Golden Lion

Two days had … (#litres_trial_promo)

The Delft, now … (#litres_trial_promo)

From the moment … (#litres_trial_promo)

Hal was standing … (#litres_trial_promo)

‘Wake up, my … (#litres_trial_promo)

Judith was taken … (#litres_trial_promo)

If Zanzibar was … (#litres_trial_promo)

The three men … (#litres_trial_promo)

The storm came … (#litres_trial_promo)

Captain Jebediah Rivers … (#litres_trial_promo)

Not for the … (#litres_trial_promo)

The slave market’s … (#litres_trial_promo)

The men who … (#litres_trial_promo)

Hal came to … (#litres_trial_promo)

Hal had only … (#litres_trial_promo)

‘You must eat,’ … (#litres_trial_promo)

The Madre de … (#litres_trial_promo)

Hal started slow … (#litres_trial_promo)

Judith longed to … (#litres_trial_promo)

Judith was nearing … (#litres_trial_promo)

The pinnace dropped … (#litres_trial_promo)

That first night … (#litres_trial_promo)

The second day … (#litres_trial_promo)

Hal lost track … (#litres_trial_promo)

The Amadoda looked … (#litres_trial_promo)

In Lobo’s private … (#litres_trial_promo)

The Buzzard and … (#litres_trial_promo)

‘My eyes are … (#litres_trial_promo)

The Buzzard was … (#litres_trial_promo)

They pulled the … (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Authors

Also by Wilbur Smith

About the Publisher

Map (#u8ac0981a-47b6-5827-9104-0b770f3f4896)

They were no longer men. They were the detritus of war cast up by the Indian Ocean upon the red sands of the African continent. Most of their bodies were torn by grape shot or hacked by the keen-edged weapons of their adversaries. Others had drowned and the gas in their swollen bellies as they rotted had lifted them to the surface again like cork bungs. There the carrion-eating seabirds and the sharks had feasted upon them. Finally a very few of them had been washed through the breaking surf onto the beaches, where the human predators waited to pick them over once again.

Two small boys ran ahead of their mother and grandmother along the water’s edge, squealing with excitement every time they discovered anything deposited upon it by the sea, no matter how trifling and insignificant.

‘There is another one,’ cried the eldest in Somali. He pointed ahead to where a ship’s wooden spar was washed ashore, trailing a long sheet of torn canvas. It was attached to the body of a white man who had lashed himself to the spar with a twist of hempen rope whilst he still lived. Now the two boys stood over his carcass laughing.

‘The birds have pecked out one of his eyes,’ shouted the eldest boy.

‘And the fish have bitten off one of his arms,’ his little brother gloated, not to be outdone. A shred of torn sail canvas, obviously applied by the man while still alive, was knotted around the stump of his amputated arm as a tourniquet, and his clothing had been scorched by fire. It hung off his gaunt frame in tatters.

‘Look!’ screeched the elder boy. ‘Look at the buckle on his sword-belt. It must be made of gold or silver. We will be rich.’ He knelt beside the body and tugged at the metal buckle. At which the dead man groaned hollowly and rolled his head to glare at the boys with his one good eye. Both children screamed with horror, and the elder released his grip on the sword-belt and sprang to his feet. They rushed back to their mother and clung to her skirts whimpering and whining with terror.

The mother ran to examine the booty, dragging the children along with her on her skirts. The grandmother hobbled along behind them. Her daughter dropped to her knees beside the body and she slapped the man’s face hard. He groaned again.

‘Zinky is right. The Ferengi is still alive.’ She reached into the pocket of her skirt and pulled out the sickle with which she cut the grass to feed her chickens.

‘What are you going to do?’ Her mother panted from her run.

‘I am going to cut his throat, of course.’ The woman took hold of a handful of the man’s sodden hair and pulled his head back to expose his throat. ‘We don’t want to have to argue with him about who owns the belt and buckle.’ She laid the curved blade against the side of his neck, and the man coughed weakly but did not resist.

‘Wait!’ ordered the grandmother sharply. ‘I have seen that buckle before when I was in Djibouti with your father. This man is a great Ferengi Lord. He owns his own ship. He has great wealth. If we save his life he will be grateful and he might give us a gold coin, or even two!’

Her daughter looked dubious, and considered the proposition for a while, still holding the sickle blade to his throat. ‘What about his beautiful metal buckle of great value?’

‘We will keep it, naturally.’ Her mother was exasperated with her daughter’s lack of acuity. ‘If he ever asks for it we will tell him we have never seen it.’ Her daughter removed the sickle blade from the man’s throat.

‘So what do we do with him now?’

‘We take him to the doctor in the village.’

‘How?’