The Merchant of Dreams by Anne Lyle - Sample Chapters

tion of climbing up from the beach. He was dressed in a loose tunic and breeches like a skrayling, and his hair hung in braids past his shoulders. He hefted a net full of mussels, grinned at Kiiren and said something in the ancient tongue of the skraylings. The words tugged on the sleeve of Mal’s memory, but without the skrayling drug to help him, he could make out only fragments.

“Speak English, amayi,” Kiiren said.

“Sorry, brother.” Sandy ducked his head, sheepish. “I… I have not spoken our father’s tongue in such a long time, I forget.”

Kiiren gestured for them to sit on the cushions scattered around the tent. “You had something important to say, Catlyn-tuur?”

“It can wait until later,” Mal replied. He wasn’t about to distress Sandy with talk of mass suicides.

“Nothing is more important than my brother.”

Sandy poured three cups of shakholaat and passed them round.

“Why are you here?” he asked Mal without preamble.

“I’m returning to London on Walsingham’s business.” It wasn’t exactly a lie; if the skraylings were up to something in the Mediterranean, the spymaster would want to know. “And since I would be passing the island anyway–” “You must have been this way before.” Sandy’s tone was even, but Mal’s guilt supplied the unspoken accusation.

“I didn’t want to interfere with your healing.

Kiiren indicated it would take a long time.”