Read Online Across the Long Sea by Sarah Remy - Free Book Online Page A

watching as Liam half clamored, half jumped from ladder to pier. “I’ll see you tonight, Seb, at the dedication?”
    â€œAye,” his cousin muttered, distracted. “I’ll be there.”
    â€œGood.” Mal put his arm around Liam’s sweaty neck, steering the lad away.
    They walked the rest of the pier in silence, ignored by merchant and seaman both. Liam goggled over the remaining ships, but showed no inclination to visit another deck.
    â€œYou’re thoughtful,” Mal said as they turned about again, faces to Selkirk, wind against their backs. “Not cut out for adventure on the high seas?”
    Liam shrugged, not quite dislodging Mal’s arm.
    â€œIt ain’t—­isn’t—­that, my lord,” he said. “The swords were fine, and the flintlock puzzling. It shoots a lead ball, my lord, like a canon, Fiennes said. With enough force to pass clean through a man, and kill him dead.”
    They stepped off the pier and onto uneven sand. Morning was just giving way to afternoon, but already small boys and girls were using long, thin Selkirk matches to light the torches on the beach. Clouds raced overhead, and the young attendants had to shelter the flickering match-­heads with their hands.
    â€œThat’s what’s bothering you, the flintlock? You likely won’t see another in your lifetime, lad. They’re extremely rare and by all accounts both difficult to manufacture and dangerously unreliable.”
    â€œNot that, my lord.”
    â€œThen what?”
    â€œThey’ve no respect, here, my lord. For you, or for the crown. They whisper behind your back, and spit. And I heard ’em call His Majesty a cheat and dishonest.”
    â€œAh.” Malachi urged Liam north along the beach, away from Selkirk and her pier, away from the torches. It didn’t escape his notice when Jacob left his game with the gulls and followed after, wheeling lazily overhead. “Most of the ­people on the coast have never had cause to make the trip into Wilhaiim, lad. To them, the king is only an idea, or an image. They watch their coin go to taxes, and see little in return. They’ve more local concerns; the tides, the weather, the catch. Even pirates are a rare threat these days; spooky stories used to scare infants in the cradle.”
    Liam scuffed his sandals, kicking up sand. His hands were clenched at his side.
    â€œHis Majesty shouldn’t put up with it.”
    â€œThey pay their taxes, Liam. In truth, vague grumblings are natural, and nothing to worry yourself over.”
    The boy’s low reply was made incomprehensible by a crash of feathers. Jacob landed hard on Mal’s shoulder, claws piercing linen, tongue clicking in his beak. Mal swore.
    â€œGod’s balls, monster. That hurts!”
    â€œWhat’s that, my lord?” Liam asked, sulk interrupted. He pointed ahead, up the beach.
    â€œThat—­” Mal reached up and tried to forcibly loosen the raven’s claws in his flesh. Jacob chortled, unrepentant. “—­is where we’re walking to. One last thing to show you before we return to the keep.”
    Liam cocked his head.
    â€œIt looks like part of a building, my lord. Sticking right out of the sand.”
    â€œIt is,” Mal answered. “Run ahead and take a look. There’s a plaque, I believe, in the royal lingua. You’ll be practiced enough to read it, I believe.”
    The boy didn’t need to be told twice. Grievances forgotten for the moment, he galloped along the beach, scattering seaweed and gulls as he went. Mal followed more slowly, Jacob huffing in his ear.
    â€œYou know what it is, I imagine,” Mal said.
    The bird didn’t bother to answer.
    The stretch of beach was narrow, a silver strand between water and high cliffs. The spring winds, trapped against stone, howled. It had been on a similar night ten years earlier when the islands sank, that Gerald