Kris was hit with a sudden jolt of inspiration. They’d raced here before Aklu’s people, so the gangster wouldn’t know how things had gone down. And so they’d misunderstood her explanation. Hardly surprising, given its unusual nature.
‘We don’t mean the Oumaru!’ she managed. ‘Rollo, be still. We don’t lay claim to that. We want our ship. When your people reclaimed your property, they grabbed the Vulture God to transport theirs. The Oumaru, it wasn’t going anywhere on its own, see? We just came to ask, to very respectfully ask . . . When The Unspeakable Aklu has reclaimed its ark, property, whatever . . . might we have, maybe, our own ship back?’ She bit down on any further pleading and waited, body still taut as a wire.
Rollo had called the Essiel a barnacle, but nobody seemed to be shouting about that. Possibly it had been translated as something more complimentary. And she hadn’t mentioned Barney or Medvig, who couldn’t just be returned peaceably to them. However, right now, coming out of this alive themselves seemed a long shot.
The Unspeakable’s arms waved as though in a breeze that touched nothing else, and its eyes popped up and down. Its Hiver mouthpiece was still, balanced perfectly on one foot, the other drawn up mid-pose and their fan of arms motionless. Kris guessed that it was plugged into Tarekuma’s kybernet, sending out enquires to confirm her story. Then the Hiver jolted back into motion, saying, ‘You carry in your hearts the go-between, who stands between destroyer and destroyed . . .’ Which could only mean Idris, the Intermediary. Kris wondered if she was starting to get the hang of this. The arms waved again, hypnotically.
‘What once the gods have seized on, none may claim, and yet divine benevolence is such that all who kneel devoutly at their feet, and hold the cup of charity aloft, may live in expectation of reward,’ the Hiver pronounced. Abruptly Heremon had stepped back, and the goons were allowing Rollo to stand again.
‘What, my child?’ the captain growled softly. ‘What, frankly, the fuck, did any of that mean?’
And a silence stretched out, a cue for her to answer in some way. ‘I think,’ Kris replied very quietly, ‘they mean that they’ve got our ship, and so it’s theirs. But if we work for them, maybe we can have it back eventually? I think. And they were talking about Idris. So they want him for deep void diving?’
‘Is that all?’ She saw Rollo’s face twitch with all the rage he was holding back. ‘And my two dead children? Do we get them back too after we’ve bowed and scraped and done their filthy work . . .? Did they say that?’
‘Rollo—’
‘We become their lackeys and just forget they murdered our people, my daughter? And if we’re very, very good and kiss their shellfish ass they might just let me have my own damn ship back some day?’ All said with white-hot fury, and yet still in the merest whisper. Despite everything she was impressed that he was being so restrained.
Kris cast a glance towards the motionless Hiver and their floating master. She was all too aware of the expectant killers on every side. At the desks, the clerks continued with their work, diligently defrauding, counterfeiting or whatever their duties involved.
‘Say what you’ve got to say,’ Rollo ground out, and Kris took a deep breath.
‘We are of course honoured by your offer to serve the Unspeakable,’ she declared brightly. ‘We will take this to the rest of the crew immediately. Thank you for your munificence.’ Ordinarily, she’d have been overdoing it, but right now she was in the asylum of aggrandizement and no praise could be too much. She even bowed. If she was echoing a Scintillan fencer’s respect to an opponent, before somebody got cut up, nobody there was likely to recognize it.
‘Consider all you will,’ the Hiver said, ‘the vulture’s leash shall not be lightly shed. But we have faith that you shall come in all humility to pledge us service – and begin the path to restitution.’
Kris looked sidelong at Heremon and the heavies. She was seeking confirmation, from any of them, that they found this bizarre show even a little odd. She wanted to burst, like a child calling out a naked emperor. But there was not the slightest crack in their masks of respect. She felt as though she’d fallen through the wrong side of the mirror.
Two minutes later she and Rollo were on the street, hides miraculously intact save for the odd bruise. The captain’s expression was thunderous as she called the rest of the crew. Somehow Kris didn’t think a long and mutually profitable partnership with the Broken Harvest was on the cards.