The Sea Wolves by Christopher Golden Read Free Book Online Page A

He’s my captain! Word of her was widespread in New Orleans, and for every ten people who did not believe, there was one like me.” He laughed. “And for every thousand of those who did believe … again, there was one like me. So perhaps, Monsieur Cooky, I was destined to cross paths with Sabine.”
    â€œSabine,” Jack said, and the name felt sensuous in his mouth.
    Louis sat on the food preparation surface. He touched one of the stove’s still-hot coals, winced slightly, and examined his burned hand. He wants to tell me this , Jack thought, and though cautious of Louis’s motives, he saw no harm in listening.
    When it came to Sabine, he wanted to know everything.
    â€œBefore I signed on with the Larsen , I spent some time in New Orleans. I move around. It isn’t in my nature to be still. I heard many stories there—demons and conjurers and magical forces imprinting themselves on the city like…” He drew back his sleeve and displayed a riot of tattoos, beautifully wrought and yet faded as if bleached by the sun. “Any city attracts such stories, New Orleans more than most. But the story of Sabine remained with me more than all those others because I saw her, once, in a high window, and I never forgot.”
    Louis seemed transported, eyes seeing something far away, and Jack dared not breathe lest he break the moment. Then the sailor blinked, looked back at Jack, and grinned again. Yet it was so clearly a mask, hiding parts of his story that he did not wish to share.
    â€œHow did she come to be on the Larsen ?” Jack asked.
    â€œSan Francisco,” Louis said. “I was there seeking Ghost and his ship. I knew of him by reputation, and I needed to get away from…” He waved something away, his gold-glinting grin splitting his face again. “And Sabine was there to visit someone very old, very important.”
    â€œA relative?” Jack asked.
    â€œSomeone with knowledge,” Louis said. “The old woman died before Sabine reached her home. But I saw her there, and I knew what she would mean to Ghost and to the fortunes of this ship. With my natural charm, it was only a matter of time before I talked her into joining our crew.”
    â€œShe’s here willingly,” Jack said, though he doubted that. Her eyes suggested otherwise, and the sadness in her voice. She might be with Ghost, but she had a lonely air about her that had touched him.
    But Louis laughed.
    â€œOf course, Cooky. We’re all here willingly. Are we not?”
    â€œNo,” Jack said. It was a risk, a small voice of defiance. But Louis did not react, and Jack sensed that he was enjoying his tale. “How can she bring the ship good fortune?” he asked.
    â€œShe’s a seer,” Louis said. “A boon to the ship, and I found her. Me.” The pride was almost childlike, and Jack nodded in false admiration. “The ship you were on … the day it left port in Alaska, Sabine told us where it would be, and what it carried, and that there was”—he tapped his golden tooth with one long nail—“on board.”
    â€œShe knew that?” Jack asked, and he remembered Sabine’s elegant fingers playing over those charts and maps as if searching for home.
    â€œShe knows where things will be,” Louis said. “Ships, people, gold. She reads the sea. Ghost calls it finding order in chaos, or”—he waved a hand—“some other strangeness.”
    â€œAnd she’s with Ghost?” Jack asked.
    Louis blinked, and then smiled again. “Well, not exactly with —”
    â€œTelling your tales again, Louis?” Ghost’s voice was unmistakable, and for a second Jack saw a flicker of abject fear crossing Louis’s face. But then he took a deep breath, masking himself again with that gold-glinting grin, and slipped from the galley counter.
    â€œJust complimenting Cooky here,” Louis