Oberon's Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page B

baubles,” she said, but her voice trembled.
    He laughed at that. He hung the hoop from his earlobe and slipped the ring on his right hand. “Am I doing it right?” he asked. The astonishment in her wide eyes was answer enough.
    Corin didn’t know if this would work, but he knew the motions anyway and time was short. He turned, raising both arms to the walls, and cried out to the stone, “ Iftah! Ya! Simsim! ”
    Iryana grunted as though someone had punched her in the stomach, but otherwise silence poured across the excavated pit, smothering as a Feland fog. No one moved. And then, with the grinding whisper of heavy iron hinges, the carved stone sank back into the cliff face. It revealed a deep shadow, a yawning cavern just behind the cliff’s facade.
    “Behold,” Iryana whispered. “The gateway to Jezeeli.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    A whisper passed among the men and then a wild cheer. Corin did not move. He only stared into the darkness, disbelief battling with the wild exhilaration clawing at the back of his breastbone.
    “We’ve done it,” he breathed at last, inaudible beneath the noise. And now the thrill of victory won through. Now he grinned and turned to Blake again.
    “You silly little pup, with your fancy waistcoats. You might have gained more wealth than all your family’s houses could contain, but this little spot of toil was too much to ask of you.”
    Corin turned and met the eyes of all his men. “I have asked much of all among you. I have dragged you from the sea and spent you on this wild hunt. Perhaps…perhaps your first mate heard you grumbling. I will not fault a man among you for complaining. But only one of you raised arms against me.”
    He touched a hand to the drying blood at his collarbone, then pressed his palm against his black shirt, still wet to the navel. He showed the bright-red palm to the men, then crossed the little distance to the place where Blake stood, now disarmed, his hands roughly bound.
    Corin pressed his palm flat against the man’s bare chest, leaving the crimson stain of his accusation.
    “Blake will have nothing more from us. He risked everything on this gamble, so we will give him nothing.” Corin stared down at him for a moment, then nodded. “Nothing. No punishment for what he’s done, but no share of this great treasure. No horse from our pickets. No water from our stores. No place among our tents. Let him find his own way from this place.”
    Corin ran a look around the circle and saw admiring approval. It was a good pirate punishment. Even in this bleak desert, a man might be marooned.
    He hid his smile and turned his attention to the passageway. “Torches!” he cried. “Bring me torches. Let us see what we have won.” He headed for the archway.
    “Stop!” cried Iryana. She sounded frantic. “By Oberon’s name, Corin, do not trespass here!”
    Corin spared a sad smile for the miserable native. “You do not have to come.” He raised his voice. “You have served us well, Iryana. Take a camel and anything you can carry, and return to your people’s tents.”
    “There is no treasure for you here,” she screamed. “I swear it. Not for Godlanders. There is only the record of your sins.”
    Corin hesitated a moment, then went to her. He stood over her for a moment, holding her eyes, then bent his head to speak softly near her ear. “You must get out of here. If Blake had accomplished what he intended…I could not have saved you. For all their useful traits, these are not good men.”
    “And you ask me to leave you to their mercy?”
    Corin shrugged. “I am not a good man, either. But I would not like to see you come to harm. Take the offer I have given you, and get far from this place.” He stepped back, still holding her eyes. She didn’t move. She didn’t blink.
    “Please,” Corin whispered. “Take a camel and go.”
    Behind him, Dave Taker raised his voice. “Captain? Is there a problem with the girl?”
    Corin ground his teeth and turned