Revenger 9780575090569 by Alastair Reynolds Read Free Book Online Page B

happens.’
    ‘Screamer?’ I asked.
    Just then there was a creak, a groan, as if the ship itself were suffering some spasm of indigestion. I tensed, as did Adrana, but only for as long as it took for us to realise that none of the others were concerned. In fact, the sound drew a murmur of celebration from them, with even Prozor lifting a tankard.
    ‘That didn’t take long,’ Trysil said, clenching a fist so that the muscles popped out along her arm.
    ‘You know the captain. When he wants to leave, we leave.’
    ‘Are we on sails now?’ Adrana asked.
    ‘Ions,’ Triglav said. ‘We’ll run the sails out when we’ve put some distance twixt us and Mazarile, but this close in there’s too much risk of puncturing them with space debris.’ He wiped a hand across his mouth. ‘Best go and earn my fee, hadn’t I? I don’t want that engine overheating before Hirtshal’s ready with the new sail.’ Then he nodded at Adrana and me. ‘Welcome aboard.’
    ‘Thank you,’ I said.
    They cleared away from the table, one after the other, until it was only Jusquerel left with Adrana and me. She kept on eating and drinking for at least a minute before saying anything. That was just her unhurried way, though, and I didn’t think there was anything in her manner meant to unsettle us.
    ‘You needn’t mind Prozor.’
    ‘She doesn’t seem to like us very much,’ Adrana said.
    ‘It’s not you. It’s what you are.’ Her jaw worked as she chewed. ‘Here. Have some more bread. Mattice was right: you both need feeding up.’
    ‘I don’t have much of an appetite,’ I said.
    ‘Space sickness,’ Jusquerel said. ‘If this is your first time up, it’s no wonder. We don’t run with a doctor on this ship, so if anyone fits that bill, I suppose it’s me.’ She fished into a pocket and came out with a little metal tin. She clacked it onto the magnetic table, slid it over to us like a deck of cards. ‘One a day should see you straight, but take two if you need to. My guess is you’ll be fine by the time we hit the bauble.’
    I took the tin. It was pretty, with a machine- engraved pattern of interlocking birds, and I wondered if it had come from one of the earlier Occupations.
    It was often difficult to tell if things were a hundred years old, or a hundred thousand.
    ‘Do we owe you anything?’ Adrana asked.
    ‘Do well by the bones,’ Jusquerel said, ‘and that’ll be payment enough for me.’
    ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘How long will it be, until we get to the bauble?’
    ‘I can’t tell you,’ she answered, drawling out her answer as if some mainspring or regulator in her head ran a little off synchronisation with the rest of us.
    ‘Can’t or won’t?’ I asked.
    ‘Can’t. None of us know, except Cap’n Rack and maybe Cazaray. That’s how it works. If one of us knew which bauble we were headed to and squawked that information to another crew . . . or even just blabbed about it without thinking – that could ruin us. So the Cap’n tells us to expect a voyage of at least a certain number of weeks or months, and we make sure we’ve provisions for that sort of trip. Hirtshal sets the sails, but even Hirtshal doesn’t know how far out or for how long we’re going – not until the Cap’n gives another order, and we steer or haul in.’
    ‘You said Cazaray,’ I replied.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Why would he know?’
    ‘The only way secrets come in and off this ship – other than sealed papers in the Cap’n’s pocket – is through the Bone Reader. There’s no way for the Bone Reader not to know anything important about a sunjammer – and if you try to hide it from them, they’ll find out anyway.’
    ‘So Bone Reader’s quite an important position,’ Adrana said. ‘But they also have to be someone quite young, or they can’t work with the bones.’
    ‘Yes,’ Jusquerel. ‘Young. Often the youngest of any of us. But gifted with the Cap’n’s secrets and the Cap’n’s ear.’ She gave a barely