"But now the balance shall be finally evened. You've entered my grounds with hooligans, and all laws say a man has the right to defend himself.

"Dessau, attend me!"

A man appeared on a smaller balcony next to Quindolphin's.

He had long silver hair and beard, carefully tended, and wore a loose black tunic and pants.

"Yes, Lord?"

"Destroy these trespassers who intend harm to my family and myself!"

Dessau smiled thinly. "It is my pleasure, Lord Quindolphin."

He looked down at the sailors, and Gareth heard someone moan in fear. Others drew hidden long knives and pistols.

"A proper defense a I've always been fond of fire. Most fond," Dessau purred.

He held out his right hand, finger pointing at Gareth, and his left hand moved in strange arabesques: "My beauty My pride My friend My sword Come to me Bring your power Your terror As I order you Strike!

Strike now!"

A tiny ball of flame appeared at the tip of his finger, grew until it was the size of his head. Again, Dessau shouted, "Strike now!" and the flame shot away from the wizard, then stopped in midair, coiling back on itself like a waking cat, and lashed back at the wizard.

It flowed around his arm like quicksilver and Dessau screamed, pawed at himself, fell back out of sight.

Quindolphin gaped in astonishment.

"You have attempted to kill me," Gareth shouted, playing as much to witnesses as Quindolphin had. "I charge you, my loyal men, to take this man into custody to face the King's Justice!"

Out of an alley a dozen men ran, carrying an iron-butted length of heavy wood. They smashed the ram into the iron gates, and they pinwheeled apart. The men, openly armed, trotted into the courtyard, others, casting aside their cloaks and the role of idle street wanderers, behind them.

"Guards!" Quindolphin shouted, his voice cracking. "To me!"

Doors slammed open, and men crowded into the courtyard, all wearing dark red and black livery, all heavily armed.

"Take them!" Gareth cried, drawing his sword and pulling a pistol from inside his coat.

He ran for the mansion steps, and two men blocked his way. A pistol banged behind him, and one guard dropped. The other lunged, and Gareth parried, put his blade in the man's chest.

He butted at the mansion doors, then Tehidy was beside him, and the men with the ram. The door smashed into flinders, and he was inside.

"Harm no one who doesn't try to stand against you," he called. He saw stairs, and ran up them, looking for Quindolphin, hoping that when he found him, he'd fight rather than surrender to very questionable arrest.

A fat, middle-aged woman was at the landing, holding towels. She shrieked, fainted, and Gareth leapt over her body, went up a flight, then another, to the level the balcony was on.

A young woman's face peered from a doorway, then the door slammed and he heard bolts snicking. Paying no mind, he ran on, saw an open door, looked inside.

Sprawled on the floor, his arm blackened, the wizard Dessau writhed.

"Please a please a" he moaned.

Gareth heard a door bang, footsteps, ran on. He rounded a corner in time to see a door bang closed, heard the heavy bar being dropped in place. He slammed at it hard and bruised his shoulder, without effect.

He started back the way he'd come, hoping to catch Quindolphin below.

Labala stood in the corridor, looking at the burned wizard.

"I looked into your little packet," he said to the fallen man. "And thought the devices you'd had your dogsbody plant might be some of your favorites. So I built some counterspells before we came here.

"Next time we meet, wizard, don't be so damned sure of yourself.

"And cast your spells with your left hand."

He laughed nastily, and Gareth had him by the arm.

"Come on, Labala! Help me find Quindolphin!"

"Certainly, Gareth," the big brown man said calmly. "You have but to ask."

They clattered downstairs into chaos.

There was a knot of terrified servants in a corner of the great room, and every now and then a pirate would survey one or another of the younger maids and lick his lips; but they obeyed orders and harmed no innocent.

Things were different for Quindolphin's guards. Their bodies were scattered across the courtyard, moaning wounded lying here and there. Gareth grudged them their courage, grabbed men and told them to look for the lord and, come to think of it, for his son.

But neither Anthon nor the lord were found, having either a snug bolthole somewhere in the mansion, or a secret back passage to flee the grounds.

After an hour, Gareth ordered his men away.

There was no fire, but the mansion's interior was thoroughly wrecked. Furniture was broken, art ripped, statues smashed, food and wine splashed around walls, crystal crunched underfoot.

"Your crew's a barbaric bunch of bastards," N'b'ry observed, considering the damage, not intending humor.

"They are," Gareth agreed. "And I suppose I'm a barbarian amongst them, for I can't summon a tear for anything other than I wasn't able to get Quindolphin at the point of my sword."

N'b'ry looked at him and shook his head.

a a a Cosyra did much, much more.

"I don't believe you had the temerity to go after a great lord like Quindolphin so openly! Gods, Gareth, you can't do things like that!

"We're a civilized country here. It would have been all right to hire an assassin, or a poisoner, or a wizard to give him a deathspell, or even a gang of footpads to waylay him when he goes out. We're realistic about sometimes having to go beyond the law.

"But making open threats, sacking a nobleman's house in the middle of the capital, in daylight, killing two or three dozen of his household guards and terrifying his staff? You really want to go back to the Great Dungeon, don't you?"

Gareth's fine rage had subsided, and he sat sheepishly, letting her savage him.

"I should never let you out of eyesight," Cosyra said.

"It'll be a fine matter now, when the king hears about this! I'll get a dungeon bag packed."

His uncle also ripped into him, saying that no man had the right to indulge himself so basely, particularly when the wealth and investments of so many others depended on him.

