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The three sailors ma
«Surrender-now! We've got the ship and we can come up and get you if we want to. But maybe you're worth saving, if you behave right!»
Gursun caught Blade's arm and whispered fiercely in his ear. «What in the-? We don't want to leave one of those lice alive if we can-«
«Yes we do,» said Blade in a low, firm voice. «I know ships just as well as you do. We're going to have a tricky time getting this ship back to land in this weather even with them to help us.»
«But-«
«Look, I didn't go in with you on this to drown in a shipwreck just a few hours later. Those sailors know the situation too. They know that if they play any games they'll drown if we don't cut their throats first. We can trust them as long as we need to, I think.»
«And afterwards?»
«Afterwards we can do anything we want with them,» said Blade. «But not now.»
Gursun shrugged. «All right. I'd almost rather risk shipwreck than leave anyone alive who could talk about what we've done. But you're right. They won't find anyone to talk to until we're safe on shore. By then I don't imagine they'll be in too good shape to talk.» He drew his hand across his throat in a slitting gesture.
Gursun cupped his hands and roared at the three helmsmen. «All right. You can live! Now-drop those swords and stay where you are until we tell you differently. You've got until I count five. One, two, three, f-«
Two swords clattered to the deck and one flew over the side. One of the helmsmen sagged to the deck, half-fainting with relief. Gursun strode across to the quarterdeck ladder and scrambled up beside the three white-faced men. He was brandishing his own sword ferociously.
«Now! Get ready to come about. We're going to head for shelter, and you're coming with us!» He turned to the six bloodstained slaves who were still on their feet. «Bend on to the mainsail halyard, you clowns! You're free now, but by the gods we've got a bit of sailing to do!»
Gursun's bull-roars seemed to shock the slaves out of their paralysis. Like arthritic old men they moved slowly across the bloody and body-strewn deck to the rope Gursun indicated. Hands trembling with excitement gripped it, and wide, unbelieving eyes turned toward Gursun for the next order.
In spite of unwilling or unskilled help, Gursun brought the ship about safely. Blade stayed on deck until Green Gull steadied on her new course, in case an extra pair of hands were needed after all. Then he went below, to search the late Captain Gazes' cabin and belongings.
Blade had to take Gazes' cabin apart almost piece by piece and splinter by splinter, with an axe, a crowbar, a hammer, and his bare hands. He worked up a sweat, he strained muscles, he bruised fingers and toes, he worked splinters of wood into feet and knees and had to work them out with a knife blade sterilized over a candle flame. But it was all worth it and ten times more.
He found Gazes' private hoard of gold and silver, almost enough to buy Green Gull all over again. He found the lists of the cargo for this voyage, a cargo that included over a hundred sets of weapons and armor for the soldiers of the garrison of Skadros. He found a copper tube, with lead seals at each end bearing the arms of Count Iscaros. He found a letter from Iscaros to Captain Gazes, telling him to turn over without fail the sealed tube and Special Prisoner 8 to Baron Descares on Skadros.
When Blade chopped open the sealed tube, he found another letter. This one was from Princess Amadora to Descares, giving him instructions about keeping the Lord Blade safely confined. It seemed that Blade was to be kept carefully hidden on Skadros until the proper moment. That proper moment would come when Amadora thought the Emperor Jores might be willing to dismiss Duke Pardes in return for Blade's safety.
Of course the Emperor might not be willing to make such a bargain. In which case Blade could be disposed of at Descares' leisure, in any way that guaranteed his body would never be found and his disappearance would remain a mystery forever.
They could hear Blade's laughter all over the ship when he finished reading the letter. It was a magnificent irony. If Amadora and Iscaros had simply slit his throat and dropped him in the nearest river, they could have been safe. Dead men wreak no vengeances and mysteriously vanished ones inspire few avengers.
But they were to sophisticated for that. They wanted Blade alive, for the time being at least, to be a piece in their deadly games once more. So they put him aboard a ship, the same ship that carried messages enough to be their own death warrants if discovered. Now the ship was in Blade's hands and so were the messages. The arch-intriguers had intrigued once too often, and intrigued themselves right into Blade's hands.
Chapter 22
Blade waited until the ship dropped anchor for the night in the lee of a small island before talking with Gursun. He started off by revealing his true identity. As he had expected, this was no great surprise to the Nessiri warrior. «But if you help me, there will be a nasty surprise for Amadora and Iscaros.»
Gursun spread his massive hands. «Without your aid I would still be a slave. You may ask of me anything that the gods of my people do not forbid.»
«Good. Then I ask that you and the other slaves help me bring this ship to where I can take this message to Duke Pardes. What say you to that?»
«You think he will reward you?»
«Reward us, my friend. I will tell him only the truth, that without you I would be a captive on Skadros and he would be ignorant of the plots. Even the best spy nets can fail. Even if we only confirm what he already knows, that will be taken as a gesture of friendship. He will know for certain that I am on his side, and should be willing to reward me and my friends.»
Gursun pulled at his beard. «Maybe. But what if his reward is a spear in the belly?»
Blade had to admit that Gursun's suspicions made too much sense, considering how things usually went in the Empire of Karan. But-
«If you are with me when I speak to Pardes, he won't live long enough to enjoy his treachery.»
«I should put my head down on the block beside yours?»
«It will help.»
«It may. But…» The Nessiri's voice trailed off and he appeared to be thinking hard. Then he pulled at his beard again.
«Blade, Karan's got a lot of Nessiri slaves and their women and children. You know that, don't you?»
«I do.»
«I think, maybe, some of them would like to fight the Scadori. We've been fighting them nearly as long as you Karani. There's a lot who were warriors among the slaves, too, so we could fight well. Some of them were even horsemen. Karan needs horsemen, doesn't it?»
«It does.» Blade waited for Gursun to continue, but the Nessiri seemed to be finished. Blade waited a little longer, then spoke briskly.
«Let's speak plainly, Gursun, not like a couple of Karani nobles pla
«Yes.»
«So what do you want of me in this matter?»
«What I want-what I want's that you talk to Pardes about this, and the Emperor too. Tell them what I've told you. Tell them I'll lead the other Nessiri, and they'll follow me. I'll swear to lay down my own life before I'll let a single Nessiri turn against Karan, swear it by anything they want to hear. Blade, you were a slave too. Think-think back to what it's like. You must-«
Blade held up a hand to stop Gursun's flow of words. «I must not do anything you ask me to, at least not just at your bidding. Particularly not when Pardes and the Emperor might think I've gone mad.» He frowned at Gursun. «Why don't you simply raise the Nessiri slaves in revolt against the Empire? That way they won't have to fight for Karan, only for themselves. They'll never have a better chance, either, with the Scadori holding the frontier and the army weakened and scattered.»