Read Online The Kings Man by Rowena Cory Daniells - Free Book Online

lucky,’ the surgeon told him. ‘They’ll be working in the fields, the mines or the ship-yards, up to the necks in freezing cold water. Half of them’ll die of the flux or the lung rot.’ He shut the door and took another drink. ‘If you keep your wits about you, lad, you’ll be a surgeon by the time your service is up.’
    The thought of spending seven years at sea, serving Merofynians, horrified Garzik.
    Seeing his expression, Rishardt smiled grimly. ‘I saved your life. Show a little gratitude.’
    ‘Why did you start drinking again?’ Garzik blurted, then flinched, expecting a blow.
    But the surgeon glanced to the wine bottle, seemed to forget the question and poured himself another drink.
    ‘There was a man back home with a drinking problem,’ Garzik said. ‘We put him in a pit and left him there until he’d gone a week without drink. When we hauled him out, he never drank again.’
    ‘For how long?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘For how long did he stop drinking? One season, one year?’
    Garzik thought back. They’d put him in the pit summer two years ago and Garzik knew the man had been killed in the Merofynian attack. ‘Until the day he died.’
    ‘Which was?’
    ‘Less than two years later,’ Garzik admitted.
    ‘So you’ve remembered your past. I take it that includes your name?’
    Garzik flushed and closed his mouth.
    ‘Then Wyvern it is. Wynn for short,’ Rishardt told him. ‘Now that you’re my apprentice, I’ll have to teach you Merofynian.’
    Garzik nodded and turned away, but the surgeon caught his arm. ‘I might be a drunkard, but I’m no fool and you’re no scribe.’
    It was almost word for word what Mitrovan had said. Was he such a bad actor?
    Garzik looked down at the hand on his arm.
    ‘Don’t worry. I’m the last person to ask what you’re running from.’ Rishardt gave Garzik a shove in the right direction. ‘Back to work.’
    As the surgeon fired off words, Garzik repeated them, pretending to commit them to memory. But all the time he grappled with the sudden change in his fortune. Their ship was going back to Rolencia.
    As much as he wanted to go home, how could he return to Byren empty handed?
    While they checked the stores, sailors unloaded Lord Travany’s war booty and the rest of the seven-year-slaves. By midnight, the depleted ship’s stores had been replaced and the vessel pulled away from the dock so another could take her place.
    When the kitchen lad delivered a tray of beans and bread, the ship’s surgeon pushed a plate in Garzik’s direction. Continuing to tutor Garzik in the Merofynian language, he poured himself another drink. A second wine bottle was almost empty. Despite this, he was no drunker.
    Garzik could not reveal his deception, so he deliberately stumbled over the supposedly foreign words.
    Rhishardt chuckled. ‘You’re asleep on your feet. Don’t worry, we’ve got seven years to teach you. Eat up, Wynn. You can bunk down under the bench.’
    Grateful as he was for the food, Garzik hardly tasted it. Tired and stunned by the turn of events, he finished his meal and lay down to sleep under the surgeon’s table. Straps hung off the table legs.
    He didn’t want to think what they were used for, but of course his mind presented him with the image of an injured sailor, restrained while the surgeon operated on him. Garzik shuddered. He wasn’t brave enough to be a ship’s surgeon. And he wasn’t as good a spy as Mitrovan. Somehow he must work out what to do next.
    But he fell asleep before he could.
     
     
    I T SEEMED LIKE only a moment later that Garzik woke, with sunlight coming through the cabin’s small window and the sensation of the ship cutting through the waves.
    He woke with a dream conversation running through his head. He’d been on the battlements at Rolenhold, earnestly telling Byren how he’d sent Mitrovan to infiltrate the king’s inner circle. He’d been trying to convince Byren and Orrade to send him back to Merofynia so he