Elysia (12 page)

Thalarion of their extruded paper-paste wastes. But how could Zura be the miscreant? What use to her the spoils of piracy? Anyway,
Shroud II
was only ever spied over the Charnel Gardens sails furled, a kraken-prowed corpse of a ship and gloomy as a menhir. And as for Lathi: her wispy
Chrysalis
could scarce be considered a threat — certainly not to the practised gunners of a warship of Serannian! Cannon-shot would pass right through her, aye, but a fire-rocket would burn
her
to a crisp. So much we'd learned in the war of the Mad Moon.

'I increased patrols over suspect areas, issued harsh punitive instructions, incurred heavier losses. And I began to lose patience and a deal of complacency. Obviously the problem was greater than I'd suspected; nor could I retaliate until I knew my enemy and his base of operations; patently I must now employ as much cunning as that unknown enemy himself. But then, some real information at last!

'But first ... have you heard of Gytherik

Kuranes raised a questioning eyebrow to peer keenly at de Marigny. 'No? Well, I'm not surprised; you've been away for quite some time and he's fairly new on the scene; and something of a novelty to boot. He's a lad from Nir and commands a singular power a power over nightgaunts! In fact he's dreamland's first gaunt-master, with the freedom of all the skies of dream.'

De Marigny curled his lip in disgust and drew back aghast. 'What a menace!' he said.

'Eh?' Kuranes looked puzzled for a moment, then shook his head. 'No, no, you misunderstand: I myself conferred his freedom of the skies. What's more, his grim won medals in the battle for the Bay of Serannian!'

'Grim?'

'Collective noun for a gathering of the rubbery horrors,' Kuranes explained.

'Very appropriate, too!' said de Marigny, making. no effort to hide his astonishment. He shook his head. 'Things have really changed. I mean, am I to believe in beneficent gaunts?'

'It depends who's controlling them,' Kuranes answered. 'But you're perfectly correct: old fears and legends die hard, and gaunts have a very bad reputation. Even now there's a saying in the dreamlands: that the only good punt's a dead 'un! Except Gytherik's grim would seem to be the odd-grim-out, the exception that proves the rule. Anyway, back to my tale:

'I was in Serannian pondering my next move, when who should drop in on me but Gytherik and a handful of his gaunts. It was somewhat into the morning and the gaunts were looking a bit grim if you'll excuse the pun — and not 'alone from the sunlight, which they don't much care for at the. best of times. Two of them at least had jagged tears in their rubbery hides and limbs, which seeped a bit so that Gytherik had to tend them. Afterwards, I put them up (or down) in a dungeon for their comfort while we talked.

It came out how he'd been to the mountain Ngranek,letting his gaunts do some socializing there; you know how night-gaunts guard or haunt the entranceways to dream-land's underworld, and, how there's one such gateway under Ngranek? Yes - well, the lad's solicitous of the beasts in his charge, you see. Anyway, on his way back to the mainnland, flying on the back of a huge brute of a gaunt and with the rest of the grim all about him, he spied below the lights of a merchantman out of Serannian on course for the Isle of Oriab. She was venting flotation essence and settling to the sea for the second half of her trip; Baharna, Oriab's chief port, being a pretty perpendicular place, hasn't much in the way of level mooring for sky-ships, which are obliged to use the harbour like purely mundane vessels. So there she was, this ship, settling down to the sea, when out of the sky like vultures fell three black galleys in a spiral, closing her in!

`Gytherik sent his gaunts winging down through the night to see what the matter was; and there in the darkness he saw these three black ships, showing never a light, set upon the unsuspecting merchantman and pound her to match; wood! Pirates they were, beyond a doubt, who swarmed aboard the doomed, foundering vessel in a trice, putting
^.
down all but the Captain and several paying passengers, whom they took off from the sinking ship. As for the crew of that stricken vessel: horrible! There were guttings hangings and plank-walkings; until Gytherik, watching from on high, was sick from the vileness of it all.

