Free The Glass Word by Kai Meyer Page A

the front part of the bridge. Calvino did not interrupt his furious pacing for one second. As they approached, they discovered who was with him and quite obviously needling him to a white heat.
    Eft saw the two boys at the same time. Her wide mermaid mouth was not covered by its usual mask. The knapsack in which she preserved Arcimboldo’s mirror mask hung over her shoulder, as always, for Eft never let her precious possession out of her sight for a moment.

    â€œI know boats like this,” she said, now turning to Calvino again. “And I know how fast they can be. Faster anyway than what you’re trying to fool us with here.”
    â€œI’ve already told you a thousand times, and I’ll tell you once more,” thundered the captain. The scar that split his lower lip and reached down to his Adam’s apple showed white against his flushed face. “The Egyptians control the sea, and for a long time they haven’t been content to just search for prey on the surface. To go faster, we have to go up, and I will not take that risk. The sea witch’s commission says to take you and these children to Egypt—mad enough, by Neptune!—but she said nothing about the matter of being in such a hurry. So you will kindly leave it to me to decide what speed we travel at.”
    â€œYou are a stubborn old goat, Captain, and I’m not the least surprised that you’ve let this marvel of a boat run down this way. We should probably consider ourselves lucky if we get to Egypt at all before your garbage heap of a tub breaks apart.”
    Calvino whirled around, came close to Eft, and stopped about six inches away from her. He stretched his scarred face toward her threateningly. Serafin was sure that Eft was now able to smell the remnants of meals in his dark beard. “You may be a woman or a fishwife or the devil knows what, but you will not tell me how to run my boat!”
    Eft remained unimpressed, although she must also have seen the saber that dangled from the captain’s belt.Calvino had wrapped his right hand around the grip in his rage, but he hadn’t yet bared the blade. He would doubtless go to that length soon if Eft didn’t back off. What, by all the saints, was she doing, anyway? Did it matter at all whether they reached Egypt today or tomorrow or the day after?
    Eft assumed her most charming smile—which in a mermaid looks about as friendly as the open arms of an octopus. Her shark’s teeth gleamed in the light of the gas lamps. “You are a fool, Captain Calvino, and I will tell you why.”
    Serafin noticed that the crew members on the bridge pulled their heads a little deeper between their shoulders. They well knew what a storm was going to break over them any moment.
    But Calvino was silent, possibly because he was much too flabbergasted. No one had ever dared to speak to him in that tone. His lower lip trembled like the body of an electric eel.
    Eft pressed on. “This boat, Captain, was already worth a fortune before the war, more than you and your cut-throats could imagine in your wildest dreams. But today, now that there’s no more sea travel, the boat is of such unimaginable worth that not even the treasuries of the suboceanic kingdoms would have been enough for it.”
    Now she’s overdoing it,
Serafin thought, but at the same time he saw that Calvino was frowning and listeningcarefully. Eft was a little closer to her goal: She’d made him curious.
    â€œYou’ve been on board too long, Captain,” she continued her harangue, and now the sailors were unmistakably pricking up their ears. “You’ve forgotten how things look in the world up there. You and your people have let this boat and its art treasures go to ruin while you sail through the world’s oceans and look for lost treasure. Yet you’ll find the greatest treasure of all here, right under your behind, and you have nothing better to do than turn it