The cat walked primly towards them. The thin man positively writhed with fear. When the animal passed them, it paused and crouched, and the fur rose along its back. The thin man squealed again. But the cat heard nothing, and though it looked about suspiciously, its eyes passed over them unseeing.
'One kick,' said the man in black. 'Your left foot, or your right.'
'I won't do it!'
The man in black took a step forward and seized the cat by the scruff of the neck. It yowled and twisted, but before it could scratch him the man flung it with all his strength over the rail. Two seconds sprawled, noiseless; then came a faint splash.
He turned on the man in glasses.
'Imbecile. Where is the intelligence you're so proud of? Any such creature you may now drive off, or kill, or punish as it deserves. Savour the fact. Taste that new joy. We have a word for it, incidentally.'
'Wh-what word is that?'
'Safety.'
They went below. Even one deck down it was still very dark. Soldiers groped for boots and helmets. A pair of tarboys brought their ration of water; they gargled and spat. The man in spectacles knew they could not see him, and in truth felt his fear of the soldiers melting away. But one of the boys, tall for his age with a finger-sized hole in one ear, gave him such a fright that he ducked behind the shot garlands. His bright eyes peeped timidly between the rows of cannonballs. The man in black shook his head.
'Why can't you act like a man?'
'That boy tried to kill me!' squeaked the other.
'If he touched you now he'd get a dozen lashes.'
The thin man raised his head and gave a tentative smile. 'Oh yes, lashes. He deserves lashes. A dozen lashes, boy!'
'That's better,' said the man in black.
He took the thin man's arm. 'Notice, my friend, how great ships resemble great houses: each deck with its open central compartment, its courtyard. Each with its brighter rooms and its darker. Grand airy spaces for the masters, cupboards for those who serve. Most beings in this world cling to the place where fate has dropped them, even if that place is a stinking hold, where they scrabble about on hairy bellies, cursing and cursed. You must be strong indeed to change your fate.'
The thin man looked to his right. Beside the shot garlands lay a row of corpses, wrapped in shreds of canvas and tied up with twine. Another row lay between the cannon on the starboard quarter.
'Killed yesterday,' said the thin man. 'Killed by your fleshanc ghouls. I didn't realise there were so many.'
The man in black turned him away. 'The dead are none of your concern. Look here! A man after your own heart.'
A sailor had found a patch of light beside an open gunport. He had a sheet of tattered paper and a pencil stub. With the sheet spread flat on a 24-pounder, he was writing in a quick, clumsy hand. Now and then he glanced up at his shipmates, but few of them met his eye.
'He's writing a letter, you see? Touch it, take it from him!'
'Is it a love letter?' asked the man in spectacles, drawing near despite himself.
The man in black laughed aloud. 'What else? Go on, read it to me. I know full well you can read.'
He snatched the page from the sailor's hand, and gave it to the thin man. The sailor appeared to forget the letter the moment it was taken from him: he merely crossed his arms and looked out of the gunport. On the back of his hand was a tattooed K.
'It may make you blush,' said the man in black.
The other adjusted his spectacles. Dear Kalli, the letter began. He could not make himself read it aloud. There was something wrong about the letter, anyway, for although it began as one thing it soon became something else.
Dear Kalli how are you how's my one true love? Are there peaches in Etherhorde are you canning some for me? Have you fattened up a bit Kalli sure enough the men are courtin' you now I'm away. Kalli you had best choose one and marry. Write me off won't you sweetheart as I can't see surviving, tell your dad tell your uncles tell the whole blary world what a great crew of monsters is Chathrand 's they seem like men but they'll kill us like insects the Swarm's to be set free Rin help us the SWARMThe man in black grabbed the page and crushed it, then tossed it with a snarl through the open gunport. He looked accusingly at the thin man.
'Satisfied?' he said.
In the galley, the morning chill was replaced by smoky warmth. The smells were intoxicating. All sailors dined like kings — the thin man had known that for years. The man in black made him lift the ladle and taste the breakfast gruel. It was glutinous and barely salted. It was manna from the gods.
'And this,' said the man in black, 'is the worst you shall ever taste again.'
The thin man emptied the ladle with a slurp. Gruel on his lips, tears in his eyes.
'It's not fair,' he said.
'But it is,' said his guide. 'You help me, I help you.'
They did not knock at the captain's door: they pushed it open and stepped right in. Captain Rose stood before a dressing mirror, fastening his cufflinks. He had combed out his great red beard, and a new dress coat hung on a stand beside him. His steward was in the after-cabin, polishing his shoes by the window.
'So much room!' cried the thin man, spreading his arms and turning in a circle.
The man in black looked contemptuously at Rose. 'The fool. He's loathed in these islands. He won't be allowed anywhere near the wedding ceremony.'
They looked on as Rose took something from his watch pocket. It was not a watch but the head of a woman, carved from a pale white stone. The captain put the head in his mouth, where it bulged between his cheek and gum.
'A twisted man,' said the visitor in black.
The thin man suddenly found his courage. He bolted across the cabin to the dining table and snatched at Rose's breakfast with both hands. Orange slices. Kidney pie. Three round raw eggs the size of cherries. A boiled radish. A wedge of soda bread with butter, still warm from the stove.
He ate everything before him, then sucked his fingers, and finally lifted the platter and swabbed it spotless with his tongue. Neither the captain nor the steward turned him a glance. He looked at the man in black with amazement.
'I have just eaten Rose's breakfast!'
'Next time leave the eggshells. Go on — see what a captain's bed feels like, while you're at it.'
The sheets were newly laundered; the pillow beneath his head brought back dim memories of fluff and mother's warmth. There were books in a shelf built into the headboard. The man in spectacles reached behind his head and took one. He caressed the leather, then drew the volume reverently to his chest.
I cannot give this up, he thought.
'Nor need you,' said the other, as if he had spoken aloud. 'Well, then, do we have an agreement?'
'I — You see, sir, there are obligations-'
The man in black crossed the room in four strides.
'Obligations?' he said venomously. 'Only to me, henceforth. What obligations can your kind feel, save bestial urges?'
'Please,' rasped the thin man, clutching the book even tighter. 'Don't misunderstand me. That is the horror of my life, being misunderstood.'
'The horror of your life is what you are,' said the other. 'You're a freak, an abomination. I alone can change that. And all I ask in return is that you tell me what goes on in that stateroom. Thasha Isiq's stateroom, the place I cannot see.'
The thin man pinched his eyes shut and rubbed his hands quickly together, a spastic gesture of nerves. 'But I am only dreaming this, dreaming you and these people and that lovely food. None of it is real.'
'You talk like a simpleton,' said the other, 'but that is not your fault. Most beings see consciousness as no more than a coin: heads you're awake and busy, tails you sleep and dream. But reality is not so flat. It is more like a die of many sides. You toss it, and live with whatever it reveals. A mage, however, can read all sides of the die at once. I have shown you this day's beginning as the men of Chathrand are living it. As you will live it, when you become a man.'