Free Barefoot Pirate by Sherwood Smith Page B

“Maybe you’ve
more reason than one for leaving your story behind. I won’t ask more. Ready to
walk?”
    Nan got to her feet, reaching cautiously. She did not want
to miss her step and fall down that long stone ladder, and she knew it was
nearby.
    If it hadn’t been dark, she wouldn’t have dared to ask next:
“You aren’t angry with me?”
    “Why?” Blackeye sounded genuinely surprised. “Here’s my
hand, and we go this way.”
    “Because—I’d rather my story stay behind.”
    “A person has a right to let her past stay past, if you
follow what I’m saying. I just like to air my ideas on captaincy when I get a
chance. I’ve done stupid things I’d thought out in advance, and I’ve
accidentally done good things. Still, I like to try to plan ahead.”
    “Seems to me you’re doing good here,” Nan said, glad she
hadn’t alienated the leader, at least. “I mean, everyone seems to get along.”
    “Started that way,” Blackeye said. Nan could hear a grin in
her voice. “Changed when Warron came, I’ll admit.”
    “How?”
    “Tried to take over.”
    “What? That’s rotten! When you’d rescued him and
everything?”
    “Well, it wasn’t right away. Mostly during training
sessions, he’d ride me. It was like he couldn’t help himself. He was so much
better than any of us, and here we were, trying to train ourselves for action.
So I gave over the training to him, and it still wasn’t enough.”
    “What happened?”
    Blackeye laughed. “We had a fight, and he whupped me. I
coulda foreseen that outcome—I’m good, but he’s better. He’s bigger, stronger,
and faster. Then I saw that the others were dividing up into two groups of
enemies, so I said I’d step aside. He could run the group—only the Falcon was mine. Huh! Here we are. Now, quiet. This opens right into one of the castle
storerooms. We’ve got to listen, make sure no one’s about.”
    Nan heard Blackeye’s hands scrabbling at something, and then
a wash of cold air swept across her face.
    “False stone here,” Blackeye breathed. “Careful.”
    Nan followed Blackeye through the low hole into another dark
space, this one with a flat stone floor. Nan stood quietly, her heart banging
again, while Blackeye moved away.
    “We’re fine,” Blackeye said after a long pause. “Door’s this
way.”
    Nan heard a faint creak of wood, and a thin shaft of yellow
light stabbed into the dark.
    Nan’s eyes took in a shadowy storeroom with a jumble of
furniture, and a stone hallway just behind. A torch set in a sconce high on a
wall at the end of the hall gave the light. It seemed as bright as a beacon
after all that darkness.
    “We go up the back stairs, only used by servants,” Blackeye
whispered.
    She led the way to a narrow, plain door, and they slipped
inside. Small glowglobes like the ones in the gang’s cave lit the way up steep
stairs. Nan ran after Blackeye, ducking with her into a narrow alcove when they
heard a door slam and loud footsteps somewhere above.
    “Usually not many servants brought along on these pleasure
runs,” Blackeye murmured. “House used to belong to the Senna family, but it was
taken by Todan. He lets the Lorjees use it—that being the one Great House that
went over to his side. What we can’t figure is why they come out here at all.”
    “So they don’t know about your hideout on the island.”
    “We thought they knew when they first began coming here, but
they searched so poorly—like they didn’t expect to find anything. They stay for
a week or so, holding drunken parties, then go away again. The others think
they come just to be silly away from eyes in Fortanya, but I don’t think that
duke would come, or let his allies come, unless it served some purpose.”
    “And Mican and the others want to do—what?” Nan asked.
    “Run ’em a little.” Blackeye’s slanty eyes narrowed in
challenging humor. “We always steal our supplies from Todan’s warts. These
would be perfect. You’d think.