The Mercenaries

Chapter 5

"I've sailed ships before,'' Anvil growled to Brindra, as they stood shoulder to shoulder hauling in a mainsail line, "but by the looks of 'em, that's more than these Tharkar rats've ever done."

His barrel-shaped comrade spat over the rail, nodded grimly, and replied, "Our new master would've done better to leave them all behind on the docks, to be sure. I never heard of crew who had to be clubbed senseless to keep them from leaping to their deaths in the sea!"

"If I'd known we were going to be fighting fires and dancing bones half the night, I'd've put away a few less tankards back at the Masques," Brindra said. "When d'y'suppose Belmer will think we've run far enough and let us all find a bunk? Or does he think his jargoons buy folks' sleep, too?" She yawned for perhaps the hundredth time.

Anvil groaned. "Don't do that, woman! I'm afraid 111 be wakened by my head bouncing off the deck after I fall asleep and then fall over!"

Brindra chuckled hoarsely. "That's better than not waking when you crack your head open on the deck, if you take my meaning."

"Ho ho," Anvil agreed with weary sarcasm. "Are we going to work the sails all night? I hear Kara-Tur's notautfwrffarofr…"

"Was that someone yawning I heard?" a dry voice asked, out of the darkness down the rail.

Anvil turned. "Belgin? What news?"

"Supper," was the wry reply, as Belgin and Rings staggered into view, a dented carry-cauldron between them. Its edges bristled with ladles, hook-jacks, and pans. "Some sort of soup our mysterious and all-talented master cooked up."

"He cooks, too? Gods above," Brindra muttered.

"So that's where he went," Anvil said, accepting a pan of steaming liquid. It looked thick and green in the moonlight, and when he stirred the spoon that came in it, pale lumps surfaced momentarily. He peered at them rather suspiciously as a hungry-looking Ingrar joined them. "Any idea what went into this?"

"Dead things," the dwarf said laconically." 'Shrooms, sea turtles by the score, a crab he netted, and herbs- lots of herbs."

"Not like that powder he threw on the boats, I hope," Sharessa said with a yawn, joining them. "If I didn't think he wasn't quite crazed, I'd guess he intended to keep us hauling on sails and trying to outrace black ships all night!"

"No," Rings joked, twisting his voice into strangled mimicry of the gaunt sailor back in the Masques, "it's ghost ships ye has to watch out for, lassie! Late at night, when folk on the moon watch are a-yawn, they rise out of the deeps, trailing bones and seaweed, and creep up on the leeboards of unsuspecting ships, seeki-"

"Oh belt up, nimble tongue of the Olnblades," Sharessa said affectionately, patting the dwarf's tanned bald head. She knew he hated that.

Rings gave her a glare. "You sound to me like a lass too sleepy to have any o' this fine soup, hey?"

"Give," Sharessa told him grimly, "or youll be wearing that ladle in a shorter time than you'd think-the handle in your gullet and the bowl out your backside."

Grinning, Rings passed over a steaming skillet. As Anvil had before her, Sharessa stirred and looked at it curiously.

"'Sgood," Anvil assured her, licking the last errant drops from his thumbs. "First time I've ever really liked sea turtle."

Sharessa raised her own hot spoon, sniffed, and sipped. It was good, with a strange taste, like lemons, under the stronger briny tastes of the seafood. She dug in.

"Anyone hazard who gifted us with fire arrows and skeletons?" Brindra asked idly. "I'd like to know who we're running from-so I can accidentally run into them in Tharkar-port some night, with my sword unfortunately drawn."

The ghost of Blackfingers, furious that we've taken ship with someone else?" Rings teased.

That's not funny," Sharessa told him. "I liked Ralingor," she added, almost in a whisper, after a moment- and then wondered why she'd admitted that aloud. She never wanted anyone to know about the nights she'd crept into his cabin, so late that even Destra and his other wenches were snoring.

Angrily she banished those memories, and the tears she knew they'd bring. Gods, why was she thinking this way?

"I never wanted to go to sea," Belgin told them, his voice low. "I just ran out of cities that my neck was safe in."

"Who doesn't?" Rings grunted, "what with the Five Kingdoms the way they are-all double-dealing merchants, and nasty feuds wherever idiots aren't hurling armies!"

"Or fleets," Anvil grunted. "Which reminds me: unless Master Belmer knows some back way into wherever we're to search for this lady of his, we'll be turning south soon-into the very teeth of the Doegan Dogs."

The Doegan Dogs were pirates-freebooters sponsored and chartered by the self-styled Emperor of Doegan to hunt down the ships of Ulgarth, Parsanic, Konigheim, and anyone else who came within reach

… while the Emperor's Imperial Fleet kept busy in the south, fighting the pirates of the fabled Golden Lands (and, some said, other lands for Doegan to conquer). The Dogs made sailing dangerous anywhere south of the Free Cities, but then, they kept all the kingdoms from rising in enough strength to wipe out the folk of Tharkar and other "honest" pirates, too.

"Kurthe swore some Dogs burned his ship," Belgin told them.

"What, in Port Halovar? Likely enough," Anvil grunted. "What made you think of that?"

Belgin frowned. "Your mention of the Dogs, of course," he said slowly. "I didn't mean to let it slip out, though."

