The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

meant—”
    “Sarcasm! Never mind! We need to tell the captain we’ve definitely got two galleys out there now.”
    Alain pivoted slowly, looking for more warnings from his foresight. He paused as another blotch appeared off the bow of the
Gray Lady
. “There are three. And they surround us.”
    Mari snagged a passing sailor. “Tell the captain that there are three galleys out there, all looking for us. One in that direction, one out there, and the third over that way somewhere.”
    The sailor gaped at her, then hastily saluted. “Yes, Lady Mari! I’ll tell him immediately!” Rushing off toward the quarterdeck as quickly and quietly as he could move, the sailor vanished into the fog.
    More soft footsteps sounded, and the shape of Mechanic Bev came out of the fog. “Did you do something to one of the crew?” she asked.
    “I told him that there are three galleys out there hunting us,” Mari replied.
    “That explains the look of terror on the guy’s face. Three? I thought it was one.” Bev herself no longer seemed rattled as she handed one of the Mechanic weapons to Mari, then others to Alli and Dav.
    But Alain could still sense a tightness in Mechanic Bev.
She hides something,
Alain told himself.
Mechanic Bev hides emotions as a Mage does, but for other reasons than Mages do. There is something she will not reveal to anyone
.
    If it is what I think it is, don’t ask
, Mari had told him.
Bev has been hurt, but if we are loyal to her she’ll be loyal to us
.
    He had not understood, but now was not the time to pursue the matter of whatever in Mechanic Bev’s past had been kept hidden. Not as long as Mari was certain that Bev could be counted on.
    Alli scowled as she flipped the object she called a lever action on the rifle. “This thing is just waiting to jam the moment I need it. I can feel it. Bev, set this one aside and let me have that one.”
    “Sure. If you can’t fix it, nobody can.”
    Mari faced the rail, cradling her weapon. “If a galley runs across us in this fog they’ll be right on top of us before we see them, so we won’t have much time to deal with them. If you see one, call out fast.”
    Alli leaned on the rail next to her. “While I was at Danalee some Syndaris tried to place an order with us for a lot of pistols. I gathered that they prefer to capture other ships by coming up fast and flooding them with attackers. That’s why the Syndaris wanted to buy pistols from the Guild but weren’t interested in rifles. They don’t want to fight long-distance battles.”
    “That’s what Alain said. Did the Guild sell them any pistols?” Mari asked.
    Alli grinned. “One. And exactly twelve rounds of ammo. You wouldn’t believe how much the Syndaris had to pay for that.”
    Mechanic Dav called softly from the other side of the ship. “They want to capture the ship, you say. What about us? Do they want us alive?”
    “Probably not,” Mari said. “You know how we’ve been warned that commons will
accidentally
hit Mechanics during a battle. That’s under normal circumstances. This time they know our Guilds want us dead.”
    “Mage Guild, too?” Dav asked. “All of us dead?” His eyes strayed toward Asha.
    “All of us,” Alain confirmed.
    “Well…that’s not going to happen.”
    Alli grinned. “We made it out of Altis in one piece, which is more than the people trying to catch us there can say.”
    Mari glared at the fog, her face tight with emotion. Alain could sense what she was thinking, that she and Alain had been through many more such tight situations than the others, and how narrowly the two of them had often survived. “All right,” Mari finally said, her voice probably sounding perfectly calm to the other Mechanics even though any Mage could have heard the tension within it. “Ideally, we need to keep the Syndari galleys from getting close enough to board us. That’s going to be very hard with visibility this low. If one shows up, everybody start throwing lead at any