Artifacts of Power 01 - Aurian by Maggie Furey

Author:Maggie Furey [Furey, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Bantam Sepctra Books
Published: 1994-08-01T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20 - THE SLAVE MASTER

From the familiar way in which the floor rocked and heaved beneath him, Anvar realized that he was on board a ship once more. He was tightly bound with coarse rope, and his aching head was throbbing in time to a hollow, muffled booming that assailed his hearing with ceaseless monotony. He lay still for a moment, not daring to open his eyes, his cheek resting on damp, splintery boards. It was suffocatingly hot. He could smell tar and reeking bodies, vomit and excrement. As well as the booming thuds that echoed painfully through his skull, he could hear the clink of chains and the occasional crack of a whip, punctuated by screams of pain.

Anvar opened his eyes. He lay in a long, narrow, torchlit space that took up, he guessed, most of the belowdecks area of the ship. Chained slaves, in rows of four, sat at benches on either side of a narrow aisle; each row of men wielded a heavy oar between them. The hulking figure of an overseer prowled up and down, flourishing a vicious whip, while at the far end a bald giant with skin like dark-tanned leather pounded on a heavy drum, setting the pace for the rowers. Anvar had been thrown into the cramped space in the narrow bow, where there was no room for oarsmen. A quick glance round showed no sign of Sara, and his stomach tightened with fear.

Someone was coming down the ladder that was attached to the wooden bulkhead behind the behemoth with the drum. From the sudden smartening of the overseer's attitude, the quickening of the drumbeat, and the richness of the man's loose robes, Anvar decided that this must be the captain. He was a tall, emaciated-looking man with a hook nose and a thin, straggling beard. His head was shaved completely bald, except for a braided pigtail at the back, and his skin glowed like polished wood in the dim red torchlight. His voice was deep and guttural as he addressed the overseers. "Pick up the beat, you! Get these sluggards moving, or you'll find yourself joining them!"

Anvar was stunned. The man was speaking a language that was completely strange to him - he could hear that quite plainly - yet he could understand every word! The ability to understand and speak any language was a talent common to all the Mageborn... Anvar felt a warning pain lance through his skull, and had to clench his teeth to keep from groaning aloud. To turn his mind from such dangerous thoughts, he concentrated on the captain's words.

"... And swill this pigsty out! How can you endure the stench? I will not have us coming into port smelling like a cattle boat! We are Royal Corsairs, and we have a reputation to uphold!"

A groan of protest came from the overseer. "It's bad enough having to live with these animals. Why should we have to clean up after them?"

The crack of the captain's fist hitting his face echoed in the confined space.

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.