Blaise also knew he was lying through his teeth. What Victor told the Spaniards went dead against what he'd said in all the arguments he'd had with the Negro. Victor wondered if Blaise would throw that in his face. To his relief, Blaise didn't. While the two of them disagreed, they showed a common front against the Spaniards.
"You are not permitted to enter into Spanish Atlantis, not with…him along," one of the Spanish soldiers said. He spoke to Victor alone, as if Blaise were nothing more than a beast of burden.
"Why do you think I want to enter it? To eat lizards? To let mosquitoes eat me?" Victor said. "Keep it, and welcome. As long as you don't cause trouble, I can report to the king that he doesn't need to take it away from you."
"Yet," Blaise added.
The Spaniards spoke with each other in low voices. "You have seen what you came to see. Now you should go," said the one who did the talking for them.
"Gladly," Victor said.
"Their turn will come," Blaise said as he and Victor rode north again.
"Without a doubt," Victor agreed. "One day soon, England will hold all of Atlantis."
"And then what?" Blaise asked.
"I don't know," Victor said, taken aback. "It will be a better place than it is now-I'm sure of that."
"Better how?" Blaise persisted. "Freer?"
Victor thought of freedom in terms of not needing to worry about foreign foes. Blaise looked at things rather differently. "I don't know," Victor said again.