Ketty Jay 04 - The Ace of Skulls by Chris Wooding Read Free Book Online Page B

his head. ‘You people and your Kings and Dukes and Oracles.’
    ‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Frey in a bored tone. ‘Thace and its wonderful republic, I know. Except while you’ve all been sitting on your arses playing lutes and drawing each other naked, your neighbours in Samarla have been tooling up to invade the rest of the world. Lot of good all that culture’s gonna do you in chains.’
    Pelaru ignored the insult. ‘My business partner is the collector,’ he said, as if he hadn’t been interrupted. ‘Two days ago, he located a site where he believed there was a cache of great value. He immediately set out with a group of men to find it. He has not returned.’
    Frey waited. ‘So?’
    ‘So I need you to go after him.’
    ‘You’re serious? This is a rescue ?’
    ‘If he’s alive.’
    ‘And if he’s not?’
    ‘Then I want to know.’
    Frey thought this over. ‘Y’know, if one of my crew was a day or two late coming home, I’d just assume they were drunk or they’d found a willing member of the opposite sex to have a bit of fun with. I think you’re just overprotective. You’d better hire someone else to do your babysitting.’
    ‘I can’t !’ Pelaru snapped.
    Frey allowed himself a small smile. A crack in that armour of serenity. Frey had a talent for pissing people off.
    ‘He means a great deal to you, doesn’t he?’ Frey said. ‘I didn’t see that before.’
    Pelaru scowled, his features twitching with suppressed emotion. ‘There’s no time for anyone else. The cache was in a buried shrine in Korrene.’
    Frey stopped walking. Pelaru went on a few steps before noticing.
    ‘Korrene,’ said Frey. ‘You want us to fly into a warzone.’
    ‘It’s because it’s a warzone that I need you at all,’ said the whispermonger. ‘The shrine was situated in an uncontested area of the city. Now the battle fronts are closing in on that position.’ He gave Frey a steady gaze. ‘I have to find him before then.’
    ‘ You have to find him? I thought we were taking all the risk?’
    ‘No. I’ll be going with you.’
    ‘Ah,’ said Frey. That made things interesting. He folded his arms. ‘Now why would you want to do that?’
    ‘That’s not your business,’ Pelaru said coldly.
    ‘On my craft it is,’ he said.
    ‘That’s not what I heard. I heard the Ketty Jay was the kind of place where a man might not be asked awkward questions.’
    That was true enough, though perhaps less so now than in the past. But he could guess Pelaru’s motives anyway, so he didn’t push it further. Whoever this business partner was, he was important. Pelaru wanted to be there to make sure they did everything they could to save him. Or maybe just to bring back his body.
    ‘You can come,’ said Frey. ‘Alone. I’m not having hired muscle on my craft. That’s how hijacks happen.’
    Pelaru opened his mouth to protest. Frey cut him off.
    ‘That’s the deal, or there’s no deal at all,’ he said. ‘Seems like we’re both looking for someone. Difference is, I only have your word that you’ve found Trinica. I’m not flying my crew into a warzone for that. So you come alone, and the moment we find this man of yours – dead or alive – you tell me what I need to know. And if I don’t like what I hear, if I don’t believe you, I swear I’ll shoot you right there and then.’
    Frey saw the conflict on Pelaru’s face, and felt a small, private sense of triumph. He’d learned this tactic at the Rake tables. Don’t let someone else dictate the play. Always be the one asking the questions. You only learned what a man had when you pushed him. The whispermonger had shown weakness. He hadn’t given away all the cards in his hand, but he’d given away the best one.
    Now he’d see what Pelaru’s information was worth, and whether he was willing to guarantee its value with his life.
    ‘Done,’ said Pelaru. He sounded disgusted at himself.
    ‘We keep whatever we find inside this shrine, too.’
    ‘Done!’