Cursors's Fury

“I wish I had enough to afford it,” Ullus said. “But I don’t have access to such a great amount of coin in this season. If you come back to me in the autumn, I should have more available.”

Demos was silent for a moment. Then he said, “I regret it when business deals do not work out-but I made my position clear, fence. And whatever kind of snake you may be, my word is good.” He turned his head to his men, and said, “Cut his throat.”

Ullus’s sword came to his hand readily enough, out before any of Demos’s armsmen drew. “That might not be as easy as you think,” he said. “And it will profit you nothing. My coin is hidden. Kill me, and you will not see a copper ram of it.”

Demos lifted a hand, and his men stopped in their tracks. He stared at Ullus for a second, then said, “Bloody crows, man. You really are that stupid. I thought it was an act.”

“Stupid?” Ullus said. “Not so stupid that I’d let you run roughshod over me on my own island.”

Ehren remained very still, over to one side, where he might duck behind the bungalow should weaponplay commence. He felt the wind change quite suddenly. The fitful, restless breeze that had danced idly around the island for all of that day vanished. Something like the breath of some single, enormous beast rushed across the island in a single, enormous moan. The wind rose so suddenly that the pennons on the banner poles on the harbor snapped, their tips cracking like whips as the wind, hot and damp, sent the banners streaming to the horizon.

Demos’s attention flicked to the wind banners, and his eyes narrowed.

Some instinct cried out to him, and Ehren turned to Demos. “Captain,” he said. “In the interests of saving time, I have an offer for you.”

“Shut up, slave,” growled Ullus.

Demos glanced aside at Ehren, his eyes flat.

“I know where his coin is hidden,” Ehren said. “Grant me passage to the mainland, and I’ll show you where it is.”

Ullus whirled on Ehren in a fury. “Who do you think you are, you greasy little tosspot? Hold your tongue.” He brandished the rusty sword. “Or I will.”

“Captain?” Ehren pressed. “Have we a bargain?”

Ullus let out a cry of pure rage and rushed at Ehren, sword rising.

Ehren’s small knife appeared from its hiding place in his tunic’s roomy sleeve. He waited until the last moment for Ullus’s strike, and then slipped aside from it by the width of a hair. His knife struck out, a single stroke that left a cut two inches long and almost as deep.

Ullus’s throat sprayed blood. The ragged fence collapsed to the ground like a groggy drunk abruptly sure that it was time for a nap.

Ehren stared down at the man for a moment, regret sharp in him. Ullus was a fool, a liar, a criminal, and Jie’d doubtless done more than his share of despicable deeds in his time-but even so, Ehren had not wanted to kill him. But if Ehren’s instincts were correct, he’d had little choice. It was imperative that he leave the island, and Demos was his only way out.

He turned to Demos and leaned down to wipe the blade of his little knife clean on the back of Ullus’s tunic. “It would seem that your own arrangement with Ullus has been resolved in accordance with your terms. Have we a new bargain, Captain?”

Demos stared at Ehren, with neither more nor less expression on his face than before. He looked briefly at Ullus’s body. “It would seem I have little choice if I am to collect my coin.”

“That’s true enough,” Ehren agreed. “Captain, please. I have a sense that we do not wish to stand around talking about this all day.”

Demos’s teeth showed in an expression that was not a smile. “Your technique is sound, Cursor. “

“I don’t know what you mean, sir.”

Demos grunted. “They never do. Passage is one thing. Involving myself in more politics is another.”

“And more expensive?” Ehren asked.

“Commensurate with the risk. Dead men spend no coin.”

Ehren nodded once, sharply. “And your own loyalties, sir?”

“Negotiable.”

“Ullus’s coin,” Ehren said. “And a like amount upon return to Alera.”

“Double the amount on return,” Demos said. “Cash, no vouchers or letters of marque. You’re buying passage, not command of my vessel. And I’ll have your word not to go out of my sight until paid in full.”

Ehren tilted his head. “My word? Would you trust it?”

“Break it,” Demos said, “and the Cursors will hunt you down for sullying their business reputation.”

“True enough,” Ehren said, “if I worked for them. Done.”

Demos jerked his head in a nod. “Done. What do I call you?”

“Scribe.”

“Take me to the coin, scribe.” He turned to one of his men. “We set sail at once. Get a slave detail and take any women or children you can see on the way back.”

The men nodded and started back to the harbor. Demos turned to find Ehren frowning at him. “We’d best move.”

Ehren jerked a nod at him and led him to the back of the bungalow, where Ullus thought he’d built a clever hiding place into the woodpile. Ehren recovered the entirety of Ullus’s cash fortune in a leather sack and tossed it to Demos.

The captain opened the sack and dumped some of its contents onto his palm. They were a mix of coins of all sorts, mainly copper rams and silver bulls, but with the occasional gold crown mixed in. Demos nodded and headed back for the ship. Ehren followed, walking on the man’s left, a stride away, where he would have time and room to dodge should the pirate draw his sword.

Demos seemed briefly amused. “If I wished to be rid of you, scribe, I wouldn’t need to kill you. I’d leave you here.”

“Call it a professional courtesy,” Ehren said. “You aren’t a smuggler or a pirate.”

“I am today,” Demos said.

Armed members of the Slives crew rushed past. Behind them, Ehren heard screams as the men began seizing women and children and shackling them.

“And a slaver, too,” Ehren said, trying to keep his tone calm. “Why?”

“This most recent enterprise has ended in a less-than-satisfactory fashion. I’ll sell them when we reach the mainland and defray some of my expenses,” Demos said. He glanced out to the west, as they headed down the quay, his eyes on the rising blackness of the storm there.

After that, Demos fell silent until they boarded the Slive. Then he began to give orders immediately, and Ehren hastened to stand out of the way. The slave patrol brought in a score of chained prisoners, while several other men fought a brief, ugly brawl with inhabitants of Westmiston who objected. A pirate was slain, the townsfolk beaten back with half a dozen dead. The women and children passed within a step of Ehren when the slavers hurried them into the hold, and he felt nauseated at their distress, their sobs, their cries of protest.

Perhaps he could find some way to help them when they returned to Alera. He folded his arms, closed his eyes, and tried not to think on it, while Demos and his crew rigged the ship and headed for the harbor, tacking against the strong wind while men strained at the oars to give the ship all possible speed while the darkness of the storm grew and grew, until it looked like nothing so much as great mountains looming up on the horizon. It was unnerving, as every sailor aboard the Slive threw his strength into driving the ship directly at that glowering, ominous tide of shadow, until they could clear the harbor and round the island.

They had just broken into the open sea when Ehren saw what his instincts had warned him about.

Ships.

Hundreds of ships.

Hundreds of enormous ships, broad and low-beamed, sailing in formation, their vast, black sails stretched tight and full by the gale sweeping along behind them. The horizon, from one end to the other, was filled with black sails.

“The Canim,” Ehren whispered.

The Canim were coming in numbers more enormous than any in Alera’s history.