Masks of Scorpio Read Free Page A

being turned back on his own head. It was amusing. The situation itself, also, held amusing overtones. I simply stood back and didn’t even bother to take a mental wager on the outcome.
    An abrupt blast of wind that stretched our canvas and heeled Tuscurs Maiden settled the issue.
    We were convinced that Mindi the Mad knew the coast and that she would not send us hurtling down onto rocks driven helplessly by the wind. There was a secure cove there sheltered from the gale. That had to be so...
    In the refreshing way of your rapscallion Kregan they would have fallen into a sprightly argument, well-spattered with flowery oaths, before deciding to do what was obvious.
    For some unfathomable reason — no doubt connected with my thoughts of Dayra — I was jolted into a memory of the time I’d spent as a kaidur in the Jikhorkdun of Huringa in Hyrklana. The arena’s silver sands had wallowed in spilled blood and I’d fought as a sworder against horrific beasts and wilder men.
    In those days I’d dreamed of my baby twins, Drak and Lela, for the rest of the children had not yet visited Kregen. I’d thought, even then, that babies grow up and face their own problems. Well, by Zair!
    My children had grown up and they did, indeed, face their own horrific problems. The amusing kicker here was that Dayra’s twin brother, Jaidur, had grown up to become the king of Hyrklana. I could never have expected that when I’d fought in the arena in Huringa’s Jikhorkdun!
    So, impelled by these old thoughts, and perhaps with more of that old, lowering, black, devil’s mask that was the real Dray Prescot, I stepped forward.
    “Let us follow Mindi’s direction and seek a safe cove and to Sicce’s Gates with these rasts who follow us! Then we can divide up the treasure and see each one of us obtains his just share and reward.”
    Pompino glanced at me with a perplexed look. Then, at once, he shouted: “Captain Linson! Kindly steer the ship where the witch directs. As soon as we find a safe anchorage we can—” here he brushed up his whiskers in a way which said that, by Horato the Potent, he might not know much about ships; but he was the Owner, and he knew a bit of sea-going jargon or two “—where we can drop the hook.”
    Some of the old sea salts down in the waist laughed at this; but the situation eased dramatically.
    As for me — I felt the relief that Dayra was going to be kept out of another fight. She was a trained fighting girl, a mistress of the Whip and Claw. She had sheathed her Talons for a space. Those wicked razor-sharp talons affixed to her Claw that could rip a fellow’s face off as soon as look at him, they would remain sheathed if I had my way.
    And that, as any onker could tell you, was as unlikely a happenstance on Kregen as anything else. The future would not hold that Sweetness and Light I craved, and yet the darkness would be illuminated by flashes of that lightning that comes only from good companionship and stout hearts and a brave striding on against fortune.
    Running before the wind we sped rapidly toward the coastline. Any skipper in his right mind would have nothing whatsoever to do with this madness — running freely down onto a lee shore! Insanity! But we trusted the pale-blue glimmering apparition of the witch-woman, Mindi the Mad.
    The moment an upflung headland of gaunt striated rock passed away to starboard the wind moderated spectacularly. Our canvas flapped. We moved on sluggishly in the wayward eddying currents of air spilling over into this wide expanse of sheltered water.
    We had way enough to continue and to enter the mouth of a funnel-shaped bay. The land swept away and upward into mountain crests, and all clothed with strongly green vegetation. A river no doubt spilled down between those hills. The thought occurred to me, idly, that in all probability the water we now sailed was perfectly drinkable.
    Islands scattered reflections of themselves, many islands, and flocks of birds, driven to