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.“You think we can get someone else to take her on?” She could see the wheels working behind his eyes, and saw that he already had the answer.“Aye, Captain,” she said coyly, “that I do.”“Emperor Tynean Tsing the Third, maybe?” he asked, a deadly grin spreading on his lips.“Aye, Captain.The very one.And all it’ll cost us is a few days in Tsing spreadin’ the right kind of rumors.” She sipped the rum he poured into her cup and smiled the same deadly smile.“He’s already sent a warship to have a chat with her, so there’s plenty of fodder for harsh feelin’s.A few words in the right ears about that new three-masted schooner of hers, and them black-skinned savages she keeps like a pack of rabid dogs, not to mention the fish-folk that fawn over her like she was their queen…”“Aye, I see that there’s plenty of rumors that we could spread, Sam,” the captain agreed, his eyes narrowing to a calculating mien that she knew all too well.“But the last thing we want here in the Shattered Isles is His Majesty’s Imperial Navy.I’ll warrant that the Flaxal witch is a pain in our arse, but a fleet of warships might be worse.”“Aye,” Farin put in, more to remind his captain that he was there than to offer any meaningful input.“One’s bad enough!”“Oh, but they can’t do what the Flaxal witch can,” Sam argued, raising her glass.“They can’t bring a school of a thousand merfolk up from the depths, or spawn waves that’d smash any ship that floats to kindling.They can’t command the winds and waves into maelstroms and waterspouts, and tame sea drakes to swallow men whole!”Her tirade took the men aback, but the captain was the first to see the calculating glint in Sam’s eye.“The way you say it, the imperial navy doesn’t stand much of a chance against the Flaxal witch,” Parek said, sipping his rum and eying her speculatively.“The way I see it, if we play our cards right and are very, very lucky, when the two are done fightin’ each other, there won’t be nothin’ left in the Shattered Isles but us, Captain Parek.” Sam drained her cup and sat back.“Nothin’ but us,” Farin put in, finally grasping her ploy, “and a whole fleet of merchantmen who ain’t got neither a seamage nor an emperor’s fleet to protect ‘em.”“Aye, Farin,” she agreed.“What a shame it’d be if the Flaxal witch and the emperor’s whole fleet ended up sharin’ the depths of the Fathomless Reaches together.”They all laughed long and hard, and the captain poured one more round for them to share.But they did not over-drink that night, for there was much planning to do.≈“And you agreed to it?” Rowland said, his mouth agape.“You agreed to take this boy to Fire Isle to become a firemage?”“Yes, Row, I did,” Cynthia said, nodding to Marta as she dished out thin slices of roast pork and new potatoes.“I didn’t see any way I could say no.The lightkeeper was instrumental in saving my life!”“Aye, that he was, Cyn, but he’s also one of Phekkar’s flamin’ fiends!” Rowland halved a biscuit with a butter knife like he was hacking at a buccaneer with a cutlass.“They’re not renowned for their even temperaments, you know.”“The lightkeeper may be a pyromage, and perhaps he’s a little quirky, but I wouldn’t call him a fiend, Row.He’s been a valuable citizen of Southaven for longer than I’ve been alive!” She turned to Marta as the woman reached to fill her wine glass.“Marta, quit hovering.I can fill my own glass, and I’m not having any wine.The little monster in my tummy does tricks all night when I drink.”“Takes after his mother, I see,” she said quick as a whip, drawing smiles from the others.She filled Rowland’s and Brolan’s glasses, shoveled another helping of meat onto Tim’s plate since Mouse had already stolen half the boy’s first serving, and sat down.“Rowland’s right, you know.Firemages don’t have a particularly good name.Why, I’ve heard stories that would set your hair afire!”Cynthia laughed aloud, and said, “Funny you should say that.The boy, Edan, had a firesprite on a gold chain.I’d never seen one before.In fact, Mouse is the only sprite I’d ever seen.But her hair was an actual flame! I mean, she was really on fire!” She laughed again and sampled a potato swimming in garlic and butter [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]