Nigma (The Waifs of Duldred Book 3) Read online

  ‘Get in with the dog and watch for changes,’ said Rigaw. ‘I’ll drive.’

  ‘Capun, the mess.’

  ‘We haven’t got time for that. Get in. I want to be back in my own bed tomorrow with the husbind medal pinned to my nightshirt.’

  3 Dead Water

  The Offel Canal ran in a square cut channel. It was dim and sluggish; neither fish nor weed could live in it. Meat was trafficked up and down it. The crews ate their share of the cargo and threw the bones overboard. Osserdiles fed on the waste and anything else that fell into the water, live or dead.

  The waifs watched the waterway. Even from a distance it looked nasty. ‘You needn’t think I’ll be going in there,’ said Lil.

  ‘We’ve got to cross it somehow,’ said Alas. ‘It’s only water.’

  ‘Water with a terrible dreary song. No swirl or swill, or stream of weed, or bubble rise, or fish glide. That water is all but killed.’

  ‘All that matters is it holds us up when we swim,’ said Alas.

  ‘I don’t swim,’ said Lil.

  ‘Don’t or can’t?’

  ‘Both.’

  Alas held his head. ‘It’s easy. You lie flat, kick your arms and legs, don’t tense and don’t struggle.’

  ‘I don’t swim,’ said Lil.

  ‘There must be bridges,’ said Oy.

  ‘Bridges mean people, and guards maybe,’ said Alas.

  Gritty went ahead to find food and a crossing place. Next day she returned. There was no food in the village of Buvakut. She had stolen some ox cake from the troughs that lined the canal. The nearest bridge was upstream at the town of Longwaide. It was not guarded, but it was busy by day. They might cross unseen in the dark.

  Rigaw and Skulp camped on the Longwaide bridge. They put out the bridge lamps and bound the bobo’s jaw. If the hareboy came near, the dog’s agitation would wake the Felluns without alerting the child. Rigaw bedded down underneath the wagon. Skulp lay next to the bobo.

  The men had not been asleep for long when the wagon began to rock.The hound was struggling to get up. Its head was too heavy but the rest of it frisked like an excited puppy.

  Felluns are heavy sleepers. They slept on. The bobo’s excitement grew till one great convulsion lifted its body clear of the cart. It crashed back and lay with its muzzle erupting foam into Skulp’s ear. Skulp stirred, sat up and banged on the bottom of the cart. ‘Capun, the dog’s on to something.’

  Rigaw crawled out from under the cart. ‘Calm it down will you.’

  Skulp lay on top of the dog to still its thrashing body. ‘Get off before you kill it,’ ordered Rigaw.

  ‘Sorry, Capun, I think I have,’ said Skulp. The squashed dog did not move. Rigaw blew in its face. His foul breath brought the animal round. It began to whine and snuffle. Rigaw piled fleeces over its head. The Felluns waited. It was a long wait. The dog had picked up Alas’s scent when the waifs were still far off. Rigaw told Skulp that he would kill him if either of them fell asleep. Every time Rigaw’s head fell forwards Skulp prodded him. As time went on Rigaw grew tireder and angrier.

  The fugitives walked along the towpath. They couldn’t see much beyond the pale smudges of boats but the smell was overpowering.

  ‘Bad meat, foul water and carnate,’ said Gritty. ‘Brings back the fort, don’t it Oy?’

  ‘There’s the bridge,’ said Lil.

  The pattern of boats on the water was broken by a band of darkness.

  ‘Slow down,’ said Alas. ‘It feels like there’s something blocking our way.’

  ‘There is,’ said Lil. ‘You.’

  ‘Alas has feelings like we have seeings,’ said Oy, gently.

  ‘Well seeings is what matters here,’ said Lil. ‘I can’t see any of you and you can’t see me, so no one can see us. I’m going on.’ Her flat tread moved away at speed.

  Gritty ran after her and grabbed her arm. ‘Lil, wait. We’ll lose each other.’

  ‘Get off me and hush,’ said Lil. ‘I hear something.’

  ‘Snuffling,’ said Gritty.

  ‘It’s a brock,’ Lil decided, setting off again.

  ‘Hang back, Gritty,’ said Alas.

  The waifs tailed Lil as far as the bridge. When Lil walked onto it they waited on the shore. It wasn’t long before they heard shouts.

