Encante (3 page)

“Drusilla is my nephew’s half-sister,” Captain Everett continued, “although truth be told I’ve never allowed the lack of blood between us to change how she’s treated. You will like Axel, I think; he is fond of maps.”

“Go back to your dookin, woman!” Garrett’s voice echoed suddenly through the cavernous room and the sound of flesh connecting heavily with flesh soon followed. A wry smile lit the captain’s face. Appalled, I made to go to Drusilla’s aid, but he only laughed heartily at my folly.

“You needn’t worry on that count, Mister Escher; ‘twas Drusilla doing the slapping, you mark my words.”

Chapter Four

A
fter the echoing room into which I had arrived, I was surprised by the cramped conditions of the corridors without. Of the same metal construct as the hydroponics area, pipes of varying widths ran the length of the walls and ceilings of each corridor, even occasionally the floor, spouting steam at odd intervals, and apparently controlled by a system of levers and wheels at each junction. The ship was like nothing I had ever seen before, the mechanics necessary to keep it running evidently being so complex it was almost as if the engine room extended throughout the entire ship.

Occasionally, a wall included a window, running between shoulder and waist height. Beyond was the same jaded water I’d seen earlier, the same eerie shadows darting amongst the plant life, the same small, apparently plankton-eating fish. I noted every detail to myself as we passed, struggling to recall it all now that my notebooks were a sodden paper mulch within my coat’s inner pockets. I patted at my garret absently, ensuring my compass was still where I’d safely stowed it, and that I could return home whenever I chose.

I was swiftly lost to the labyrinthine innards of the vessel, but Captain Everett and Newt kept up a steady flow of conversation, none of which told me what I really wanted to know: which world was I on, and why was a woman such as Drusilla aboard a men’s vessel such as this?

“So your primary purpose is one of scientific inquiry?” I deduced after a lengthy explanation from Newt as to how he came to meet the captain.

“Indeed.” Newt nodded slowly. “In fact, you’ve come aboard at a most opportune time, most opportune. Or unfortunate,”—he laughed nervously—“depending on your stance on such matters.” I glanced at Everett for an explanation, only to find him laughing that booming laugh once more.

“We have embarked upon a great adventure,” he said. “Although, not one without considerable peril.”

“Peril?” I was genuinely surprised. “I would have thought with ladies aboard you would be doing nothing beyond a leisure cruise.”

He laughed again. “What boring women you must know, Escher.” His eyes sparkled. “Ours are not so easily cowed.”

“So I saw.” I thought again of Drusilla, her manner and dress, the way in which she’d punished Garrett for his thoughtless treatment of Vee. Then I thought of my dear Cecelie, sitting at home awaiting my return. It must be the turn of a new day there by now; she’d be at her window seat with her needle and thread, deftly working on one of her pieces. “In truth I cannot imagine many women of my home world aboard a vessel such as this. Although—” I paused, considering. “There are several amongst the Loth Lörion who fare as well as any man.”

A shiver of unease skittered through me at the mention of my order. There was little point in refraining from mentioning it, since he had already deduced my origins on his own. Still, speaking of the Lörion so freely left me uncomfortable, to say the least. There was no official connection between the order and the rebellion, but we were children of The Eldars, one and all, and the Kabbalah had brought The Eldars to their knees for even thinking of rising against them. The Harlequin had slaughtered them, wiped them from existence, all in a single day.

“You’re a native of Howl?” the captain asked. “Or did your studies draw you to the only surviving remnants of those once-great minds?”

“No, I was born there.”

“Howl is a word of riches,” the captain observed, “opulence the likes of which few ever see, no matter where they are in all the Fifteen Solars. Yet you choose to leave it, and for destinations unknown, no less. We are not so different, I think: you journey here for adventure and exploration, we do the same.”

“And where exactly is here?” I ventured. Everett blinked in confusion. “Forgive me, Captain, but I’m afraid I have no idea which world I’m on.”

Newt made an indiscernible sound, which I took for amazement. “You are truly so ignorant as to where you will be sent?” he asked. When I nodded a look of something akin to respect flashed through the captain’s eyes.

