“He is a king. He is an ally. He deserves respect,” Brunho said formally.
“Powers below eat him,” Xavega said. “Even Leino here could tell he is more like a leg of mutton than a proper man.”
A leg of mutton? Leino wondered. Maybe it was a Lagoan insult, translated literally. Maybe it just meant Xavega’s command of classical Kaunian wasn’t quite so good as she thought it was. Whatever it was, Leino felt he had to say something, and did: “The land of the Seven Princes would be ashamed to have him as one of the Seven.”
“You are welcome to your opinion,” Brunho said. “You are not welcome to express it on my ship, not where others can hear it, not where it can affect the morale of my crew.”
“You would not have a ship-you would not havethis ship-if it were not for us mages,” Xavega pointed out.
“That is true. But I do have it now.”
Maybe such relentless precision made Brunho a good captain. For his sake, forHabakkuk ’s sake, Leino hoped so. Nevertheless, he observed, “Bringing King Donalitu aboard will do more to hurt morale than I could if I talked for a month.”
Xavega laughed and clapped her hands and nodded. CaptainBrunho stared down at Leino out of cold green eyes. “This was done at the command of my sovereign, KingVitor. I prefer his opinion to yours.” He swung that disapproving stare toward Xavega. “KingVitoris your sovereign, too, in case you have forgotten.”
“I remember perfectly well,” she snapped. “But if he approves of that Donalitu creature, he has less in the way of taste than I would have thought.” She flounced off. Leino watched her do it. He watched carefully.
CaptainBrunhowas made of stern stuff-he kept his attention on Leino. “You mages are an insubordinate lot,” he said.
“Thank you,” Leino answered. Whatever Brunho had been expecting by way of a reply, that wasn’t it. He spun on his heel-carefully, so as not to fall on the icy deck of theHabakkuk -and stalked away.
Before long, Leino went below to serve a shift fightingHabakkuk ’s unfortunate tendency to melt. That tendency was more in evidence than ever lately, as the ship cruised the ley lines in warmer, more northerly waters. Without constant attention from mages, Habakkuk would have ceased to be. We aren‘t too insubordinate to keep you from swimming, CaptainBrunho, Leino thought.
Xavega was also part of this anti-melting shift. The magecraft, by now, was routine, though it hadn’t been when Leino helped develop it down in the land of the Ice People. The sorcerers didn’t need to give it all their attention; they could gossip while they worked.
“A pity we have Donalitu for an ally,” Xavega said. “He would make a much better enemy.”
“He does think the world of himself, does he not?” Ramalho said, shaking his head. The Lagoan mage continued, “He thinks the world spins around him, too.”
“If you told him that back in Jelgava, you would have ended up in one of his dungeons faster than you could blink,” Essi remarked. Her hands never faltered in the passes she needed to support the spell.
“All the more reason for throwing him into one of those dungeons himself.” Xavega stopped reviling Donalitu in classical Kaunian long enough to chant her portion of the spell that keptHabakkuk solid-also in classical Kaunian.
“He is a useful tool against Algarve,” Ramalho said. “His countrymen dote on him.”
“Which only goes to prove Jelgavans are not so smart as they would have other people believe,” Leino said.
The other mages chuckled. Xavega said, “No one who has Donalitu for a king could be very smart. And if our preciousCaptainBrunho cannot see that, may the powers below eat him.” To Leino’s surprise, she nodded his way. “You could see it, whether Brunho could or not. Thank you for trying to get him to be sensible.”
“Er-you are welcome,” Leino answered in some surprise. She’d actually talked to him in friendly fashion. He couldn’t remember the last time she’d done that. For a moment, he couldn’t imagine why she’d done it. But that didn’t take long to figure out. He’d agreed with her about Donalitu, and he’d said as much toCaptainBrunho ’s face. What could be more calculated to endear him to her than agreement? Nothing he could think of offhand.
As if to confirm that calculation, Xavega went on, “I had not realized you were such a sensible man.” The look she gave him was frankly appraising.
“I do my best to hide it,” Leino said, which made her laugh out loud. If I’m so sensible, why do I want to flip up her kilt? But there was more than one kind of sense, and he knew it. Bedding a good-looking woman needed no fancy justifications. It was its own best argument.
He performed his share of the maintenance spell with casual competence.
His eyes kept sliding Xavega’s way. Hers kept meeting his, and she wasn’t looking at him as if she wanted to go wash her hands afterwards any more, either. Was it really that easy? he wondered. Did I just have to make her think I thought she was right, to make her forget I’m a Kuusaman? He wasn’t used to people who responded so simply.
Do I really want anything to do with somebody who responds so simply? If Pekka were here… If Pekka were there, Xavega wouldn’t have done anything but amuse him. He was sure of that. But Pekka was far away, and had been for quite a while. Every time Leino looked at Xavega, and every time he caught her looking at him, he was reminded of just how long he’d been away from his wife.
Xavega was never one to beat around the bush. When the shift ended, she waited for Leino in the corridor. “I was wrong about you,” she announced.
“Oh?” His heart pounded. “How?”
“I never thought Kuusaman men could be so… interesting,” she said.
Sure enough, I agreed with her, Leino marveledThat was all I needed to do. It was probably all he should have done, too. Part of him knew it, anyhow. But that wasn’t the part that said, “Now that we have spent all this time keepingHabakkuk solid, will you come to my cabin and see how much ice we can melt?”
She couldn’t very well misunderstand that. If she didn’t care for it, she’d slap him across the icy hallway. Instead, she said, “Aye,” and set her hand in his. I’ll be sorry for this later, Leino thought. But that would be later. Now… Now he hurried toward the cabin, Xavega at his side.
“Leave?” The Algarvian lieutenant stared at Sidroc. “You want leave?”
“Aye, sir,” Sidroc answered stolidly. Speaking the redheads’ language, he had to be stolid; he wasn’t all that fluent. “I have had none since I came to Unkerlant more than a year and a half ago.”
“Have any of your comrades had leave?” his company commander asked, and Sidroc had to shake his head. The Algarvian went on, “There are two ways to stop fighting here in the west. You can be wounded. Then you stop long enough for them to repair you. Or you can die. But if they could call you back from that, believe me, they would. Now go back go your squad and stop troubling me with foolish notions. Have you got that?”
“Aye, sir,” Sidroc repeated. Back to his squad he went.
Ceorl was stirring the stewpot. He looked up. “Well?”
“Two ways to get leave,” Sidroc reported. “You can get wounded, or you can get killed. Otherwise, forget it.”
“Told you so,”SergeantWerferth said. “They’re going to use us up. That’s what we’re here for. I’d hate it even worse if they didn’t treat their own soldiers the same way.”
“Wonderful.” Speaking Forthwegian, Sidroc had no trouble sounding as sarcastic as he pleased. “I want to go home for a while, curse it. I’d come back.”
“Of course you would,” Werferth said. “It’s not like anybody except our own kin loves us back there-and even some of them don’t.”
“Futter ‘em all,” Ceorl said, giving the pot another stir.
“Futter ‘em all is right,” Sidroc muttered. The trouble was, Werferth was also right. Most Forthwegians had no great use for either the Algarvians or the men from Forthweg who’d taken service in Plegmund’s Brigade. “Ungrateful whoresons. If it weren’t for the redheads, we’d still be stuck with all those stinking Kaunians back in our own kingdom.”