The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality Book 4) by Jack Campbell Page B

pretending to go along with orders but finding ways to avoid actually complying.”
    “My experience with commons,” Mechanic Dav offered, “is that they are really good at that sort of thing. The Senior Mechanics kept telling me the commons were too stupid to understand what they were told, but it looked to me like they were plenty smart enough.”
     
    “That’s what I’ve seen, too. We’ll crack the hatch so we can listen while that guy talks to the captain,” Mari decided.
    The wait for the launch to pull alongside and its passenger to climb up the rope ladder to the
Gray Lady's
deck seemed interminable to Mari, but eventually she saw the official step on deck, looking around casually. The hatch onto the deck was open but a narrow crack. Mari stood slightly back from it, surely invisible to anyone outside, with Alain right beside her and the others clustered farther back.
    Alain murmured in her ear. “This official pretends not to be aware, but he is watching everything. There is a worry inside him that he does not show to other commons.”
    The captain greeted the official with a smile and a salute. “The
Gray Lady
, an honest merchant ship out of Gullhaven, honored sir. Here to pick up provisions and perhaps give the crew a bit of liberty ashore.”
    The official nodded, smiling politely back, but only for a moment before his face went serious. “Gullhaven? That was your last port?”
    “Aye, sir.”
    “That’s odd. We have a report out of Altis that a ship like enough to yours to be her twin left that port under hasty circumstances.”
    Mari tensed, but the captain of the
Gray Lady
only looked surprised. “Is that so? I’ve not seen that ship, sir, or I’d have marked it for certain. Much like this one, you say?”
    “
Exactly
like this one,” the official stated. “Even down to the name.”
    The captain looked outraged. “They claimed the name of my ship? That’s not the work of honest sailors, sir.”
    “I daresay,” the official responded, glancing around again. “The Mechanics Guild gave us the description and the name. The Mechanics Guild said there was a substantial reward for this ship and its occupants. They want this ship very badly.”
    The
Gray Lady
’s captain looked puzzled. “Why ever for? We’re but honest sailors.”
    “Naturally. But the Mechanics Guild thinks you’re carrying someone the Guild wants badly enough to offer that substantial reward for, dead or alive. I might add, preferably dead.”
    “What!” the captain cried in feigned astonishment. “I’ll not deny looking askance at the odd Mechanic, sir, because you know how they can be with their pride and their ill manners, but surely that’s not grounds for such a charge. No one on this ship could match such a description, sir. We’re all—”
    “Honest sailors,” the official finished dryly. “The Mage Guild has communicated with us as well, saying that they also seek a ship carrying someone, a young woman, and offering a huge reward for her death.”
    “No wise person deals with Mages, sir,” the captain avowed.
    “In that we are in agreement. Do you have any passengers?”
    “Passengers? Well, sir, I’m not comfortable with carrying passengers, you see.”
    “The harbor sentries on the breakwater reported sighting figures on your deck wearing the jackets of Mechanics. They also,” the official added, “saw at least one person in the robes of a Mage.”
    “The fog does funny things to a man’s sight, sir. There have been times I’ve been near to jumping overboard from thinking I saw mermaids beckoning to me.”
    “You took on three Syndari galleys and bested them,” the official said. “That’s very impressive. But do not think that you can best the city leaders of Julesport.”
    The captain held out his hands in earnest entreaty. “I have but one task in Julesport, sir, and that is to take on food and water for my crew. We’re bound for other ports, sir. I have no wish to act contrary to