The door crashed open. “SPIKERRRR!”
Scully whirled, the grin dying on his lips as the body hurtled towards him. The cutlass swept down. The sound of the blade carving into flesh was sickeningly loud.
Hawkwood looked on in horror as Weazle’s body hit the floor beside him. Blood was pumping from the gaping wound in the little man’s throat. The dwarf’s eyes were wide open, but Hawkwood doubted Weazle had even seen the blow that had struck him. A gag had been tied round Weazle’s mouth to prevent him from crying out a warning. As he watched, Hawkwood saw the light in the dwarf’s eyes flicker and die.
The speed and force of Jago’s shoulder-charge lifted Scully off his feet and pitched the seaman across the table. As the two men tumbled backward, the cutlass point struck the overhead lantern, sending it smashing against the bulkhead. Burning oil splashed over the unmade bunk, igniting mattress and blanket. Small flames began to lick the deck.
Jago got to his feet. His right hand was clamped around a heavy wooden cudgel.
“Cap’n!” He bent down and saw the chains. “Christ!”
“Nathaniel!” Hawkwood yelled the warning as Scully rose into view from behind the table, eyes blazing.
Jago stood up and turned. “I warned you, Scully! Harm him and you’d answer to me!”
Scully was still holding the sword. His left hand gripped the marlinespike like a dagger. “Jago, I’m going to rip your heart out!”
Scully came round the table and lunged forward. Jago leapt backwards, the sword blade missing his ribs by a hair’s breadth. Scully cursed and tried again. Recovering his balance, Jago countered quickly, scything the cudgel towards Scully’s head. Scully ducked. The club caught him on the shoulder. The big seaman bellowed in anger and retreated.
The fire from the broken lantern had begun to spread. The oil-soaked bedding was now well alight. The wooden bunk was also burning. The flames had traversed the deck and were lapping the bottom of the bulkhead and the underside of the door. The hem of Weazle’s coat had begun to smoulder.
Hawkwood struggled to get himself upright. Feeling was returning to his arm. Placing his boots against Weazle’s corpse for purchase, his first intention was to try and push himself clear of the expanding flames.
In the confined space, Scully and Jago circled each other warily. Scully slashed the cutlass towards Jago’s arm. Firelight danced along the blade. Jago swapped the cudgel to his other hand. Parrying the steel, he smashed the cudgel against Scully’s exposed wrist. Scully roared as the bone snapped. The sword fell from his nerveless fingers. Desperately, he jabbed the marlinespike towards Jago’s throat. Jago swatted the spike aside and followed through, ramming the end of the cudgel into Scully’s stomach. Air exploded from the mutineer’s lungs.
Jago didn’t hesitate. Kicking the marlinespike out of Scully’s hand, Jago drove the cudgel head hard against the seaman’s bald skull. Scully toppled sideways. His heel caught the table leg and he went down. Jago moved in. The seaman was on all fours, trying groggily to push himself off the deck. He had retrieved the marlinespike. Blood was streaming down Scully’s face. Jago stood over the kneeling mutineer, his face dispassionate. He raised the cudgel and brought it down for a second time. There was a noise like an axe splitting a melon in two. Scully’s carcass pitched forward and lay still. The marlinespike clattered across the deck.
Jago viewed the body with disgust. “Gutless piece of shit!”
Weazle’s hair and clothing were ablaze. Hawkwood could smell burning flesh. The pool of blood from Weazle’s throat was sizzling like bacon fat in the heat. Smoke filled the cabin. Shouts of alarm could be heard outside.
Hawkwood found his voice and nodded towards the dwarf’s pockets. “The key! Look for the bloody key!”
The search seemed to take for ever, until, with a grunt of satisfaction, Jago held the key aloft. Quickly, he knelt down, unlocked the manacles and hauled Hawkwood to his feet.
Hawkwood rubbed circulation into his wrists. The cabin was now well and truly alight. The fire had taken full control and the heat was ferocious. Hawkwood looked frantically for an escape route. “The window!”
He had his foot halfway over the sill when Jago said firmly, “Not on your bleedin’ life!”
“What?” Hawkwood gasped as he saw the big man draw back.
“I ain’t jumpin’,” Jago said.
“Christ, Nathaniel! The bloody ship’s on fire!”
Jago shook his head. “Take a look. It’s as black as a witch’s crotch down there. Can you see what you’re jumping into?”
The roar and crackle of the flames were getting louder. Hawkwood could hardly see the door for smoke. He stared at Jago in disbelief. “You jumped ship to avoid the provost, for God’s sake! What’s the difference?”
“Difference is I could see what I was doin’! It’s the middle of the bleeding night f’r Chris’sakes!”
“I don’t believe this!” Hawkwood swore, pulling his foot in. “All right, we’ll use the bloody door!”
He was halfway across the cabin when he paused. It was Jago’s turn to swear as Hawkwood stepped over Scully’s body and ran back to the table. The sergeant watched as Hawkwood appeared to thrust his hands into the fire. Then Hawkwood had the ebony baton in his fist and he was following Jago out of the door.
Entering the passage, Hawkwood was unprepared for the astonishing speed with which the fire had taken hold. Already the flames had travelled beyond the stern of the ship and into the sleeping areas. Hammocks and bunks were being abandoned in haste, though a number of the addicts, Hawkwood saw with amazement, were still stretched out, clutching their pipes, oblivious to the danger. Among the rest, blind panic had taken over. People were scrambling for safety. Pockets of fire, caused by upturned lamps and candles, had broken out all over the deck. No effort was being made to douse them. Everyone was too intent in finding an escape route and saving his or her own skin.
Hawkwood couldn’t see a damned thing. The back of his throat was raw. His eyes were streaming. It felt as if his lungs were being grilled. He sensed Jago moving ahead of him, pushing bodies aside, many of them half naked. A man howled in pain as he tripped and fell. His cry for help was cut off by the trampling feet of those coming up behind him.
The blaze was not only spreading upwards, it was moving down, into the bowels of the ship, destroying everything in its path. Burning hammocks were disintegrating and dropping through open hatchways, igniting material on the lower decks. A rising tide of humanity was fleeing for its life, climbing over everything in its path, like a rat pack in a drain. The Rat’s Nest was being devoured.
Smoke had fast become the main enemy. In the inky darkness below decks it was insinuating its deadly coils into every nook and cranny. The air was heavy with the pungent smell of burning hemp, tar and opium.
Hawkwood was thinking that he should have pushed Jago out of the stern window when he’d had the chance. They might have suffered a broken arm or leg, but it would have been better than burning to death. Hawkwood knew they didn’t have much time. The air was being sucked from his lungs.
And then, mercifully, he felt Jago’s massive hand on his collar and he was being pulled upwards. They were at the bottom of the companionway and Jago’s strong arm was around his shoulder, guiding him up the stairs. Smoke was billowing out of the hatchway as Hawkwood clambered on to the deck and the night air, which before had seemed the foulest concoction, had never tasted so pure.
If the establishment had a name, Hawkwood could not recall it. He assumed it was just one of the many two-penny houses that existed within the river districts, where a sailor with money in his pocket could find himself a bed and a bottle, and a whore for the night.