Ilbei Spadebreaker and the Harpy's Wild Read Online Free Page A

the acoustic disposition of the leaves and so many overhanging boughs. He hadn’t seen the other raft since yesterday morning, but he knew they weren’t more than twenty minutes or so ahead. They’d find them by nightfall, hopefully, with a fire already started and a fat buck roasting above. Just in case, however, he’d had Hams set his hooks into the water again. And it was during the maintenance of those hooks near midafternoon that the old army cook drew in a reverent breath. “Blimey,” he said, nearly a gasp.
    Ilbei turned toward him, as did all the rest aboard, and saw him gaping down into the water with his mouth as wide as a trout’s.
    “Snag a fat one, Hams?” Meggins asked.
    Hams, however, did not respond. He merely stared into the water and, truth be told, let forth a clear thread of drool, which began as a small round bubble, like a tear, at the lowest ledge of his drooping lip, but then went on to descend on a line of saliva like a legless crystal spider on a thread of web.
    Meggins, being nearest to the cook, crawled the short distance to where Hams leaned down, adding volume to the river in his astonishment. The younger man glanced briefly up at the stupefied Hams, then peered over the edge as well.
    Ilbei saw Meggins recoil as something struck him a surprise, and then Meggins seemed to freeze, staring motionless into the water, his mouth agape the same as Hams’.
    “What is it?” Kaige asked, getting to his feet and clomping across the deck to see. He looked down into the water with his two companions and uttered a low “Whoa.” He dove in before Ilbei could even ask.
    The ensuing splash made the tannin-stained water difficult to see through, and the wave of its cold wetness knocked both Hams and Meggins back to their senses again. With a shake of his head to clear whatever had cottoned up his thoughts, Hams looked to Ilbei with eyes wide. “Naiad,” he said. “And that idiot jumped right into her arms.”
    “Shite,” Ilbei swore. “A water nymph? These gods-be-damned boys can’t even control theirselves around regular females. Take the tiller, Hams, quick now.”
    Meggins, who wore an expression of shock, was only barely beginning to blink back to clarity. “She’s so beautiful.”
    “I’m sure she is,” Ilbei said, “and she’s gonna drown that big idiot fer sure.” Even as he said it, Ilbei snatched up a rope with a grapple on it and heaved it up the bank, snagging it in a thick tangle of roots. With brute force, he hauled the raft back up against the current as Hams at the rudder guided them toward the bank. “Secure the raft,” Ilbei ordered as he leapt to the bank. His boots splashed in the shallow water at the edge, and the mud forced him to scramble up the embankment, using his hands as well.
    He ran back to where Kaige had gone in, hoping all the while that the young man could hold his breath long enough to be saved. He hoped as well that the fool would come to his senses in time to at least try to fight. There was no telling how spellbound the lad would be.
    Fortunately for them both, Ilbei could see the shadowy figures of Kaige and his captor down near the bottom of the opposite bank, and from the thrashing about, it was clear the brawny soldier had realized the danger he was in. He might not be the brightest candle on the altar, but at least he wasn’t the willing sacrifice.
    “I need rope,” Ilbei called as he ran back. “Rope, quick. And someone get upstream and pour in a gift of wine. Meggins, get the gray wineskin out of my pack, not the black. Hurry, boys, hurry.”
    Hams threw Ilbei a length of rope, which he snatched out of the air and ran back, going another ten paces upstream. He set to work tying it to a thick root that arced out of the bank. He stooped, dumped off his helmet and chainmail, then tied the other end of the rope around his waist.
    “Pull us out,” he called to his men with a glance downstream. Hams was already running toward him, and