Foretellers (The Ydron Saga Book 3) Read Free Page B

feigned camaraderie. “Word of advice. Unlike me, he’s a man of no patience whatsoever.”
    His smile broadened when Roanna recoiled from his breath.
    “Love me, do you?” he asked, then threw back his head and guffawed.
    He dragged her to the staircase and pulled her up after him. Roanna tried to glance back to see what was happening, but pinioned as she was, she could only listen and try to learn from the noises how her daughter was faring.
    She cursed herself for failing to look beyond coming aboard. The fact that these last few days had exhausted her, robbing her of critical thought, did little to alleviate her guilt and the pounding she was taking as the men hauled her topside prevented her from envisioning anything beyond the present.
    The one giving orders shoved the hatch cover open, causing it to pivot on its hinges and slam onto the deck. Maintaining his grip, he pulled Roanna up the last few steps into daylight and the brilliance forced her to squint. She stumbled from the hatch and would have fallen had the men not been holding onto her.
    “Bosun! What have you there?” someone called from across the deck.
    “Stowaways,” the foul-breathed man shouted back.
    The one who had hailed, a man perhaps in his fifties, stood with his hands planted on the poop deck’s railing, and was leaning toward them. His uniform—a dark blue tailcoat and matching tri-cornered hat, both trimmed with gold—set him apart from the crew.
    “Found the ones who stole the skiff and set her adrift, Cap’n.”
    “Thieves, you say? Bring them here where I can see them.”
    As the bosun and his shipmate dragged Roanna toward him, she glanced back. Another crewman had slung Pandy over his shoulder and was toting her like a sack full of grain. Roanna hated the way he was handling her, but feared he would hurt her out of spite if she dared to object. She didn’t have long to assess her surroundings, but she knew she had to get things right.
    Glancing around, she saw the vessel was far larger than she had envisioned. It sported four tall masts, and instead of square-cut sails, each canvas was a large quadrangle—a rectangle with a diagonal cut across the top. Although this was her first time aboard any kind of ship, she could tell they had been under way for what might have been hours. The land was already well off to her right, which would put it due east. That meant they were heading north, perhaps to Monhedeth or lands beyond. Although the stiffness of the breeze, the ship’s tilt and the hiss of water against the hull indicated they were making good time, the binary suns were still low in the sky so she suspected the ship had set sail in the dark hours before dawn to have come this far out so early.
    “Here they are, Captain,” the bosun said, sending Roanna towards him with a shove.
    Pandy’s escort followed suit, dropping the girl onto the deck beside her. Roanna began to help, thought better, and turned to face the captain instead. She drew herself upright, standing as tall as she could, then smoothed her rumpled leathers.
    “Captain,” she asked, trying to take the anger out of her face, “is this treatment really necessary? My daughter is just a child, hardly a criminal, and we have neither harmed nor threatened your crew.”
    “But you’ve lost my property, haven’t you?” he asked. “You are the ones who stole my boat and set it adrift.”
    “We were running for our lives, running from men who were hunting us with wolves. Unarmed, we didn’t have much choice.”
    “So you admit you are criminals.”
    “These days, not everyone who runs is guilty,” she replied. “You should know the state of the world as well as anyone. All the lands are at war and none of us is safe.”
    “The fact remains, you came aboard uninvited. I have provisions enough for my crew and have no need for two extra mouths. Why shouldn’t I toss you over the side?”
    She didn’t have time to consult the future. Hesitation would not