Rogue Sword Read Free

forgive the wrongdoer . Secundus , I have done you no harm, except to rid you of a servant so lazy and stupid he would leave his work to talk with a pimp. Tertius , you would be without a servant if I was arrested, which is not suitable to your dignity. Quartus , I am a most excellent servant. Besides menial tasks, I can read, write, and do sums; speak flowing Greek, with more than a smattering of other languages; sing rather well, play on whistle or cither, compose poems in all approved forms, sail a boat, fight, spy on your enemies, advise on affairs of the heart, and learn anything else my master cares to teach me.”
    “Ah, so.” With a sudden gesture, the man put sword back in sheath. He was getting more than a little interested. “Where have you gained these marvelous abilities?”
    The story was soon told, however much Lucas yielded to the temptation of embellishment when he saw ids persuasion succeeding. After her Venetian lover departed, his Cretan mother had gone back to her own fisher people and married one of them. Lucas learned the handling of small craft from his stepfather. But an uncle of his mothers, a monk, saw uncommon possibilities of another sort and educated the lad in the Greek and Roman alphabets. Likewise he learned the speech both of the Cretans and their unloved Venetian overlords. His mother died when he was eleven and her husband, with an eye to making good connections, inquired about his natural father. Pietro Torsello turned out also to be dead. But under Venetian law, no child could be totally disinherited, and Lucas’ paternity was demonstrable. So another of the Torselli undertook, grudgingly, to make provision for him and brought him to Venice. Here he was apprenticed in the countinghouse of Gasparo Reni.
    It suited him ill. He became the wildest of his fellows, always ready for a fight or a frolic--and the Queen of the Adriatic offered both, in rich variety, to those who explored her byways. Though often in trouble, the boy showed such a potentially useful talent for languages that he was never severely punished. Simply by spending time in that polyglot city, he had become able to get along in half a dozen tongues. As for his warlike capabilities: he had been in more than his share of rough-and-tumble encounters; and early this year, on reaching his fifteenth birthday, he was enrolled in the arbalestiers like any other Venetian youth.
    At the end of the tale, the knight said weightily, “If half what you claim is true, you’ll indeed be more valuable to me than that Moxe fellow. But since I plan to return through Venice, you must be left in Constantinople when I go.”
    “I shall find others who can use my services,” cried Lucas, all ablaze. “Have no fears, Signor. I’ll reach Cathay itself!”
    “I wouldn’t doubt it, if God doesn’t weary of such a scamp,” said the man dryly. “Well--do you know who I am?”
    Lucas cocked his head. “Plainly, Signor, you’re from Catalonia province, in the Kingdom of Aragon. Doubtless you’ve spent much time in the Sicilian War. From your bearing, you must be a rich hom.” He used the Catalan phrase, “great man,” meaning a scion of those baronial families which enjoyed extraordinary powers. And he continued in the same language, haltingly and ungrammatically but understood:
    “Yet forgive me if I suggest you are wealthier in birth than gold. Your baggage and accommodations are not those of a moneyed lord. Was your estate perhaps devastated when the French invaded Aragon seven years ago? Ah, well, I’m certain you fought valiantly and had much to do with expelling them.”
    “Know, I am the knight Jaime de Caza, traveling in the service for my namesake the Lord King of Aragon.”
    “At your command, En Jaime.” Lucas dropped to one knee.
    His use of the Catalan honorific was pleasing. Most Italians would have said “Don Jaime,” as if the visitor were from the Kingdom of Castile. The nobleman nodded in a friendly way. “My