Revenger 9780575090569 (43 page)

‘If it’s in me, you’re the reason.’ I pulled her fingers off my jaw with my tin ones, and let her hand float limply down to her side.

‘I suppose gratitude’s in order, in that case.’

I turned from her. ‘We’re not done, unless you’ve the good sense to die on me.’

Her tone was interested, almost fond. ‘What’re you intending, Fura? You’ve got a pretty ship now, with pretty black sails, and if you took my crew then yours can’t be too shabby. But you need a plan. Every cove needs a plan.’

We’d have found her special room no matter what, but she’d done her best to make it secret. It was as big as any cargo hold on any ship I’d known, and all it contained was the glass and bronzey metalwork of the bottles, and the green fluid and
grey-
green flesh inside them. From the door, I stared into its gloomy green depths for several long minutes before willing myself inside. The bottles went back and back, on both sides of the room. There were thirty in total, and
twenty-
three of them had bodies in. The others were empty, clean, waiting.

We never got to the bottom of exactly how many of her there’d been. Clearly there were
twenty-
three Bosa Sennens before Illyria Rackamore, but whether was that the start of it, or just the bodies she had on this ship, we had no way of knowing. They weren’t all alike, not at all, and they weren’t all the same age when they ended up pickled. But I picked out a sort of sketchy likeness between them, and it wasn’t because they were family. It was just that Bosa chose her successors according to her tastes, and she had a certain eye for it. It didn’t take much imagination to see Illyria Rackamore floating
pale-
eyed and still in one of the
now-
empty bottles, and it didn’t take much more to see Adrana occupying the one after that.

After that – who would it have been?

I caught a smear of my own reflection in the glass of the nearest bottle, and it was like my own face was already floating there, looking out just like all the others.

I wasn’t like her, I told myself. I’d changed a little, and there was a spur in me, and maybe something in my eyes that wasn’t too welcome, but that still put a million cold leagues between what I was and what she’d become.

I clung to that. I had to.

We had taken the ship and that was better than not taking it, especially given the state of the
Queenie
. But when Surt cast her eye over the essentials of the
Nightjammer
, taking in what she could given the size and strangeness of any ship, the news wasn’t as peachy as I’d hoped.

‘They did a cruel thing to us, Fura,’ she said, touching a finger to her bandaged scalp. ‘A cruel old thing. When they knew it wasn’t going their way, what was left of her crew made a knotty mess of her control gear. Tearing this out, tearing that out. I know we didn’t give them much time, what with all the murdering, but Bosa must have drilled her orders into ’em pretty deeply. If there was a chance of the
Nightjammer
being taken, they was to rip her living guts out, and they knew exactly where and what needed to be done. Yards and yards of wiring ripped out or severed, and I ain’t the foggiest how we’ll go about knitting it back together.’

I nodded, refusing to be too cowed by this news. After all we’d been through, not having the odd setback would have been the queer thing. Funny it had come to me to be the
level-
headed one, I thought, seeing the way past our immediate difficulties when everyone else was losing their nerve.

‘It’s just control gear, Surt. I know it looks bad now, but we don’t need to move anywhere in a hurry and once you’ve had some rest I think you’ll see it more as a challenge than an impediment.’

‘I hope you’re right about that, Fura.’

‘I’ve faith in your abilities. I’ve faith in all our abilities.’

‘You don’t sound the way you did,’ Surt mused. ‘Not how you were before we got to the Fang, anyway. I always knew you was educated, with those thousand books of yours, but now you ain’t afraid to sound like it either.’

She was right, I realised. But it hadn’t been anything intentional on my part. Just a mask that had begun to slip a little. I suppose some part of me knew that, however we went on from here, this crew – if it ever
was
a crew – was going to need a captain again. I suppose it was presumptuous to think of myself stepping into that vacancy, but then again, I’d all but taken the decisions for Trusko when he was alive, whether the cove knew it or not.

‘Surt . . .’ I began. Then stopped, before I put a thought out there that made me look foolish.

‘What is it, Fura?’

‘Oh, nothing – just a silly idea that crossed my mind for a moment.’

‘You might as well spit it out, I always says.’

‘You mentioned that the control gear was damaged. That’s mainly wiring, isn’t it? I was thinking . . . well, I know this will sound ridiculous. But a robot’s body’s mainly wiring as well, isn’t it? I know there are arms and legs and wheels and so on, but if a robot could operate those, couldn’t it operate
sail-
control gear, ions and so on?’

