her neck; three other men landed on top of me. By the time we'd sorted all of that out, I was scummed with sand once more, and grass, and my belly was turning backflips. I discovered myself on my knees-again –while two of the larger men gripped my wrists one-handed and yanked my arms out from my sides, blade edges balanced lightly but eagerly on sand-dusted ribs, muscle, and scar tissue now standing up in rigid washboard relief, since the renegadas had me all stretched out in the air as if I were a hide to be dried in the sun.
Del, sprawled face-down, managed to turn her head in my direction. Slowly. Carefully, so as not to invite repercussions. She spat out sand, a piece of grass. 'Nice move,' she commented briefly. 'Forgive me if I don't thank you.'
'He deserved it.' I smiled benignly at the big, tanned man who sat on his rump in the sand, cursing, nursing a twisted ankle. Like the woman, he had an accent; none of the others had spoken. I noticed for the first time that he was bald, or shaved his head. Also that the head was tattooed. 'And don't do it again.'
He arched incredulous eyebrows. The woman burst out laughing. Like the others, she carried a sword. Like the others, she was tanned and tattered by wind, salt, and sun. Her hair, trailing down her back in a tangled half- braided tail, was a flamboyant red. The eyes beneath matching brows were hazel. And every bit of visible skin on face, arms, and legs was thickly layered in freckles.
'Better not,' she said to the tattooed man. 'He is a dangerous fool, this fool.'
'With a weak belly,' he growled.
Well…yes.
Del, cheek pressed hard against the ground, asked, 'Do jhihadis have weak bellies?'
'I'm glad everyone here is having such a good time at my expense,' I complained. 'And what in hoolies do you people want, anyway? As you can see by the state of what remains of our clothing, we aren't exactly weighed down with coin. Or jewels. Or even weapons.' I glared at the woman. 'And just how did you find us, anyway? We didn't leave any tracks.' In fact, we'd been extremely careful about that, and neither Del nor I were precisely bad at being careful. We'd traded sand for grass as soon as possible, and moved with deliberation rather than carelessness.
The red-haired woman grinned, crinkling sun-weathered skin by pale eyes. Her teeth were crooked. 'There is only one place with good water,' she said simply. 'We knew any other survivors would come here. So we sailed around the island, hopped overboard, and waited.' She flicked an amused glance at Del. 'And so you came, and here we are. Dancing this dance.'
She didn't mean that kind of dance, although I'd just as soon she did. Because then I'd have a sword. But for the moment I focused on something she'd said. 'Other survivors?'
She jerked her chin up affirmatively. 'The man cursing us-and crying-about his lost ship.'
'Ah. The captain.' I indicated Del with a tilt of the head. 'You can let her up, you know, before the fat man suffocates her.' Most of the meaty bulk sitting atop Del's spine appeared to be muscle, not fat, but an insult is worth employing any time, regardless of the truth. 'I don't think either of us is going anywhere.'
'But you are,' the woman said lightly. 'You are coming aboard our ship.'
'Thanks anyway, but I'd just as soon not. The last one I was on had an accident.'
The man I'd dumped got up. He tested his sore ankle, shot me a malevolent green-eyed glance from under bronze-brown brows-which were neither shaved nor tattooed, but were, I noted with repulsed fascination, pierced with several silver rings-then scowled at the woman. 'Well?'
She considered him. Considered me. 'Yes. He is nearly as big as you. It will be less trouble.'
'Good.' The man took three strides across the sand and smashed a doubled fist into the side of my jaw. 'Oh, dear,' he cried in mock dismay, 'I have done it again!'
Fool, I said inside my head, not definitively certain if I meant him or me-and then the world winked out.
I came to, aware we were on a ship again, because after two weeks I was accustomed to the wallowing. I lay there with my eyes shut and my mouth clamped tightly closed, tentatively asking my body for some assurances it was going to survive.
It was. Even my stomach. For a change.
This ship smelled different. Handled differently. Moved with a grace and economy that reminded me of Abbu Bensir, a sword-dancer of some repute who was smaller than I, and swift, and very, very skilled. A man whom I'd last seen in the circle at Aladar's palace, which had become Aladar's daughter's palace, when I had shattered every oath I'd sworn, broken every code of an Alimat-trained, seventh-level sword-dancer, and become something other than I'd been for a very long time.
We'd settled nothing, Abbu and I, after all. He still believed he was best. I believed I was. And now it would never be settled, that rivalry, because I could never dance against him to settle it. Not properly. Not where it counted. Because he would never profane his training, his sword, his honor, by accepting a challenge, nor would he extend one.
Of course, at this particular moment, none of that really mattered because my future might not last beyond the balance of the day.
'You there?' I croaked.
I heard movement, a breath caught sharply. Then, 'Where else would I be?'
Ah. She was alive. I cracked an eyelid, opened the other. Rolled my skull against the decking so I could look at her. She sat across from where I was sprawled on my back on the deck of a tiny cabin, her spine set against the wall. There were no bunks, no hammocks. Not even a scrap of blanket. No wonder my bones ached.
'How long?'
'Not long. They lugged you on board, dumped you in here, pulled up the anchor, and off we sailed.'
'The door bolted?'
'No.'
'No? ' I shot her a disbelieving scowl. 'Then what in hoolies are you doing in here?'
Del smiled. 'Waiting for you to wake up.'
I put a hand to my jaw, worked it gingerly. I could still chew, if carefully-so long as they bothered to feed us. I undertook to sit up and managed it with muffled self-exhortations and comments to the effect that I was getting too old for any of this.
'Well, yes,' Del agreed.
I jerked upright. 'The stud!'
She poked a thumb in the air, hooking a gesture. 'Back there.'
I scratched at sand-caked stubble and scars. 'How'd they get him on board? I figured he'd never go anywhere near a ship again-'
'They didn't. 'Back there' means-back there. The island.'
I
'They left him there?!'
Del nodded solemnly.
'Oh, hoolies…' That image did not content me in the least. Poor old horse, poor old lame horse, poor old lame and battered horse left to fend for himself on an island-
'With fresh water,' Del said, 'and grass.'
She never had liked him much. 'Don't you dare tell me-'
'-he'll be fine,' she finished. 'All right. I won't. But he will be.'
'We'll have to get back there and find him,' I said gloomily. Then I frowned at her. 'Are you all right? Did they hurt you?'
Del's expression was oddly amused, but she did not address the reasons. 'I'm fine. No, they didn't.'
'Did any of those men-'
'No, they didn't.'
'Did any of the men waiting here on board ship-'
'No, they didn't.' Del arched pale brows. 'Basically they've pretty much just ignored us.'
'Nobody ignores you, bascha.' I tried to stretch some of the kinks out of my spine, winced as drying scrapes protested. And Del had her share, as well. 'How's your arm?'
'Sore.'
'How's the rest of you?'
