'Can you get him out the same way you got me out of the lock-up?'

'Give me a moment,' Shiv snapped. He closed his eyes and frowned as magelight of several different colours flickered round his head. 'Shit. There's something blocking me, I can't see inside the hull at all.'

I sighed. 'I think that proves a different sort of magic is at work here.'

We stood in a indecisive circle until Aiten looked down into the anchorage and cursed. 'Dast's teeth, they're not wasting any time. They're casting off.'

We watched helplessly as the crewmen loosed the lines to the quay and long oars moved the ship out of the shelter of the inlet.

'Come on,' Shiv snapped. 'We need a boat.'

Oh, wonderful; things were just getting better and better. I wondered yet again which deity I'd offended to get landed with this.

We hurried down the hill and out on to the quay, ignoring the curious stares of the locals.

'Machil!' The sun-browned sailor looked up from the deck of his boat, clearly wondering how this strange redhead knew his name.

Shiv cast his instant-respectability-for-dealing-with-peasants spell again and looked down imposingly from his horse.

'I am on urgent business for the Archmage and require a vessel. Are you for hire?'

Machil looked sadly unimpressed as he turned to continue washing fish guts and scales off his deck. 'No.'

Ryshad drew out his amulet. 'I'm working for Messire D'Olbriot of Zyoutessela. He would be extremely grateful for your co-operation.'

Machil shrugged. 'What's that to me? I'm not going that far south, not at this time of year.'

Since appealing to the man's better nature was clearly failing, it looked like my turn.

'We'll make it worth your while.' I didn't bother with a smile, just a rattle of my belt-pouch. He wasn't to know it only held Caladhrian pennies; I just hoped Shiv had collared some more of Darni's expense money before we started on this mad trip.

Like they say, you can always get to a man's hands through his pockets. Machil put down his bucket and raised his eyebrows, still unsmiling. 'How?'

I looked at the boat, the size of its cargo and the size of the village; an idea struck me so I ran with it. 'You don't sell all that fish here, do you?'

He looked suspicious. 'What of it?'

'So, you salt it, smoke it, whatever, and take it inland? How about the mining camps? I bet they'd pay top coin for it?'

He looked at me, silent but expectant. The others had the sense to sit still and look as if they knew exactly where I was heading.

'Do you move it yourself, or sell it on to a middleman?' His eyes flickered to a long, low building on the other side of the river and I knew I had him. I gestured to our horses and the mule.

'With three saddle horses and a pack-mule, you could cut out anyone else and take the profits yourself.' Now I grinned at him and, to my relief, received a thin smile back.

'Four horses and we might have a deal. I'm not taking a horse on board ship, so you'd have to leave it here anyhow.'

No chance of keeping Russet then; it had been a slim hope at best and I stamped down hard on my regret. Whenever I caught up with Geris, he was going to pay for landing me with all this sentimental nonsense.

I looked appropriately reluctant so he'd feel he'd won a round and then nodded slowly. 'I suppose so.'

'You've got a hire, then.' He yawned. 'I'll be ready on the dusk tide. Where are we heading?'

I shot Shiv a questioning glance. He nodded almost imperceptibly and I smiled at Machil. 'We'll tell you later.'

He didn't look too happy at that, and I thought we might have trouble when we turned up that evening with as many potentially useful supplies as we'd been able to buy in such a small place. Luckily, he didn't want to display his own ignorance before his crew and he curtly beckoned us to follow him down to the cramped cabins while our gear was loaded and stowed.

'So where are we heading?' he demanded.

'Straight out to sea,' Shiv said baldly. 'I'm tracking a ship that left the coast this morning.'

Machil gaped. 'You must be joking. They'll be long gone by now.'

Shiv gestured negligently and lit the gloomy wooden walls with magelight. 'I'll be able to find them.'

'Can you guarantee the winds and currents too?' Machil asked sarcastically.

'Of course.' Shiv looked as if he were mildly surprised the fisherman bothered to ask.

'Sorry, there's no way I can take on enough stores for a voyage when I don't know how long it will take, not by this evening. Anyway, I'd need to know how long we were going to be out so I'd know how much fresh water to take.'

A hint of steel edged Shiv's voice. 'The ocean is full of fish and I can take the salt out of as much water as anyone could need.'

Machil ran a hand through his greasy hair, clearly disbelieving but, not unreasonably, reluctant to call a wizard a liar to his face. He shook his head, his face set.

'No deal; you can have your animals back. I'm not risking the open ocean for anyone.'

'How far do you usually go out?' Aiten asked mildly, knotting a piece of twine as he spoke.

'There's good fishing on some banks about three days out,' Machil said after a moment's suspicious pause, watching Aiten's hands.

'How about you take us that far? If we've found the boat we're looking for and the weather's holding, we can see about going further out then.'

'That's got to be a fair deal for five good beasts and their gear.' I thought a little reminder would do no harm.

'All right. As far as the fishing grounds, then I decide if we go any further.' Machil left without giving anyone a chance to answer and we heard him shouting orders at his brothers.

Aiten gave Shiv a grin. 'I take it you'll be able to keep the winds in the wrong direction, if we need to go on.'

'That's all very well, but I'm no sailor,' I pointed out.

'We'll still need them to run this tub; what if they won't co-operate?'

Aiten threw his knotted piece of twine to me. 'I learned more than good sea stories from my grandfather. Why do you think he decided to trust me?'

I was saved from having to find an answer by a sickening lurch of the floor.

'Looks like we're under way.' Aiten climbed up the ladder and out to the deck while I drew a deep breath and sat down, gritting my teeth.

Ryshad looked at me sympathetically. 'Are you not a good sailor?'

I looked at him and forced a smile. 'I did the trip from Relshaz to Col once and threw up all the way, and coastal waters are supposed to be calm.'

The Guest-house at the Shrine of Ostrin,

Bremilayne, 42nd of Aft-Autumn

Casuel bit down on his vexation as Darni started pacing the room yet again.

'I don't see why we have to spend all morning waiting around for this man to call,' the warrior repeated irritably.

'A Tormalin Prince sees people at his convenience, not theirs,' Casuel said wearily for what felt like the fiftieth time.

'All we want is permission to ask one of his sea captains for a charter.' Darni went to look out of the window. 'I'd like to know why he decided to come here himself.'

'How should I know?' Casuel wiped his pen clean and put it away. There was clearly no point in trying to do any work. He stoppered his inks and stacked his books neatly on one side of the gleaming, if elderly table.

'I could be doing other things, making enquiries.' Darni turned to look the other way down the street, twitching the muslin drape aside. 'I don't like being ordered to waste time to suit the convenience of some nobleman who's decided to get nosy.'

'Messire D'Olbriot is one of the leading patrons of Tormalin life,' Casuel said, exasperated. 'He is used to running the affairs of his household, his wider family, his tenants and their clients and overseeing the business of about a twentieth share of the country, at last taxation. If he wants to see us, it's because he thinks this is important, not because he's just at a loose end!'