Dangerous Waters by Juliet E. McKenna Page A

Corrain. But the lad’s credulity had its uses. Corrain valued Hosh’s warnings, when those imaginary patterns in the skies put Ducah in a fouler temper than usual.
    He sighed as the blind corsair drew a new token, the Vizail Blossom. A brawny youth with Tormalin features swiftly killed a luckless man thrown forward from the Winged Snake.
    ‘Pearl for calm and Opal for loyalty and both in the arc of fellowship with the Blossom. Nothing but the Topaz with the Winged Snake and that’s always an ambiguous gem,’ Hosh observed.
    ‘The Bloody Claw look pleased to have him.’ Corrain wanted to see who’d end up on the Reef Eagle .
    He needed allies who could handle a sword, whose outrage at being enslaved burned as hot as his own. He couldn’t escape with only Hosh to back him.
    The blind corsair drew the Sailfish again and this time that red-headed lad snatched up the pole arm. Perhaps he believed that longer reach could defeat the older man stepping forward from the Net. Or he just sought a quick death.
    Corrain noted raiders around the hollow offering each other wagers. These Archipelagans would gamble on anything but they liked life and death most of all.
    ‘The Diamond and the Amethyst stand with the Net in the arc of Life,’ Hosh murmured. ‘They think it’s a foregone conclusion.’
    Diamond for strength of purpose and Amethyst for calm. Corrain had learned that much of Aldabreshin superstition.
    The grim faced man advanced on the Forest-born youth. He thrust hard, straight at the younger man’s face. The Forest youth stepped back, knocking the blade aside with the pole arm. The grim faced man ducked below the pole arm’s back stroke with a low cut that could have shattered the Forest youth’s knee. The copper-headed lad blocked the blow, quickly stepping back once again.
    The grim faced man attacked, stepping in much closer. This time his free hand reached for the pole arm’s shaft, to deny the Forest lad his weapon as the sword swept towards his head.
    Quick as thought, the Forest youth slid the pole arm’s shaft back through his hands. Gripping right below the blade and half way along, he smacked the solid length of wood into the swordsman’s forearm. The crack of snapping bone echoed around the hollow.
    As the man dropped to his knees, the blade falling from his nerveless fingers, the Forest youth brought the pole arm’s razor sharp blade up, over and down to bite deep into the back of the swordsman’s neck. As the man collapsed, his life blood soaking the ground, the Forest youth walked back to the Sailfish stone, his face betraying no reaction.
    Hosh nudged Corrain in the ribs. ‘Look, over there!’
    The Reef Eagle’s whip master was coming forward to claim the red-head as the blind corsair’s slave waved a token.
    If Corrain believed in these Aldabreshin portents any more than he believed in his own gods, he could take that for a good omen. The red-head would have news from the mainland. Something that could help them plan an escape?

 
    C HAPTER S IX
     
    Halferan Manor, Caladhria
    Spring Equinox, Fifth Day, Afternoon
     
     
    S TARRID THREW OPEN the withdrawing room’s door. ‘You have a visitor.’
    Zurenne longed to challenge his impudent intrusion but that would be folly. As foolish as hurling her book of pious meditations at his head. She’d have liked to do that too. Instead she set the leather-bound volume on the table beside her upholstered settle.
    ‘Who is it, if you please?’
    ‘Lord Licanin.’ Starrid scowled. ‘Without a word of warning.’
    No wonder the rogue didn’t dare deny him. ‘He is naturally most welcome.’
    As welcome as he was unexpected. What could have prompted her eldest sister’s stolid, scholarly husband to come here? Abrupt apprehension tightened around Zurenne’s heart. Had some evil befallen Beresa? A six day journey wasn’t lightly undertaken even with spring breezes drying out the roads.
    ‘Zurenne?’ Licanin’s outrage echoed up the stairs