The Defiant by Lesley Livingston

Author:Lesley Livingston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2018-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

XI

THE SEA RUSHED to meet the rugged contours of the wild Corsican coast as if it had been too long away from the kiss of land. To the north and west of us, the water was the color of the blue-green faience collars Cleopatra wore around her neck, the waves sparkling and laced with delicate nets of pearly foam. Schools of silver fish darted and danced in the shadows cast by the galley prow as we sailed in the lee of majestic cliffs. In the far distance, I could just make out the profile of another island—Sardinia, I’d been told it was called—that lay to the south of us.

We sailed between the two islands, following the Corsican shoreline, and eventually rounded a towering promontory that raced away to the east, swooping low to become a gleaming beach circling a deep, sheltered bay surrounded by forest-cloaked hills rising back toward craggy mountains.

Cai looked at Quintus. “Is this the place?”

Quint nodded. He looked over his shoulder at where Charon stood up on the captain’s deck and pointed to a spot on the shore. The slave master gave the order, and the sailors steered the ship in that direction.

“Do you think they’ll have sentries posted?” Elka asked Quint.

He shook his head. “No. No one comes here.”

“Because of the Amazons?”

“Their reputation has been enough to guard this place and keep it safe since before I was born,” he said. “There are those who say it is a cursed place.”

I saw Charon wince and glance over his shoulder at the ship’s captain, who’d been listening to the conversation. Charon took Quint by the shoulder and turned him away from the man. “I’d counsel you against using that kind of language around the crew, friend. Sailors are a superstitious lot.”

Charon had already told us that his men would not go ashore with us when we dropped anchor. They were slavers and sailors, not fighters, and no amount of money—even if I’d had any to speak of—would convince them otherwise. But I worried in that moment that they would leave us to our business once we were gone and sail back to the mainland without us. I said as much to Charon.

He shook his head. “I’ll stay behind. You’ll have a ship standing by to return to, Princess,” he said. “I promise.”

“And I’ll stay behind to make sure he keeps that promise,” said Aeddan, joining the conversation.

Charon cocked his head and regarded Aeddan. “You don’t trust me?”

“You’re a career thief.” Aeddan shrugged. “A scoundrel. The leader of career thieves and scoundrels. I trust you as much as I would any in your trade.”

I groaned inwardly, but Charon just smiled. He turned to me. “And you, Fallon, do you trust me? Him?”

“I trust that you’ll be here when I get back,” I said. “Whether Aeddan is or not, well . . . surprise me.”

“I’ll happily take wagers on whether we come back to find him floating faceup or facedown,” Elka said dryly.

Aeddan turned a flat stare on her—which she returned in kind—but that was the extent of his response, for which I was thankful.

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.