Immortal At Sea (The Immortal Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

my life that were worse than what I might find myself doing on a pirate ship.  It was well within my skillset.
    I didn’t end up becoming one, but I might have had things broken differently.
    This was not the first time I’d been aboard a vessel taken by pirates, but the last time had been on a Greek ship in the Mediterranean, and the total number of pirates had been less than ten, none of which proved to be very good swimmers.  This was a larger ship, with a lot more pirates.  About half the crew I saw moved freely—there were many men chained to oars, which was the likely fate of most of the Spanish sailors—and the number of those free men approached thirty.  It was unlikely I could out-fight every one of them.  Maybe half that number, if I was very lucky.
    I’m really not bragging.  You have to understand that in order to have lived for as long as this without any special invincibility or anything—I can’t get sick, but that’s about all—I had to learn how to fight, and I had to be very good at it.  Basically, in hand-to-hand combat or anything involving a blade I’m in pretty good shape.
    I also had a pretty good blade.  The sword I borrowed from Juan Pedro was the finest piece of steel I’d ever seen.  He didn’t even understand how rare it was, and had never—so far as I knew—used it in actual combat.  I wasn’t sure yet whether I’d brought the sword with me to buy my way onto the pirate crew or to fight my way through it.  Possibly I was just looking for an excuse to hold it for a while before I died.
    From the starboard side I was led—by what had to be the two largest men aboard— to a table on the foredeck, where the captain sat waiting for me.
    “Please,” he said, in Spanish.  “Have a seat, my learned friend.  We speak your tongue now.  None of these men know it.”
    “ I have many tongues,” I said, in Italian, as I sat.  “But Spanish is fine.”
    He raised an eyebrow at me.  “You are quite a mystery: a scholar who wishes to be a pirate.  Do you know how to use that sword?”
    “I do.”
    “That’s good.  When I fight you for it I want to feel as if I’ve earned the right to wield such a fine blade.  How did you acquire it?”
    “I told the fool on the other boat I had need of it, and he believed me.  You’re Moroccan?”
    “Yes. I am Yassine.  You are Giovanni, I have heard them say.  You are Italian?  And yet claim to be an occasional Muslim.  And fluent in many tongues.  And by your claim, you are good with a sword.  I admit you would be a fine asset to the pirate trade.  It’s a shame, I really have no option but to kill you.”
    “I agree, that is a great shame.  Even if I tell you where there’s gold hidden aboard the other ship?”
    “Even then, yes.  We’ll take the ship, sail it to port, and tear it apart.  We would take the men and the goods and just sink it but for the conspicuous riches nailed to the hull.  We have little use for it otherwise.”
    “You could resell it.”
    “Would you buy a ship knowing it wasn’t fast enough to outrun the pirate selling it to you?  No, sailors are too superstitious.  The problem, Giovanni, is if I let you aboard as a fellow, there will be a mutiny, especially after the entire crew heard you ask.  The only reason we’re speaking peacefully right now is to keep those Spaniards from developing a sense of purpose.  So long as you live and they think you’re negotiating for them in good faith, they’ll stay their hand.”
    “Then we seem to have an impasse.”
    “Not really.  I can kill everyone on your ship or you can contrive of a way to keep them alive for long enough to be subdued.  You I will have to kill in either case, but I can give you a brave death for your troubles.”
    “That’s very charitable.”
    “I’m as reasonable as events allow.”
    “If your only reason for speaking to me is to get me to help you take the Spanish peacefully, I’m afraid I have to disappoint