Birds of Prey - Smith Wilbur (версия книг TXT) 📗

"What on earth are you doing, child? Not here. Have you lost your mind? Not in front of the whole colony." She tried to pull away her arm, but Sukeena held it with a strength that shocked her.

"We are going into the castle," Sukeena said quietly. "And you are to do exactly what I tell you to do."

"Aboli! Stop the carriage this in stand Katinka raised her voice and made to stand up. But Sukeena jerked her down in her seat.

"Don't struggle," Sukeena ordered, "or I will cut you. I will cut your face first, so that you are no longer beautiful. Then if you still do not obey I will send this blade through your slimy, evil heart."

Katinka looked down and, for the first time, saw the blade that Sukeena held to her side. That dagger had been a gift from one of Katinka's lovers and she knew just how sharp was its slender blade. Sukeena had stolen it from Katinka's closet.

"Are you mad?" Katinka blanched with terror, and tried to squirm away from the needle point.

"Yes. Mad enough to kill you and to enjoy doing it." Sukeena pressed the dagger to her side and Katinka screamed. The horses pricked their ears. "If you scream again I will draw your blood," Sukeena warned. "Now hold your tongue and listen while I tell you what you are to do."

"I will give you to Slow John and laugh as he draws out your entrails," Katinka blustered, but her voice shook and terror was in her eyes.

"You will never laugh again, not unless you obey me. This dagger will see to that," and she pricked Katinka again, hard enough to pierce cloth and skin, so that a spot of blood the size of a silver guilder appeared on her bodice.

"Please!" Katinka whimpered. "Please, Sukeena, I will do as you say. Please don't hurt me again. You said you loved me."

"And I lied," Sukeena hissed at her. "I lied for my brother's sake. I hate you. You will never know the strength of my hatred. I loath the touch of your hands. I am revolted by every filthy, evil thing you forced me to do. So do not trade on any love from me. I will crush you with as little pity as I would rid my hair of lice." Katinka saw death in her eyes, and she was afraid as she had seldom been in her life before.

"I will do as you tell me," she whispered, and Sukeena instructed her in a flat, hard tone that was more threatening than any shouting or raging.

Aboli drove the carriage through the castle gates, the usual stir of activity heralded its Arrival. The single sentry came to attention and presented his musket. Aboli wheeled the team of greys and brought the carriage to a halt in front of the Company offices. The captain of the guard hurried from the armoury, hastily strapping on his sword-belt. He was a young subaltern, freshly out from Holland, and he had been taken by surprise by the unexpected arrival of the Governor's wife.

"The devil's horns!" he muttered to himself. "Why does the bitch pick today to arrive when half my men are sick as dogs?" He looked anxiously at the single guard at the door to the Company offices, and saw that the man's face still had a pale greenish tinge. Then he realized that the Governor's wife was beckoning to him from her seat in the carriage. He broke into a run across the courtyard, straightening his cap and tightening the strap under his chin as he went. He reached the carriage and saluted Katinka "Good morning, Mevrouw. May I assist you to dismount?"

The Governor's wife had a strained, nervous look and her voice was high and breathless. The subaltern was instantly alarmed. "Is something amiss, Mevrouw?"

"Yes, something is very much amiss. Call my husband!" "Will you go to his office?"

"No. I will remain here in the carriage. Go to him this instant and tell him that I say he must come immediately. It is a matter of the utmost importance. Life and death! Go! Hurry!"

The subaltern looked startled and saluted quickly, then bounded up the steps two at a time and shot through the double doors into the offices. While he was gone Aboli dismounted, went to the panniers at the back of the carriage and opened the lid. Then he glanced around the courtyard.

There was one guard at the gates and another at the head of the stairs but, as usual, the slow-match in their muskets was unlit. There was no sentry posted at the doors to the armoury, but from where he stood he could see through the window that three men were in the guard room. Each of the five overseers in the courtyard carried swords as well as their whips and canes. Hugo Barnard was at the far end of the yard and had both his hounds on the leash. He was haranguing the gang of common convicts laying the paving stones along the foot of the east wall. These other convicts, not part of the crew of the Resolution, might be a hazard when they made their attempt to escape. Nearly two hundred were working on the walls, the multihued dregs of humanity. They could easily hamper the rescue attempt by blocking the escape route or even by trying to join in with the Resolution's crew and mobbing the carriage when they realized what was happening.

We will deal with that when it happens, he thought grimly, and turned his full attention to the armed guards and overseers who were the primary threat. With Barnard and his gang, there were ten art ned men in sight but any outcry could bring another twenty or thirty soldiers hurrying out of the barracks and across the yard. The whole business could get out of hand quickly.

He looked up to find Hal and Big Daniel watching him from the scaffold. Hal already had the rope of the gantry in his hand, the tail looped around his wrist. Ned Tyler and Billy Rogers were on the lower tier, and the two birds, Finch and Sparrow, were working near Althuda in the courtyard. They were all pretending to carry on with their tasks, but were eyeing Aboli surreptitiously.

Aboli reached into the pannier and loosened the twine that secured the rolled silk carpet. He opened a flap of it and, without lifting them clear, revealed the three Mogul scimitars and the single kukii knife that he had chosen for himself. He knew that, from their vantage point, Hal and Big Daniel could see into the pannier. Then he stood immobile and expressionless at the back wheel of the carriage.