Into the Darkness by Harry Turtledove Read Free Book Online Page B

thrust his right hand high into the air.
    The Leopardess swung to starboard, the deck heeling under Fernao’s feet. No mere sailing ship could have turned so sharply; the motion was almost as if a geometer had scribed a right angle. Fernao could not see the crossing of the ley lines, but he did not need to see them. He had other senses.
    As soon as he was sure the turn was good and true, he slid the amulet’s chain back over his head, returning the familiar weight to where it normally rested, just above his heart. From the bridge, Rogelio waved to him. He waved back. He took pride in what he did, and in doing it well.
    And then, suddenly, he frowned. He yanked out the amulet once more and held it between his hands. He waved to the bridge again, urgently this time. “Captain!” he shouted. “We’re going to have company.”
    “What’s toward?” Rogelio shouted back, cupping his hands in front of his mouth to make a megaphone.
    “Quiver in the ley line, Captain—no, quivers.” Fernao corrected himself. “Two ships on this line, heading our way. Maybe an hour out from us, maybe a little less.”
    Rogelio cursed. “They’ll know we’re here, too?” he demanded.
    “Unless their mages are asleep, yes,” Fernao answered.
    More curses came from the captain of the Leopardess. Then he grasped for a bright side to the unwelcome news. “They wouldn’t by any chance by Algarvian ships come to escort us into port?”
    Fernao frowned once more; that hadn’t occurred to him. He concentrated on the amulet. “I don’t think they’re Algarvian,” he said at last, “but I can’t be sure. Sibiu and Algarve use about the same ley magic, not much different from ours. They aren’t Valmierans; I’m sure of that. Valmiera and Jelgava have their own style.”
    Rogelio came forward, to be able to talk without screaming. “They’re going to be Sibs, all right,” he said. “Now life gets interesting.”
    “We’re neutrals,” Fernao said. “Sibiu needs our trade more than Algarve does: those islands don’t come close to raising everything the Sibians want. If they try to block us, they go under embargo. You’d have to be a lackwit to think King Vitor would say something like that without meaning it, and the Sibs aren’t lackwits.”
    “They’re in a war,” Rogelio said. “You don’t think straight when you’re in a war. Anyone who doesn’t know that is a lackwit, too, my dear mage.”
    “As may be.” Fernao bowed with exquisite courtesy. “I tell you this, though, my dear captain: if Sibiu interferes very much with Lagoan shipping, Vitor won’t just embargo them. He will go to war, and that fight is one Sibiu can’t win.”
    “The Sibs against Algarve and us?” Rogelio pursed his lips, then nodded. “Well, you’re right about that, though I’m hanged if I fancy the notion of allying with King Mezentio.”
    “We wouldn’t be allies, just people with the same enemies,” Fernao said. “Unkerlant and Kuusamo are both fighting the Gyongyos, but they aren’t allies.”
    “Would you ally with the Unkerlanters? I’d almost sooner pucker up and kiss Mezentio’s bald head,” Rogelio returned. Then he bared his teeth in a horrible grimace. “If the Sibs could talk Kuusamo into jumping on our backs, though—”
    “That won’t happen,” Fernao said, and hoped he was right. He had reason to think so, anyhow: “Kuusamo won’t get into two wars at the same time.”
    Rogelio grunted. “Mm, maybe not. I wouldn’t want to be in two wars at once. By the king’s beard, I wouldn’t even want to be in one war at once.”
    A hail from the crow’s nest made him turn: “Two ships on the western horizon, sir! They look like Sibian frigates.”
    Rogelio dashed for the bridge. Fernao peered west. The lean shark shapes swelled rapidly: Sibian frigates sure enough, bristling with sticks and with egg-tossers whose glittering spheroids could disable a ship at a range of several miles. The Leopardess could