The Infernal City by Greg Keyes Read Free Book Online

the ship once they were a few leagues from land.
    That didn’t stop her from trying to find a way out, of course. The small window was no help, since she couldn’t shape-shift into a cat or ferret. She tried screaming for help, but they were facing away from the docks, so there was no one to hear her above the general din. She couldn’t find a way through the door, and as it turned out, if someone had built any sort of secret doors or panels into the bulkhead, they were far too clever for her.
    That left crying, which she actually started before completing her search. Her tears were thoroughly mixed—anger, grief, and terror. Her father would never think of treating her like this unless he was certain that remaining meant death. So why had he decided to stay and die? Why did he get that choice and not her?
    Once she got past the noisy stage of crying and settled into more dignified, ladylike sniffling, she realized someone was saying her name. She looked at the door and window, but the sound was funny, very small …
    And then she remembered, and felt really stupid.
    She took off the locket and opened it up and there was Glim’s familiar face. His mouth was slightly open and his teeth were showing, indicating his agitation.
    “Glim!” she whispered.
    “Where are you?” he asked.
    “I’m on a ship—”
    “Did you get the name?”
    “The
Tsonashap
—‘Swimming Frog.’”
    The tiny figure of his head turned this way and that.
    “I see it,” he said at last. “It’s making ready.”
    “I’m in a small stateroom near the bow,” she told him. “There’s a short corridor—” She stopped and bit her lip. “Glim, don’t try it,” she said at last. “I think … I think something really awful is about to happen. Trying to get me out of here—you’ll only get caught. Get out of Lilmoth, as far and as fast as you can.”
    Glim blinked slowly.
    “I’m going to close the bird and put it away now,” he said.
    “Glim—” But the image vanished.
    Annaïg sighed, shut the locket and her eyes. She felt tired, hungry, worn-out.
    Glim was coming, wasn’t he?
    The first hour, she waited anxiously, preparing herself to spring into action. But then she felt the boat moving on the water. She looked out the window and saw the lanterns on the quay receding.
    “Xhuth!” she swore. “Waxhuthi! Kaoc’!”
    But the lights, uninterested in her expletives, continued to dim and dwindle.
    She opened the locket, but no image greeted her. She held it up to her ear, but she didn’t hear anything, either.
    Had he heeded her advice, or had he been caught, injured, murdered? In her whirling thoughts he was all of them. Glim, missing an arm; Glim, headless; Glim bound in chains and about to be thrown overboard …
    Something rattled at her door, and her heart actually skipped a beat. She’d always thought that was just an expression. She stood, fingers knotted in fists she didn’t really know how to use, waiting.
    The door opened, a snout appeared, and large reptilian eyes that sagged deep in their wrinkled sockets.
    “Captain,” she said, making her voice as cold as possible.
    “We’re in deep water,” he grated. “Don’t be foolish and try to swim for it. You’ll not make it, not with the sea-drakes hereabouts.”
    He glanced down at her clenched hands and flashed his own claws, shaking his head.
    “Never think that,” he said. “I’d see you safe to your destination, but no one attacks a captain on his ship and doesn’t pay hard. It’s law.”
    “Law? Kidnapping is against the law!”
    “This isn’t kidnapping, it’s your father’s wish—and you aren’t old enough to go against his wish, at least not in this sort of matter. So best resign.”
    He hadn’t said anything about Glim, and she was afraid to ask.
    She loosened her fingers. “Very well. I’m free to move about the ship?”
    “Within reason.”
    “Right. Here’s me moving, then.”
    She pushed past him into the brief hall, up the