33
Malva’s Journal

As I write these lines, Orpheus is struggling with Death. We have put him in Lei’s berth. With Finopico’s assistance she has made one of those potions which have already cured me. I had sheets boiled in sea water, and Lei soaked the fabric in a sticky ointment with an unpleasant smell. She used it to put a dressing on his wound. He lost consciousness. Oh, Holy Harmony, Holy Tranquillity …

Malva wiped her tears away, and went on:

… let him survive his injuries! If I had known the sufferings ahead when Catabea offered us her dreadful bargain I’d never have accepted her conditions.

We’re all worn out. I am worried about Lei. The sailors from Dunbraven knocked her about so badly that she has bruises on her arms and forehead. She’s so busy looking after others that she forgets to care for herself. The twins are badly shaken by their confrontation with the Archont. Just now they were showing off a little as they told the tale of how they bombarded him, but I could see that they were still trembling. Finopico, usually so talkative, isn’t saying anything. He’s entrenched himself in his galley, where he’s reading his books about fish! I suppose it’s his way of dealing with the shock. As for Babilas, it’s a mystery … what with all that’s happened, we’ve hardly had time to think about him, but one thing’s certain; he’s talking. The trouble is that he only speaks the language of Dunbraven now. He’s forgotten Galnician, though it was his mother tongue, and has adopted the language of the sailors whom he threw into the sea. It was his fianceé’s language as well … should we see this as a kind of cure?

Malva stopped writing and leaned over Zeph, who was stretched at her feet. She patted the St Bernard’s warm flanks. The animal’s company did her good.

‘You’re a hero too,’ she whispered to him. ‘I hear you bit one of those men stealing the Nokros.’

She sighed, and looked at the Killer of Time, which was now standing on the shelf in her cabin. As it fell, the hourglass had cracked. A little more and it would have broken … Malva shuddered to think that then their fate would have been irreversibly sealed.

The amount of morbic acid had already decreased a good deal. By the following evening there would be only five Stones of Life left, and just ten days to find the gates through which they could leave the Archipelago. She put her pen to paper again.

Our trials aren’t over, far from it. If Orpheus lives I think we shall hold out. But if he dies? I can’t imagine the rest of the voyage without him; without his vigour, his courage, his kindness and intelligence. I can’t bear to lose any more of those I love. In the face of these torments, even my dream of Elgolia gives me no strength. It’s all very well for me to shut my eyes when I lie on my bunk and conjure up the images of Mount Ur-Tha, the Bay of Dao-Boa and Lake Barath-Thor. But I can hardly manage to picture them now. It’s as if I have lost the power to dream.

When I saw the Archont so close to me just now, such terror came over me that Lei had to drag me away to shelter. Later, I was alone on deck watching the sail of his ship drifting away. Babilas had lashed the tiller of the Fabula on course, and we were sailing west. I felt calmer. Before I came down here again, I went to look once more, but night had fallen and I saw nothing. All I want is for the Archont to be thrown into the Immuration.

Malva felt cramp in her hand, and had to stop writing. She was nearly dead with fatigue anyway. Without even taking the trouble to fold the paper, she staggered to her bunk and let sleep overcome her.