“You’re on Idele, boy. Are you familiar with Edolas?”

I nodded. “Yes, I’ve spent time in both Alena City and Typher. I once found myself in Persimmon also, although that particular adventure didn’t go quite according to plan.”

Everett snorted. “No, I imagine it did not. The Kabbalah have a tight hold on this world, boy. Rowain, and the Rose Isles in particular, you would do well to stay away from. I would caution anyone so, but for you, with your allegiences . . . stumbling upon the wrong people would cost you your life. You are lucky you happened upon us. The Kabbalah owns Idele.”

“As they do all the worlds, sir.” I fed him the party line. I did not yet trust these people enough to let them know how far resistance had truly spread. That was my job, after all, the very reason for my sojourns; I did not take these trips for pleasure, but to spread the efforts of the Loth Lörion as far as possible. The Eldars may have died speaking out against the Kabbalah, but their ideas had not perished.

Oswald Deryn was a hero among my people, one who went unacknowledged, out of a need to keep our true alliances hidden. I spent much of my life keeping things hidden, a necessity I had long since grown tired of. That was, I suppose, why Cecelie was so appealing: her father led my chapter of the Lörion, and she knew a little of the truth.

“And the peril of which you spoke?” I asked, snapping my attention back to my present situation. I was curious about these people. A curiosity born of far more than a desire to understand who or what the strange girl I had seen on arrival was. Now it was cultivated by the need to understand why they abhorred the Kabbalah so fiercely . . . and so openly. What was it that caused them to believe the Harlequin might be sent to retrieve them? Had that been a joke? I thought not. Aside from the fact it would have been extraordinarily poor taste, something in the captain’s eyes had told me that, despite him laughing it off, it was not an unreasonable fear. And if Captain Everett opposed the Kabbalah . . .

“We’ve taken on as much air as we can hold, sir,” Everett said. “I mean to swim us to the very depths of this ocean, to the very limits of our capabilities.”

“To what end?” I asked, only vaguely concerned; I had my compass after all, and if trouble came I could leave easily enough.

“To seek another world, Escher, a Hollow World—a world within our own. Somewhere at the bottom of this ocean is a pathway into another, an ancient sea belonging to a shore within the very core of the earth itself. I mean to find that shore, and be the first to set foot upon it in over a millennium.”

The notion was instantly intriguing. A world within a world. How many of my kind could say they found two new worlds with only one turn of the compass? But then . . .

“Surely if such a world existed, we would know of it. The portals—”

“The portals are not infallible. Your own would have drowned you today had Vee not happened upon you. And I believe there is something about this ocean that stops them from working, keeps people out.” He stopped in his meandering tour of the ship’s corridors, clasped my shoulder and stared at me for a long moment. “I do not believe the Kabbalah can reach this place.”

“The Kabbalah possess infinitely more resources than—”

“The Kabbalah possess
time
. That is the only resource in their possession which is infinite, and it is not truly theirs. Were the Horae not ensconced in the Clock Tower on Sinfin, all people, from all worlds in the Fifteen Solars, would be free to travel from one universe to the next, one world to the next. No, my friend, they are not all-powerful, they were simply cunning enough to trap the gods.”

“Goddesses,” I corrected. “The Horae are goddesses.”

Everett frowned, although whether it was at his error or the fact I had corrected it I could not tell. I was prevented from reading his expression further as a pipe on the wall beside me hissed suddenly and expelled a cloud of wet steam. I turned my head away, coughing and spluttering, alarmed at how deeply I felt my chest rattle, only to find myself staring out through one of the windows into the strange water tanks that seemed a part of the ship itself. One of the aquatic people was visible in a tangle of curling reeds, a heavy mechanical tail like Vee’s affixed to his human-like legs. I didn’t recognize him, although I was struck once more at the oddness of their nudity, though perhaps their species had no sense of shame. This one was bald of head, with fins running in triplicate down each side of his face and adjoining beneath his chin. As I watched, he used a large curved blade to reap armfuls of the reeds and deposit them in a net, towed behind him by his tail.

“Agriculture,” I remarked, more to myself than anyone else.

