The peers seethed. That anyone should find the work of a commoner, a mere artisan, of greater concern than their most ancient rituals…!
They yielded perforce, thinking what the Fleet might do were its commander to lose his temper, and sent urgent messages to Yockerbow to meet them on the outer harbor bank.
To the intense annoyance of Yockerbow, but the huge amusement of a crowd of bystanders who had come here to catch a glimpse of the famous admiral, Arranth was rushing up and down in a tizzy of excitement, like a girl waiting to greet her first lover. Not until the procession of the peers and their attendants actually stepped on the high bank did she suddenly realize how unbefitting her behavior was. Speech—fortunately—failed her long enough for Barratong to pace ahead of his companions and confront Yockerbow person-to-person.
“So you’re the celebrated inventor, are you?” he said, gazing up at the Riparian who had clean forgotten that, according to normal rules of politeness, he should have reduced his pressure so as not to overtop the distinguished visitor. “I like you on sight. You don’t pretend to be what you are not—a stumpy little fellow like myself!” He added in a lower, private tone: “That Doq of yours must be aching in all his tubules by this time! Serve him right!”
At which point, while Yockerbow was still overcome with astonishment, Arranth recovered her self-possession and advanced with all the dazzling charm at her disposal. From somewhere she had obtained thick, fine strands of sparkleweed and draped them about her body in rough imitation of the admiral’s baldrics; this, she hoped, would not only be taken as a compliment but maybe start a trend among fashionable circles.
“Admiral, what an honor you’ve bestowed on us by coming here! I so much crave the chance to talk with you! You know, when I was a girl I used to dream the Fleet might call here so I might beg the chance to make a trip with it and see the stars of the far southern skies for myself— astronomy, you see, is my own particular interest!”
“Then you should talk to Ulgrim, my chief navigator,” said Barratong, and deliberately turned his back. “Now, Master Yockerbow, explain your pumps! I came here specially to see them, because—as you can probably imagine—every now and then the Fleet at sea runs into the kind of waves we can’t rely on riding, and often our junqs are weighed down by water which we have to bale out with our own claws before they can swim at full speed again. In the wild state, as I’m sure you know, they never experience such swamping, because their flotation bladders always bear them up, so they have no reflexes of their own to cope with such a situation. Still, we’ve taught them to endure and indeed nourish all sorts of parasitic plants, so maybe we can add something more. Do we go this way?”
He made for the nearest working pump, and Yockerbow hastened to keep pace with him. Nervously he said, “I believe I should congratulate you, shouldn’t I?”
“What for, in particular?”
“Were you not just inducted into the Order of the Jingfired?”
“Oh, that!”—with casual contempt. “Sure I was. But I gather its teaching is supposed to be secret, and I can’t for the life of me see why. If it’s true, then the more people who know about it, the better, and if it isn’t, then it’s high time it was exposed to ridicule and correction.”
The peers who had remained within earshot stiffened in horror at the prospect of this rough intruder revealing their most sacred secrets. Barratong paid no attention. His aroma had the tang of one accustomed to bellowing orders into the mandibles of a gale, and his self-confidence was infectious. Yockerbow found he was able to relax at last.
“Now here you see a pump actually working,” he said. “The tide being on the turn, there’s relatively little water left beyond this bank. If you want to inspect a dismounted pump, we have one available…”
Barratong’s ceaseless questioning continued all day and long past sunset, while Arranth hovered sullenly nearby and kept trying to interrupt. At last she managed to make him angry, and he rounded on her.