Perilous Seas Read Online Free

Kani.
    “You’re
taking this very well,” Ogi said uneasily. Rap smiled, humorlessly. “It’ll
be a pleasure.”
    “Oh?”
Ogi was dumbfounded.
    The
kid stepped closer, eyes glinting in the firelight. “What Wulli told me
about Grindrog was something different. I’d have been tempted anyway, if
I’d thought I had any chance at all. Now you say I have, and you’ve
trapped me, so I have no choice. Fine! Friend Grindrog deserves to have his
head kicked a few more times. And other things.”
    Ogi
opened his mouth and then closed it again.
    “But
we’ve got time to kill, haven’t we?” Rap said gently. “Id
like to borrow some heavier boots from someone, and we must let Grindrog do his
drinking and meditate on his troubles ... mustn’t we?”
    Suddenly,
somehow, the faun had hold of Ogi’s shirt and was twisting it, hauling
him right up off his seat and higher, up on tiptoe. And smiling. The first big
smile all night. Not a cheerful smile, all teeth and much too close to Ogi’s
nose.
    “How
much?” Rap demanded. “How much are you going to make if the faun
mule beats the blind champion? Or is the blindness just a worm to hook me?”
    “No,
Rap. I really think he’s almost blind. And I was just about to talk about
your share of my ... our winnings ... and-”
    “And
I may have time for a practice bout or two first!” Rap, of course, was
half jotunn. It just didn’t show, usually. It showed now.
    Ogi
should have thought of that sooner.
    The
fist at his throat was choking him. His knees began to quiver. He could smell
that jotunnish anger. Imps fought best when they had numbers on their side, and
he was no great bruiser. He’d brawled a little when he first arrived,
because he’d had to, and he was hefty enough, but usually he just
groveled. Few jotnar in Durthing would even bother to jostle an imp.
    “You
and Kani and who else in this?”
    Hefty
or not, now Ogi had been lifted right into the air. The faun was holding him up
one-handed, holding him close enough to stare right into those big faun eyes,
and they were full of jotunn madness. He should certainly have thought of this
possibility.
    “You
and Kani and who else?”
    “Verg,”
Ogi said with some difficulty.
    “I’ll
start with you, then-practice the jelly thing.” Ogi muttered a silent
prayer to every God in the lists.
    Kani
burst into the circle of firelight, so breathless he could hardly speak.
Obviously he had more on his mind than the proposed Rap-Grindrog contest, for
he did not seem to notice the confrontation in progress. He gasped, pointed
back over his shoulder, gasped again.
    He
said, “Orca! “
    “What?
“ Rap released Ogi, who dropped and staggered backward. By the time he
had recovered his balance, Rap was gone in the darkness, the sounds of his
progress through the shrubbery already growing fainter.
    “Rap!
Wait! Rap, that’s suicide!” The noises continued to move away. “Rap,
we have no weapons! “ But obviously shouting was not going to stop the
faun.
    Orca?
    Far,
far more frightened now than he had been by the thought of a beating from Rap,
Ogi took off after him, leaving the winded Kani to follow as best he could.
    If
he dared.
    At
the Oasis of Tall Cranes, Inos achieved the impossible. It started when Azak
smiled to her as he strode by.
    A
smile from Azak was a fearsome sight. It displaced large quantities of copper-red
hair. Since leaving Arakkaran he had let his beard grow in full, and it was a
very full beard indeed. With his hook nose and scarlet djinn eyes, with his
great height and unshakable arrogance, Azak was not a person easily overlooked.
    For
a moment Inos stood and watched him go, heading for the camel paddock; stalking
along in his voluminous desert robes, one ruddy hand resting on the hilt of his
scimitar. She sighed. Azak ak’Azakar was a problem. His proposals of
marriage were becoming more frequent and more insistent every day, as the long
journey neared its end. His logic was impeccable and his