Читать «Rising Tide (зксм-1)» онлайн - страница 25

"Umberlee take the lot of them," Hagagne grumbled, climbing up the rigging to reach Jherek.

Hagagne was in his late thirties, a sallow man with loose skin that never seemed to quite brown enough and left him constantly reddened and peeling. He was bald on top and had an unruly fringe of hair around his head.

"What's going on?" Jherek asked the sailor.

"They've decided to fish," Hagagne answered, perching on the edge of the crow's nest as Jherek made room.

Jherek watched as deckhands brought the two fishing chairs out and set them up. Yeill and one of the Amnian young men sat in the chairs and belted themselves in with the leather restraint straps.

"They saw Marcle and Dawdre fishing earlier," Hagagne said, "and decided it would be great sport."

Jherek knew Marcle and Dawdre had done all right for themselves, bringing in ulauf and whitefish on the long poles as well as the swordfish. A lot of meat had been salted and put back in the ship's larder.

"They've even got a wager going on," Hagagne said with a harsh laugh.

Jherek looked the question at him.

"If the young bitch-"

"Please don't call her that," Jherek said, but his voice carried sheathed steel.

Hagagne shrugged, taking no offense. "If the young lady," the older sailor amended, "wins, she gets one of the dandy's breeding stallions, something he seems to be particularly proud of. If he wins, he gets to spend the night in her silks."

A cold depression settled over Jherek's shoulders.

"You liked her, didn't you lad?" Hagagne asked. "Even after that bit she done for you?"

"I don't even know her." Jherek watched the young woman with a heavy heart, knowing his words were more true than he'd thought earlier.

"You've a tender heart, Jherek. All you young brooding ones do." Hagagne pulled a pouch from his work apron and took out a pipe carved in the likeness of a sea horse. The sea horse's curled tail created the bowl. He filled it with pipeweed, lit up, and said, "Lucky for you it'll pass, and glad you'll be of it."

Once Yeill and her competitor were lashed in, the long fishing poles were attached to the chairs and locked in. As the hooks were baited, the gathered Amnians cheered again and passed around several bottles of the wine they'd been drinking since they boarded in Athkatla.

"Her father knows of the wager?" Jherek asked.

"Aye, and he was one of the first to encourage the competition. To hear him tell it, his daughter's luck is phenomenal." Hagagne grinned evilly. "Only we know about the one that got away, don't we, lad?"

Seeing no humor in the remark, Jherek refrained from responding.

Deckhands threw the baited hooks into the slight wake behind the cog. Yeill and her competitor worked the reels at once, letting more fishing line out. Another deckhand poured out a bucket of chum from the big barrel kept in the stern.

"What about the situation with the Amnians?" Jherek asked.

"You mean about the girl's da breathing down the cap'n's neck?"

"Aye."

"They reached an agreement."