Gareth, logically knowing he'd been in the wrong, took all the abuse humbly. But no matter how he tried, he couldn't suppress a savage red joy at finally striking at Quindolphin, although he knew the king's slow-grinding justice would eventually find him.

But none of the King's Guards appeared with a warrant, and though the wrecking was the awed talk and eventual laughter of Ticao, no summons to the palace came.

Nor was anything heard of Quindolphin or his family, and no one saw them in the capital.

Gareth waited a couple of days for the king's doom to crash down, then went back to getting ready to sail, as men swarmed about the merchant ships that had been converted into either transports or warcraft in the basin.

Labala was forced to hire another pair of magicians, casting spells of safety around the ships and men. But nothing magical attacked them.

Once the Linyati ambassador was seen, sitting at ease in an expensive watercraft, appearing to be doing no more than taking the air and casually watching the bustle. Gareth had him followed until his boat went back upriver.

a a a Finally spring brightened into summer, and Gareth's ships were ready.

He set a sailing date, had it posted in the city's taverns.

Two days before, the king's summons finally came.

a a a "So now you seek riches to the north, Lord Newgrange," King Alfieri said. The two were, once again, alone in the throne room.

Gareth thought of lying, changed his mind.

"No, your Majesty."

Alfieri's eyes widened, but he said nothing.

"I'm sailing against the Linyati again, Sire. This time I'm intending to seize their entire treasure fleet and bring it back to Saros."

"We rather wondered about your purported target," the king said. "We must remind you, in spite of difficulties, we remain at peace with that kingdom."

It was Gareth's turn to be silent.

"By the way," the king went on. "We read the report you prepared for the First Lord, and we were truly shocked. It is bad enough for Man to be ruled by ignoblemen in far too many lands, far more terrible for the Linyati and their slaves to be governed by these strange demons you called Runners. That fact alone has altered our entire perception of how the Linyati problem might be solved, or at least brought under control.

"Just what is your plan for attacking them? We can assure you this room is completely empty, and even our usual hidden listening posts are bare," Alfieri said.

"Once before, we struck them at sea, and were counter ambushed while savaging them," Gareth said. "This time, my plan is simpler. I've hired mercenaries a" "

"We know this," Alfieri said. "For a brief moment we were worried that you were planning an insurrection against us."

"Sire! I shall always be your faithful servant," Gareth said.

"So we thought. Go on with your plans."

"I plan on using the old pirate lair of Freebooter's Island for a base after we reach the Kashi seas," Gareth went on. "Hopefully, we'll not be discovered. From there a" " He broke off. "I wish I had a map to make my explanation easier."

"You need not fear losing our attention," Alfieri said. "We're aware a" more than aware, due to recent events a" of the lands the Linyati control."

Gareth hid surprise at the king's interest, went on.

"We'll land somewhere on the isthmus between Kashi and Linyati, and seize their treasure city of Noorat by land, before the annual treasure fleet works its way along the coast of Kashi.

"We'll be waiting when it arrives. I'll have the harbor forts secured with my gunners, and my fighting ships hidden, somewhere at sea, to close the jaws of the trap.

"With luck, their captains will surrender, rather than fight, and we'll have transport to bring the treasure home. But I'm taking enough ships of my own to handle even the worst disaster."

King Alfieri sat thinking.

"A bold, but very simple plan, which is always to the good," he said. "And you've done very well in keeping it concealed. We're impressed. The only reason we guessed the northern expedition might be a hoax was, as we said earlier, we've had trusted men of ours investigate the lives of you a and your friends."

Gareth guessed that was why the King's Chamberlain's man had been digging into Cosyra's life.

"A bold plan, indeed," Alfieri said. "One that could bring this kingdom great riches, and, this must be kept most secret, a measure of acceptance for a war that we fear is inevitable, given the intransigence of the Linyati." He sighed.

"Something you should be aware of. The Linyati ambassador has made several approaches to us, saying, with some degree of arrogance, that the pirate Gareth Radnor must be given into their hands, or the wrath of the Linyati might be loosed against all Saros.

"Diddly-damned fool idiot! Doesn't he know threats are to be made by men of war, not diplomats?

"We were further irked when Lord Quindolphin sought an audience, some months back, asking for your head. We refused, and we gather he took other steps for revenge.

"But we must say, we are not amused by your ruthless sacking of his estates! Especially in full light of day, and making no attempt to conceal who you were.

"Tsk. We doubt me that you'd make much of a statesman."

"No, Sire," Gareth said. "I'm afraid I would not."

"Then please, a favor. Do not embarrass us any further," Alfieri said, a bit mournfully. "At least not here in Ticao or anywhere else for a space."

"No, Sire," Gareth said. "I promise."

Alfieri walked to a long table, opened a drawer, took out a wax-sealed parchment scroll, and gave it to Gareth.

"This is our most secret Letter of Marque, giving you our permission to strike against the Linyati Slavers, to maintain the safety of the seas and the peace of our beloved kingdom of Saros, by any means you deem necessary."

Gareth, overwhelmed, bowed deeply.

"I thank your Majesty."

"We assume you're not naive enough to think," Alfieri said, "that should you be taken by the Slavers this will grant you freedom.

"The best you could expect is a moment of hesitation, perhaps, which might give you time to escape. Or die nobly fighting rather than in their torture chambers."

Gareth put the parchment safely inside his belt pouch.

"One other thing," Alfieri said. "As we said, don't embarrass us. Which also means, don't pirate any of our closer allies. I have not given you open season on anything lootable."