Nix,Garth - Keys to the Kingdom 03 by Nix Garth

Author:Nix, Garth
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

Chapter Sixteen

No, no, she's not dead," replied Monckton. "But she has been pressed."

"Pressed!" Arthur exclaimed. "What do you mean? Like crushed?"

He couldn't believe it. Whipping was bad enough, but to be pressed flat

—

"No, no! Pressed, as in forcibly enlisted," said Monckton. "I was able to prove that she did not go aboard the Flying Mantis of her own free will, so she was not a stowaway. But she was not a passenger either, nor a distressed sailor. Ultimately the only thing she could be was one of the crew. So she was pressed into service as a ship's boy."

"Ship's girl," said Arthur.

"Ship's boy," said Monckton. "They're always called ship's boys, even when they're girls. There are plenty of both aboard the ships of the Border Sea. Though apart from your friend Leaf, they're all the Piper's children, of course, and therefore our brethren. We help one another, where we may."

"But what will happen to her?"

"It's a hard life, but the Mantis is a well-found ship and a fair one," said Longtayle. "Your friend might work her way up, become an officer, even captain her own ship in time. Mortals learn much faster than Denizens, so there's no knowing where she'll end up."

"But she won't want to be a ship's boy! She has to get home! She has a family and friends!"

"She signed the ship's articles," Longtayle reported. "There's no breaking them."

"Except by executive order from Drowned Wednesday," corrected Monckton.

"So I could release her once I get the Will to make me Master of the Border Sea," said Arthur. "Or Duke, or whatever it is."

Both Rats nodded in agreement. They didn't seem surprised that Arthur was planning to assume control over the Border Sea.

"I suppose Leaf will be safe enough on board the Mantis," Arthur said in a hopeful tone. She was probably better off than he was, being out of the trouble he was heading into, but still he wished he'd gotten to the Triangle earlier and could have helped Leaf get off the ship and go home.

I'll have to check, he thought. With the mirror and the shell…

"She'll be safer than most at sea, for the Mantis is a good ship, but there's always storm and wrack," said Monckton.

"And pirates," added Longtayle. "The Shiver has been sighted too often in recent times for my liking, not to mention some of Feverfew's lesser brethren, such as Captain Blooddreg of the Nightdream."

"That's why I'm here," said Arthur. "Kind of. I need to find Feverfew's secret harbor, and I need to go in there and get something. I must ask for your help."

"We are mercantile Rats," said Monckton. "That is to say, we do not do anything without payment of some kind."

"Do you actually know where Feverfew's harbor is?" Arthur asked. "Or

can you find out fairly quickly? I mean, there's no point talking about payment if you can't do anything."

"We think we know where it is," said Longtayle. "That is to say we have deduced its location from some evidence, but we have not actually been there ourselves.

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