"How dare you-"

"Send over a chest, or ye'll be gettin' yer precious Sheba back in six seperate bags," he warned.

"I don't have that much money!"

"Then ye be havin' a serious problem. I'll just send ye as much of Sheba as ye can pay for. I'll keep the rest." He looked at his fingernails, then buffed them on the front of his canvas shirt. "Let's say, oh, two thousand crowns a limb. I'll give ye the torso for free. I be feelin' generous today."

"That's monstrous!"

"No. Sending good men down just for what their ship carries be monstrous. Yer precious Sheba be ten times more a monster than me."

"I can pay you five thousand in cash, and I think I have cargo and some jewelry that will cover the remainder," the captain said after a moment of intense silence. "It's the best I can do. I just don't have any more."

"I'll take yer five thousand, and I'll be takin' twenty kegs of gunpowder from ye to cover the difference."

"I can't give you that!"

"Then ye only be gettin' back half of Sheba. Which half do ye be wantin'?"

The captain glared furiously at him, but he finally slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Agreed. I'll start ferrying over your ransom. But don't think I'll forget about this! And neither will the Wikuni!"

"I don't think the kingdoms of the West be forgettin' that a Wikuni noble house be comin' to bail out the worst pirate on the Sea of Storms," Kern shot back. "After word of this do be gettin' out, there may not be many ports to welcome Wikuni ships."

That made the captain stare at him in momentary terror. Then he whirled around and started shouting orders.

"That was nervous," Kern whispered to Tarrin. "I do be appreciatin' yer help, lad. Ye put the priest out."

Tarrin jumped off the rail and onto the deck, then shifted back into his humanoid form. With Sheba being released, there was little reason to hide from the Wikuni. They'd know about him just as soon as Sheba started talking. "Why did you give her up?" he asked Kern curiously.

"Because I be in no shape to take on a Wikuni frigate," he replied calmly. "Best to give her over and get what I can be gettin' in the bargain, since they'd be gettin' her back no matter what. It be cheaper for them to buy her from me than it would be for them to be bribin' the ruling council of Dayise. At least this way, I be seein' profit from the exchange, rather than Dayise."

"True," Tarrin agreed. The galleon was still damaged from the fight with Sheba, and the frigate had cannons trained on them already. At such close range, they wouldn't last more than a few heartbeats. Kern would end up either handing her over or killing her, and killing her would be a death sentence for the Star of Jerod. At least by dragging money out of the Wikuni, Kern was getting something for his trouble. "Why ask for gunpowder?" he asked.

"Because I can sell it for a thousand crowns a keg," he said with a grin.

"Good reason," he said, rubbing his chin absently.

It took about a half an hour for the Wikuni to arrange the ransom in two longboats, then launch them. Kern's men hauled up the cargo quickly and efficiently, and it was stacked after it was checked to make sure it was the real thing. Kern then had his men bring Sheba and her surviving crew members up from the hold. Sheba looked victoriously smug, even arrogant, and she immediately started issuing outrageous demands. It only took seconds for her to get on Tarrin's nerves. He'd never directly talked to her, never even so much as given her a second glance, and from the way she was acting now, he was glad of it. He'd have killed her. When she looked at Kern after the man had come down from the helm, Tarrin accompanying him, she gave him a smile, but had eyes full of hate. "You're a dead man now, Kern," she warned with a bit of a sneer. "The first thing I do after I get a new ship is come and hunt you down."

"I don't think so," Tarrin told her, stepping between them and staring down at her with glowing, ominous green eyes. "If you so much as touch this man or this ship, I'll make sure you wish I'd never saved your life."

"I'm not afraid of you," she sneered.

"Then you're a fool," he snapped, grabbing her by the shirt and hauling her off the deck. He brought her nose to nose with him, her feet dangling over the deck, and he saw her eyes, eyes so much like his own, widen in fear. "If you come within a mile of Kern, I'll hunt you down and gut you, then tie you to the mast by your entrails," he hissed in a savage voice. "Don't think I can't do it. Don't forget how I almost brought your entire ship down around your ears. Now get out of my sight, before your father gets back nothing but a pelt."

And with that, Tarrin threw her over the side.

She made the most wonderful scream as she fell, which was cut off by her impact with the water. He didn't look over, but the savage curses and vile promises hurled at him from below made it apparent that had her head above water.

"Kern," Tarrin said in a steady voice, looking at him.

"What is it, lad?"

"I think you need to get yourself a cat."

Kern looked at him, then his eyes widened, and he grinned. "Aye, I do believe ye be right. A nice black cat."

"We'll find something suitable in Dayise. I'll give it some instructions."

"I be appreciatin' that, lad."

After Sheba was fished out of the sea, things went smoothly. The panther Wikuni glared at him from the other ship, her eyes boring into him as she spoke to the ship captain in hushed tones, but Tarrin didn't give her much mind. He turned and shifted back to cat form, then laid down by the ship's crudely fashioned emergency wheel. After the Wikuni were loaded aboard the frigate, it raised its anchor and pulled away from the galleon without so much as a word from its captain.

"I think ye can tell Dolanna to come back up," Kern told him as the galleon began moving towards Dayise again.

Tarrin nodded to him, then padded towards the steep stairs to the deck. He shifted back into his humanoid form once he was in the companionway below, then opened the door to her cabin. "Dolanna, the Wikuni are gone," he told her. "We're moving again."

"I felt the ship's motion, dear one," she told him lightly, adjusting the veil over her face a bit to get it off the base of her nose. "Any problems? I heard Sheba screaming."

"She threatened Kern, so I tossed her overboard," he replied bluntly.

"Well, I suppose she had that coming," she mused. "Tell the others to go back on deck."

"Yes ma'am," he acknowledged with a nod.

He opened each cabin door and told the occupants that it was over, and they began to arrive back on deck. Azakar still looked uncomfortable in his brightly colored robes, and Faalken's continuous jibes didn't help the matter. The cherubic Knight was careful not to get within arm's reach of the hulking youth, mainly because he was wearing his armor this time. Tarrin didn't waste time, he shifted back into cat form and climbed into Miranda's shoulder bag, then pushed and nudged at the contents until he could lay down somewhat comfortably. He got jabbed by one of Miranda's needles, which required another round of settling in until the needles stuck into skeins of yarn and bobbins of thread no longer posed a stabbing threat. Miranda picked up the bag after he stopped moving and rested it on her shoulder easily, looking down into the open mouth of it and giving him a cheeky grin.

"How do they keep control of all this?" Dar asked curiously. "There are so many ships. How do they know where to go?"

"Most of them don't," Keritanima replied. "Most of the quays are first come, first served. Some of them have specific berths. Those are the ones that have the red paint along the edges of the dock. That means someone owns that berth, and only certain ships can dock there. The rest are run by the city."