`Now the gaunt-master was just one man, more properly a youth, and unarmed. Likewise his gaunts: they had only their paws to fight with and their wings with which to buffet. Nevertheless he set the grim to diving into the rigging of the black ships and doing whatever damage they could Alas, the pirates were ready for Gytherik, for they had seal his grim flitting against the disc of the moon. Now that's a strange thing in itself — the
preparedness
of these black buccaneers for the likes of Gytherik and his gaunts — which I'll get to in a minute. Anyway, seeing what he was about, the pirates dragged out hurling devices from under tarpaulins, loading them with tangles of netting armed with razor-sharp barbed hooks! And as the grim swooped at tore at the topmost sails and rigging of the black galleys so these weird ballistae were fired up into the night. Hooked, maimed, net-entangled, many a gaunt fell into the sea and drowned, victims of the first salvo; others were slashed by hooks, or had the membraneous webs of thee wings pierced; so that Gytherik feared he'd soon lose the entire grim.

`Naturally he quickly stood off — there was little more he could do — and there under the moon and stars the pirates hailed him, calling:

`Hey, gaunt-master! You, Gytherik! Let this be a lesson! You're not alone in your freedom of the skies. Let it be known that henceforth Gudge the pirate claims sovereignty Over the sea between Oriab and the mainland, also Over the skies and shores and hinterlands of Zura and Thalarion!'

'And they set up a great concerted shouting: "Gudge —Gudge — Gudge the Merciless!"

And out from his cabin on one of those barbarous black vessels came the leader of that
,
terrible band: Gudge
himself
!

'It was dark, remember — the dead of night — and Gytherik wasn't able to see as well as he'd like. Also, his viewpoint was aerial: he looked down on things from on high. But still it seemed to him that these pirates were a queer bunch. There was that in their voices which he couldn't quite place: a nasal, guttural quality, if "quality" is the right word. Also, they all wore turbans or tricorns — to a man, that is — and seemed uniformly short or squat for the barrel-chested, bow-legged brigands you might expect. Still, they did carry cutlasses, and some had eye-patches, and all were attired in gaudy rags and striped pants and so on; so what else could they be but pirates?

'But if the motley crews of the black ships were a bitstrange, what of their pirate chief? For in answer to the call of his bully-boys he'd fired a brand and tossed it aboardthe doomed merchantman; and in the bright glare of that burning vessel, at last Gytherik should be able to get a good look at him. So thought the gaunt-master, but —

'Gudge, whoever he is, was covered head to toe, cowled too, in such voluminous, bulging, billowing robes that Gytheric caught never a glimpse of his actual form or features; and the monster might as well be dumb, too, for all he uttered by way of words or sounds whexe he stood on the deck of his black command vessel, adored by his terrible crew. And not once did he lift his cowled face to the skies where Gytherik flew; so that the gaunt-master supposed he'd seen and learned all that he might of these
pirates and their master at this time; and so, being concerned over his much-depleted grim, that handful of sorely wounded gaunts which remained to him, finally he turned away and limped for Serannian. Which was how he came to me in the morning of the next day.

'But to go back a bit: there's this matter of the pirates expecting or anticipating a gaunt-attack, and their knowing the gaunt-master's name and reputation. Now Gytherik was a veteran and hero of the wars against Zura and the . Mad Moon, where he'd used his gaunts to great advantage. Aye, for then there'd been little in the way of defence against gaunt tactics. Also, he'd worked for me, right alongside Hero and Eldin; so maybe these pirates had expected
me
to send him out on patrol. If so, did that give me a clue as to who they might be? Had they perhaps experienced his sort of warfare before? Well, I have my suspicions but I'll keep them to myself for now; but be sure I'd dearly love to know who or what - it is that keeps itself hidden in that voluminous robe and under that cowl, and sinks the fair ships of dreamland and murders their: crews for no sane reason that I can see. For this is the hell of it:

'In all Gytherik told me he never mentioned seeing those dogs take any booty; but he
did
see them cutting down the bodies of those they'd hanged, and gathering the lifeless corpses of those they'd gutted!' And here Kuranes paused and shuddered, and pushed away the plate of cold meat that one of his retainers had placed before hint

`Now,' he eventually continued, 'I thanked Gytheri for his invaluable information and gave him the run my place until his gaunts were well enough to fly; and in the course of a few days off he went again, bent on recruiting more gaunts to strengthen his grim. For there was little he could do with such a sorry bunch as he now commanded But he swore he'd be back as soon as he'd beefed up his band a bit.

And meanwhile ... meanwhile I'd sent out messengers into all parts of the dreamlands to find and bring back to me Hero and Eldin, my agents extraordinary!

