light above the eastern horizon announced the approach of dawn in the harbor near the house of Veltan, and Sub-Commander Andar was standing near the bow of the Victory enjoying the silence that always seemed to settle over the sea as she awaited the arrival of a new day. Andar found an enormous beauty on the face of the sea during those silent moments. It sometimes seemed to him that the sea almost held her breath as she awaited the coming of the sun.
As he looked out across the hushed water of the habour, he saw the pirate, Sorgan Hook-Beak, rowing a scruffy looking little skiff toward the anchored Victory.
‘Would you go advise Commander Narasan that there’s a Maag coming to see him?’ Andar quietly asked a passing sailor.
‘Yes, sir!’ The sailor replied, snapping to attention and saluting smartly.
‘That’s not really necessary, young man,’ Andar said quietly. ‘It’s too early in the morning for all that formality.’
‘The Cap’n told us all that we’re supposed to act respectful, sir,’ the sailor replied apologetically. ‘Of course, the Cap’n ain’t out of bed yet, so we can do this any way you want us to.’
‘I appreciate that, young man,’ Andar replied, still looking out at the approaching pirate. There was a bulky quality about Sorgan, quite probably because, like all Maag seafarers, he’d spent much of his youth pulling on an oar when the wind wasn’t feeling frisky. Just the thought of spending day after day rowing made Andar shudder. Life at sea didn’t really appeal to him very much. The sea was beautiful, of course, but she extracted a great deal of hard labor from those who chose to follow her.
‘Now what does he want?’ Commander Narasan murmured as he joined Andar at the rail.
‘He hasn’t gotten around to telling me yet, sir,’ Andar replied. ‘I’m sure he’ll get to it – eventually.’
‘Ho! Narasan!’ Sorgan bellowed as his skiff neared the Victory.
‘You’re up early, Sorgan,’ Commander Narasan called back. ‘Is something wrong?’
‘Not yet,’ Sorgan replied. ‘Of course, it’s early. There’s still plenty of time for things to start getting wormy. We’ll be going off in different directions before long, so I thought we might want to kick a few things around before we haul out of this harbor.’
‘Come on board, Sorgan,’ Narasan said, pushing a rolled-up rope ladder over the rail.
The pirate tied the bow of his skiff to the ladder and climbed on up. Then he looked around. ‘Is Lady Zelana’s sister anywhere near by?’ he whispered.
Narasan shook his head. ‘I don’t think so,’ he replied, ‘of course when you’re talking about that family, it’s kind of hard to say for sure. They can be almost anyplace, and you can’t always see them.’
‘I’ve noticed,’ Sorgan said in a sour tone of voice. ‘Did she pay you yet?’
‘Oh, yes. Those people throw gold around like it didn’t mean a thing.’
‘How much?’ Sorgan demanded. ‘I’m not trying to pry something out of you that’s none of my business, Narasan. I just want to make sure that Dahlaine’s not trying to cheat me.’
‘I think our employers all got together and agreed on certain numbers, Sorgan. Aracia gave me twenty-five of those lovely gold blocks just last evening.’
Sorgan nodded. ‘Dahlaine gave me twenty-five yesterday too. You’ve got twice as many men as I have, though. You should have held out for more, don’t you think?’
‘I didn’t really feel like haggling with her, my friend. That shrill voice of hers sets my teeth on edge. How long do you think it’s going to take your fleet to get on north to Dahlaine’s part of the Land of Dhrall?’
Sorgan shrugged. ‘Three – maybe three and a half weeks. It sort of depends on the weather. We’re getting fairly close to autumn, and the weather can turn sour without much warning. Anyway, we’ve both been through these wars a couple of times, so we know how to hold the bug-people back when it’s necessary, and we can count on some help from our employers. Once we know for sure which part of the Land of Dhrall the bug-people will hit next, we should be able to join forces before things get out of hand.’
‘Probably so, yes,’ Commander Narasan agreed. ‘How’s your supply of that bug-venom holding out?’
‘We’ve got plenty, Narasan,’ Sorgan replied. ‘That poison’s almost worth its weight in gold.’
‘I’ve noticed, yes.’
‘Did Veltan give you any kind of idea about how long it’s going to take him to deliver those animal riders that he’s bringing up there to help me?’
‘Horses, Sorgan,’ Narasan said. ‘They call them horses.’
Sorgan shrugged. ‘Whatever,’ he said. ‘I don’t really think they’ll be very useful when the bug-men attack.’
‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Sorgan,’ Narasan disagreed. ‘I’ve heard some stories about what happened over in the Land of the Malavi. The horse-soldiers’ specialty is surprise attacks. They whip in, kill about half of the foot soldiers on the opposing side, and then they ride away – at a dead run. In many ways, they’re very much like you Maags. You both specialize in speed.’
‘I hadn’t really thought of it that way,’ Sorgan conceded. ‘I’ll have to see them in action before I make any decisions. When do you think Veltan’s going to be able to get them up to the north country.’
‘He wasn’t very specific, Sorgan.’ Then Narasan shrugged. ‘You know how he is sometimes. I don’t think he sees time in quite the same way as we do.’
‘That’s probably because that pet thunderbolt of his has fried his brains,’ Sorgan said. ‘Try to keep Lady Zelana’s sister from flying apart, if you can. Oh, one other thing.’
‘Yes?’
‘Would it be all right if I borrow that young officer Keselo? He and Rabbit and Longbow make a good team, so we probably shouldn’t separate them.’
Commander Narasan gave his friend a sly smile. ‘Of course, Sorgan,’ he said. ‘We can talk about how much he’s going to cost you some other time, can’t we?’
‘You wouldn’t!’ Sorgan exclaimed.
‘Fair is fair, Sorgan,’ Commander Narasan said with mock seriousness.
Commander Narasan prudently let the Maag fleet leave the harbor first. The Maags had a longer voyage ahead of them, of course, but Andar was fairly certain that the commander’s decision was based on something a bit more significant than simple courtesy. The Maags were fiercely competitive, and Andar had noticed that Sorgan’s control of the other ship-captains in his fleet was marginal at best. Andar was almost positive that if Commander Narasan had ordered the Trogite fleet to set sail, some – if not all – of the Maags would have taken that to be a challenge, and a boat-race right now was the last thing they needed.
After the Maag ships had cleared the harbor, Commander Narasan ordered
