Dreamspinner by Lynn Kurland Read Free Book Online Page B

in—” He paused, then laughed a little. “Never mind my ramblings. Be off with ye, little one, and catch yer ship.”
    “Thank you, good sir.”
    He patted her shoulder again with one of his great paws, then walked off, whistling a cheery tune and shoving a few more lads out of his way. Aisling would have watched him go, but she decided immediately that the best thing she could do was hurry to the end of the dock. Whilst Paien of Allerdale might have been of a friendly mien, the rest of the men on the dock were not. If she gained the ship without losing her coin, it would be a miracle.
    Unfortunately miracles were apparently not hers to claim that day. By the time she had reached the ship Master Paien hadindicated, all the while trying to avoid seedy-looking men and even a pair of women dressed in red silks who looked as dangerous as the men, she was missing not only her coin but her cloak and her boots. She wasn’t entirely sure her eye wouldn’t swell shut soon, and she was fairly convinced her lip was bleeding. Whatever else might be said about her, one could certainly say that brawling was not an occupation she should be considering anytime soon.
    Things were just not going her way. She shouldn’t have been surprised, she knew. The journey there had been terrible: uncomfortable, unpleasant, and with absolutely no privacy in the coach. That, added to her constant fear every time they paused that she had been followed and caught, had made for a horrendous journey indeed. She hadn’t spent very much time doing anything but hiding behind the hood of the peddler’s cloak and wishing she could ignore the sensation of the carriage standing still and the world spinning endlessly beneath her…
    She stumbled to an ungainly halt behind a stocky man who directed other less burly lads to carry things to a ship bobbing not-so-gently against the wood of the dock.
    “Excuse me, sir,” she began.
    He elbowed her aside. “No time, lad.”
    “Are you Captain Burke?”
    “If you have to ask, lad, you should be back at home, hiding behind your mama’s skirts, now
move
.”
    “Paien of Allerdale sent me,” she blurted out.
    Captain Burke swung around, almost taking her head off with his arm. He frowned. “Did he, now?”
    “He gave me a coin as well,” Aisling said, wrapping her arms around herself.
    “Where is it?”
    There was the rub, truly. She took a deep breath and looked up at him with as much courage as possible. “I lost it.”
    “Had it stolen from you, no doubt,” Captain Burke said with a grunt. “And no wonder, what with you being such a wisp of a thing. What are you thinking to be out in the world?”
    “I have no choice,” she said, trying not to sound as desperate asshe was. “I must reach Sgioba as quickly as possible.” She took a deep breath. “I could work on your ship.”
    “Doing what?” he asked with a snort. “Looking for your beard? Lad, you’re about to find yourself in the bay if you don’t leave me be.”
    “I can sew your—” She gestured at the canvas bits hanging from the crossbars of the mast of his ship. “Well, whatever those things are.”
    “Sails,” the captain said, blowing out his breath. “You useless landlubber, begone!”
    Aisling caught him by the sleeve. “Please,” she said quickly. “
Please
. I need to get to Sgioba.”
    He raised his hand. She realized he intended to strike her only because another hand caught his wrist and stopped it from coming any farther toward her. The captain started to swear, then shut his mouth abruptly around his words. He shook off the restraining hand, then schooled his features.
    “Just a lesson in manners,” he said gruffly.
    A male voice spoke from behind her, the words pronounced in an elegant way she could understand perfectly. “Not taught by you, I don’t think.”
    “Of course, my lord.”
    Aisling looked over her shoulder. A man stood there, cloaked and hooded. He was quite a bit taller than she was, though