City of Lies - Lian Tanner [75]
The air around the Piglet flickered. Cord grunted. Then he let go of Pounce and staggered to his feet. The movement seemed to make him dizzy. He leaned against the rail, holding his fists out in front of him.
“I’m gunna kill yez all,” he growled.
Smudge sat up, keeping a careful eye on Morg. Pounce rubbed his neck. Goldie heard a whisper of sound, and the cat brushed past her, its gaze as cold as the winter moon. The mice followed it, and formed a semicircle around Cord. Despite their small size, there was something pitiless about them, as if they had made a judgment and were there to see it carried out.
The air fizzed and swirled around them.
It’s a Big Lie, thought Goldie. Morg has summoned a Big Lie!
Above her head the slaughterbird’s wings kept up a steady rhythm. The clouds drifted lower, until they nearly touched the deck.
Cord drew in a sharp breath. “Oho, so it’s you, is it, Bungle?” he muttered. He jabbed at the clouds with his fists. “Come on, then. Come and get yer face rearranged.”
Bonnie’s voice breathed in Goldie’s ear. “Who’s he talking to?”
“I don’t know,” whispered Goldie. The air flickered again, and the clouds took on the outline of a man.
“You was always a weakling, Bungle,” said Cord. “Weak and slow.” He laughed. “Not like me.”
Smudge dragged himself to his feet, keeping well away from the cat and mice. “Cord? Whatcha doin’? Bungle’s dead. Ya slit ’is throat five years ago.”
Cord didn’t hear him. “Ya can’t fool me, Bungle,” he cried. “I see ya!” And he lashed out again with his fists.
Goldie stared at the cat and the mice. One of them must have asked a question. What was it? she wondered.
Frisia’s whisper came as sharp as salt spray in the back of her mind. When will this man pay for his crimes?
Goldie shivered. And the answer?
Now …
Suddenly Cord’s dizziness seemed to leave him. With all his old sureness, he jumped up onto the Piglet’s rail. He wrapped one arm around the rigging and threw his head back. “Ya think ya can git away from me?” he bellowed. “No one gits away from Cord. I’m comin’ after ya, Bungle!”
Smudge stared at him in alarm. “Whatcha doin’, Cord? Don’t forget the sharks! Cord? The sharks!”
But Cord did not hear him. He didn’t seem to hear anything, except perhaps the voice of a vengeful ghost in his head. With a fierce shout, he leaped overboard.
For a moment Goldie almost thought he might survive. He swam across the very tops of the waves, barely touching the water. There was no sign of the sharks.
But then he stopped, as if he had hit an invisible wall. The water around him boiled. He gave one single desperate cry.
And was gone.
No one moved for a long time. The Piglet drifted. The clouds frayed and blew away. Goldie thought she might cry, and then she thought she might laugh, and then she clamped her lips together and did her best to think nothing at all.
Toadspit’s face was blank; his arm was tight around Bonnie’s shoulders. Mouse crouched on the deck behind them, shivering, while his little pets cleaned his face and groomed his hair, trying to comfort him. Smudge stared at the horizon, his eyes wide with horror.
It was Pounce who jolted them out of their shock. He strolled to the rail and spat loudly into the water. “Good riddance to bad rubbish, that’s what I say. Hey, Smudge, any of them pastries left? I didn’t get no breakfast this mornin’.”
Smudge blinked at him. “Ya—ya can’t ’ave ’em. They’re Cord’s. He don’t like no one takin’ his stuff.”
“Don’t reckon he’ll be needin’ ’em,” said Pounce. He grinned at the cat, which was sitting beside the rail with a satisfied look on its face. “Don’t reckon he’ll be needin’ this boat, neither. I could sail up and down the Southern Archipelago and make me fortune. Cap’n Pounce. How does that sound?”
He tilted his head in a challenge and stared around the circle of faces. Slowly Goldie’s mind started working again. “It sounds fine,” she said, “as long as you take us home first.”
Pounce’s eyes narrowed. “It’ll cost ya.”
“We’ve already paid,” said Goldie. She nodded toward Mouse. The white-haired boy was