Bard City B-Sides: Bonus Stories From the Cozy World of Bard City Blues by Nathaniel Webb

Author:Nathaniel Webb [Webb, Nathaniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0CKWC9RM9
Goodreads: 199397288
Published: 2023-10-14T22:00:00+00:00

Supper was a good one, much better than the usual fare Alix associated with sea travel. Having split a plateful of grouse and more than one bottle of wine, Alix and Gally staggered the few yards from the master’s cabin to their own. It was, mercifully, filled by a large bed that swung gently to the motion of the ship on ropes as thick as Gally’s arm. Alix flopped in gratefully without bothering to undress. Her eyes fluttered shut. The slosh of waves against the hull commingled with the pattering of sailors’ feet on the quarterdeck above their heads and a soft call of “Five bells! Five bells in the first watch!” The soothing blur of noise soon had her deep asleep.

She woke suddenly to shouting, sat up in alarm, and clocked her head on a beam so badly she saw stars.

“Something is happening,” said Gally. She was already out of bed and half into her usual cable-knit sweater and denim trousers.

“I think my skull’s caved in,” Alix said, rubbing her forehead.

“That’s just the wine, cavalier. Come on!”

Alix would rather have forfeited consciousness, but being called cavalier—an old word Gally said meant a swashbuckling knight—always woke her willing spirit. She slipped from the bed, laced up her breeches, and was trying to decide whether to change into the blue blouse with the ruffles when Gally opened the cabin door and slipped through. Alix shrugged and followed, tugging her current white shirt into place as she went. Only Gally could override a debate so crucial as what to wear.

In the narrow hall beneath the quarterdeck, the other passengers had clustered by the door of Cloth-of-Gold’s cabin, which was closest to Captain Axe’s at the stern of the brig. The elf, draped in a nightgown of luxurious purple silk, had Father Ubb by the collar of his robe and was shaking him agitatedly.

“Where are my rings, you lout? Hand them over or I’ll see you pitched into the ocean you love so much!”

Father Ubb’s face, far from its usual red, had gone a sort of green-white under its expression of alarm. “I told you, I don’t have them! Unhand me!”

“Shake him harder,” said Bishop Draskis, who stood barefoot in a single-breasted gown of sand-colored silk that barely reached his knees. He shook his ear trumpet at Ubb. “The stolen jewels might fall out.”

Chiss, leaning against the bulkhead in the same roguish black leathers as the night before, yawned. “You won’t find them on his person. They’ll be stashed somewhere about the ship.”

“Is that so?” asked Cloth-of-Gold. “Where did you hide them, sea-priest? There’s no use prevaricating. You were in my room just now, you can’t deny that, and my rings are missing.”

“How dare you accuse me of theft!” Father Ubb pushed the elf away with a meaty hand, finally breaking the grip on his collar. “It was attempted theft. I’ll admit it: I snuck into your cabin this morning to take back what belongs to my god. But you woke up the moment I set foot over the threshold, you sharp-eared nuisance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.