  ‘Get out of my way. Let go of me.’ It was Lil’s withering voice.

  A torch flared. It showed a very wide man gripping a very tall woman from behind. They heard Lil’s roar. One Fellun pushed her towards another one who tried to stop her mouth.

  ‘She needs help,’ said Gritty.

  They ran onto the bridge. Lil had broken from the Felluns. Her siren cry was like lightning through the nerves. Rigaw and Skulp were floored. The waifs crouched and covered their ears. Rigaw’s horse dropped to its knees. Voices could be heard from nearby boats and deck lamps were lit, but there was nothing to be seen. Lil and the waifs had disappeared..

  The Felluns lay boneless and muddled like jellyfish in a net. Rigaw called for help.

  Crew came from nearby vessels. They slapped and kicked the horse until it stood. Rigaw tried to mount it but his legs would not obey him. When enough Felluns had gathered they lifted him and slotted him into the saddle. His wits were as uncertain as his legs. ‘Did she cross?’ he asked Skulp.

  ‘No, Capun. She went back the way she came.’

  Rigaw took a lamp and rode one way along the shore and then the other. Before long he returned to the bridge where Skulp waited with a crowd. Rigaw sent them away ordering some to return and guard the bridge in the morning.

  ‘Capun,’ said Skulp, ‘I thought we were hunting a boy.’

  ‘We are.’

  ‘Well that weren’t no boy. That was a Dresh.’

  ‘I know what it was. The boy was with her.’

  ‘How do you know, Capun?’

  ‘The hound was turning itself inside out.’ Rigaw shone the lamp on the bobo. ‘Look at its nose.’ The nose had changed colour. The tips of the fronds were flushed and washed in slime. ‘And I heard their scattery feet. There were two or three more, and they had no weight to them. The hareboy isn’t alone.’

  ‘Right, Capun. The nose is settling so they’re going away from us, south by the looks of it.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. The bridge is blocked. The osserdiles will have ’em if they try to swim. In the morning we’ll close in.’

  ‘Capun,’ said Skulp. ‘I’ve had a thought.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘The cart, it ain’t no good for a cross country chase.’

  ‘I know that. Now we’ve got a fresh scent we’ll get another horse and sniffers from Buvakut.’

  ‘When there’s a need, whether it’s action or thinking, you’re the man to do it, Capun,’ said Skulp.

  Rigaw nodded grimly.

  The waifs and Lil began the scramble back up to the hills when Alas called for them to stop. ‘This makes no sense,’ he said. ‘They’ll have the dogs on us first thing. We need to get across the water where it’s harder for them to follow. Lil, I got to say this, you keep on taking the straightest path and the only place we’ll be going is back to Fellund. If that’s what you want we’ll have to split here.’

  There was a deep and deeply offended silence.

  ‘That’s not what Alas wants, Lil,’ said Oy. ‘He knows we need you to see us through the Cracnazy.’

  Alas shrugged. Lil looked away.

  ‘No need for splitting; I’ve got an idea,’ said Gritty.

  Gritty had seen many boats moored overnight at Buvakut. She guessed it was the same every night and if they were lucky they might move from boat to boat and so get across to the far bank.

  They hurried towards Buvakut in the hour before dawn. Just as Gritty said, the water was so crowded that vessels bumped together. To begin with they were lucky. Every boat had a Fellun capun and every one of them was asleep. The chorus of snoring spread out across the water. They covered their faces against the carnate fum
es and trod softly on the hollow decks. They went from boat to boat till they were close to the opposite shore. Then there was a gap. Alas sized it and backed away for a run up.

  Oy held his arm. ‘It’s too far.’

  ‘I was about to do it. You shouldn’t have said it. Now I’ve got a doubt.’

  ‘He’s right, Alas,’ said Gritty. ‘I’m no coward, but I know what my body can and can’t do. Even with a better run up I’d drop short.’

  ‘Look,’ said Oy, pointing down. There was enough moonlight to see the osserdiles just below the water.

  ‘We’ll go further down the canal and try again,’ Alas decided. They began to retreat.

  ‘Want some help?’ said a voice. They looked around them. A boy came out from behind the mast house. Alas stepped forward ready to fight. The boy raised his hands palms out. ‘I’m one of you,’ he said.

  ‘He’s Chee,’ Oy whispered to Alas.

  ‘We surely do need help,’ said Gritty. ‘We’re trying to get across.’

