"Is deal," says the bargee. He spits on his hand and moves to shake Skulk's hand, hesitating slightly at touching dead flesh, ensheathed in its monolayer though it may be.
*****
Judging by the sleep/wake/eat cycle of the viajetes, a day and a half passes on board the barge as it putters down the tunnels of the undercity. From the wide vaults of the river tunnel, through chambers with vaulted ceilings supported by hundreds of elaborate pillars, down narrow dark tunnels wide only just wide enough for the barge.
The viajetes largely ignore their passengers except to offer them food and drink. Although Kinslayer hides beneath his hood whenever he can there are times when his facial mark is revealed and he catches the captain, evidently the head of the extended family that crew the subterranean barge, staring curiously. The captain looks away hastily when he sees the Kinslayer notices him watching, and says nothing.
Eventually the barge emerges into a wide basin of another vaulted chamber, a vast cyst beneath the city. Compared to the dim lights of the barge itself, your only source of light for much of the journey, the vault is lit by dazzling tarteric energy in a brilliant array of colours. These lights illuminate a barnacle-cluster of buildings that climb the side of the vault and spread out into the water. An upturned barge hull forms a meeting hall. Bolted together freight containers form a tenement block. Accumulated discards from the city above woven into a patchwork of life and lit by strings of coloured lights. SubCity. Flotsam. Pophyry Market. The place as almost as many names as it has constituent parts.
As the viajetes tie up their barge, the barge captain points to a spire-shaped building made of wood, metal and plastic forming an artificial stalgmite that touches the roof of the vault.
"House of Covenant," he says. "You ask for Erachus, my cousin. He find your codebreaker."