‘I won’t say it ain’t been tried, Fura. But robots aren’t always smart, and for the most part people are cheaper. That’s why ships are run the way they’re run.’

‘I know, but we’re not exactly dealing with a conventional ship, are we? Or a conventional crew. And Paladin’s at least as clever and resourceful as any person I’ve ever known.’

‘But that head ain’t said a word to you since you tried it. You told me.’

‘That’s true. But Paladin was dead once, and he came back to me. There’s no reason he can’t come back a second time, is there?’

‘You’re asking the wrong cove.’

‘No, I’m asking exactly the right one. You know robots better than most, Surt, and you’re not about to give up on this ship. If I gave you his head, and trusted you to connect him up to the
Nightjammer
, as best you could . . .’

‘I suppose a robot could find his way around blockages, if it had to. They’re sly at that sort of thing.’

‘Or at least help you repair the damage, by tracing what works and what doesn’t. You may as well try it, Surt: we’ve little left to lose.’

‘I’ll wire ’im up. But don’t raise your hopes.’

‘I won’t,’ I said. ‘But I’ve got confidence in you. This is our ship now, Surt, and we’ll make her fly.’

‘Mm.’ She gave me a doubtful look. ‘The question is, what do we do with it? I suppose now you’ve got your sister back, you’ll want to be returning to Mazarile.’

‘Some of us will have outstanding business in the Congregation,’ I told her. ‘Some of us won’t. But for the time being we’d best keep clear of the worlds. Bosa spent her life skulking in the margins because she knew she’d be torn apart if she ever got too close to civilisation. That’s how we’ll need to play it as well, to begin with. This ship might be ours now, but the shape of her still puts the shivers into the people, and I don’t want to stake my life on explaining ourselves over the squawk or the bones.’ I sounded sure of myself, and perhaps I was, but the truth of it was I’d barely given a thought to our future until she’d pressed me on it. ‘There’s a lot to keep us busy, Surt. We’re a good crew now, but we can become a better one. And there are plenty of baubles out here to cut our teeth on. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Crack a few of them, stuff our hold with a prize or two, and then consider our options. Bosa said there are quoins out there somewhere, a whole world stashed full of them, and someone needs to do something about all those poor dead souls, if that’s what they are. But first we need a ship we can sail, and we’ve some work to do on that score.’

‘I’ll see to your robot,’ Surt said.

I smiled at her. It was good to have colleagues you could rely on, but even better when you could see the shapes of friendships still to form. ‘Good. And when you’re done, that bargain of ours still stands.’

I went to see Adrana. Surt had given her a sedative, but she was coming out of it now, regarding me through narrowed, gummy eyes as I settled myself at her side. She was bound to her bed, just as Garval had been, and I thought of how our mutual fates had been spun together. There was a bandage around her head, but I was assured that Prozor’s crossbow hadn’t done any lasting harm.

‘What happened, Fura?’ she asked. ‘Why have they got me tied up like this?’

‘Do you not remember?’

‘I remember being in the bone room. You coming. Not much after that.’

I put my warm hand on hers. ‘You tried to hurt me. I don’t think you really meant it, deep down – it was Bosa, acting through you. She must have started to turn you, and that’s not your fault, and I’m sure you did your best to fight her. But what’s done is done, and now I can’t be sure that you won’t hurt me again, or try to take this ship back for Bosa.’

She lapped this up as if it was just any
matter-of-
fact business between sisters. I suppose being tied up meant she didn’t have much choice but to take me seriously.

‘She did try turning me. I knew it was happening. But I thought I was strong enough to keep her out.’

‘I imagine they all felt that way. We found her room, you see – the special room with all the bottled bodies she didn’t have any use for any more. I can’t believe any of them ever set out to become Bosa, but it happened, and it would have happened to you, given time. She’d settled on you as her successor.’

‘Is she really gone?’

I glanced away. ‘She’s not a concern to us, if that’s what you mean. We found her, in the end. But it was only because Prozor wanted to give Garval a decent resting place. We found Bosa injured, but still alive.’

‘And now?’