“Oh, yes.” Newt nodded happily. “The Narwhal is entirely self-sufficient; we have to be, for fresh supplies soon spoil. We wouldn’t last overly long without Franklin’s efforts in the hydroponics laboratory.”

I snorted. “Franklin being the exceptionally savoury gentleman I met upon my arrival?”

“He has his uses.” Everett shrugged as if it were no matter. “We can’t all be born of class. Those who aren’t must still have a purpose in life, or else what is their life for?” Something about the captain’s face as he spoke made me uncomfortable, although perhaps it was merely the odd light reflecting from the underwater fields. His words also reminded me of some of Cecelie’s less than enlightened notions, notions I feared had been instilled in her by her father’s consort; I despised Philomena, for more reasons than I could count.

“The Narwhal?” I asked, changing the subject. “The name of your vessel? I should very much like to learn more about her, if you have no objection, Captain.”

“None at all, my good man. I’m sure Newt here can answer all your questions.” As if sensing my reluctance he shook his head. “Then again, I am forgetting my nephew; he’ll be delighted at the prospect of having you aboard. Axel will show you around, I’m sure.” He took in my dishevelled, dripping, and still-shivering appearance. “He’ll have some clothes that ought fit you too, and I’ll have Teddy fix you up a tonic to keep any ills away.”

“That would be much appreciated.”

“You’ll be feeling right at home in no time.” A look passed between Newt and Everett then, a flicker of a glance.

And I had no idea what it meant.

Chapter Five

I
was grateful for the fresh clothes Axel gave me, and to Teddy, the ship’s pleasant but ageing doctor, whose potion certainly banished the rattle I’d been starting to feel in my chest.

“That should see you right, Mister Escher.” Teddy smiled at me through a thinning moustache of wispy silver, handing me a square bottle of clouded glass with a fat green cork securing the opening. “This is a follow-up treatment—be sure to take it. I’ve known sailors go to their graves thinking the first is enough, for they feel fine. You
must take the follow-up
, understand?”

I nodded. “Yessir, I thank you.”

“It’s not often we have sailors go overboard on the Narwhal, submerged as it is, but when they do it tends to be bad. We’re fortunate the encante are capable of aiding us as they do, or we’d have lost a lot more over the years. It’s not just the water you see, Mister Escher, although the cold of it alone is enough at these depths, it’s the
pressure
, you understand?” He glanced at me to check I was listening. I was peering curiously into the bottle at the liquid within. Despite the fact I was holding it perfectly still in my hand, I could swear it was moving. “Pressure can kill a man.”

“I understand. I’ve been aboard airships before, sir. You have to be careful aboard those too, although in that case for altitude, rather than depth.”

“Indeed. It’s easy to run out of air on adventures such as these, and a lot faster than you think.”

He was fixing me with an intense stare, and I had the odd feeling he was trying to tell me something beyond the obvious. “You said encante?” I asked. "Is that the name their species?”

“Indeed, they’re an elusive race, I’m not at all surprised you have yet to come across them. Also, call me Teddy. Everyone does.”

As if everyone had just heard him, a commotion suddenly reached my ears, doubtless as whoever was causing it reached our deck. Seconds later someone was screaming Teddy’s name, and before the old man even got to the door, a bustle of people burst through it. I caught a flash of Drusilla’s ebony hair and russet suit, and scolded myself for the thrill that passed through me at the sight of her. It was a delight quickly quelled, however, when I saw who accompanied her.

Two encante, neither of whom I recognised, and both of whom appeared far more human than the others I had so far seen, hurried in carrying the lax form of a third member of the strange mer-folk. A tangle of thick, human-flesh-coloured tentacles at first made me think of Vee, but it became apparent as they drew closer that this was a very different girl. It was not only her colouring that was different, but the composition of her human and fish-like qualities. Where her kin appeared to be fully merged combinations of humanoid and aquatic traits, she had the upper torso of a young woman, a delicate face, and a mass of mahogany hair as thick and luscious as any human. She appeared pale, waxen, and I had the sense this was as bad a sign on her as it would be on a human.