Vessel Read Online Free PDF Page B

said one of them.
    “Master Dine, you’ve called on us and now we’re here. What’s happened?”
    Dine replied in a submissive voice I’d never heard him use before. “Thank you for coming so quickly, Your Grace. I must apologize. We thought you would be arriving tomorrow. Not all the preparations for your visit have been made. I am truly sorry.”
    “What preparations are those?” The voice was curious.
    “I planned to slaughter a calf and prepare a feast in your honor, Your Grace.”
    “A calf? That would be a most excellent feast indeed. Perhaps we could extend our visit Anders?”
    I silently entered the room with the teapot and cups. The steeping tea lightly perfumed the room, but it couldn’t replace the smell of the unwashed men entirely. I poured the first cup and offered it to the most senior of the Reticents, a man nearly as old as Kinder, but much healthier. He smiled at me as if I were an amusing fool in my billa . He took the customary first sip, eldest first. I waited by the teapot for his approval, hoping he wouldn’t taste the hippa in the tea.
    “Ah, lovely,” he said as he settled back into Tow’s best chair.
    Approval given, I filled the other cups and served the remaining men.
    “I hoped to be back to Gora early, but I suppose we could stay a spell. Could you prepare the calf tonight, Dine?”
    “Certainly, Master Anders. You can stay here, and I will have my servant wait on you.” Dine gestured toward me, hovering in the back of the room should I be called on. Weevil spoke for the first time.
    “Why is she in that contraption, Dine?”
    “She’s monstrously hideous, but a loyal servant.”
    “Is that the girl from Asia I sold you years ago? Weren’t nothing wrong with her then.”
    He remembers me?
    Dine leveled a look at Weevil that would frighten most people, but Weevil was used to being hated.
    “As I recall, she was quite a pretty little chit, in fact,” Weevil continued. “Almost kept her for meself. Maybe I should’ve.”
    Anders looked at the ceiling and sighed.
    “Are we really discussing the welfare of an insignificant slave, Weevil?” he asked without interest in the answer.
    “You forget yourself,” another Envoy next to Weevil scolded under his breath.
    Weevil turned his bloodshot eyes away from Dine to look at Anders, who shook his head.
    “Don’t displease me again, Weevil.”
    The slaver, as frightening as he was, balked and swallowed hard.
    “I’ll go see about the horses,” said Weevil, moving toward the door. As he let himself out, I moved to collect his cup. My hand shook when I realized he hadn’t even drank half of the hippa . I pulled my hands inside the billa to hide my fear. Dine followed me to Tow’s kitchen.
    “Stay here and clean this place up. Then come home and help with the feast,” he ordered. “Hurry.”
    “Yes, Master Dine.”
    I heard him say goodbye to the Envoy and leave. Tow busied himself hauling in extra cots borrowed from the neighbors while I swept the leaves out of the house and listened hard for some idea of what they had planned. The three younger Envoy members sat around Anders chatting about this and that, never once mentioning prisoners. Finally, the hippa kicked in, and Tow and I were ushered out so the Envoy members could rest.
    Tow and I walked the short distance back to Dine’s house, me at my usual three steps behind. He hadn’t missed the key yet, and I prayed he wouldn’t need to look for it until morning. It sat safe in my pocket for now. My mind clicked. Maybe I could make it to the prison after the feast was served and they no longer needed me. Maybe I could slip off unnoticed. My hopes were rising again until I caught sight of Weevil sitting on the side of the road, sharpening a blade as long as my arm.
    “Ah, chit!” he called, happy to see me, as if I were a favorite pupil of his from long ago. I hadn’t eaten in hours and became suddenly aware of how sick I felt.
    Weevil stepped between Tow and I,