Страница 33 из 42
Chapter 21
Blade wasn't surprised to awake chained hand and foot in a smelly, damp darkness. He was surprised to wake up at all. For some reason or other, his head was still on his shoulders. It ached abominably, but it was still there. How much longer it would stay there, Blade didn't know. But for the time being he was alive, and that was always more useful than being dead.
On that thought he went back to sleep.
The next time he awoke he realized that three things had changed. His head hurt a good deal less. The wooden surface under him was heaving slowly up and down and from side to side, creaking loudly as it did so. Somebody was standing over him, looking down at him.
Blade looked up at the somebody. There was enough light to make out a man clad in a loincloth, nearly as tall as Blade and a good deal wider. The man's black hair and beard were enormously long, thick, and tangled. The high cheekbones and arched nose showed Nessiri blood. The eyes that looked down at Blade showed a glint of amusement.
«Well, friend. So you are with us again?»
«I suppose you could say that,» replied Blade cautiously.
«I just did. Welcome aboard the Green Gull.»
So the movement and creaking was that of a ship at sea. «If you can call this a welcome.» Blade made a gesture that took in the whole dismal hold.
The man threw back his head and roared with laughter until his massive paunch was shaking. Then he sobered abruptly. «I'd best not enjoy myself too much, or even Thickhead'll realize something's afoot.»
«Thickhead?»
«Captain Gazes, if you're wanting to be formal.»
Blade struggled into a more comfortable position. «All right. So now I know who Thickhead is. Who are you? What are you doing down here? And where are we going?»
The big man squatted down on his haunches and looked shrewdly at Blade. «What will you do to me if I don't say anything at all?»
«Pull that damned beard of yours out by the roots the first chance I get,» snapped Blade. «That'll do for a start.» He wondered if he could reach out a leg far enough to hook this clown's feet out from under him.
Instead of getting angry, the big Nessiri looked as though he was going to burst out laughing again. Then he sat down cross-legged on the deck and looked at Blade.
«Well. I can see you're a fighting man. That's what I suspected. Probably somebody pretty good, too, or they wouldn't have shaved your head to keep people from recognizing you. You're the first fighting man Green Gull's had on her slave deck since Thickhead started trusting me. That's good. You and me, together, maybe we can take this ship and do a little something with her. I know places where we can get a full crew of people who'd be glad to help us turn pirate.»
For a moment Blade felt as though he had been hit on the head again. He had just been told he was imprisoned aboard Green Gull, probably a slave. Now he was being offered a chance to break out and turn pirate. What sort of lunatic was he dealing with here?
But the man sounded both sane and sincere, as far as Blade could tell. Certainly if the big Nessiri was offering him any kind of chance, it might not be a bad idea to take it. This wasn't Scador. He didn't have to worry about Tera any more. Here, what he needed to think about was avenging her.
Blade smiled. «You still haven't told me who and what you are,» he said.
The big man nodded. «Name's Gursun. Nessiri, I suppose you've guessed. A warrior, once, but the Karani took me fifteen years ago. I've turned into a damned good slave, though. That's why Captain Thickhead trusts me, and why I've started thinking about taking the ship and turning pirate. I'm still young enough to die like a warrior, by all the gods!»
«What do I have to do with all this?»
«I figured quite some time back that with two really good fighters I could take the ship. There's only thirteen sailors besides Thickhead. Only five of them're much good in any sort of fight.»
«You've seen them in action?» Blade didn't expect an answer to the question. What he wanted was to remind Gursun that he was an experienced fighter who wouldn't take anything on trust.
«Enough times to guess pretty good what they're like.»
«All right. Go on.»
Blade's suddenly starting to give orders didn't seem to bother Gursun. That was good. The man wasn't so mad or proud that there would be no way of getting along with him except doing what he said. Blade was perfectly willing to obey ten madmen, let alone one, if it would get him off this ship and back to where he could strike at Iscaros and Amadora. But he would much rather not have to.
He suddenly realized that he was horribly thirsty. «Before we go on-could I have some water?»
Gursun nodded, vanished briefly, and returned with a large clay jug. The water was cool and refreshing; it washed the sour dryness out of Blade's mouth and finished clearing up his head. When Blade had finished drinking, Gursun went on.
In a fight the other eight crewmen could be taken care of by releasing the other nine slaves aboard Green Guild. The nine didn't know much about fighting, but they did know a good deal about hating their masters.
Blade laughed. «So far so good.» He held up his chained hands. «How are you going to get these off me?»
It seemed that Captain Gazes was fond of having Gursun wrestle other captain's slaves. Usually he won. Considering his barrel-like torso and tree-trunk arms and legs, that wasn't surprising. Gursun looked powerful enough to give even Duke Pardes a stiff fight.
«Fact is, I've won a good bit of money for old Thickhead, with bets and all. Hasn't given me a pe
«I see. He'll naturally have to unchain me and have us work out a few times to see what I'm like. One of those times-«Blade shrugged «-we move.»
Gursun nodded. «Right. With luck, he'll have us do one or two rounds when we're well out to sea. That means we'll not be having any patrol ships butting in. We can slip the bodies over the side real quiet, and then away we go.»
Away you go, Blade thought. I won't be going with you, unless you're going back toward Iscaros and Amadora. If you try to keep me from going where I want, you're likely to go over the side yourself.
But that was something to worry about when and if the time came. For the moment, Gursun was a fairly good ally, and would have been so even if he hadn't also been the only one!
Gursun took Blade's silence for agreement, and vanished again. Blade spent some time testing the strength of his chains, discovering that he wasn't going to break free without help. Then he went back to sleep. He had always been able to sleep more or less at will. It was a handy gift when he could never be sure if he might need his full strength.
Gursun woke him up by putting another pot of water and a half-loaf of coarse black bread on the deck beside him. Then the Nessiri bent over and whispered in Blade's ear.
«We've got a problem, my friend.»
«How so?»
«Thickhead says he's got orders to turn you over to some officer on the island of Skadros. He's not supposed to let you out of the chains until then.» Gursun stood up and looked down at Blade for a moment. «I'm begi
Blade shrugged. «Even if I did, why should I tell you? It won't make any difference why I'm here if I can't get out of these chains and fight. If I can, we can worry about other things later.»