  ‘Runaways with a Dresh,’ said the deck-boy. ‘That’s not common. I’d like to hear your story one day but I know you ain’t got time. We’d better get you across.’ He began unwinding rope from a coil which lay on the deck. He whistled and called softly. ‘Hey, Marlun.’ A boy appeared on the next boat. He caught the rope and tied it off.

  ‘Have you done this before?’ said Gritty.

  ‘We get runners crossing all the time,’ said the boy. ‘Since that last brawl at the fort our folk are turning. The Felluns are stretched trying to keep us down. Can you overhand a rope?’

  ‘Go across, hand over hand,’ said Gritty. ‘I can.’

  ‘I can,’ said Alas.

  ‘Little ’un?’ The boy questioned Oy.

  Oy looked uncertain.

  ‘Better be sure you can,’ said the boy. ‘The beasts down below ain’t forgiving. You’d be gone in one crunch.’

  Oy looked at the bumps on the surface of the water. He told himself it was just a pattern of light and dark. ‘I can do it,’ he said.

  The boy turned to Lil. ‘What about you, ma’am? I’m concerned about the length of you. You must keep your legs tight around the rope. Don’t let them drop or...’

  ‘I can see for myself,’ said Lil. ‘I will do it.’

  Gritty went first. She made it look easy. Oy went next. He reminded himself that he was going to fetch Linnet’s medicine. The sky had cleared and he could see the stars. He pictured himself moving from star to star and made it across. Lil attached herself to the rope with much grunting and grimacing. She hung there like a sagging hammock. ‘That’s it,’ said Gritty. ‘Now grip with your ankles and pull yourself hand over hand. You’re so long you’re already stretched half way across.’

  Lil exhaled loudly with each effort. She stopped in the middle and hung.

  ‘Come on, Lil. Three more pulls and you’re done,’ said Gritty.

  ‘Lady, you’d better move,’ said Marlun. ‘There’s a big ’un gathering itself right underneath your rump-end.’

  ‘Crude,’ said Lil, but she moved and didn’t stop again. Gritty, Oy and Marlun helped her onto the deck. Lil brushed every place that she had been touched.

  Alas shook the hand of the deck boy and moved quickly along the rope. After that they jumped from boat to boat reaching the other side in the time it took Rigaw to warm his creaking morning joints.

  The early light showed a stretch of spongy ground leading to a grey-brown mud pan. Beyond that were rocky slopes and cliffs. If they could reach the cliffs it would be harder for the Felluns to follow. They squelched on. Their footprints filled with water. Alas looked back often but there was no sign of Rigaw. The nearer they got to the pan the deeper and muddier it looked.

  The mud had set like a giant fingerprint. The furrows were puddled and sky reflecting. The humps had a grain and a soft gloss. It was a sucking, swallowing mud.

  ‘It’s like the sinking fields only bigger,’ said Oy.

  ‘It’s always the same,’ said Gritty. ‘You’re here and you want to be there and there is very near but there’s always something in the way.’

  ‘We could go round,’ said Oy.

  ‘There’s another stretch of mud running out as far as I can see,’ said Alas. ‘They must’ve started after us by now. There’s no time to go the long way.’

  They looked around for a solution. A little way out they could see a rotting boat. They balanced on rocks and sank sticks into the mud to test its depth. The mud gave and kept on giving. There was no bottom to it that they could find, here and there watery channels ran through it. Indifferent marsh birds stood around them. A young one all alone on a rock island sent out a distress call. ‘Even the bird’s got stuck,’ said Alas. ‘There’s nothing else for it. We go round.’

  ‘No,’ said Lil. ‘It’s too open.’ She took out her fork and began to hum.

  ‘Can someone explain to her that the mud’s got no bottom and there ain’t no cause for singing.’

  Oy stood between them. ‘We know you don’t like open ground, Lil, but there’s no other way.’

  Lil waved her fork. ‘Dresh know when a thing has a bottom,’ she said. ‘Find me a longer stick.’

  Gritty ran off. She bent and twisted a sapling. The young wood was hard to break. She called for Alas. He sawed through the fibres with his knife. Gritty presented it to Lil.

  Lil poked and delved in the mud. ‘Bottom,’ she said.

  ‘What about it?’ said Alas.

  ‘It’s got one. I’ll wade it.’

  ‘Looks awful dangerous to me,’ said Gritty. ‘What if you slip?’

