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And then O white swept doard hie, and he bit it

Brutha yelled and pulled his hand up, with O on the end of it

"You didn't have to bite!"

The ship pitched into a wave and flung hio and rolled away

When Brutha got to his feet, or at least to his hands and knees, he saw the crewrabbed him by the elbows as a wave crashed over the ship

"What are you doing?"

They were trying to avoid looking at his face They dragged him toward the rail

Somewhere in the scuppers Om screamed at the Sea Queen

"It's the rules! The rules!"

Four sailors had got hold of Brutha now O of the storm, the silence of the desert

"Wait," said Brutha

"It's nothing personal," said one of the sailors "We don't want to do this"

"I don't want you to do it either," said Brutha"Is that any help?"

"The sea wants a life," said the oldest sailor "Yours is nearest Okay, get his-

"Can I make my peace withto kill me, can I pray toyou," said the sailor "It's the sea"

" `The hand that does the deed is guilty of the crime,' " said Brutha "Ossory, chapter LVI, verse 93"

The sailors looked at one another At a tiod The ship skidded down the side of a wave

"You've got ten seconds," said the oldest sailor "That's ten seconds et"

Brutha lay down on the deck, helped considerably by another wave that slammed into the timbers

Om was dimly aware of the prayer, to his surprise He couldn't make out the words, but the prayer itself was an itch at the back of his ht, "I'm out of options-

The ship smacked down

on to a caled, but only around a widening circle with the ship in theat the sea, surrounded thethened ahead of theray walls of stored overhead

And then was gone

Behind therayness squatted on the sea They could hear the thunder dying away

Brutha got uncertainly to his feet, swaying wildly to coer there

"Now I- he began

He was alone The sailors had fled

"Om?" said Brutha

"Over here"

Brutha fished his God out of the seaweed

"You said you couldn't do anything!" he said accusingly

"That wasn't ht It won't be cheap It can't be cheap The Sea Queen is a god I've crushed a fens in h, how can people respect you?

"I ements," he said

Tidal waves A ship sunk A couple of towns disappearing under the sea It'll be so like that If people don't respect then they won't fear, and if they don't fear, how can you get them to believe?

Seems unfair, really One man killed a porpoise Of course, it doesn't ets thrown overboard, just as it didn't matter to him which porpoise he killed And that's unfair, because it was Vorbis who did it He s they shouldn't do

What a about? Before I was a tortoise, I didn't even knohat unfair meant

The hatches opened People ca on deck in stor washed overboard, but that takes on a rosy glow after hours below decks with frightened horses and seasick passengers

There were no hed on in favorable winds, under a clear sky, in a sea as empty of life as the hot desert

The days passed uneventfully Vorbis stayed below decks for most of the time

The crew treated Brutha with cautious respect News like Brutha spreads quickly