Foxmask by Juliet Marillier Read Free Book Online

staying there. All I want is the answer to a question.”
    â€œAnd what question’s that?” Sam asked, stroking the cat, which had curled itself on his lap in a ball of gray-striped contentment, purring like a simmering kettle. But Thorvald did not reply, and the silence lengthened between them.
    â€˜I’ll think about it,” Sam said eventually. “But I’ll be straight with you, Thorvald. I can’t see much in it for me, beyond helping an old friend.”
    â€œOne last adventure before you settle down?” Thorvald suggested. “One last foray as a single man? You worry me with your talk of cradles. I did say I’d pay.”
    Sam nodded slowly. “If I agreed, it’d be as a favor to a friend. I’d expect that to be returned some time.”
    â€œOf course. I’ll do whatever you want,” Thorvald offered eagerly. The fact was, such a favor would be easily repaid, since Sam never asked more of him than a day’s help on the boat or a hand with laying thatch. His friend was easily pleased.
    â€œMmm,” Sam said with a funny look in his eyes. “I’ll hold you to that, Thorvald. Give me a day or two to think about this. One thing, though. In open water you’ll need a crew of four, at least. We’d have to get another couple of fellows in on it. And they’d certainly want to be paid.”
    â€œNo.” Thorvald had wondered when Sam would get to this; he had known there needed to be a good answer to it, but the look on his friend’s face told him none of those he had thought up was going to be sufficient. “I can’t have anyone else. Asking you to come along is one thing, getting other men to do it is another thing altogether. As soon as we started asking about, the whole island would know. This is secret, Sam. It has to be just you and me. You’ve told me often enough how well the
Sea Dove
goes under sail. And it’s not very far. We could do it easily. Don’t you go out every day with just your deckhand to help you?”
    â€œYou’re crazy,” Sam said flatly. “I wouldn’t so much as consider it, not without one more man at least. You seem pretty confident about how far it is. I thought we didn’t know that for sure.”
    â€œBrother Tadhg said a few days’ sail. Folk would hardly get the chance to miss us.” A lie, that, almost certainly. “Come on, Sam. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity: a true adventure.”
    â€œAn adventure isn’t worth having if you never get back to tell the tale,” Sam observed flatly. There was a brief silence.
    â€œSo you won’t even consider it?” Thorvald asked, watching his friend closely. “Not as a test of your boat, or of yourself? Not at any price?”
    Sam’s mouth stretched in a faint grin. “At any price? You’re not as rich asthat, Thorvald, however good a farm your mother runs. Now tell me, did you mean what you said about returning the favor? Say I do it, and then what I ask you isn’t to your liking? Will you stay true to what you promised?”
    Thorvald’s heart leaped; evidently there was still hope. “Of course,” he said with complete confidence. He could not think of a thing Sam could ask for that he would not be prepared to deliver. “I gave you my word, didn’t I? I know how much you’ll be risking, Sam. If you do this, I’ll be in your debt forever.”
    â€œIf I do it, I’ll be as mad as you are,” Sam muttered. “Well, I’ll give it some thought and let you know. Maybe we could pick up a crew in the Northern Isles, fellows that don’t know you, if that’s what matters. There’d be a lot to organize.”
    â€œIt must be kept secret,” Thorvald put in quickly. “I’d be stopped if they knew—my mother, Eyvind, any of them. You mustn’t tell Creidhe.”
    â€œYou’re a grown man,”