  ‘My feet are big and sure,’ said Lil. ‘It comes from a life of standing.’

  ‘What about us?’ said Alas.

  ‘If the boat is sound I’ll bring it back and haul you down that water channel,’ said Lil.

  ‘If it’s water we can swim it,’ said Gritty.

  ‘No,’ said Alas quickly. ‘It feels bad.’

  ‘He’s right for once,’ said Lil. ‘I will know where water turns to mud. You won’t. All of you avert while I bundle my clothes.’ The waifs looked at her blankly. ‘Avert – turn around, don’t look.’ She shooed them aside. ‘And I’ll thank you to stay averted till I reach the other side.’

  The waifs faced the reeds. They heard the soft rustle of clothes and the scattered calls of the waders.

  ‘I’m in,’ said Lil.

  ‘What’s it like?’ said Gritty.

  Lil’s silence told her that it was a foolish question.

  ‘Good luck,’ said Oy.

  They listened as the steady squelching faded. Then they waited. After a period that seemed long, though it could have been short, Gritty began turning her eyes as far sideways as they would go without moving her head.

  ‘She said to avert,’ Oy warned.

  ‘She could be drowning or something,’ said Gritty. ‘We can’t just stand here averting.’

  ‘If she sees you turn she might not come back for us,’ said Oy.

  ‘I wouldn’t be too bothered,’ said Alas.

  ‘She knows what’s right for her and she sticks to it,’ said Gritty. ‘It’s just her way.’

  ‘And her way is sometimes wrong and then we all have to suffer,’ said Alas.

  ‘My ways are the right ways.’ Lil appeared as a head and shoulders suspended in brown slush. She waded up to them drawing the boat alongside her.

  Oy and Gritty praised her and scrambled into the boat with their bags and Lil’s clothes. Alas got in last.

  Progress was slow. It was difficult for Lil to keep her footing and pull the boat along. They had almost reached the middle when Oy spotted two men riding down the canal path.

  ‘It’s them!’ said Alas. ‘Can you go any faster, Lil?’

  Lil skidded sideways. ‘Don’t. Speak. To. Me.’

  Gritty shook her head at Alas. Lil began to move faster but only because the mud beneath her grew firmer.

  Rigaw and Skulp reached the edge o
f the mud pan just as Lil was hauling the boat out at the other side. She reminded the waifs that if they looked at her she would return them to the mud.

  The barking of sniffer dogs and Rigaw’s curses carried through the still air.

  ‘Rigaw’s man’s riding into the mud,’ said Oy.

  ‘Now he wishes he hadn’t,’ said Alas as the horse began to sink.

  ‘Rigaw’s thrown him a rope,’ said Oy.

  ‘We’d better get going before they start to ride around the edge,’ said Alas.

  ‘I am going to wash and dress,’ said Lil, ‘and I won’t be rushed.’

  She disappeared into the reeds. The waifs could hear splashing and a string of hums and yelps. When she came back her temper was foul.

  ‘Are you alright, Lil?’ said Gritty. ‘You sounded like you was in pain.’

  ‘I had to bend in two places,’ she said, ‘since he was watching,’ she pointed over the water, ‘and... ouch! I’m being eaten.’ She twisted, looking down the back of her calf.

  ‘Don’t bend any more,’ said Gritty. ‘I’ve got it.’

  ‘Get off,’ said Lil. ‘You’ll leave its mouth stuck to my leg. Wait while I loosen it.’ Lil hummed till the leech’s jaw went slack. ‘Now,’ she said.

  Gritty pulled, Lil yelped and the leech came away, leaving a thread of blood behind.

  ‘You did great, Lil, didn’t she, Alas?’ said Gritty.

  Alas grunted.

  Lil walked off at high speed, stiff as a pair of scissors. The waifs ran to keep up until Lil’s irritation faded and they fell into a steady pace.

  Ahead the sunlight brightened the cliff face. There were more bogs to cross but the water never rose above their ankles. The ground grew firmer under the matted grass and the final stretch was dry. With a last look back they began to climb.

  Rigaw and Skulp hauled the horse clear of the mud. The horse stood dejected. Rigaw scowled. ‘What are they doing over there?’

  Skulp squinted across the water. ‘As far as I can tell, Capun, one of ’em is taking a bath. Now ain’t that odd? What do we do now, Capun?’