A three-masted tramp ship out of Furness and bound for Emerald, her journey would take her from Furness to Freeton to Sancho around the horn to Porn City, Scabport, Two Frime, Spite Battle, Spite, Spite Anti, and thence finally to Emerald.
Two days ago the Endor had left Freeton. Next stop was Sancho.
Polly Ester, Bard and Hedge Wizard, leaned against the rail and peered off into the distance. Captain Trotter had warned the passengers that, this afternoon the Endor would be arriving at Sancho. And, never having been to that city before, her interest was piqued.
From what Captain Trotter had said, it did not sound like a very nice place.
There was a strong wind across the bow, the Endor was on a steep port tack. Already, strange odours and smells were in the breeze. Polly's nose could make out rotting meat, sewerage, the cloying acrid smell of burnt hair, bitter chlorine, formalin, sweet yellow lotus, and the bitter-almond smell of black lotus.
Off in the distance, appeared a dark grey cloud, looking quite out of place on the azure horizon.
As the Endor neared it, Polly could make out tall buildings, domes, spires and towers. The coast they had been following since Freeton, off far to port, was bathed in sunlight, but strangely, only the city itself was covered by the cloud.
"This must be Sancho" she mused to herself.
Had Sancho been in the sunlight, it might have appeared quite beautiful - in a strange extra-worldly way. But shrouded in the dark cloud, it took on an ominous appearance.
Closer and closer sailed the Endor. Polly could now make out flying things moving around some of the taller spires. One building in particular was shaped like a huge skull on a stick. The black eye-sockets seemed to be watching her.
The Endor passed into the shadow of the pall. Everything went suddenly cold.
The sea, which was bright blue and clean before, now took on a sluggish oozy quality. The bow wave of the ship no longer broke with bright white effervescent bubbles. It was now a febrile broth. It slurried on past the keel, almost as if it was clawing at the hull of the ship.
Every so often the bow would nudge something heavy with a dull thud. Polly glanced down into the water. A human torso floated by, its belly looking like it had exploded outwards, as if something clawed and horrid had struggled to escape its fleshy prison.
Then a head. A woman's head, waterlogged and bloated. Her eyes were sewn shut with black thread, her dead mouth unnaturally wide in the throes of a rictus scream. But instead of human teeth, they were shark's teeth.
Polly could make out all sorts of other similar shapes in the water and she wisely decided to look no more.
Everyone on the ship was strangely quiet. The only noises the sighing of the rigging, the creaking of the mast, and the thud thud thud of things sliding off the bow.
Then the Endor rounded the breakwater and entered Sancho harbour.
A strange sweet melody wafted in the breeze. Dischordant harmony that was alluring nonetheless. As the Endor came alongside the quay, the eerie music continued.
Polly listened hard. She could almost make out individual voices. Then the blood drained from her face when she realized what each separate noise was. Each note was a human scream - a scream of sobbing agony, tinged in a hysterical timbre. This was one of the infamous Sancho Choirs. Slaves of every breed and sex, horribly tortured to end their days screaming and screaming. Each voice carefully selected for tone. Each voice one note in a horrible symphony of despair.
Mishapen creatures, that might once have been men, capered along the wharf. They gibbered and croaked in lipless song in tune with the choir, and gleefully wrapped the Endor's mooring ropes around the bollards. Tying the ship fast.
The gangplank was lowered.
A customs official in a smart black velour robe slid on up the gangplank, looking as if he was floating, and stopped on the deck of the Endor. The emaciated skin of his face was dry and tight on his cheekbones, and when he spoke it sounded like the rustling of corpse shrouds.
"Welcome to Sancho."