Marri's Approach (Brackish Bay) Read Free Page B

soldiers.”
    Busted. Nothing for it but to bluff my way through.
    “No, sir, but because I come straight from Amanda Tell's army, we came to a slightly different agreement.”
    “Amanda Tell? Who is that?”
    “She's a highly renowned general. She expects all her soldiers to get a feel for the lay of the land, to understand the ground they're defending before they do so.”
    Fortuna, he seems to be able to tell I'm lying. I'm not completely lying, though. It is an idea I'd suggested to her.
    “Is that so? I don't believe Gerard has ever had a rule like that.”
    His bulk was still blocking the doorway, and it made me antsy. I could feel myself being closed in, and as a spy, being closed in was the worst. Added to that, I was out of options. I couldn't kill him, I couldn't threaten her, I dared not touch the children in even the slightest intimation of danger. Not that I could, Fortuna. Smart little rug rats that they were, they had backed into a corner out of reach. I couldn't seduce him, either, not with the children there.
    “Sarafina, has nothing she's said struck you as suspicious?”
    Sarafina colored under her husband's questioning gaze. “No, sir.”
    “Did she tell you she was a soldier?”
    “No, sir. But I didn't ask, sir.”
    “Didn't ask. Sarafina, your heart is too generous for your own good.”
    The boy spoke up. “Mama thought she was good because she knows William. She told us a story.”
    His father turned his gaze to the boy, all of a decade old. “What story?”
    “She told us a story of a girl soldier who became a spy.”
    Oh, gods, Fortuna, curse my lack of imagination.
    His gaze fell hard on me. “Is that so.”
    I found myself flushing. “Yes, sir.”
    He reached for me then, and that was his mistake. In doing so, he moved towards me, away from the doorway, so I ducked and darted around him, slipping out the door even as his big hands tore part of my tunic. I ran, and as I did I tucked the scrap of lace into my belt. I could hear him behind me, shouting, but I ignored it. At his size, he was no match for me, speed-wise. I wasted no time with the beach, and instead leapt off the small cliff next to it, landing with a massive splash in the river. The impact stunned me momentarily, and it was all I could do to get my head above water. But then I did, and found the strength to float, paddling just enough to steer. I swept around the curve, and suddenly I saw the frothy connection of the river to the sea.
    Fear pierced my heart. I began to swim hard, angling for the shore, desperate not to get swept out to the ocean where I would surely die. Boats crossed my path, and I was forced to spend energy fighting the current to stay in place or get around them. Men shouted and women screamed, and then I ducked just as a large boat passed over where I had just been. I pushed away from it, hand over hand, thankful that there was no spinning turbine on this one even as my lungs burned from lack of air. I came back to the surface gasping in its wake, and struck out for shore again. There. There was a spot where the woods met the river, and the weeping willow trees touched the water.
    I swam for it, all my muscles screaming. I caught a trailing branch, but my grip was weak, and I couldn't hold on. I struggled, trying to get closer, and then I saw it—a great S shape slithering through the water. The burst of terror gave me the strength I needed, and I scrambled up the bank, my leaden arms hauling my body up with the branches. The crocodile snapped at me. I cried as I scaled the tree, my body raw from the water and the bark, but whole. I wedged myself into a crook of the branches and shivered, watching the big crocodile slink back into the river.
    Finally, I cried myself to sleep.
    It was dawn when I awoke to the sound of men coming ashore. My muscles were cramped and stiff from the tremendous exertion of the day before, but I dared not move.
    “I thought I saw her come ashore here.”
    “I don't know.