The Two of Swords: Part 15 Read Online Free Page B

won’t be able to see the lodestone. But that’s all right. Come first light, if we’re astray, we just change course.”
    The catboat had a tiny canvas cabin, big enough for two people to sit side by side if they didn’t mind touching knees. Genseric decided he minded, so he assigned Orderic the first shift of guard duty.
    All night and most of the first day she sulked and didn’t say a word. Genseric took that as a good sign.
    The helmsman was a short, spare man, about fifty, with a big nose and long black hair in a single braid. He gave the impression that he was having the time of his life. His first command, he explained. Genseric gave him an uneasy grin and congratulated him. He learned a lot about him during the course of the first day; how his family had been fishermen for generations, but his eldest brother had got the boat when the old man died and he didn’t fancy shipping on a merchantman, so he joined the navy, just in time for the Battle of Tragous, which had been a shambles and no mistake, but he’d been lucky, he’d been with the squadron that showed up late and missed out, basically they’d turned up, seen what was happening and got out quick, and after that he’d been on troop transports for six years, and now he was helmsman on the
Achiyawa
, which was a good ship, don’t get him wrong, but a man wasn’t going to get anywhere, if the major saw what he meant, and besides, this war, everywhere you looked there was some bugger making a fortune out of it, every fool with a boat bigger than a walnut shell, it broke a man’s heart to see all those opportunities slipping by, and knowing that any moment the
Achiyawa
could be ordered into battle, and no disrespect, but the command in this war, not fit to run a ferry across a small river. No, if he had his chance, he knew what he’d do.
    Genseric waited for a natural break, then said, “Tell you what. If you can get this thing landed anywhere in the Western empire, you can keep it. Yours, free and clear, and an honourable discharge from the Service to go with it. How would that suit you?”
    “Can you do that?”
    “If I can get that bloody woman safely delivered to Forza Belot, I can do anything I like.”
    The helmsman grinned. “Shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.
    She was seasick. It was the first sign of humanity she’d shown. At first, Genseric suspected she was faking it; but nobody could vomit that hard at will, he was sure of it, and the shade of green her face had turned was entirely authentic, in his not inconsiderable experience. Orderic and one of the marines were similarly afflicted, but for once Genseric wasn’t bothered at all. He sat in the prow most of the time, watching the horizon for any trifling irregularity that could mean land. There was no sign of the sloops, or any other ships at all.
    The first bit of Western territory they would reach, the helmsman informed him, was an island, Pandet or some such name; it was four miles out from the mainland, and there ought to be a squadron of ships there, unless they were on patrol. In any event there would be a dockyard and a garrison, and sloops and cutters to carry Genseric and his party to Atrabeau. He sounded so confident that Genseric’s heart sank, but the helmsman promised him faithfully that Atrabeau was massively defended and no real use to anybody, and the Easterners hadn’t been near it since the war started; it was only twelve miles from the Blemyan frontier, so it’d be incredibly tactless for the East to attack it, not if they wanted to be friends with Blemya. This time tomorrow, he said, if this wind keeps up. We’re practically there.
    Those familiar with the stretch of coast between Atrabeau and Zatacan know just how quickly the Creed squalls can get up, and how ferocious they can be. Opinions differ as to the origin of the name. Some hold that it derives from the length of the average storm – just long enough to recite the Confession, the Five Pillars and the