Barefoot Pirate by Sherwood Smith Read Free Book Online

Nan.
    “That means either lots or none, I’ll wager,” Sarilda
chortled. Her voice was high and clear, a little like she was singing.
    “None about sums it up,” Joe said.
    Nan spoke for the first time. “On our world,” she said
grimly, “they say magic doesn’t exist.”
    All six of Blackeye’s gang burst into laughter.
    “Here’s a blindness,” Blackeye said finally. “Well! It even
beats out Thesreve, a country that burns anyone caught making the smallest
spell. But there it’s forbidden. To say it doesn’t exist...”
    “As well deny the sun!” Tarsen exclaimed.
    “You could, if it was always night,” Nan said.
    Blackeye’s slanted brows went up even more steeply. “It
seems your land has mysteries of its own. Yet you found your way here.”
    “Thanks to your book,” Joe said, pointing to the brown corner
sticking up from Nan’s hands. “We did your spell three times, like it said, and
we found ourselves here. That is, on the beach.”
    “Ah,” Kevriac said. “Let me see.”
    He lunged forward and took the book from Nan. But when he
opened it, it disappeared. Nan jumped, startled; Kevriac merely shrugged. “I
thought it might come to that. Means, the scroll has truly served its purpose.”
He smiled suddenly. “I did get a glimpse of their script, which was unlike any
of ours,” he added. “What words of transport did you speak? Can you say them
again?”
    Joe opened his mouth, but Nan quickly forestalled him. “Will
they take us back there ?”
    Kevriac blinked. “I would say I do not think so—but then, it
is not all my magic at work here. So I don’t know.”
    “We could say it once,” Joe said. “We had to say it three
times for the spell to work.”
    “ You say it,” Nan shot back, arms crossed tightly.
    So Joe repeated the phrase, and Kevriac looked puzzled. “No,
that is nothing I know. But as I said, the Gate Magic was arranged by another—”
    Once again Blackeye interrupted. “Debate the magic details
later, Kevriac and Choe-roblas. First let us discuss our more immediate
concerns. You know from Kevriac’s chronicle what it is we’re trying to do?”
    Joe nodded, and Nan said, “You’re going to get rid of a creepy
Regent, and our job is to free the prince from an enchantment.”
    “You’ve said you know nothing of magic,” Blackeye replied. “What
training have you had in self defense?”
    “None,” Nan said in a flat voice.
    Joe shrugged, feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed.
    Warron moved slightly. It seemed to Joe he was about to
speak, but he remained silent. Blackeye pursed her lips.
    Tarsen whistled. “Then we have plenty to do, eh?”
    “Sorry,” Joe muttered, thinking: It was so great to get
away, I never thought about how we’d rate when we got here.
    Nan said firmly, “We’ll learn. He’s good at sports. And
I—I’d like to know something about self defense.”
    Blackeye’s eyes narrowed. “I was about to hazard a guess you
come from a world lucky in peace, but that is not so?”
    “Not at all so,” Nan said. “Gangs, bullies, and all kinds of
rottenness. But most fighting is done with guns—”
    The word ‘guns’ came out in English again, and Nan and Joe
had to provide an explanation. When the others finally grasped the notion of a
weapon which killed from a distance, they were universal in condemning such
cowardliness.
    “At least here when persons attack one another, they are in
reach of the other’s skills,” Tarsen exclaimed.
    “I don’t claim we are any better than another world, not
with the accursed Todan and his bootlickers running things as they like, but
this world of yours sounds very strange,” Sarilda said, and shrugged
expressively.
    “No matter,” Blackeye put in. “We can discuss the mysteries
of other worlds after we have begun our work here. Our first job was to be the
recovery of our ship. Before that, I think, we must train you two a little.”
    Joe saw her exchange a look, difficult to interpret,