The Bookman - Lavie Tidhar [73]
"Which is it?" Orphan said.
The boy-cook said, "None, or all of the above."
Orphan sighed. He was too tired for riddles, and he felt the last of his energy deserting him. He hardly noticed Aramis helping him stand, supporting him, and leading him at last to the hold, where the few survivors from the Nautilus were sat huddled together in what appeared to be a sort of enormous animal cage.
Orphan was only vaguely aware as Aramis opened the door and led him inside. He collapsed on a pile of straw.
The door closed behind Aramis, and the key turned in the lock.
The straw was soft. The pain in his face became a numbness. It was soft, dry, comfortable. He was the most comfortable he had ever been. His eyes were closed and he was floating in darkness, the motion of unseen waves lulling him to sleep, making him feel safe… He tried to stay awake for just a moment longer, to savour that feeling, to know that he was, for the moment, safe, and allowed the luxury of sleep.
Then sleep came, and he embraced it. For a long time no dreams came. When they did, at last, appear, they were full of Lucy.
TWENTY-FOUR
Wyvern
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd They slept on the abyss without a surge – The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave.
– Lord Byron, "Darkness"
They were sworn in with the coming of night. It was a full day since the Nautilus had been attacked and destroyed. Lying in the cage in the hull of the ship (stinking of a thousand flavours of animal and spilled rum) Orphan thought about Verne and hoped that, somehow, he was still alive. He thought of the fat writer's corpse making its way down to the bottom of the ocean, and thought, He didn't deserve this.
But there were too many other things to occupy Orphan's mind, once sleep had fled and he waited down below with the others. It all came down to survival, now. He was a long way from the bookshop on Cecil Court, a long way from everything he knew. What did he know about ships, beyond their loading? He was surprised Spoons didn't just throw him overboard as he did with some of the others. But he was here. He was alive. Still.
And now, with the coming of night and a multitude of bright hard stars overheard like a pirate's hoard, he stood on the deck with the others, and Captain Wyvern, like a scaly monster from some long-forgotten fairy tale, his one eye glinting like a ruby in the lantern light, read them the pirates' oath.
His voice was clear and strong. He stood near the central mast, the boatswain on his right at a respectable distance, and he faced the captives the way a father would stand before his unruly children. The pirates of the Joker surrounded them in a circle. Their eyes glinted in the light. The air smelled of smoke and unwashed bodies.
Captain Wyvern spoke the words, and Orphan and the others repeated them, article by article. This was the pirates' oath:
Article One – Every man shall obey civil command; the captain shall have one full share and a half in all prizes. Each man of the company will have an equal share of all prizes.
Article Two – If any man shall offer to run away, or keep any secret from the company, he shall be marooned with one bottle of powder, one bottle of water, one small arm, and some shot.
Article Three – If any man shall steal any thing in the company, or game, to the value of a piece of eight, he shall be marooned or shot.
Article Four – If at any time we should meet at another marooner (that is, pirate) that man shall sign his articles without consent of our company, shall suffer such punishment as the captain and company shall think fit.
Article Five – That man that shall strike another, whilst these articles are in force, shall receive Moses's Law (that is forty stripes lacking one) on the bare back.
Article Six – That man that shall snap his arms, or smoke tobacco in the hold, without cap to his pipe, or carry