FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>   >|  
bed, contemptuously rejecting him. He lay there, gasping, terrified. _Take as many women as you like. But love always and only me. For if you do love another, I promise you that your love will destroy both her and you._ Had he truly heard the voice of Blossoming Reed, burning and cruel in his mind, coming from as far off as the stars? The locket fell to the floor with a crash that seemed to shake the stone building in which he lay. He remained motionless, paralyzed with dread. XLIX Feeling as if he would burst into flames with anger, Simon stood under a bright blue sky dappled with high white clouds on a wooden quay at Livorno, two weeks after leaving Orvieto. The masts of small boats lined the waterfront like a forest of tree trunks stripped of their leaves. _If I were traveling with a proper entourage, a few knights and a troop of archers, by God's wounds they'd carry me. These shipmasters are too damned independent._ One large ship, anchored midway between the shore and the arm of the harbor, looked to Simon like his last chance. Leaving Thierry on the quay, he dropped a silver denaro into the callused palm of a man with a dinghy and had himself rowed out to the big ship. From what he knew of ships, this was a middle-size buss, sitting high in the water, with rounded prow and stern. The name _Constanza_ was painted on the stern. Human muscle moved it; Simon counted ten oarholes on each side. As he trod the catwalk from the prow of the ship to the stern castle where the captain stood, Simon saw no one sitting at the oars and no chains. So the ship must be rowed by its crew, free mariners. A square sail, furled at present, mounted on a single mast amidships would help the rowers when the wind was right. The captain, whose bald scalp was brown as well-tanned leather, bowed deeply when Simon presented himself. He was half Simon's height, twice as broad, and all muscle. He smiled, showing a full set of bright white teeth when Simon explained that he needed passage to Marseilles. "Bon seigner, you must understand that it is not a simple matter to engage a ship of this size to carry you wherever you wish to go." The language the captain spoke was neither French nor Italian. Simon recognized it at once, and he felt a little inner leap, because it was the tongue his parents spoke, the Langue d'Oc, the speech of Aquitaine, Toulouse, and Provence. "Of course I understand that," Simon replied
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
captain
 

understand

 

bright

 

sitting

 

muscle

 
square
 
mariners
 

present

 
amidships
 

single


Constanza

 

rounded

 
painted
 

mounted

 
furled
 

castle

 
middle
 
oarholes
 

catwalk

 

chains


counted

 

leather

 

French

 

Italian

 

recognized

 

language

 

matter

 

simple

 

engage

 

Toulouse


Aquitaine

 
Provence
 

replied

 

speech

 

tongue

 
parents
 

Langue

 
tanned
 

deeply

 
presented

height
 

needed

 
explained
 
passage
 

Marseilles

 

seigner

 
smiled
 

showing

 
rowers
 

locket