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.She pressed her ear to the door and listened for a long while, but all she heard was the sound of her own heartbeat.She remembered how thick the door was, how heavy as she pushed it shut, built solid and closely fit so that Bloodwind wouldn’t be disturbed by the screams of the prisoners and Hydra’s prey.Likely, she wouldn’t hear the pirates even if they were singing drunken chanties right outside.I can’t be sure, she thought.They could be still out there, waiting for me.She could stay a bit longer without undue discomfort.Hunger was not an issue; she was familiar with hunger, knew how to ignore it.Water was the problem; she couldn’t survive more than a few days with nothing to drink.She’d seen Bloodwind with prisoners, driving them to desperation by withholding water, then tricking them into drinking seawater, and laughing as they died in convulsions.“Water, then,” she said quietly, this time comforted by the sound of her own voice in the darkness.“I need to find water to stay alive.” And I need to stay alive, she thought, because when it’s safe, Emil will come for me.That thought solidified her resolve; sweet, gentle Emil, who had made love to her so carefully, so tenderly.Perhaps he would forgive her for what she had done, hiding here instead of continuing her charade by leaving with Parek.She might even be able to forgive herself, someday.But for now, she had to stay alive.Camilla felt along the wall, found the torch bracket, but it was empty.She bumped into the wall perpendicular to the door, then followed it, feeling ahead with her toe until the floor ended.It seemed that a vast empty space stretched open before her: the stairs.Stretching out with her foot, she found the first step, lowered herself down, then found the next.Swallowing her fear, she made her way down into the darkness.Chapter 15Orders“I implore you to take action on this, Admiral Joslan.” Emil Norris clenched his hands behind his back.It took all of his diplomatic training to keep the anger, despair and impatience that tore at him from registering in his face and voice.The dullest, most inbred sovereign he had ever dealt with during his long career had greater wit than the addlebrained twit seated behind the broad teak desk in the great cabin of the Indomitable.“Lives are at stake here.You saw the carnage on the beach.The same, or worse, will be perpetrated upon those who were taken prisoner.”“Lives are always at stake, Milord Count,” Admiral Joslan countered.He shoveled the last forkful of his lunch into his mouth, nudged the plate away, and dabbed his mouth with a silk napkin while the steward whisked away the plate and refreshed the admiral’s blackbrew.Joslan took a sip of the steaming beverage.“Lives were at stake when Clairissa and Fire Drake were destroyed.Until we know more about that—”“I’ve told you how that happened.” Norris’ throat was raw from his hours-long account of the horrible chain of events that had led to the sinking of the Fire Drake and the burning of the Clairissa.“Yes,” the admiral said, narrowing his eyes.“According to you, the seamage is completely innocent.The mer took down Fire Drake, a pyromage burned Clairissa, and a pirate stowed away on Brelak’s schooner fired the first shot.What you seem to be ignoring, Milord Count, is that the seamage is allied to both the mer and the pyromage—as if having one bloody sorcerer wasn’t enough—and is married to Brelak! If that doesn’t make her complicit, I don’t know what does.But that is for His Majesty to decide, not me.As to the cannibals taking captives, as commander of this armada, it is my responsibility to decide if the lives at stake warrant additional lives being put at risk, and I will not commit the emperor’s forces to an unknown situation.”“The situation is not unknown, sir.Our lookout watched the ships sail away.The cannibal ship went south.There are few harbors of refuge available to a galleon of that size in that direction, and none, Paska tells me, large enough to hide the ship from view [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]