'They were found prospecting in the Great Bleak Mountains grimy as gargoyles and loaded down with their own weight in "simpleton's sapphires" - that is to say a great pile of blue stones, sapphires that weren't Like "fool's gold", you know? They'd been digging them up for
weeks
apparently!' Kuranes grinned despite his sombre mood and shook his head. 'How does a man weigh up two such as these?' he asked of no one in particular.

'Anyway, they were penniless, lean and hungry - and 'completely demoralized that they'd been shovelling pretty pebbles and not fabulous gems - and so ripe for a real quest. So they shipped back to Serannian where I dined them royally for a week, promising them their own sky-yacht and a house by the harbour with a white-walled courtyard, if only -'

'If only they'd go into the badlands along the eastern coast and seek out the lair of the pirates!' de Marigny finished the tale for him.

Kuranes nodded. 'Correct. So they fitted themselves up with a fancy wardrobe: eye-patches, a moppish great wig for Hero (Eldin shaved his head shiny bald!), black leather belts and notched cutlasses, calf-boots to tuck their striped pants into and the like, and off they went one night aboard one of Serannian's galleys, all painted black for this one trip. They were dropped this side of Zura the land, where the Southem Sea meets a craggy shore, and that's the last I've heard of them till now.'

Marigny pursed his lips. 'And now they're captives of Gudge, doomed to die at dawn, and the night already two-t
hirds
flown.'

'Dead men, aye,' Kuranes gloomily replied. 'Unless you can find them in time and get them out!'

'Right,' said de Marigny. 'Then here's what I'd like you
to do for me - and it must be done swiftly, so that I can be on my way in less than an hour. First - '

`We,' Moreen cut him off, sweetly but surely.

`Eh?' said de Marigny and Kuranes together.

`So that "we" can be on "our" way,' she repeated. 'You don't think I'm going to let you go off adventuring in the dreamlands on your own, do you, Henri? oh 1 know: you're "The Searcher", not I. But if I were to lose you ... should I, too, spend the rest of my life searching And there was that in her voice which told him there'd be little to gain from arguing ...

Hero, thinking back on precisely those things Kuranes had related to Moreen and de Marigny, had recalled one certain ludicrous aspect of his and Eldin's 'kitting-up': the choosing of their piratical wardrobes and props. 'Madness!' he sighed now, shaking his head weakly, suspended on his
.
cross over that black pit that went down to dreamland's core.

Eldin had been quiet for some little time, lost in his own thoughts, but now he dragged his head round to peer at Hero through the gloom. 'Eh? What is?' he rumbled, his voice echoing. 'Are you finally admitting it was madness to accept this damned quest in the first place? If so I wholeheartedly agree - you should never have taken it on!'

`We
took it on,' Hero reminded. 'I clearly recall you drooling over Kuranes' promise of a sky-yacht. "We'll sail off to Oriab," you said, "and look up Ula and Una. we'll drop anchor on some jewel isle and spend a whole month just fishing and fondling." That's what you said.'

'And you were all for lazing in the sun in your own courtyard,' Eldin countered. ' "I'll sit on the wall with a spyglass," you said, "and watch the ships rising out of Celephais to where the sea meets the sky. And I'll spy down on all the pretty girls in the gardens of the villages along the coast." That's what
you
said - lecherous little devil!'

'The specific madness I refer to,' said Hero, 'is the business of the pigeon.'

Eldin gave a groan. 'Not
that again!'

'See,' Hero growled, 'pirates have parrots, not pigeons. And certainly not pink pigeons! That was a dead giveaway. I mean, fancy tying a damn pigeon to your shoulder, and squawking "pieces of eight" out the corner of your mouth every five minutes! Madness not to mention messy!'

'But it came in handy in the end, you have to admit,' Eldin justified the thing. 'Before they tied us on these crosses we managed to get a note off to old Atal. By now all Ulthar will know the pickle we're in.'

'Fat lot of good that will do us,' Hero was quieter now. 'Like screaming after you fall off a mountain. Different if had another two or three days ...

'Eldin knew what he meant pigeons are pretty speedy creatures, but sky-ships and
rescue
missions take a lot longer. 'Gytherik and his punts could manage it,' he said, with something of desperation beginning to show in his gruff voice.

Hero grunted. 'If we had some bacon,' he shrewdly replied, 'we could have bacon and eggs - if we had some eggs'

'Eh?'

'It's wishful thinking, old lad,' the younger quester explained. 'Hoping that Gytherik'll be along, I mean. But you're right anyway: remote as the chance is, still it looks like the only one that's left to us ...'