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"Ooo, ooo, ooo, such a tragedy," Mamedi blubbered; some cousin of hers had slipped and fallen into the water

Some of the bats clirips than the sth," Thernadad’s mother said "Just a quiet nip and none be wiser"

"Oh, very well"

The bat dug around in the soft tissue behind his ear and he felt the usual tingling nu He couldn’ther, but he rolled an eye down and saw the other bats feeding

Irked that they didn’t ask permission, he was tempted to eat one in the hope that it would teach the others so

The river wasn’t always flowing and channeled Three tihly drenching theuinated dragon hung on until the bat claws hurt him more than the teeth At these moments the dwarves shouted to one another and beat a dru within as they worked their machinery

Other times the boat stopped at steel doors in the water and waited until the dwarves finished turning wheels and clanging, then passed through to another cha the boat and so this process the Copper and the bats hid under the nose of the ship The dwarves eed from the boat’s interior and stretched on the flat top of the craft, or fouled the water with their waste

These water chambers were thick with rats, but the Copper didn’t dare leave to hunt The bats were under no such co it of insects

Thernadad returned, cleaning his teeth and guo, rats go Wherever rats go, bugs go Wherever bugs go, bats hunt"

"Maybe you should live here, then"

"Oh, sir, w’be sticking to you Be a heartbreak to leave you after all w’ve been through"

Water bubbled all around the craft as the chamber filled, and the dwarves shouted to one another The Copper, splashed and cra to the underside of the boat, felt a nip at a sore spot behind his saa joint

He lashed out and down, heard a brief squeak as he crushed a bat in his jaws He sed it

The other bats yeeked in terror

"Stupid sot," Thernadad said "That’ll teach ’eroup of bats "Cruelty, cruelty, a poor starving bat…"

The Copper felt rather better for the snack "Did you see who it was?"

"Me cousin twice ree a cave wall W’be better off without him If sir’s in the mood for afters, Mamedi’s sister wouldn’t much be a’ around the Copper’s shoulder "Let that be a lesson to the rest of you," he yeeked

"They’re getting set to open the doors again," the Copper said He heard the dwarves tra to their positions

He looked back at the huddled bats, eyes wide and glinting at hi Gan’s eye

Chapter 9

The Copper longed to sleep, but Enjor insisted that the tunnel they needed to get to was "just a bit ahead"

They’d had to leave their first boat at another lake and swi upon a new vessel, smaller and more beat-up than the first, worked by a trio of dwarves

Twice their own boat idled, hugging the side while larger vessels going the other way passed One ide and had heaps of black rock piled within, and crawled along only a slug’s pace faster than the current

The other al, narrow craft with dwarves sitting in the front and rear at some kind of apparatus that reminded the Copper of the foul machines they’d used to attack Mother in the cave Instead of a bell, this one sounded a horn at intervals Its lights, throwing tight beams from curved copper lanterns, almost blinded him as they searched the water’s surface

At last they caed hanging chains and yelled back and forth as a pair of dwarves laden with bags hanging from wooden poles joined the boat

"M’lord," Enjor whispered in his ear "This passage be getting us to the other river"