gone missing.’
Only then did Sal realise that the young seer hadn’t been on deck during the argument. Everyone but him.
‘We can’t leave until we’ve found him. Come and help me look. Everyone else is busy getting us underway.’
What the unnamed boneship lacked in sophistication, it more than made up for in size. The main cabin area was just one of several bulbous spaces nestled inside the bony hull. Most had been filled with gear the wardens had brought with them, including collapsible tents, food stores and all manner of cross-country equipment. Few such spaces were large enough for a person to stand upright; some measured barely a metre across.
‘We’re actually sailing the boat backwards, you know,’ Banner said as they moved aft, where the bony chambers joined to form cramped tunnels and dead-ended tubes. Sal was too big for most of them. ‘These used to be the hullfish’s sinus cavities.’
‘Great,’ said Shilly, her voice muffled. She had just wriggled headfirst into one of the smaller spaces. ‘I suppose it could be worse.’
‘Much worse,’ agreed Sal, thinking of the prow where Marmion perched. He didn’t want to know what part of the hullfish’s anatomy that corresponded to. ‘Tom?’ he called. ‘Are you about?’
A faint movement came from deep within a tunnel too narrow for him to squeeze into. He craned as far as he could and saw the hem of a blue robe peeking out from around a corner. ‘Tom? What are you doing down here? There’s no reason to hide.’
The hem pulled out of sight.
‘Come on. What are you frightened of? Is it something you’ve seen?’
The reply came in a tiny whisper. ‘I know he’s dead. I saw it.’
‘Who?’
‘Kemp.’
‘Is that what you’re worried about? Well, it’s okay now. I killed the snake. And Kemp is just injured.’
‘I could’ve warned him, but I didn’t. He died because of me.’
Sal retreated to tell Banner to go back and inform Marmion that Tom had been found. While the boneship’s journey resumed, Sal and Shilly would sort out what was bothering him.
‘Listen to me, Tom. No matter what you saw, Kemp isn’t dead. He’s sick, but he is still with us.’
‘No, he can’t be. He has to be dead. That’s the only way it’ll work.’
‘The only way what will work, Tom?’
No answer. Shilly elbowed Sal out of the way to wriggle into the opening and have a go.
‘Why don’t you come and see Kemp for yourself, if you don’t believe us?’
‘I know what I’ve seen.’
‘But so do we, Tom. And you can’t stay here forever. We’re casting off any second.’
The boneship moved beneath them at that moment, and Sal felt the slight hollowing in his stomach that came whenever they moved on the open water. The shouts of wardens came distantly through the bone walls.
‘We’re going forward,’ said Tom. It wasn’t a question.
‘Yes.’
‘Into the ice.’
‘If you say so. The mountains, anyway.’
Shilly pulled backwards out of the opening so suddenly that Sal couldn’t avoid being poked by her walking stick. She unfolded from the cramped space to reveal that Tom had decided to emerge as well. Long and thin — so long it amazed Sal that he had fitted into such a small space — with a shock of black hair and worried eyes, Tom shepherded them ahead of him until there was room in the hullfish’s sinus cavities for the three of them to crouch together.
‘Kemp is really alive?’ he asked, looking from Sal to Shilly and back again.
‘We wouldn’t lie to you about that,’ Sal said.
‘Will you tell us what you saw?’ Shilly asked him.
Tom sat heavily and put his head in his hands. ‘I saw the thing under the ice again,’ he said. ‘The dark, ancient thing. It’s stirring, getting stronger. The creature that attacked Kemp is frightened of it, like the man’kin and the golems — like everything in the world. I’m frightened of it too.’ He looked up and took Sal’s