Perilous Seas Read Free Page B

called a shipping hazard-breathtaking, in fact. No male jotunn
would worry at all about her mental processes, pro or con.
    “Maybe
Grindrog doesn’t like her either. But that’s irrelevant. “
    “Petrel?
He’s bosun on Petrel?”
    “Right.
Don’t let your meal get cold--”
    “About
twenty-four, twenty-five? Twice my size, with a cast in one eye and his nose
pushed over to the right? That one?”
    “That’s
him. “
    “And
Petrel just berthed. I suppose there’s no chance that he might not find
out?”
    “None
whatsoever,” Ogi said complacently. “Kani’s making sure he
gets the news right away, as soon as she beaches, while all his crewmates are
still around to sympathize.”
    Rap
picked up his platter absentmindedly and began to eat, staring into the fire
again. “I’ve saved up about half an imperial, Ogi. It’s on
the rafter over the hammock. You and Kani are my best friends, and I d like you
to share that. My boots are worth-”
    “Oh,
shut up! Do you think I’d do that to you?”
    Rap
glanced seaward. “Someone’s coming now. He’ll be here in a
minute. Yes, it’s Kani, running. Coming to tell you that the trap’s
set? So out with it-what’s the ploy?” He seemed to be taking this
better than he had done a moment before.
    “You
can have one boot, and Kani the other.”
    “Shut
up! Listen-Grindrog hasn’t fought in over a year now! He challenged
Rathkrun himself. Rathkrun put him to sleep for a week.”
    Rap
gulped, as if swallowing fish bones.
    “But,”
Ogi said triumphantly, “he hasn’t picked a fight since! Now I
happened to notice him baiting a hook, last time he was in port. He held it
right up here, on his left. Real close. And he’s right-handed! “
    Rap
chewed in thoughtful silence.
    “Rathkrun
kicked his head about quite a bit! Rap, I don’t think he can see worth a
cod’s ankles! I’ve been watching him. He trips over things. He
slobbers when he talks. And if you get him mad enough tonight, he’ll be
fighting in the dark.”
    “That’s
cheating!”
    Absurd!
If the kid thought like that then he wasn’t old enough to be allowed out
alone, certainly not in a jotunn communityand yet Ogi had half expected that
objection.
    “That’s
partly why we snared you. You’ve got to go down there and drive him so
wild that he’ll try to fight a seer in the dark. If he loses his jotunn
temper, then you’ve got him.”
    “Or
the other way,” Rap said calmly, chewing, gazing levelly at Ogi-who was
beginning to find that steady stare unnerving.
    “You’ve
got your shoulders now, Rap. You can deliver.”
    “It
isn’t going to work. Not for long. Everyone knows I have farsight, so if
I win I’ll get a daylight challenge real soon, and you’re trying to
rank a mule above hundreds of purebred jotnar ... But I suppose the main thing
is to live through tonight, isn’t it?”
    He
had some good points there, but tomorrow could look after itself. “Right.
Just get him so mad he can’t wait to get at you.”
    “If
I said that Wulli told me he couldn’t get it up for her, not even once
... that would do it, wouldn’t it?”
    Ogi’s
forehead broke out in sweat at the thought of what that accusation would do to
a drunken jotunn. “Just about. You may have her father to worry about
tomorrow, but he’s pretty old.”
    Rap
threw his platter aside and wiped his mouth, as if he had reached a decision.
Ogi held out the wine jug, but he shook his head.
    “I’d
rather be sober. “
    “Oh,
you’re weird! Sober, for Gods’ sake? Fight sober? Jotnar think that’s
unmanly. That’s worse cheating than using farsight! “
    In
silence, Rap stood up and stretched. Apparently he’d accepted his
destiny. Ogi had expected a much longer argument, and he began to wonder if
this was a trick and the faun was planning to disappear into the woods. He
certainly did not look like a tyro preparing to fight one of the top killers in
Durthing.
    Sounds
of smashing shrubbery heralded the approach of