"True." Gareth thought about what Petrich had said. "What experience have you, beyond the seizing of human cargoes?"

"We've taken four or five prizes," Petrich said. "Only one worth bragging on, and that was a hard fight that cost us more men than I think it should've. Yet another reason to learn under your tutelage."

Ah, Gareth thought. So, now, a bit more than twenty years of age, I'm a worshipful sage.

"I think," Gareth said honestly a" though keeping a small check in mind about the hard loyalty of the Naijak a" "we could be of mutual assistance, if your ship sails and fights as well as it looks. As for my payment, I'd consider two shares acceptable."

"I promise you, it does that," Petrich said. "And I certainly think your suggested share is more than reasonable."

"I should have asked for more," Gareth said.

Petrich smiled, lifted his glass. "A pawky fluid to toast a partnership."

Gareth touched his own mug to Petrich's.

"One other thing," Petrich said. "I a we a assumed, before we voted, that your ships will take part in Dafflemere's expedition against the treasure ships."

"Such has been decided," Gareth said flatly.

a a a "I tell you, young captain," Dafflemere said, "it's proof that the gods are blessing us that I've had several dreams, each as precise as if it were real life, about the Linyati treasure."

"That is just what I wanted to discuss with you."

Gareth and Dafflemere were in his house, one of the few stone buildings on Freebooter's Island. It was lavishly cluttered with weapons, relics of wrecks, charts, and odd, probably magical, artifacts.

Gareth drank water, Dafflemere a horrible concoction of Axkiller and northern brandy, which never seemed to make him anything other than redder of face.

"You have doubts?"

"Only two," Gareth confessed. "The first is your dreams. Could they be sent as a trap by the Linyati?"

Dafflemere snorted. "To a magician of lesser powers than mine, possibly, although that would still take great wizardry, since I'm not known to the Slavers.

"But I can answer you more precisely, since I've cast spells and found no signs of any foreign thaumaturge's presence. I've used relicts of the Linyati to help me in that search, by the way, which would surely warn me if they were laying a trap."

"That's reassuring," Gareth said.

"I don't mean to be insulting," Dafflemere said, "but is there any possibility your hesitation comes from a bit of jealousy, since this was not your plan?

"I would hardly suggest this," he continued hastily, "if I didn't know you to be a young man of great common sense and skepticism, able to question everything, including your own perceptions. I would hardly have done it with other corsair captains of lesser intellect."

Gareth felt a bit of anger, fought it back, considered Dafflemere's suggestion.

"No," he said slowly. "Or at any rate I don't think there's envy in my caution.

"Perhaps the real reason I'm a bit skeptical is this seems to be a bit of plunging. If we take the treasure ships, all well and good, and we'll be great lords, able, if we wish, to quit reiving forever and be honored, even ennobled, with such riches in our own lands."

Gareth suddenly had a flash of longing for just that, but then it vanished as he thought of the dullness of a country squire's life, or, for that matter, his uncle Pol's.

"But if we fail, if the Linyati are too strong," he continued, "then all this" a" and his arm swept the quiet lagoon a" "will be shattered."

"Why, lad," Dafflemere said, "none of this was here before we came, now was it? We built this island, intending it only for our own time, for the brief span we're able to strut the quarterdeck, our names a whisper of fear among lesser wights. So who cares if it's washed away as quickly as it came?

"Perhaps my a" our a" venture is putting everything on a single casting of the dice. What could be grander, Gareth, than that? For what could be worse than living a nice, simple, tedious life in some backwater as if we were proper citizens? Aren't we all rebelling against that fate?"

Gareth remembered what he'd said to Thom Tehidy and Knoll N'b'ry the day the Slavers destroyed his village. There was a bit of a shiver in the memory, but also an honest surge of agreement.

"You're right," Gareth said. "Or anyway my heart says you're right."

"And what else should we follow?" Dafflemere upended his great mug, bellowed laughter.

"All right," Knoll N'b'ry said evenly. "Why me?"

a a a "Because you're about the most level-headed sort in the Company," Gareth said. "Because I think you and Nomios can get the three ships to Juterbog's main port and wait for a suitable amount of time without losing control of the crewmen, nor selling off the cargo for drink."

The two were on the deck of the Freedom. Gareth was supervising the placement of four more guns on its maindeck, which would give it ten to a broadside. The ship may have been a slow wallower, but now its punch made it worth keeping rather than sending home.

"I know I can do the last," N'b'ry said. "But I don't know about this crew. Gareth, you've given me every a" well, most every a" layabout and rakehelly in the Company."

"Because I don't want them aboard for the raid," Gareth said. "I want men I can trust."

N'b'ry looked at him, and Radnor could tell Knoll was holding back anger.

"So you run off and play, and I've got to take all our loot to a safe place. Just like when we were kids. Damned if I like being the dependable one!"

"But you are."

"What about Thom? He's reliable. Oh, I have it. You're afraid he'd throw you overboard if you went to him and said he'd have to miss out on the biggest battle ever."

"There may be some truth to that."

"You know, I could quit the Company."

"But you won't," Gareth said.

"If you'd sounded smug, I might've thrown you overside myself," N'b'ry said. "But you're right. Damn you again."

He looked at the roster, shook his head.

"Why the blazes couldn't this wait until after we've come back from hitting the Linyati?"

Gareth took a deep breath.

"Because there's a fair chance, I think, of not coming back. And the ships you're taking north are the ones I'd like least to put into battle."

