The Automaton's Treasure Read Online Free PDF Page B

mouth and looking up at Safin.
    “Great treasure,” I said in Qilari.”That's what you call her, isn't it? Great treasure.”
    “She is my great treasure, yes.” Safin nodded his head. “She created me.”
    I thought I might faint.
    “What the hell is going on!” the captain shouted. “What are you saying?”
    The woman began to laugh. I could only stare at her, terror eating me from the inside. “Oh, you poor thing,” she said in Qilari. “You told a man from the Mists you had a great treasure, and then you brought him to me.” She laughed again. Her magic rippled, and the captain cursed and rubbed at his head.
    They were going to kill me. I didn't know what the Mists was, but I knew they were pirates, and they were going to kill me.
    The captain swung his pistol over to me. “What did she just say?”
    “I'm the great treasure,” the woman said, speaking Empire. “My name's Talia of the swamp, and I'm the only treasure you'll find here.”
    All I could see were the captain's horrible gray eyes. “I swear I didn't know!” I cried. “Safin never specified. I—” Tears formed in my lashes. The day I’d learned I was banished I'd felt like dying, but I didn't know what death was.
    Hafsa rested her hand on my back. She looked at the captain. I was aware of her hand hovering over her own pistol.
    But the captain didn't shoot me. He stalked up to Talia and yanked Safin off her shoulder by the tail. Safin shrieked in protest and swung his tiny clawed hands at the captain's face. Talia shouted something in a language I didn’t recognize, and the captain doubled over, dropping Safin to the floor. Safin landed on his feet and scrambled back to Talia.
    The captain peered up at Talia. His face was pale and drawn. “So you’re telling me you have the gold and the jewels to create that thing but there's no treasure in your home?”
    “I used it all up.” Talia smiled. “And besides, I said no treasure for you . I'm not in the habit of helping monsters.”
    “I'm not a monster.” The captain straightened, although his steps were wobbling and uncertain. “I was cursed away from sunlight because I once helped you people. I'm never allowed back home. Don't talk to me about monsters.”
    Talia didn't seem like she believed him. I was still weeping, tears streaming silently over my face. Hafsa was the only one who noticed.
    “If you want treasure so badly,” Talia taunted, “you could always take Safin.”
    The captain glared at her. Safin coiled around her feet, but he didn’t seem frightened. If the thought of absconding with Safin had crossed the captain’s mind earlier, I doubted he would attempt it now, not with Talia’s magic moving so thick and clammy though the little room.
    “So that's it, then,” the captain said. “You've got nothing.” He turned to me. “Nothing,” he spat. He pointed his pistol at me again.
    I didn't want to die. Not yet.
    “Wait!” I shouted through my tears. Everyone looked at me, and my thoughts churned to keep up. “What about—what about a reward?”
    “Excuse me?” Talia said.
    I rubbed my sleeve over my face to dry my eyes. I drew myself up like I was still my father's daughter. “A reward. For bringing back Safin.”
    The captain lowered his pistol.
    “He clearly wanted to come back. I'm not sure why he was on the Ocean's Rose— ”
    “He was stolen.” Talia lifted her chin. “By pirates like you.”
    “The Ocean's Rose was a passenger liner,” I said. “It was overtaken by pirates later. Whoever stole him wasn't a pirate.”
    Talia didn't say anything.
    “So, yes, he was stolen.” I took a deep breath, trying to steady my heartbeat. “But not by us. We brought him back to you. How many people, pirate or otherwise, would have done that? It would have been easy to sail on to Lisirra and have him smashed to pieces for the gold.”
    Safin blinked up at me.
    “But we didn't. We returned him.”
    “Because you thought there was a real