Bone Lord 4, стр. 33
I was about to turn Talon around and fly back to the fleet when I saw movement on the raft. One of the Yengishmen was not as dead as he’d looked, it seemed. He slowly raised his head, staring with bleary eyes at the hovering harpy. There was no trace of fear or bewilderment on his sunburned face; perhaps he thought he was hallucinating. His cracked lips and shallow breathing told me he’d been out here on the ocean for a long time, and whatever food and water rations these people had had on their lifeboat had been used up days ago. He was barely clinging to life, and if I hadn’t come across him, he probably would have joined his fellow passengers at the other side in a couple of hours.
“It’s your lucky day, my Yengish friend,” I whispered. “I don’t know what gods you worshiped in your own land, but from this day forward, you’re going to worship the God of Death.”
Then, controlling Talon, I swooped down, picked him up gently in her claws, and carried him across the ocean back to the warship.
“What’s going on?” Elyse asked when I opened my eyes again.
“I picked up a trace of human death far out at sea,” I answered, “so I flew Talon out there to take a look. I found a lifeboat full of dead Yengishmen, but there was one survivor. Talon should be back with him shortly. The poor bastard looks like he’s been without food and water for days.”
“Oh my!” she exclaimed. “I’ll get some food and water ready for him, some wine too. We have to be very careful feeding him and rehydrating him; too much too quickly could kill him.”
“How do you know so much about that sort of thing?”
“I served as a healer for a few years. Part of our duties was healing the sick and helping out starving peasants. Trust me, I know how to help someone in this kind of predicament.”
“Good thing you mentioned that. I probably would have just forced a bottle of wine down the guy’s throat the moment he got here. I mean, that’s what I’d want.”
“Now you know. Don’t forget.”
“I’ll go wait on deck for him,” I said.
Elyse nodded and hurried off. I went up to the deck.
“We’re getting a surprise guest, people,” I told my companions up there. “Look up.”
I made sure the undead harpy set the man gently down. He coughed and breathed shallowly, blinking his eyes and looking around in confusion.
“Am I... dead?” he eventually rasped, speaking the Common Tongue with a heavy Yengish accent. “Is this hell?”
I chuckled and shook my head, then squatted down next to him and propped his head up under a small sack of dried beans.
“This isn’t hell,” I said to him, “but it isn’t heaven either, unfortunately. The good news is you’re still alive. And when we get some food and drink in you, you’ll start to feel a lot more alive than you’ve felt in the past few days, I bet. Then you can tell us what happened to the ship you were on, and how you and your shipmates ended up on that lifeboat.”
“I’m alive?” he gasped.
“As alive as they come. You’ve got a pulse and you’re breathing.”
The instant I said this, his dark almond eyes grew wide with fear. He started struggling weakly, desperately trying to get up. I pressed my hand gently onto his chest to keep him lying down. The agitation wouldn’t do him any good in his state. I might not have been a healer, but I knew that much.
“Try to relax,” I said. “I’m not letting you bounce around until my friend’s back with food and wine. You’ll want wine. Then we’ll talk.”
“The kraken,” he gasped, ignoring me, his whole body trembling with terror. “Run for your lives! The kraken is coming. The kraken is coming!”
Chapter Twelve
“There’s no kraken here,” I repeated. “If you caught a glimpse of something while you flew over to this ship, that was just a whale.”
I wasn’t certain of this, but I figured assuaging the man’s fears was a good idea.
“K-kraken, k-k-kraken.” The Yengish sailor shook like a leaf in a gale, his eyes like saucers, spittle flying from his chattering jaw.
“He’s on the verge of death and has been adrift on a dinghy for days, possibly weeks,” Elyse said. “Don’t expect much sense to come out of this poor fellow’s mouth until he’s been properly rehydrated and rested.”
I knew she was right, of course, but the Yengishman had me intrigued nonetheless.
“I’ve got a few healing herbs for him too,” Elyse continued. “They should calm his troubled mind somewhat.”
I nodded, and Rollar took me aside, looking at the jabbering Yengishman with suspicion.
“Are you sure it was a good idea to rescue this man, Lord Vance?” he asked. “The insanity, the feebleness… couldn’t it all be a distraction until he gets one of us alone, when he’ll reap our lives one by one? You have had to deal with such types before.”
“You’re right to be suspicious,” I said, “but if he was a Blood Demon, he would have attacked me by now. Anyway, since I first encountered Blood Demons, I think I’ve learned how to sniff the fuckers out.”
“All right, I trust you, my lord,” Rollar said, quite relieved.
I smiled and patted him on the shoulder before returning to Elyse and the Yengishman. I really needed to find out more about the kraken, and I suspected that the trembling wretch in front of me would be just the man to tell me about the creature, if I could fix his mind.
“I’ve managed to get him to drink and eat some,” Elyse said. “It will still be a while before he’s gathered