The Company of Eight by Harriet Whitehorn

Author:Harriet Whitehorn [Harriet Whitehorn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847159816
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

It was a couple of nights later that Cass and the other slaves were woken by shouting and an almighty crash from the side of the boat. It sounded like another boat had rammed into them. They all sat up, instantly awake, watching the door, listening to the sound of footsteps ringing down the stairs. It was not Bang who appeared, but one of the sailors.

“Come now,” he said to Cass. Cass was more intrigued than frightened – was someone here to rescue her? Had Rip come? Had Elsba, somehow heard…

There was just a sliver of moon that night with few stars, and it was dark on the deck with only a couple of lanterns lit. One was immediately shoved in Cass’s face.

“That’s the girl,” a male voice said, but Cass could only see the silhouettes of the men. What was going on? She could feel the tension crackling through the air like a thunderstorm.

“Very well,” Cass heard Bang say with a sigh. “And my sincere apologies to your master. I had no idea.”

Who could his master be? Cass wondered.

“Oh really, fat man?” the male voice said in a Far Isles accent. “Not according to the landlady in Samay. She said you swore that you had no such girl on board. I think you didn’t want to lose the gold that you would make out of her in Riza.”

“I promise you it was not deliberate,” Bang said, his voice ingratiating. “I genuinely believed it was not the same girl. If there is anything I can offer you by way of compensation for your trouble, I would gladly oblige. I am carrying a cargo of summer wine from the Mid Isles. You are welcome to that.”

“How very kind of you! You’d better hand over your silvers too, fat man,” the voice said.

The lantern light fell on the man speaking and Cass looked at the young Far Islander. He was as broad as a bull, with a shaved head and a sword by his side. In a moment of terrible realization she suddenly knew who his master was just as he said, “Cassandra, let me introduce myself. I am Kov. My master, Varen, is going to be thrilled to see you.”

Black spots danced in front of Cass’s eyes and the bones in her body seemed to melt away. She would have crumpled in a heap on the deck had the sailor not held her up. The pirate saw this and laughed. “Right, let’s get you aboard our boat,” he said.

Cass was filled with the same terror she had felt with Varen and it made time move very slowly. The sailor passed her over to one of the pirates, who took her roughly by the arm.

The pirate ship was alongside the slave boat, roped to it, and the pirate took her to the far end to cross. He muttered some disgusting things to her and called to the others left on board the boat. A feeling of such horror and revulsion rose up

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.