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To Ada.

Right now, you’re two years old, asleep in your cot. You’re very strange and you make us laugh a lot. By the time you read this, you’ll be somebody else entirely. I hope we’re still pals. I hope I’m a good dad. I hope I don’t make too many mistakes and you forgive the ones I do. Truth is, I have no idea what I’m doing. But I’m always trying hard.

I love you, kid. This is for you. Whoever you’ve become.

ALSO BY STUART TURTON

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

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AN APOLOGY TO HISTORY. AND BOATS.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

READ MORE

A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR

PROLOGUE

In 1634, the United East India Company was the wealthiest trading company in existence, with outposts spread across Asia and the Cape. The most profitable of these was Batavia, which shipped mace, pepper, spices and silks back to Amsterdam aboard its fleet of Indiaman galleons.

The journey took eight months and was fraught with danger.

Oceans were largely unmapped and navigational aids were rudimentary. Only one certain route existed between Batavia and Amsterdam and ships that strayed beyond it were often lost. Even those that kept between these ‘wagon lines’ remained at the mercy of disease, storms and pirates.

Many who boarded in Batavia would never make it to Amsterdam.

Manifest of notable passengers and crew sailing aboard the Saardam bound for Amsterdam, as compiled by Chamberlain Cornelius Vos

Dignitaries

Governor General Jan Haan, his wife Sara Wessel & his daughter Lia Jan

Chamberlain Cornelius Vos

Guard Captain Jacobi Drecht

Creesjie Jens & her sons Marcus and Osbert Pieter

Viscountess Dalvhain

Notable passengers

Predikant Sander Kers & his ward Isabel

Lieutenant Arent Hayes

Saardam’s senior officers

Chief Merchant Reynier van Schooten

Captain Adrian Crauwels

First Mate Isaack Larme

Notable crew

Boatswain – Johannes Wyck

Constable – Frederick van de Heuval

The prisoner

Samuel Pipps

1

Arent Hayes howled in pain as a rock slammed into his massive back.

Another whistled by his ear; a third striking his knee, causing him to stumble, bringing jeers from the pitiless mob, who were already searching the ground for more missiles to throw. Hundreds of them were being held back by the city watch, their spittle-flecked lips shouting insults, their eyes black with malice.

‘Take shelter for pity’s sake,’ implored Sammy Pipps over the din, his manacles flashing in the sunlight as he staggered across the dusty ground. ‘It’s me they want.’

Arent was twice the height and half again the width of most men in Batavia, including Pipps. Although not a prisoner himself, he’d placed his large body between the crowd and his much smaller friend, offering them only a sliver of target to aim at.

The bear and the sparrow they’d been nicknamed before Sammy’s fall. Never before had it appeared so true.

Pipps was being taken from the dungeons to the harbour, where a ship waited to transport him to Amsterdam. Four musketeers were escorting them, but they were keeping their distance, wary of becoming targets themselves.

‘You pay me to protect you,’ snarled Arent, wiping the dusty sweat from his eyes as he tried to gauge the distance to safety. ‘I’ll do it until I can’t any more.’

The harbour lay behind a huge set of gates at the far end of Batavia’s central boulevard. Once those gates closed behind them, they’d be beyond the crowd’s reach. Unfortunately, they were at the tail end of a long procession moving slowly in the heat. The gates seemed no closer now than when they’d left the humid dampness of the dungeon at midday.

A rock thudded into the ground at Arent’s feet, spraying his boots with dried dirt. Another ricocheted off Sammy’s chains. Traders were selling them out of sacks and making good coin doing it.

‘Damn Batavia,’ snarled Arent. ‘Bastards can’t abide an empty pocket.’

On a normal day, these people would be buying from the bakers, tailors, cordwainers, binders and candlemakers lining the boulevard. They’d be smiling and laughing, grumbling about the infernal heat, but manacle a man, offer him up to torment, and even the meekest soul surrendered itself to the devil.

‘It’s my blood they want,’ argued Sammy, trying to push Arent away. ‘Get yourself to safety, I’m begging you.’