The Charnel Prince - J. Gregory Keyes [126]
“And can think of nothing better to do than drown yourself again.” She snorted. “Enough. I am done with this.”
“Done?”
“You will never enter my service, I see that now. But you do owe me twice, and I do not expect you to forget that. One day I will ask you a favor and you will answer. Do you understand?”
“If I can.”
“No. If you feel obligation toward me, then take it as a geis. I will not call on you soon.”
He sighed and bowed his head. “Are you saying you will release me now if I accept this geis?”
“Hush. By noon we leave here, and I will take you to Paldh, no matter what you say now. But if you have any of the fabled integrity of Skern, you will take my geis.”
“I swear by the saints my fathers swore by, and take this geis,” Neil said. “When you have need of me, I will come, so long as it does not bring harm to those it is my charge to protect.”
“Very well,” she said. She stood and looked off across the distant fields. “I never went ashore in z’Espino,” she said softly. “This is the only strange land I have ever set foot on. It is fair.”
“Lady—”
“Make the ship ready,” she called to her men in Hanzish. Then she strode away from him without even a backwards glance.
CHAPTER NINE
THE WIND AND THE SEA
WILL THEY CATCH US?” Anne asked, watching intently as the masts of the pursuing ship appeared and disappeared behind the high swells. The sky was a turquoise gem, flawed only with a few streaks of white cloud. There was no land in sight.
Captain Malconio put his callused hands on the rail and leaned forward. Perversely, she noticed that he exuded the same faintly almond scent Cazio had when he sweated.
“Lord Netuno knows,” he said. “That’s a fast ship, a brimwulf built in Saltmark. And they’ve got a strong wind behind them.”
“Are they faster than us?” Anne asked.
“Much faster,” Malconio said.
“Then they will catch us.”
Malconio scratched his beard. “Ah, well—there’s more to it than speed, della. We can run against the wind a little better than she can, and we’ve got a shallower keel. If we can reach the shoals around Ter-na-Fath before nightfall, I give us a chance.”
“Only a chance?” Cazio sneered.
Malconio regarded his brother with narrowed eyes. “It’s not often I have the need to outrun a man-o’-war,” he said acidly. “In fact—why, that’s never happened to me before. It took you to come along and present me this delightful opportunity, frater mio. Indeed, it occurs to me our pursuers might be satisfied if I just gave up my cargo.”
“You won’t do that,” Anne said.
Malconio’s eyebrows shot up, and he looked at her as if she had just asked to cut off his foot. “Pardon me? I wonder how you formed that opinion?”
“These men came after me when I was in the coven Saint Cer. They killed every sister there. What makes you think they would spare you?”
“There’s also the maritime guild to consider,” z’Acatto added a bit drunkenly. He waved the narrow-necked bottle of wine he’d found somewhere. “You know they would never stand for it if one of their ships had been accosted, for any reason. The captain of the ship behind us won’t take that risk—he’ll never give you the chance to report him. So don’t be a collone.”
“Easy, old man,” Malconio said. “You know I was just talking—it’s the family curse. But if we can’t slip them, we’ll never be able to fight them. A ship like that will carry three or four arbalests, probably armed with sea fire. My brother will never even get to use his sword, unless they want the girl alive, for some reason.” He looked back at Anne. “Is that likely to be the case?”
“I don’t think so,” Anne said. “I think they just want to see me dead.”
“And you still won’t tell me why?”
“I still don’t know why,” Anne said helplessly.
“Well,” Malconio said. “So we run, and hope the breeze favors us.”
They tacked hard to the north, and at first the larger ship seemed to drop back a bit, but then it