Such as exactly what I was supposed to be looking for. Anything capable
of defeating Le Stryge’s unpleasant ways of seeing ought to be able to
play hob with my plain two eyes. Unless, of course, it only had power
over sorcery. But it wouldn’t take much magic to hide things among these
lushly overgrown hills. For long hours we’d seen no sign of life bigger
than birds and giant butterflies, flutters of flashy colour against the
green, and the occasional white thread of smoke rising from a distant
clearing, or a patch of leafy thatches. We’d put in at several of these
little settlements along the shore. We’d hove to and questioned
fishermen in their boats, we’d sent ashore to ask villagers, always the
same question –
And always a veil fell between us. They were plain, lean peasant people for the most part, very simply dressed, looking more African than the West Indians I knew. All but the youngest had that look of premature age that goes with gruelling work and poor food. Their faces, old and young, ran to high bones and hard lines, well made to be inscrutable; their downcast eyes gave nothing away. Even the children, meant to be happy and laughing, would fall silent and scuff their toes in the dust when we spoke to them, and all the cajoling in the world would not move them. You couldn’t blame them; the word that something was brewing must have spread, and they’d no more reason to trust us than the Wolves. In one or two places the very sight of us landing sent villagers bolting screaming into the jungle; in another somebody even shot at us, winging a crewman. Not badly; it was crude bird-shot, fired more in fright than in malice. It wasn’t even worth trying to find whoever fired it among that shadowy tangle. We left them in peace, and went back to using our own eyes.
Mine, now; sweeping this way and that over land and sea and sky, bleak and empty all.
We rounded a promontory, crossed yet another empty bay; no village, no smoke, nothing but trees to the water’s rim. Out ahead, beyond the far headland, the sun was a blazing copper dome sinking into the sea, the clouds like plumes of exploding steam. I thought of Atlantis; was it, too, out here somewhere? In the shadows were all things, it seemed. This ship itself was part of shadow, a lingerer beyond the Core – and I? I had ridden on it, east of the sunrise; for better or worse I was part of it. I had begun to see with different eyes. So where, now, did I belong? The sunset burned the headland ahead into stark silhouette, its fringe of trees bending and tossing in that mocking, stifling breeze.
Except that some weren’t bending or tossing. Only swaying a little, stiffly, leafless. One – two – three –
We were not far off the point. I gathered my nerve and my breath together, leant over and shouted, but it was no use. I hadn’t the knack of hailing; the wind whipped away my words. Any louder, too, and it might be heard elsewhere, give someone the extra minute to run out those enormous guns. Quickly, trying not to fumble, I unclipped my belt and swung down through the open trap – called the ‘lubber’s hole’, suitably enough – and into the shrouds again. It was just like rock-climbing – getting down was the hard part. In one piece, anyhow. My legs were shaking; I was going too slowly. Desperately I looked around, and saw, just below me, one of the back-stays meet the mast – a heavy cable taut as a piano-wire, angling steeply away towards the rail. With abseil gear – but I didn’t have any. Too bad.
Slinging my sword well back, I reached out, wrapped an arm, then a leg, monkey-fashion, about the cable and swung myself across. Hand over hand, that was how to slide down – only I didn’t get the chance. I was sliding already, too fast, the cable skidding through my sweaty hands. I clung like the original monkey on a stick, whimpering, and dug my shoe soles into the rope like brake pads. They juddered across the ridged coils so hard they almost jolted me right off; then they bit. I arrived at the deck green and gasping, my arm streaked with scarlet rope-burns – but in time to wheeze out my message.
