Revenger 9780575090569 by Alastair Reynolds Read Free Book Online

ain’t got much else to do. Other than that, you’ll be in the galley with the rest of us, singin’ songs, tellin’ stories, puttin’ on plays, readin’ fortunes, whatever passes the hours.’ She gave us a forbidding look. ‘Plenty of things scarce on a ship. Hours ain’t one of them.’
    ‘Are there books?’ I asked.
    ‘Books your thing, are they?’
    ‘Yes. It’s called reading.’
    Prozor sniffed, wrinkling her nose. She had sharp features: sharp nose, sharp chin, sharp dark eyes under jagged brows. She had a face that would look angry no matter her mood – all vees and angles, as if she had been sketched in a hurry, with hard strokes. Her hair was as sharp- looking as the rest of her, bristling out at all angles and stiffened into spikes and barbs by some kind of glue or lacquer.
    ‘Talk to Cap’n Rack. He’s always pleased to show off his library. More books in there than you’ll know how to read.’
    ‘I doubt that,’ I said.
    Prozor led us back through the ship. It might have been the way we had come, or some completely different route. It was hard to tell. She was pointing out different things all the while, grumpily unconcerned with how much we could take in at a time.
    ‘Near the middle now,’ she said, as we squeezed around an elbow in the passageway, still weightless. Adrana and I were moving by our fingertips and careful use of our feet, while Prozor darted forward with reckless speed, only to keep stopping and looking back at us as we caught up. She slid open a panel, ushered us through it.
    ‘Are you lost yet?’
    I nodded. ‘Yes.’
    ‘Good. Way we like it. Someone else comes aboard this ship, we don’t want ’em stumblin’ on the bones too easy.’
    We were at a grey door, armoured like an airlock, with a wheel- shaped locking mechanism. We’d passed a dozen similar doors already. ‘Put it here for other reasons, not just to make it hard to find,’ Prozor went on. ‘Needs to be somewhere quiet, not too close to the bridge or the galley or any of that stuff. Can’t be too close to the sail- control gear or the engine room, either. This is the prime spot, and you’re welcome to it.’
    ‘Do you ever go inside?’ Adrana asked.
    ‘Couldn’t pay me enough, girlie. I read baubles. That’s what I’m good at.’
    ‘You’re forgetting your talent for charm and hospitality,’ I said.
    ‘You think this is funny, what you’re getting into? Let me tell you about baubles. Readin’ baubles will drive you mad, but that’s only because it’s knotty and a lot depends on making the right interpretation. Lives. Quoins. Reputation. Readin’ skulls . . .’ Prozor trailed off with a sadistic little shudder, before adding: ‘I like my head as it is. Don’t need no alien ghosts rattling around inside it, givin’ me shivery dreams.’
    With the bone room dealt with, Prozor took us to a compartment full of clothing: cupboards, drawers and hoppers full of trousers, tunics, belts, gloves, all of it jumbled up with no rhyme or reason with regards to size or fit. ‘Find what suits you. Long dresses might look fancy on Mazarile, but here they’ll only trip you up.’
    Prozor wore trousers, leather slippers and a black blouse, with various items of tarnished jewellery rattling around her throat in the weightlessness.
    Adrana sifted through the musty, mould- spotted contents of one drawer. She pulled out a glove, jutting her finger through a hole.
    ‘Did a bullet do that?’
    Prozor examined it thoughtfully.
    ‘No, girlie, that’d be a rat.’
    ‘We’ll keep our dresses,’ Adrana said.
     
    The galley was up front, between the bridge and Captain Rackamore’s quarters. By the time we arrived, the other crew had gathered there to welcome us. Even though we were still weightless, they were all managing to sit on chairs around a large circular table that was patterned with black and white hexagons, with items of food and drink fixed onto it by some means. Two windows of similar size