Mad Ship Read Free Page B

the Ludlucks to do this.”
    “Who?”
    Amber’s voice was small. “I had hoped you knew someone who would speak for you.”
    Paragon was silent for a time. Then he laughed harshly. “No one will speak for me. This is a stupid effort, Amber. Think about it. Not even my own family cares for me. I know what they say about me. I am a killer. Moreover, it’s true, isn’t it? All hands lost. I rolled and drowned them all, and not just once. The Ludlucks are right, Amber. They should sell me to be chopped up.” Despair washed over him, colder and deeper than any storm wave. “I’d like to be dead,” he declared. “I’d just like to stop.”
    “You don’t mean that,” Amber said softly. He could hear in her voice that she knew he did.
    “Would you do me a favor?” he asked suddenly.
    “What?”
    “Kill me before they can.”
    He heard the soft intake of her breath. “I … No. I couldn’t.”
    “If you knew they were coming to chop me up, you could. I will tell you the only sure way. You have to set fire to me. Not just in one place, but many, to make sure they cannot put it out and save me. If you gathered dry wood, a little each day, and put it in piles in my hold … ”
    “Don’t even speak of such things,” Amber said faintly. Distractedly, she added, “I should put the mussels on to cook now.” He heard her scratching at her fire, then the sizzle of wet seaweed steaming on hot coals. She was cooking the mussels alive. He considered pointing that out to her. He decided it would only upset her, not sway her to his cause. He waited until she had come back to him. She sat on the sand, leaning against his canted hull. Her hair was very fine. When it brushed against his planking, it snagged and clung to the wood.
    “You don’t make sense,” he pointed out genially. “You vow you would stand and fight for me, knowing you would lose. But this simple, sure mercy you refuse me.”
    “Death by flames is scarcely mercy.”
    “No. Being chopped to pieces is much more pleasant, I’m sure,” Paragon retorted sarcastically.
    “You go so quickly from childish tantrums to cold logic,” Amber said wonderingly. “Are you child or man? What are you?”
    “Both, perhaps. But you change the subject. Come. Promise me.”
    “No,” she pleaded.
    He let out his breath in a sigh. She would do it. He could hear it in her voice. If there were no other way to save him, then she would do it. A strange trembling ran through him. It was a strange victory to have won. “And jars of oil,” he added. “When they come, you may not have much time. Oil would make the wood burn fast and hot.”
    There followed a long silence. When she spoke again, her voice was altered. “They will try to move you in secret. Tell me how they would do it.”
    “Probably the same way I was put up here. They will wait for a high tide. Most likely, they would choose the highest tide of the month, at night. They will come with rollers, donkeys, men and small boats. It will not be a small undertaking, but knowledgeable men could get it done quickly.”
    Amber considered. “I shall have to move my things into you. I shall have to sleep aboard in order to guard you. Oh, Paragon,” she cried out suddenly, “don’t you have anyone who could speak up for you to the Bingtown Council?”
    “Only you.”
    “I’ll try. But I doubt they will give me a chance. I’m an outsider in Bingtown. They only listen to their own.”
    “You once told me you were respected in Bingtown.”
    “As an artisan and a merchant, they respect me. I am not an Old Trader. They would not have much patience with me if I began meddling in their affairs. Likely, I would suddenly find I had no customers. Or perhaps worse. The whole town is becoming more divided along Old Trader and newcomer lines. There is a rumor that the Bingtown Council has sent a delegation to the Satrap, with their original charter. They will demand he honor the word of Satrap Esclepius. The rumor is