“Your doubts are wise but unnecessary,” the shade replied. “What a Prince of Shade promises, Shar will deliver.”
“A Prince of Shade?” Kleef asked. As he spoke, the soft squeak of a step taking weight sounded from the companionway that led down beneath the quarterdeck. It was barely discernible above the gentle sloshing of waves against the Roamer’s hull, but audible enough to make Kleef worry about the shade hearing it, too. He brought Watcher around in a diagonal guard, angling the blade so the agate cast its pale beam on the shade’s gaunt face. “Is that supposed to impress me?”
Wisps of gray fume rose from the shade’s flesh, but he made no effort to escape the light. “You don’t strike me as someone who is easily impressed,” he said, sheathing his dagger. “That’s why I’m giving you this chance to win Shar’s favor.”
“Thanks, but I’ll have to think about it,” Kleef said, trying to hold the shade’s attention on him rather than the creaking step. “If I decide to accept, which prince do I ask for?”
“There will be no need to ask for me.” The shade pulled a small pale cylinder from inside his cloak and flicked it in Kleef’s direction. “I shall find you.”
Kleef brought Watcher up to block and heard something tink against the flat of the blade, then plunk to the deck. He quickly stepped past the thing, bringing Watcher up in a horizontal attack that found only empty air as the shade retreated-and tumbled backward over the taffrail.
Knowing better than to think the fall had been accidental, Kleef stepped to the far corner of the quarterdeck and cautiously peered over the Lonely Roamer’s taffrail. He saw nothing but darkness and water.
Behind him, Joelle called, “Kleef?”
“By the Nine Hells!” cried a second female, Elbertina.
A confused murmur began to build amidships as the men sleeping on the main deck were awakened by the alarmed voices. Kleef continued to peer over the taffrail, searching the stern of the little ketch for any shadows that didn’t belong.
A gasp sounded somewhere near the helm, then Elbertina asked, “What happened?”
“We had a visitor.”
Kleef turned to find Elbertina kneeling in the blood next to Rathul. Joelle was crossing the quarterdeck toward him. Both women were wrapped in night cloaks, and both held swords in their hands.
“He’s gone back to the Wave Wyvern now,” Kleef continued. “But he claimed to be one of the Twelve Princes.”
“Yder?” Joelle asked. “He was here?”
“He wouldn’t give his name,” Kleef said. “But he had glowing blue-gray eyes.”
Joelle nodded. “Yder. He’s the commander of the guard in the Hall of Shadows in Netheril.”
Falrinn Greatorm emerged from below decks cursing and complaining, and a cry of alarm rose from the bow as one of Carlton’s men-at-arms discovered the body of the forward lookout. Malik was nowhere to be seen.
Ignoring the outburst, Joelle took Kleef’s elbow and asked, “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” Kleef pointed to starboard, where the moonlit silhouette of a three-masted galleass sat on the distant horizon. “Yder didn’t come to fight, or the Wave Wyvern would be turning toward us by now.”
“Your man might disagree with that,” Elbertina said, removing her free hand from Rathul’s slit throat. “Though it’s hard to call what happened here a fight.”
Kleef had never had much respect for Rathul during their days on the Watch together. But that had begun to change after he volunteered to help rescue the grand duchess, and the sight of the old man lying dead on the Roamer’s deck both sickened and angered him.
“That’s the point, I think,” Kleef said. “Yder was trying to arrange a trade, and he wanted to convince me I had no choice but to accept.”
As Kleef spoke, Carlton stepped onto the quarterdeck and joined them. Behind him followed Greatorm, who took one look at Rathul’s body and began to mutter about bloodstains. He stepped over the corpse to take the helm, then began to bring them around.
After a moment, Joelle asked, “A trade, Kleef?” Her tone was uneasy. “For what?”
“For you and Malik.” Kleef looked around and, still seeing no sign of the little man, asked, “Where is Malik? Yder couldn’t have-”
“Malik is safe,” Joelle said. “When there’s an attack, his duty is to hide.”
“Very wise,” Elbertina said, almost curtly. She looked back to Kleef. “And what was the prince offering in return? The grand duchess?”
Joelle was quick to shake her head. “Yder knows we’re too smart for that. We can’t even be certain the grand duchess is still alive.”
Kleef remembered the pale cylinder Yder had tossed at him, then turned and spotted the thing rolling across the deck. It was a thin, withered finger inside a large yellow ring. “I think maybe we can.” He pointed at the finger. “Yder threw that at me before he left.”
Elbertina quickly retrieved the finger, and her mouth fell in horror. “It’s still warm.” She turned the ring up to reveal the incised figure of a diving wyvern. “And that’s my … That’s the grand duchess’s signet.”
“So, we do know Her Grace is still alive,” Carlton said. He turned to the helm. “Captain Greatorm, bring us astarboard. We can’t let them escape.”
The gnome looked at Carlton as though he were mad. “I thought they were the ones chasing us?”
“And now that they have found us, we need to move quickly,” Carlton said. “The grand duchess has served her purpose. They may not keep her alive much longer.”
“And that is a reason to mount an impossible attack?” The question came from down on the main deck, where Malik had just emerged from the companionway and stood looking up at the rest of them. “Perhaps you would care to make it easier for them by attempting to swim to the Wyvern in your armor?”
Carlton’s eyes blazed with anger. “I don’t recall asking your advice.”
“But you’d do well to listen to it,” Greatorm said. “He’s right. They’re just trying to goad us into chasing them.”
Kleef shook his head. “I just don’t see that,” he said. “Why would they bother?”
“Because sea chases are never quick and never easy,” Greatorm said. “And you’re sailing with one of the slickest, trickiest captains on the water. All we need to give them the slip is a wisp of fog or a little puff of storm, and they know it.”
“They found us this time,” Carlton pointed out.
Greatorm’s knobby cheeks brightened to crimson. “Because I let them. You said you wanted your duchess back, didn’t you?”
This seemed to confuse even Joelle. “But now that they have found us, you want to keep running?”
“That’s right,” Greatorm said. “If we do this right, we won’t even need to fight those dusky dogs-at least not all of them.”
“You see?” Malik said, looking at Elbertina. “That is why you must always trust the captain of your ship.”
Carlton continued to look skeptical. “What about Her Grace?” He seemed to be addressing his question not to Malik or Greatorm but to Elbertina alone. “I don’t see how running keeps the grand duchess alive.”
“Yder will never kill the duchess-not if we can make him believe he can trade her for the Eye.” Malik tipped his head toward Kleef. “And even an oaf like Kleef can tell a lie that simple.”
Kleef glowered at the insult, but nodded. “I think I can manage that.” He turned back to the others. “What bothers me is that Yder came alone. Why not bring his whole company and be done with it?”
“I don’t know,” Joelle said, flashing a confident smile that suggested just the opposite. “Perhaps because he has been trying to kill us since Big Bone Deep and has not succeeded yet?”
Kleef frowned. “That’s not much of an answer.”