The Mercenaries - Ed Greenwood [16]
"That black ship is still hunting for us," their employer told them. "I've seen it twice. That's why I turned nor'west a little while back-but they've found us again. They seem to be able to feel about-but not quite-where we are out here."
"Magic?" Sharessa asked, raising an eyebrow.
Belmer gave her a thoughtful look. "Only if someone aboard is working it," he told her, in a voice that was soft and yet had edges as hard as ice.
Belgin Dree was dipping a finger in the soup and sucking it appraisingly. "That lemon taste," he said slowly. "Your 'little something extra' wouldn't have been a purple powder, would it? From Chult?"
Belmer inclined his head and did not quite smile.
Sharessa stared up at him, fear stirring in her like a cold sea breeze. "You've poisoned us?"
The fat man shook his head. "Kept you alive," he replied. "I had the same soup you did. Yulchass powder, made from a berry found deep in the jungles of Chult, keeps folk awake and alert a day or so longer than usual- and they don't go under from the stolen sleep, after."
Belgin nodded. "And the price is loose-tongued honesty."
Rings stared at him, and then turned his bald head slowly to give their employer a sour look. "That's a trick I'd as soon ye didn't play on us again, Master Belmer, if ye take my meaning," the dwarf said slowly. "There're certain things as're not done on the Utter Coast… poisoning, for instance."
"Oh?" their employer asked, and turned his head to match gazes with the sharper. "Is that true, Belgin?"
"Ahh…" The older man coughed, smiled a little weakly, and said, "What one doesn't know, it's been said, is often a comfort."
Rings directed an even darker look at his comrade. "No," he said slowly, "I don't want to know… I really don't want to know."
"What I do want to know," Brindra said suddenly, startling them all with the break from her accustomed silence, "is who's after us-and why. Any ideas, sir?"
Her question was flung like a blade up at where Belmer hung in the shrouds above, but the little man only tightened his mouth and said, "I have my suspicions-but that's all they are. Spreading rumors that turn out to be false can be worse, by far, than keeping silent."
Rings grinned. "So, care to share your suspicions with us? Or, since we're wide awake again, a little more about this mission we've signed on for?"
Belmer did smile this time. "Not yet," was all he said. Before anyone could say anything further, a soup bowl spun down into the dwarf's hands-Rings caught it without thinking, spoon and all-and the shape in the shrouds above turned and was gone, flitting from line to line like a restless shadow, making no more noise than the whispering waves on the other side of the rail.
The Sharkers exchanged glances, and Rings broke the silence to ask them all softly, "So who d'you think our Master is, anyway?"
"A renegade royal-blood from Doegan?" Brindra asked, eyes bright at this romantic thought.
"An agent of Ulgarth, sent to stir things up in proud and increasingly dangerous Doegan?" Sharessa countered.
"No," Belgin and Anvil said together.
"He's from somewhere far from here," Belgin added.
"I can't be sure where-he's traveled some, and been in several courts or cities for some years at a time- but his accent says 'north' to me. Way north, beyond Raurin; mayhap a long way beyond." "
"That means he can't be a slaver out of Konigheim, raiding up and down the Coast," Brindra put in. "They don't hire outlanders for suchlike."
"Maybe he's one of the agents the Emperor-Mages of Doegan use," Ingrar ventured, "to keep folk from seeing their webs and gills and fish-skin."
Brindra made a rude sound. "You listen to too many tavern-tales, lad," she said, and pulled down her ragged shirt to lay bare one muscled shoulder. A few scales shone there, and in the armpit beneath was a shadow that might have been a thin, spiny span of blue, webbed flesh. The youth gaped at her, blushing scarlet, as she stared challengingly at him and slowly drew her clothing together again. "You think someone high and