Sharessa matched his frown. Why were they all spilling old secrets?

"So why are the Five Kingdoms 'the way they are,' as you put it?" Ingrar asked Rings. "I've always wondered."

Anvil laughed cynically, but the dwarf held up a hand for silence, scratched his chin, and said solemnly, "It's a secret."

"What?" Ingrar asked, eyes shining in eagerness. "Tell me!"

"Ah, lad," the dwarf said, a sudden answering twinkle in his eyes, "if I knew just why the gods make everyone who climbs on a throne crazy, I'd be Emperor of the Five Kingdoms, and not trading words on the deck of this hulk now, with ye!"

"That was well said," Belgin said grudgingly.

"Well put, indeed," Anvil agreed.

"Hmm," Rings pondered thoughtfully, emptying his pan, "I wonder if good Master Belmer has put a little something extra into this soup?"

"Of course I have," a calm voice spoke out of the rigging overhead, stunning them all into gaping silence. "Not to learn your secrets, but to keep you awake. Anyone still yawning?"

The Sharkers looked at him, blinked, thought about it, and said in ragged unison, "No."

The dwarf squinted up at the dark bulk that shouldn't have been able to get to where it was, so close above them, without at least one of them noticing, and asked flatly, "Why?"

"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 mighty needs to hide a few gills?" she growled at him. "From whom?"

"He's killed people," Anvil put in, "lots of them, I'd say. And he's gotten very good at it."

Rings lifted a finger from the bowl in his hands and put it to his lips. "He didn't have the same soup as the rest of us, mind," he said grimly, "whatever he told us."

"Maybe he was part of Redbeard's crew," the deep voice of Kurthe said, out of the darkness along the rail. His eyes glowed like two red flames; Ingrar stared at him, wondering why he'd never noticed that before.

The others shifted aside to let the big Konigheimer into their circle. Ingrar glanced around quickly; they weren't acting as if anything about the big man was odd.

"He fled mighty fast from Tharkar," Kurthe continued, hooking two thick thumbs into his belt, "and with pains to keep quiet, too. And he seemed to know a ship'd be following us. It could be he did his captain out of some of Ralingor's loot-a treasure map, say, or a logbook-and made a run for it, hiring us to swing swords for him and die, if Redbeard ever catches up with him."

"But Blackfingers never-" Sharessa protested, and then fell silent, as Kurthe's familiar arm went around her hip. His fingers lingered, as they always did, on the little ridge there, that marked the top of the old sword-scar that ran down across her belly like a restless white snake.

What had they really known of Ralingor's wealth? He was always laughing and drinking cellars-full of good wine, and spending coins by the fistful… but where had he kept it hidden, and how much could any man have left, after pouring it away by night and day the way Blackfingers had?

In shared silence the Sharkers considered Kurthe's all-too-likely scenario… and the silence lengthened as the implications sank in. And brought on chills.

"He'd make a good pirate captain," Anvil said. "But not one you could ever relax around. He's too-dangerous."

"Aye, I want to trust him," Belgin agreed, "but-"

"Trust," Kurthe echoed, twisting his lips to make the word a curse. "He wanted us to trust him-and men who bleat about trust, as far as I've ever seen, just do it to make you down shield as they drift close enough to drive a blade into you."

"So why'd you want to become a pirate?" Rings asked merrily.

Kurthe just snarled at him wordlessly, and stumped away.

"Not much laughter there," Brindra murmured. "Mayhap-"

Whatever she might have speculated was lost and forgotten before it was said. At that moment tattered black clouds drifted away from the moon, and in the sudden blue-white brilliance everyone on board clearly saw the black ship that had attacked them earlier, scudding along astern and off to the north.

The sailors of that dark vessel obviously saw the Morning Bird too. It immediately heeled over and turned toward them, extra sails rippling as they were unfurled.

The Sharkers erupted in heartfelt curses. "We'd better find Belmer," said Sharessa, "and get our orders before it's too late to be doing anything but dancing with skeletons again!"

"Keep low, ignore any firepots and the like, but try to roll those bone balls overboard before the skeletons rise up," came a crisp voice from overhead. The Sharkers stared up at the man in the rigging. How had he returned, without their seeing him? Had he been there all along, listening to Kurthe?

Moonlight touched Belmer, and they saw that his face was hard as he stared at the onrushing black ship. He indulged in no curses, but burst into sudden movement again, swinging down to sprint away across the deck without another word. Sharessa stared after him and shook her head, but by her elbow Rings said, "Ye heard the man! Along the rail, swords out, crouch low, hang onto the ropes, and wait. I never did think ye tall folk were very smart, standing around on moon-drenched decks practising being targets!"

"All right, all right, clevertongue," Anvil said. "You can lead the charge onto the decks of the foe when they try to board us!"

"A charge of whom?" Sharessa demanded, looking around. "There aren't enough of us to give half a dozen good blades more than a few breaths of sword practice!"

"Ah, but we have a weapon few of them can hope to prevail against!" Belgin told her. "Belmer."

"Ye gods!" Sharessa said, rolling her eyes. "He's a fat man who's hired us because his tricksll only take him so far, not some hero to be worshiped!"

As she spoke, the ship beneath their boots seemed to shudder slightly, and eerie green light flashed up through all the hatches.