Read Blackveil for Free Online Page B

and well-educated. In light of all that, it was difficult for her to stay angry at him for being a cabin boy on the Gold Hunter. She still didn’t approve of piracy, but she couldn’t blame him.
    Condor shook his head, ears and mane flopping. He gave her a sleepy look, then turned inward, toward the depths of his stall.
    “There is shame in being involved with piracy,” her father said in a quiet voice. “It is wrong, and I see it now with maturity, especially now that I wear the cloak of a merchant. Ironically, I deplore those who would attack my caravans, or ships I’ve invested in. They are criminals, as I once was a criminal.
    “A part of me wonders if I would have achieved success without all I learned from my association with the Gold Hunter. I think I probably would have—I am a persistent sort, and determined to succeed. But it would have taken longer, and the success might be less.” He smiled. “I was motivated to achieve because I knew a beautiful girl waited for me back on the island. I would not take her as my wife until I’d proven myself a man—shown that I could support her, and support her well. She deserved no less. I vowed she would not be a poor fisherman’s wife. The Gold Hunter allowed me to bring her to Corsa and marry her all that much sooner. I cannot say what would have happened if I’d chosen some other path, but your mother and I, we had dreams ...
    “In any case,” he said more brusquely, “piracy is not an admirable thing. And ... and I was ashamed of what you would think. Seeing disappointment in your eyes when you confronted me earlier—that was the hardest thing I’ve faced in a long while.”
    “If only you had told me sooner.”
    “I believed you were too young to understand the implications.” He paused. “I know now you are not, but I fear I can’t help but still see you as my little girl in her party dress and ribbons, with scraped elbows.”
    Karigan thought as much.
    “You’re frowning,” he said. “Be careful or your face will freeze that way.”
    She only screwed up her face more.
    “Well, if that is all, perhaps we should retire to our beds. I didn’t work so hard for so many years for my daughter to be sleeping in the stable.” He rose and watched her.
    The wind had quieted. Karigan wondered if it was a lull in the storm, or if it was actually dying out. “There’s one more thing,” she said.
    Her father stood there, just waiting.
    Before she lost her nerve, she said, “When I passed through Rivertown last fall, I met a friend of yours—Silva Early. In fact, I stayed at her ... her establishment, the Golden Rudder.”
    The blood drained from Stevic G’ladheon’s face.

MOONSTONE

    S everal horses, including Condor, peered from their stalls, watching father and daughter like spectators at a tournament. The silence was excruciating.
    Finally her father spoke. “What were you doing at the Golden Rudder?”
    “My Rider-in-training, Fergal, almost drowned in the river during our crossing.” That was definitely the short version of the story. “Cetchum brought me to the Golden Rudder after. I didn’t know what kind of place it was. Not at first.”
    “Cetchum,” her father murmured. The ferry master would, of course, be well known to him. Cetchum’s wife was a maid at the brothel, so he’d seen it only as natural to take Karigan there.
    “I was surprised to learn from Silva,” Karigan continued, her voice trembling, “that my father was a favored patron.” Incensed and betrayed was more like it.
    He placed his hands on his hips and turned away, gazing into the dark. When he faced her again, he replied, “I said there were things I’d never explain, and certainly not to my daughter.”
    “What about Mother?” Karigan demanded. “Did she know?”
    “This has nothing to do with her.”
    It has everything to do with her! Karigan wanted to scream.
    But her father simply walked away. Walked away and out of the stable, and out into the