Captain Cosette Read Online Free PDF Page A

Imsami’s being dead.  We were wrong about so many things.”
    She offered him the remains of the bread, but he refused it.  “You should eat, you know,” she said.  “You haven’t eaten all day.”
    “ No.  No, I’ve got to figure this out.  We were doing everything we intended to do, but we were wrong somehow.  Imsami’s dead, and he’s dead because of these,” he touched the gold rings in his ears, “but we could have stopped working yesterday, driven to Rabelais village, bought some land and retired.  We could have stopped months ago, years ago.  When were we going to stop?”  He looked at her as though she could answer, but she widened her eyes and half-shrugged.  “That’s just it,” he said.  “We were gathering wealth, and gathering wealth, but it didn’t do any good, it just got Imsami killed.”  His eyes drifted to the fire, and she could see its light reflected in his eyes.  “Poor Imsami, overpowered, fighting for his life, and I wasn’t there.  Nobody got killed but him, and he was a master of the knife.  And they took his gold.  If he hadn’t had gold on him, they might have just thrown him out, or fleeced him at cards, or bought him a beer.”
    He picked up the knife Cosette had used to slice the fruit.  “Would you help me get the gold out of my ears?”
    She looked aghast.  “I’m not cutting your ears!”
    “ No, no, you don’t need to do that.  These earrings are soft, almost pure gold; you just put the blade here on the ring and pound the back of the knife with a stone.  In fact, I’ll thank you not to hit my head or cut me.”
    He walked to a large boulder and rested his head against it, his earring lying on the top.  She set the knife carefully, and tapped hesitatingly with a small stone, got a larger one, tapped harder, and soon had the earring separated.
    She repeated the procedure with his other earring, and now both ears were bare.
    “ Ah,” he said, shaking his head experimentally.  “More of me is gone.”  He tugged off his bracelets, and tossed them beside the earrings.  “There’s wisdom in that.  I need to think.  Thank you, by the way, for not cutting my throat when you had the chance.”  He went back to the edge of the clearing overlooking Toulouse and sat.  Below him, lights began to wink on across the city, along with a resurgence of explosions, gun shots, and sirens.
    She looked at the stack of precious gold and could not let it lie there.  She scooped up the earrings and bracelets and put them under the foot carpet in the van. 
    She adjusted the lazy fire – she had discovered its convenience – and climbed back into her hammock.  The evening was warm, and clouds had come in to hide the stars and trap the warmth.  She would not need a blanket.
    She was not free, but she was not terrified at the moment.  She slept fitfully, but she did sleep.
     
    *
     
    Morning came, and she eased out of the hammock.  She had gotten up in the middle of the night and overbalanced, falling on the ground rather than rising gracefully. 
    The clouds looked thicker, promising rain, but she was used to cloud banks that broke their promise.  She took a bite of the remains of the coarse bread, took a swallow of water, and choked.
    Rasora still sat on the edge of the clearing overlooking Toulouse, but beside him was a loose stack of clothes.
    He was naked.
    “Um.  Rasora?  Are you okay?”
    Now I’m certain he’s quite mad . 
    Fortunately, the key was in his discarded pants pocket, so if he did begin to gibber and run away, she wouldn’t have to follow.  He began to speak, cleared his throat, and tried again.  “I’m quite fine, thank you.”
    “ Can I bring you a blanket?”
    He remained sitting, for which she was grateful.  He replied in a calm, reasonable voice, “No, thank you.  I’m comfortable.”
    “ Can I bring you some clothes?”
    “ No, I’m good.”
    “ Some underclothes?” 
    At least ?
    “ No.”
    She folded