"There is that."

"Don't forget," Gareth said, "you and the others are for full shares, whether you're in the fight or not."

"That's a comfort," Knoll said sarcastically. "I didn't go a-pirating with you just to get rich, you know."

"I know," Gareth said. He thought about saying how bad he felt, but knew that would be moral cowardice. He'd been elected captain, so it was his duty to lead as he saw fit, until voted out.

"All right," Knoll said heavily. "Now I'll get the pleasure of telling Nomios. Hoping he doesn't throw me overboard, or take a cutlass to me."

a a a Gareth watched N'b'ry's three ships sail out of the lagoon, wished them safe passage, tried to make himself feel better for what he'd done to his friend. He tried to rationalize, thinking he had nothing to feel bad about; he'd certainly kept Knoll N'b'ry from dying at the hands of the Linyati if things went sour.

That didn't help, and he was late for a conference with his fellow captains on how they should fight the Linyati, when a" and if a" they encountered them.

a a a Sailing was three days distant when Labala came to Gareth and took him aside.

"My father told me," he began, "that, in our islands, when a witch dreams of sharks, this means there is trouble due."

"And you've dreamt of sharks," Gareth said.

"I have."

"Do you think your dream can stop what another dream's put in motion?"

Labala looked across the harbor, at the ships swarming with working sailors, small boats skittering across the lagoon from ships to shore with supplies, gunpowder.

"No," he said slowly. "Don't guess it can."

a a a Dafflemere, aboard his flagship, the Thruster, led the way through the passage, the corsair fleet behind him.

A fair wind blew across the quarterdeck of the Steadfast, and Galf shouted for full sail; across the blue, white-dappled ocean, canvas slatted down on dozens of masts.

Gareth looked back at the islets, saw, on the headlands, women, children, men, waving farewell.

He turned away, putting the warmth and safety of the land behind.

Ahead lay the open sea, and Linyati gold.

Twelve.

The corsairs, in common with merchant sailors, which they'd all been, had a sensible fear of any vessel closer than a dot on the horizon, for fear of collision, and so the twenty-six ships were in a formation that could most politely be called raggedy.

They sailed almost due south, through the island chains around Freebooter Island, then across the open sea toward Kashi, intending to make landfall well west of the city of Batan and wait for the treasure ships.

The two biggest ships were the Freedom and Petrich's Naijak. The latter, unlike the Freedom, was a slender-hulled three-master that sailed handily, rather than butting through the seas. The other pirate ships were either converted northern merchantmen or captured Linyati traders or patrol craft.

The fleet sighted land, turned back to sea, and dropped sail. Dafflemere signaled for a captain's conference, and Gareth ordered his gig lowered. The longboats of Froln, now captaining the Freedom; Galf of the Revenge; Dihr, the freed Kashi, of the Goodhope; and Petrich of the Naijak joined as his boat closed on the Thruster.

Dafflemere's cabin swarmed with excited pirates, dripping arms and gold-lust. After everyone except Gareth had a mug of brandy from a small, bashed-top keg, Dafflemere hammered for silence with the butt of a a" hopefully a" unloaded pistol.

"We're here," he announced, "and there's been no sightings of any Linyati or Kashi ships, so we're still unknown in these waters.

"I've cast small spells to divert any magical attention, and shall start other spells to find the location of the treasure fleet."

There was a clamor of agreement. But Gareth stood. "A suggestion?" he said.

"Go ahead, Cap'n Radnor," a captain said. "You're worth listening to."

"I'm no wizard," Gareth said. "But isn't it possible, Dafflemere, that your spell seeking the Linyati might be discovered by the mages that must be aboard their ships, and sound an alarm?"

"Not likely," Dafflemere said. "I cast with exceeding care. But there's a possibility."

"What about this, instead?" Gareth said. He went to the large map pinned to a bulkhead.

"I'll take the Goodhope," he said, "since it's Linyati, and a recent prize, so maybe it doesn't smell as much of pirates as some others, and sail west, along the bight of Kashi. I've noticed that the Linyati like to keep within smelling distance of the land, so I'll do the same.

"As soon as I'm down-horizon, another fast ship comes after me, always keeping my masts, no more, in sight. Perhaps your Mystery, Captain Libnah, since it seems fast. Then another when the Mystery is almost out of sight.

"When I sight the fleet a" which should be easy for anyone who isn't stark blind a" I'll make a signal; the next ship repeats it, and so on, back to the fleet, which should give more than enough time to deploy."

The pirates took only a few seconds to consider that and pronounce it a great idea.

"I've got a question, as well," Gareth said. "Dafflemere, do you have powers enough to raise a wind?"

Dafflemere growled in his beard.

"Sometimes yes," he admitted. "But sometimes no."

"Ah," Gareth said.

"Why're you asking?"

"Just curious."

Dafflemere looked skeptical, about to pursue the matter, when another, gray-bearded pirate snorted.

"An' ain't it strange for us hardened whores to be listenin' to a nigh-virgin, now."

"The virgin came in with seven ships, Cunedda," another pirate said. "Last prize I remember you taking was a clamboat."

There was laughter, and, surprisingly, Cunedda had the grace to chuckle.

"So we have an idea," Dafflemere said. "And I can cast passive spells just in case weather or some'at ruins Radnor's observations."

Another round of brandy, and the pirates went back to their ships. Gareth turned the Steadfast over to Thom Tehidy, went aboard the Goodhope, was away from the fleet within the hour.