Read The Hidden Fire (Book 2) for Free Online

curl of hair.
    “Is
the captain on board?” Aiyan asked.
    “How
do you know I’m not the captain?” she returned.
    Aiyan
smiled.  “Well, you’re a little young.”
    “So
I am,” she said with a quiet laugh.  “I’m Lerica, the second mate.  Captain Lyzuga
isn’t here right now.  May I be of service?”
    “I’m
looking to charter a ship for a voyage to the south.  Is Calico bound by
a contract?”
    “Not
really,” said Lerica.  “We do haul cargo, but we also trade.”
    “If
this is your home port, perhaps I could speak with the owner.”
    “Captain
Lyzuga is the owner.  He’s playing cards at The Vivace and is likely to be all
night.  Come back tomorrow.”
    Aiyan
cocked his head.  “Isn’t lyzuga the local name for the jaguar?”
    Lerica’s eyes almost twinkled.  “You
know, I think it is.”
    The
music at The Vivace was indeed lively, but not exactly sophisticated.  A small
stage sat at one end of the room where a piano player banged out sour notes and
a line of costumed ladies sang songs about their fannies and then lifted their
skirts to show them.  Kyric stared wide-eyed but the other men hardly noticed,
the din of the room almost drowning out the chorus.
    The
air hung so thick with smoke that the patrons at the other end of the room were
but shadow figures.  Over the reek of tobacco, Kyric could smell coffee, rum,
and something fried in dirty oil.  Waiters passed them with huge trays of
little brown crayfish that looked more like boiled waterbugs.
    They
passed through a curtain of beaded strings and into the gaming room.  “My guess
is that it’s him,” said Aiyan, pointing to a table of card players.
    The
man seated in the corner wore a shirt that could be seen a mile out to sea —
shimmering flame-red satin cut in the Baskillian style, with slashed sleeves
and heavy stitching in gold thread.  The cuffs sparkled with ruby studs.  His
straight black hair hung like curtains from beneath a bone-white bowler that
matched his bone-white sash.  Around his neck lay a choker woven from the claws
of some great predator.
    Aiyan
took out his purse and approached the table.  “Good evening gentlemen.  Is this
a private game?”
    It
turned out that it wasn’t.  And it turned out that the man was indeed Captain
Ellec Lyzuga.  Kyric had to watch from an empty table, so he didn’t hear all
that passed.  Aiyan ordered coffee and Kyric decided to splurge on a bottle of
wine.  It was a long night.  About once an hour, a different bar girl would
come and sit at Kyric’s table and chat with him a while.  They all wore too
much make-up, and they were all very sweet and very worldly.  Kyric offered the
first one a drink.  She ordered straight rum and tossed it down without
blinking.
    A
few hours past midnight the other players dropped out and only Aiyan and the
captain remain.  They waved Kyric over to the table.  It seemed that Aiyan had
won only a little, while Captain Lyzuga had done quite well.
    Aiyan
shuffled and dealt the cards.  They played some kind of progressive game, and
bet on every card turned.  Lyzuga seemed to have good down-cards and bet more
heavily as the hand went on, until the end when Aiyan pushed his entire stake
into the pot.
    “That’s
not enough to call,” said Captain Lyzuga.
    Aiyan
reached under his vest.  Kyric knew that he carried much more money than the
twenty kandars he had placed on the table.  Still, it was as much as Kyric had
made in a month of cooking.  But Aiyan withdrew a thin sheath of papers, slightly
bigger than his hand and bound with soft leather, setting it in front of him. 
“This is worth more than your ship, Captain,” he said evenly.
    Lyzuga
stroked his long moustache and smiled.  “If you are about to tell me that this
is Redbeard’s diary describing the way to his lost treasure, let me tell you
that first, Redbeard didn’t know how to read or write, and second, he never
lost his treasure.  He spent it