Corsair Read Online Free PDF

dried sausage, and apples. She ate ravenously.
    When Nimessa finished, she looked up at him and brushed a hand across her eyes. “I haven’t eaten since yesterday evening,” she explained.
    “I understand.”
    “And I don’t think I’ve thanked you yet for saving my life.” Nimessa dropped her gaze. “I don’t know what moved you to risk your own life to
    save a stranger, but I’m very glad that you came along when you did. The things they said they would do to me—I can’t even think of it.”
    “Do you know who they were?” Geran asked gently.
    “The ship’s name was Kraken Queen. I saw it painted on her stern. The captain was a fierce man, maybe fifty or so, and almost as tall as you. He wore braids in his hair and beard. I never heard any of the crewmen call him anything other than ‘Captain.’”
    Geran remembered the figurehead of the tentacled mermaid. The name fit the ship. “How did they catch you?”
    “They stole up on us before sunrise this morning. When the sun came up and we spotted them, they were only a couple of miles off. Master Parman tried to outrun the pirate ship, but the wind died down around noon, and after that Whitewing didn’t stand a chance.” Nimessa hesitated, and she huddled deeper in Geran’s cloak. “They killed everyone else, but the pirate captain ordered his men to spare me for—later.”
    “You don’t have to say more.”
    Nimessa fell silent, and Geran frowned, digesting the story. Whitewing made five ships he knew of that hadn’t reached Hulburg in the last few months. Piracy was choking the trade of the city little by little. Something would have to be done, and soon. “Well, it’s over now,” he told her. “You’re out of their reach. Try to sleep for a few hours.”
    He let her have his bedroll and went to tend to his horse. He gave the animal an extra pat on the neck by way of apologizing for a hard run at the end of a long day. By the time he returned to the fireside, Nimessa was curled up on her side under his blankets and breathing deeply and slowly. He studied her face; she had wide eyes, a delicate point to her chin, and smooth skin that seemed a pale gold in the firelight, hinting at sun elf ancestry. In sleep she looked young and innocent. It was hard to say with someone of elf descent, but he would have guessed her to be twenty-five or so. Younger than Alliere, he decided. And she was fair-haired, while Alliere’s hair was dark as moonshadows. Of course he’d never watched Alliere sleep during the brief months that he’d loved her. Elves didn’t sleep as humans— or half-elves—did. Strange how two peoples could be so much alike and yet so different.
    “She’s not Alliere,” Geran told himself softly. With a sigh, he turned away and looked to settle himself for a long night. Nimessa had his bedroll, so all he could do was wrap himself in his cloak. He resigned himself to
    a night with little rest and found a spot where he could sit with his back to a wall and have a good view of the overgrown fields outside. The night was still and quiet.
    He dozed off a couple of times during the night, but no one came along to interrupt their rest. Finally, as the eastern sky began to gray, he roused himself. He didn’t think Kraken Queen’s men were anywhere nearby, but his trail would be easier to follow in daylight. He packed up the camp quietly, allowing Nimessa to sleep a little longer, then he woke her. “Morning is near. We should move on.”
    Nimessa opened her eyes, looked at him, then sat up sharply with a gasp. She frowned in puzzlement, then she remembered where she was. “Sweet Selune,” she murmured. “For a moment I thought it was all a terrible dream.”
    “I’m afraid not,” he told her. He gave her a crooked smile. “I’d offer you some breakfast, but we ate everything I had with me before we went to sleep. Lunch is in Hulburg.”
    In a few minutes he packed up the last of his gear, and they set off again. A high overcast