Polymath Read Free Page A

whole ship sing, as though it were playing the organ at its own funeral. I hope I never hear anything so eerie again.”
    Lex and Aldric were silent for a moment, remembering not only the noise—which they would carry in mind until they died—but other things. Arbogast losing his temper when he realized what the sound was, and attempting to reach the ship in a ninety-mile gale with waves breaking over the hull. And railing against the fool who’d left the locks open, until it was worked out he must have done it himself, because he had been trying to persuade everyone to shelter aboard during the winter instead of trusting themselves to ramshackle huts of planking and piled dirt.
    “Why did we pick this place, anyway?” Aldric grumbled.
    “Reckon we’d have done better on high ground?” Cheffy countered.
    “No. No, probably not. Lex, what do you suppose has become of the others? Think they lived through the winter?”
    “Maybe. Don’t see why not, in fact.”
    “I don’t see why,” Aldric put in. “They haven’t contacted us since the storms gave over, have they?”
    “They could simply have lost their antennas,” Lex said. “Remember, they did at least have the ship’s hull for shelter. A gale could hardly have made that roll.”
    “So I hear,” Cheffy said. “Like a squashed egg! And wasn’t Arbogast pleased? Thinking he’d put down badly until he saw what the other captain had done. What’s his name—the other captain, I mean?”
    “Gomes,” Lex supplied, “Yes, the ship was badly cracked.”
    “And,” Aldric said, “they’ll have had subzero temperatures much longer than us. They’re probably iced solid, half buried in snow—at least the salt spray off the sea keptthat from happening to us. But there were chunks of ice in the river until two or three days ago.”
    “You don’t have to tell us,” Cheffy said. Trying to look over his shoulder, he lost control of the oars and had to fight to stay on his thwart. “Hah! I wan’t designed for traveling backward. How much farther?”
    “We’re past halfway,” Lex said.
    “I’ll row back to shore,” Aldric offered. “Who knows? The boat may be lighter on the return trip instead of heavier.”
    Something snapped at the port oar a second later, as though to underline the grimness of his humor. When the blade lifted again, it carried with it a writhing creature, wet-shiny pink in color, which had sunk its fangs in the wood of the blade.
    “Damned nuisance,” Cheffy said in a resigned voice. “Aldric, I told you these things ought to be made out of metal. Aluminum for choice. Hollow, too.”
    “When I get my electric furnaces rigged, I’ll let you know,” Aldric retorted. “Can you shake it off?”
    Cheffy shipped the starboard oar awkwardly, then put both hands to the other and flailed it around. The creature emitted a gush of yellow fluid that discolored the sea, but clung fast.
    “Turn the oar around,” Lex said, picking up his hatchet. With some difficulty Cheffy complied, and Lex knocked the beast flying. It had left puncture marks in the wood, deep as nailholes.
    “Having second thoughts about diving alone?” Aldric inquired.
    Lex shook his head. “Those teeth wouldn’t get through the suit fabric—though if there’s any strength in the jaws I could get a nasty pinch and a lasting bruise. But from the way it struck at the oar, I suspect that species preys on fishingbirds. Which reminds me!” He sat up straight, eyes searching the sky. “Where are they? This bay was full of them last fall!”
    “Perhaps they’re migrants,” Aldric offered. “We’ll probably see them back now the weather’s turned.”
    “Seen any landbirds?” Lex asked. “I saw a few yesterday.”
    “Me, I wouldn’t have noticed. Been too busy since the thaw. We can ask Bendle about that when we get back.” Aldric turned the tiller a little and peered past Cheffy.
    “Getting close now,” he reported. “Have the anchor ready,