he was arrested but this did not unduly bother him. Lady Luck was a flighty, fickle being and there had been times when she had taken off and Lex had not seen her for weeks. The protection she gave him helped, but Lex had managed fine before she came along and he would be fine without her again if he needed to be.
For the last few days he had wandered about the ship, making sure to keep out of the gypsies’ way apart from at the evening meal when everyone ate together. Mr Schmidt had been confined to his cabin the first day due to seasickness. Lex had felt rather pleased about that. Served the vicious old stick right for chasing after him and causing so many complications.
Lex knocked on his door that first evening and told the lawyer that the gypsies had prepared dinner down in the galley and that he’d better come and eat something or he would be seen as offending their hospitality — and an offended gypsy was an angry gypsy. This was quite untrue. The gypsies couldn’t have cared less who came down to eat in the evenings but it was quite fun for Lex to watch Schmidt valiantly try and eat something for a few minutes before rushing upstairs to throw up over the side of the ship.
When he came up on deck the day they docked at the Farrows he still looked slightly green and was glaring daggers at Lex as if he were responsible for all the lawyer’s worldly problems. Lex gave him a cheerful grin, sauntered over, and politely inquired as to his health. He was answered with a snarl and a promise that the lawyer would be sticking to him like glue as soon as they landed. Lex shrugged, completely confident in his abilities to give Schmidt the slip.
They docked at the harbour at about midday. The sun was still weak and the gales still stormy when they landed. Lex had been to the Farrows last year on his way to the Wither City. He had an excellent memory and so had a pretty good idea of the layout of the town.
As they made their way down the gangplank, Schmidt had his hand clamped tightly around Lex’s upper arm. The old man actually had a stronger grip than Lex had imagined and he had to tug forcefully, finally pushing the lawyer over hard to get away. Schmidt went sprawling into one of the shut-up stalls of the midnight market that was, as usual, set up around the harbour, and by the time he got to his feet again, Lex was several paces away, weaving through the crowd towards Jani’s Tavern.
You had to do what they weren’t expecting you to do, that was the nub of it. Speed alone was rarely enough. Any unintelligent thug could bolt for it. Schmidt was probably expecting Lex to head for the nearest transportation dealership and get out of the Farrows as fast as he possibly could. He probably wasn’t expecting him to go and have a drink in a tavern. Such an action, after all, would have been arrogant beyond words.
The Farrows had sprouted up in a haphazard manner and was a very ancient town. The buildings were crooked, as they had all been added to over the years, and second and third floors often didn’t fit properly on the first ones so that layers would jut out over each other. Many of them had dark, thatched roofs and signs above the doors pronouncing the occupier’s trade. Of course, most of the Farrow folk were miners as a result of the town’s proximity to the great mineral mines.
Jani’s Tavern was near to the station that transported workers to the mines and, as such, was a much-favoured haunt for miners as well as sailors. When Lex went in, the tavern was full of miners on their lunch break. He was glad of the smoke-laden air for it would help to hide him if Schmidt did turn out to be bright enough to search for him there.
Not being a huge fan of gypsy food, Lex was glad to order a proper meal and squeeze himself onto the end of one of the tables. The miners paid him no heed since he was still wearing his sailor-boy clothes and it was not unusual for sailors to come and eat at Jani’s whilst their ship was in the docks. Lex still wasn’t old enough to enjoy any of the real ales that the miners were drinking, but he ordered a pint of Grandy to go with his meal and settled down to enjoy some good Farrian cuisine.
He carefully tore the bread roll in half, dipped it into the bowl of delicious-looking soup and had just put it in his mouth when there was a kind of shing noise and a horrible lurching feeling and a man handed him a few copper coins and the reins of a mantha beast.
‘You’ll be pleased with this one, sir, she’s a bargain for the price.’
Lex kept his cool. He didn’t scream or shriek or jump back. But the fact was that he was outside, at a mantha stables in the centre of town when moments ago he had been at Jani’s Tavern about to eat his lunch. His plan had been to travel to the stables later on in the afternoon once he could be sure that Mr Schmidt would no longer be in the town. For a moment, he feared that he must have had some kind of mental memory gap.
But then he became aware of the strange feeling. He glanced down at the mantha beast — a sort of shaggy cow thing, with lots of hair — cropping on the scrubby grass at his feet. It seemed to be further away than it should be. He glanced at the seller and was alarmed to find that the man was shorter than him. Lex was not a tall person. He was shorter than most other men. The joints in his wrists ached and so did his feet. And his stomach had that horrible empty feeling, as of one who had spent most of their time during the last couple of days with their head down a toilet. A horrible, incredible, disgusting, revolting suspicion crept over Lex.