Treasure Read Online Free PDF Page B

place, admiring the blood red fabric absently even as he looked around the ship to take stock for himself. "Any mermaids alive?"
    "None we saw, but they're slippery, I'm sure a couple got away," Samé replied.  "As often as they try to kill us, one of these days we'll finally succeed in killing every last one of the mad children, Dragons willing."
    Kin grunted. "Where is his—" he broke off as the question answered itself when he saw an enormous white panther leap down neatly from the poop deck, then stand idly on the main deck, licking a paw clean as though it had nothing better to do. Snorting in amusement, Kin shrugged off Samé's steadying arm, touched his shoulder lightly in thanks, then strode across the deck to Ailill. "I see you take orders as well as any noble."
    Ailill stopped licking his paw and gently butted his head against Kin's thigh. He then turned around and headed back for the captain's quarters, pushing the door open with one giant paw and then slipping smoothly inside.
    Kin sighed at the wasted evening, wishing that he and Ailill were inside, warm and ready for a second round. Instead, he was tired, sore, blood was drying and flaking on his various wounds, and he and the crew would spend the rest of the night doing what they could for repairs by the light of the moon and all of the next day doing the real work.
    He looked around at the crew and beckoned Samé to his side. "What are the damages?"
    "Nothing too major, actually," Samé replied. "They were going more for stealth this time around, and your ship is the finest on the sea."
    Kin nodded in agreement, pride flaring as it always did. She might have taken more than her fair share of beatings, but the Kumiko was still unmatched, a two-masted beauty that could sail faster, longer, and just plain better than any other ship on the sea.
    One day, old memories whispered, one day she would finally fulfill a promise. Kin hoped, anyway. His fingers twitched with a need to hold the dagger he kept safely stowed when he sailed, though he preferred to keep it on his person. "Will the repairs keep 'til morning?"
    "Aye, Captain."
    "Then double the watches and order the rest of the men to bed," Kin replied and strode off, grimacing at the smears of blood and gore mixed in amongst the excess of seawater on the deck. It would take hours of additional labor to set the Kumiko to rights again, but at least there was no serious repair work. Raiden would kill him if they wound up dead in the water like too many other ships.
    He ignored the voice that liked to remind him that were he not on the ship, the number of attacks they faced would drop to just a few a year, instead of at least one every time he was onboard. He dreaded the day the men turned on him, realized they were much better off without him.
    Why they followed him anyway, Kin had never been inclined to ask or look too closely at. He wanted to be on the sea and would be until he died or someone land-locked him, at which point he would take his own life.
    In his quarters, he raked a hand through his short hair, grimacing when his hand came away bloody and annoyed that his brief dunk in the ocean had somehow not gotten rid of it all.
    Ailill was human once more and had opened another bottle of wine. He crossed the room to hand a glass to Kin. "I had wondered why you were so shockingly white when, so far as I know, the only mark of divine power in Kundou is the blue hair of the royal family."
    "Thanks for the wine," Kin said. "Also the assistance; I doubt we would have gotten away without fatalities if not for you. Samé said you made all the difference."
    Ailill shrugged. "I'm used to handling myself in a fight. I've been to Piedre a dozen times or more and Pozhar twice."
    "Impressive," Kin conceded. "I do not like going to Piedre, and you see what I deal with here on the seas."
    "When I thought you merely a sailor, or even a sailor with some sort of secret divine ability, I thought it was impressive you had