The Merman on the deck beneath him stirred and muttered.
"Kid!" Twisp used the command tone that Brett remembered so well from their days at sea. He responded without thinking: "Sir?"
"You think we should move aboard the foil?"
Brett flashed a wide grin. "Yes, sir. It's bigger, faster, more mobile and more seaworthy. I certainly do think we should move aboard, sir."
"Scudi, can we get my coracles aboard of her?"
"The cargo hatch is plenty wide enough," she said, "and there's a winch."
"Brett," Twisp said, "you and Scudi start moving our gear aboard. Iz and I will just ask a few questions of this chunk of eelshit."
"If you want to help the kids," Bushka said, "I can handle this one alone." He nudged the Merman at his feet with a toe.
Twisp studied Bushka for a couple of blinks, noting the new tone of assurance in the man's voice. Anger crawled across Bushka's face now and it was directed at the captive.
"Find out what he was looking for," Twisp said. "What was he doing out here?"
Bushka nodded.
Twisp took his boat's bow line and tied it to a foil strut below the boarding ladder. They began shifting gear, moving presently to the tow coracle.
When both coracles were emptied, Twisp paused. He heard Brett and Scudi shifting gear aboard the foil. In the dozens of trips they'd made packing supplies, the two youngsters had touched, bumped against each other or brushed together as often as appeared discreetly possible. Twisp felt good just watching them. Nothing in the world ever felt as good as love, Twisp thought.
Below Twisp, Bushka sat back on his heels, glaring at the captive Merman.
"You getting anything from him?" Twisp asked.
"They've taken the Chief Justice."
"Shit," Twisp snapped. "Let's haul that tow coracle aboard. Keep at him."
Even with the winch, it was sweaty work getting the first coracle aboard. Scudi opened a cargo compartment aft of the loading hatch and the three of them wrestled the boat inside. They lashed it against cleats in the walls.
Scudi stepped out onto the loading deck, glanced behind her and stiffened. "You better come out and look," she said. She was pale as a sun-washed cloud.
Twisp hurried outside, followed by Brett.
Bushka stood over the bound Merman. The man was no longer lashed to the coracle's bow. The naked Merman had been pulled to a hanging position, hung by the wrists, bound up behind his shoulder blades. His dive suit lay in ragged pieces about the deck and his knees barely touched the floors. Bushka held a fish-knife in his right hand, its slender tip directed at the Merman's belly.
The muscles of the captive's arms stood out red but his thin drawn lips were white. His shoulders strained at their sockets. His penis was a shrunken stump of fear tucked against his pelvis.
"All right," Twisp demanded, "what's going on?"
"You wanted information," Bushka said. "I'm getting information. Trying out a few tricks Zent bragged about."
Twisp squatted in the opening, suppressing feelings of revulsion. "That so?" He kept his voice level.
When Bushka turned, Twisp realized that this was not the whining castaway he had jerked out of the sea. This one talked slow and even. He did not take his eyes off the target.
"He claims the kelp makes them immortal," Bushka said. "They have to be fed to the kelp when they die. I told him we'd burn him and keep the ashes."
"Take him off the cleat, Iz," Twisp said. "You shouldn't treat a man that way. Haul him aboard here."
A sullen expression flitted across Bushka's face and was gone. He turned and cut the captive down. The Merman flexed his arms behind his back, restoring circulation.
"He says the kelp keeps your identity, all your memories, everything," Bushka said.
Scudi pulled Brett close and whispered: "That may be possible."
Brett merely nodded, looking down at where Bushka had been torturing the captive. He found the thought of what Bushka had done revolting.
Sensing Brett's reaction, Scudi said: "Do you think Iz would really have killed and burned him?"
Brett swallowed in a dry throat. Honesty forced him to say: "I harpooned the guy in the foil."
"That was different! That one would've killed you. This one was tied and helpless."
"I don't know," Brett said.
"He scares me," Scudi said.
The foil lurched slightly, and again. Something uncoiled into the sea behind them.
"Net," Brett whispered. "Twisp cut it loose." And it broke his heart, he thought. Fish dying for nothing always breaks his heart.
A chill wind passed over them and they both looked up. Thin clouds had begun a drift in from the north and there was a light chop to the water where the kelp opened that strange lane. The lane still pointed them directly toward Vashon.
"I thought it was going to stay hot," Brett said.
"Wind's changed," Twisp said. "Let's get this boat aboard. Vashon might be in for a bad time after all."
They secured the boat, sealed the hatch and joined Scudi and Bushka in the pilot house. Scudi took the command chair, with Bushka standing to one side, flexing his fingers. Rage still seethed in Bushka's eyes.
"Iz," Twisp said, his voice low. "Would you really have cooked that Merman alive?"
"Every time I close my eyes, I see Guemes and Gallow." Bushka glanced aft where they had left the Merman secured. "I'd be awful sorry, I know, but ..." He shrugged.
"Not much of an answer."
"I think I'd burn him," Bushka said.
"That wouldn't help you sleep any better," Twisp said. He nodded at Scudi. "Let's get this thing to Vashon."
Scudi fired up the ram and gently lifted the foil up onto its step. In a minute they were scudding along the kelp channel with a slight bouncing motion against the chop.