"No. Do you remember what he did to Azakar a few days ago?"

"Yes, but what difference does that make? Zak had it coming. He should know better."

"Azakar is his friend, someone Tarrin trusts. Imagine what he would do to someone for whom he has no feelings."

"A-oh. So, you think he'd leave a trail of bodies behind him?"

"I am saying it is very possible. Tarrin cannot reconcile his feral nature with his human morality. It will certainly unbalance him, and make him even more violent. And that will start a pattern of slow but certain degeneration."

"What can we do to stop it?"

"Nothing," she sighed. "It is something that he must work out for himself."

For three days, the Star of Jerod moved generally southward in front of a stiff tailwind, a cool wind that propelled the old ship towards Dayise much faster than Kern and his navigators expected. The wind also carried upon it scents of the sea and land, of birds and salt and water and occasionally vaint traces of grass and trees. Tarrin stood on the steerage deck with Allia early in the morning, greeting the rising sun coming over a horizon that Allia said held the edge of land. Tarrin couldn't see it himself. Allia's amazing eyesight was as inhuman as the shape of her ears. She could read an open book from five hundred paces away, and her night vision was probably just as acute as his own.

It was an asset that the captain had noticed. Allia now spent some time each day in the crow's nest, where she used her eagle's eyes to watch for other ships, land, and possible dangers. It had taken some serious goading from Keritanima and Kern to get her up there, because the raw truth of all the water around them was so blatant, but once she and Keritanima went up a few times, Allia developed enough of a tolerance against her fear of water to be able to look out over the vast expanse of ocean. She still wouldn't go up if the seas were rough enough to make the crow's nest sway, but on a day like that day, with the seas generally calm and the skies clear, Allia would go up.

Allia's strength never ceased to amaze Tarrin, and it made him feel a bit guilty. His sister was willing to stand up in the face of her fears, and yet he still seemed to be struggling with his own. But on the other hand, his fears were a bit more tenuous, dealing more in possibilities and conditions than physical things. Allia was a wellspring of strength, and he always felt more comfortable, more confident, when she was near him. That strength did help in its own way, mainly because he always felt more confident, calmer, much more relaxed around his quiet, unassuming sister.

"Calm day. The long-water is like glass," she noted in an idle voice, looking out over the water. She spoke Selani, as she always did when addressing him or Keritanima. The Selani language had no word for sea or ocean, so she had to adjust it to best describe the vast expanse of uninterrupted blue before them.

"The captain said that if the wind doesn't pick up soon, we'll be stuck here all day. Maybe even lose time," Tarrin replied.

"How is that?"

"The long-water has currents in it, like the flowing of a stream," he explained. "There's one right here that flows back to the north. We're moving slowly back the way we came. If the wind doesn't pick up to counter that, we'll be going backwards."

"Strange. I never imagined something like this would flow. I thought it would just sit here."

"There's alot of things we don't know, sister," Tarrin said.

"Truly." She squinted a bit against the bright sunlight, then hooded those piercing azure eyes with her slim hands. "If we are moving backward, how are they moving towards us?"

"Who?" he asked, shielding his eyes from the sun and peering in the same direction. It took his eyes a few seconds to see it, a tiny little smudge on the horizon. But he knew that to Allia's eyes, it would be as if it were half as far away.

"It's that bandit woman," she said. " Sheba, wasn't it?"

"It is?" he asked.

She nodded. "The ship is moving. It's coming this way."

"Maybe they have wind back there," Tarrin said. "Sometimes the wind moves differently across the same field."

"Possible," she agreed. "But they've moving awfully fast. They'll be upon us in about an hour at that speed."

"You spot something, lass?" Kern asked from near the wheel, where he was standing watch with his steersman.

"Yes, captain," she replied respectfully. "It is that Wikuni pirate, Sheba. Her ship is on the horizon, and it is moving this way."

"You're certain it's her?"

"I can see her on deck, master Kern," she said. "It is her."

"That's not something I want to hear," he grumbled in his rough voice. " Sheba coming this way only means that she's after someone. Probably us."

"How would she know where we are?" Tarrin asked.

"Because this is the fastest way to Dayise," he replied calmly, pulling a spyglass from his vest and using it. After a moment, he swore. "It's about as far away as it can get before I'd miss that ship," he said gruffly. "I can't make anything out, but there's only one black clipper on the seas. That's Sheba, alright." He lowered the curious metal device. "All hands on deck!" he boomed. "Rig up! Rig up! We got a pirate coming from astern!"

That created a wild cacophony of activity on the ship. Every sailor swarmed up from their duties and exploded into activity, working the rigging under the first's guidance to catch any breath of wind. Dolanna and the rest of their group came from belowdecks not long after that, and they quickly learned what was going on. They all gathered on the steerage deck, where Dolanna pressed Kern for information. "You are certain she is coming after us?" Dolanna asked for the third time.

"There ain't nobody else around, mistress," Kern told her after booming an order in a voice that probably could have been heard by the Wikuni pirates some distance behind them. " Sheba is a pirate. She has only one reason to be out."

Tarrin watched with the others for a moment, then Dar posed a simple question that Tarrin hadn't considered. "What will they do if they catch us?" he asked nervously.

"They ain't," Kern said gruffly. "Mistress Dolanna, if you don't mind, I think we could use some of that wind you used to get us out of Roulet."

"Dar, Keritanima," she said immediately. "Allia."

"Me?" Allia asked in surprise.

"I need all the help I can find, young one," she said calmly. "In a circle, your power will be of great use to me."

"I can help," Tarrin said.

"No, Tarrin," she said gently, patting his cheek and looking him in the eyes. "Your power would overwhelm us, and then we would not be able to move the ship."

Tarrin's braid suddenly caught up in a breeze, and he turned to look astern in surprise. "Maybe you won't have to tire yourself out either," he said. "There's that wind that they're using."

"Tack to the wind, mates!" Kern boomed immediately.

The ship rocked slightly, and then the sails snapped taut as they were moved to catch the wind. Kern's sailors were efficient and experienced, and they had the old galleon moving ahead of that wind in mere moments. The black clipper was no longer racing towards them, it was now standing some distance off the stern, but it was obvious to Tarrin that the ship was getting closer. Tarrin and Allia watched it for a goodly amount of time in quiet anxiety, watching it inexorably advance on them, and making him more and more certain that it was indeed gaining on them.

Allia confirmed that. "Captain, they are gaining," she told him, looking back at the ship.

"She has more sail," he replied gruffly. "Give it everything ye got, lads, or we'll be swimmin' home!" he barked at his men, and their activity became even more frenzied.

There was a tiny puff of smoke that rose from the clipper, and Tarrin's ears tracked on the most curious buzzing, whining sound. Then a spray of erupting water exploded from the sea some fifty paces behind the ship, sending a plume of white water very high. "What was that?" Allia asked suddenly.