‘She’ll die. Probably before we’ve worked out how to operate this ship, and certainly before we sail for anywhere interesting. But until then it pleases me to keep her breathing. She has limits, I know, and if there’s information I feel I really need . . .’ But I pushed my darker thoughts aside with a smile. ‘It’s you that I’m concerned about, not her.’

‘You fear me?’

‘A little.’

‘Good. I’m not sure what I make of you, Fura. The glowy’s really shining out of you today.’

‘So they say.’ I used my tin fingers to stroke a knot out of her hair, as gently as I could. ‘I’ll keep it in me, at least for now. I’m not sorry about what I’ve become. Sorry about some of the things that happened, and maybe one or two of the things I had to do. But what I’ve turned into? No. I’m proud of what I am. Proud of being Fura Ness. And I’d sleep more easily if I knew my sister was on my side.’

‘I will be.’

‘I think you will, but time’s going to have to be the judge of that. I’ll know, though. I’ll know when I look in your eyes and there’s nothing left of Bosa in them.’

‘And if she doesn’t leave me?’

‘A little splinter of her won’t hurt, I suppose. In either of us.’ I went to fetch her some water, and she drank it gratefully. ‘The ship’s in a bad way, I don’t mind saying. But we’ll fix her, and maybe Paladin will help us.’

Her eyes brightened. ‘That old thing? Paladin’s with us?’

‘I brought him. The bit that matters, anyway. I know you never cared for Paladin, but there was more to him than either of us knew. He might be the thing that helps us knit this ship back together again.’

Adrana nodded. There was a lot we still had to say to each other, but there would be time for that.

‘And then what?’

‘They think I meant to go straight home. But I’ve got the spur in me for something different. Just for a little while, until we get our bearings. There are wrongs that need setting right, things to do with quoins, and if half of what Bosa told me is lies, I still want to find out what the rest of it means. And I’ve been inside two baubles, Adrana. Don’t mind admitting I was terrified, most of the time. The thought of being locked inside one, when the fields went back up . . . but there’s something else, too. An itch, I suppose you’d call it. I want to see a third one now. And a fourth. And I’ll take the risks, because I saw the look in Trusko’s eyes when he found the Ghostie treasure. I want to know what that thrill feels like.’

‘I want to see them with you,’ Adrana said.

‘You will, too. I’m sure of it.’

I wasn’t as sure as I sounded, but I had hope, and that was better than nothing. She was my sister, and while she’d started to be turned I had to believe that it wasn’t too late. We were together again now, and I loved her, and there were people around her who were going to unravel some of the craziness Bosa had started knotting into her. Or try, anyway. We’d do our best, and we’d try everything before we gave up on her. Adrana was strong, I told myself. Strong enough that she could sweat out Bosa’s poison, no matter how far it had got into her. I wanted her back, and I wasn’t going to give up easily. Not until she looked into my eyes, smiled, and I knew I didn’t have to worry about blades against my throat.

But I spoke the truth when I said that a little shard of Bosa wouldn’t do either of us too much harm.

Bosa was right about one thing. A cove did need a plan, and until I sorted out the clutter in my skull – what had happened to me, what I’d chosen and what had happened to me regardless, what I was prepared to accept and what I was prepared to deny –I couldn’t see my way to thinking clearly. It would take a while to make the
Nightjammer
ours, with or without Paladin’s help, and while we were fathoming her many and devious ways, I reckoned I had time to set down my thoughts. I’d always liked writing, and if I got my story down on paper, I’d at least be able to put my side of things.

‘I’m going to write out how it began,’ I whispered to Adrana. ‘Starting in Mazarile, the night we escaped from the museum. I’m not going to sugar it up, and I’m not going to pretend I didn’t do things I wish I hadn’t. It’ll take me a while, because I can’t write very easily, but the work’ll be good for my fingers and when I’m done you can read it and we can argue about what’s right and what’s wrong. And we’ll call it something like
The True and Accurate Testimony of Arafura Ness
, so that it sounds right and proper, and you can always write it the way you saw it, as well, and we’ll call that
The True and Accurate Testimony of Adrana Ness
, and I know yours will be nicer than mine because you always had a better hand and you knew how to make words fit together like they belonged. But it won’t make one story better or worse than the other, just different.’ I leaned in and kissed her on the brow. ‘We’d need a new name for the ship,’ I added, all teasing and confidential. ‘It’s ours now and we need to start thinking of it that way. A name will help.’