Rolf looked narrowly at the prince, then cast his eyes down at the note.

This twenty-second day of the Season of New Life, I promise to pay Teresa of the House of Welborne one hundred thousand kisa upon the successful completion of this voyage.

At the bottom of the page lay two signatures. One belonged to Tyranny, and the other was the false name Tristan had signed that day in her cabin, when they had struck their original bargain. His knife still at Tyranny's throat, Rolf looked back up at the prince.

"Assuming what you say is true, what's to stop me from simply torturing the location out of you?" Rolf demanded.

"You could, but how would you know I was telling you the truth?" Tristan countered. "As I said, I'm the only one who knows. And after you sailed me to the coast to prove it, I could lead you all over looking for it. Perhaps even escape in the process. Kill me, and you'll never know. Torture me, and you can't be sure. That's no way to find it, now is it?" He paused for a moment, allowing the pirate's greed and curiosity to build.

"But given my situation, I'm agreeable to letting you have the money, in return for my spars and sails, safe passage away from Sanctuary, and my ships and crews," he offered gamely. Then he looked over at Tyranny. He knew that what he was about to say would hurt her, but if this was going to work, it had to be done.

"I'll even sweeten the deal by letting you keep the girl," he added. "The longer I'm around her, the less she appeals to me, anyway. Someone should tell her that she dresses too much like a man. But I find the giant useful. Give him back to me, and I'll be gone. Agree to my terms, and you win in every way. I'm gone from here, and the money and the woman are both yours."

Believing she had been betrayed, Tyranny's eyes became hard with hate. Then Scars spoke up.

"You liar!" he snarled, pulling frantically at his bonds. "From the first moment I saw you, I knew you couldn't be trusted! The first chance I get, I'll kill you!"

Good, Tristan thought. Even Scars believed him.

"Assuming I agree, just what proof do I have that the location you give me is real?" Rolf asked skeptically.

Tristan's heart leapt. The moment he had been waiting for had finally come. Taking a breath, he tried to calm himself, then took another step closer.

"I have a map," he said. "I drew it for myself, right after I buried the moneybags on the coast. One key to the location is on the map, and the other key is in my head. Neither part is any good without the other. Your proof will be that what I whisper to you will connect up what is drawn on the map."

With Tristan's mention of a map, Rolf's eyes lit up with greed. Even the crowd seemed mesmerized by the stranger's tale, and they inched eagerly closer.

"And after you tell me, what makes you so sure I'll live up to my end of the bargain?" Rolf asked skeptically.

Tristan put a look of concern on his face. "Look around the room," he said. "I don't have many friends here, and I want to live. What other choice do I have?"

Rolf smiled. "None," he answered. "None at all." He greedily looked at Tyranny, relishing the things he would do to her body after this foolish rich man standing before him had told him all of his secrets. He would then happily kill him, just to watch him die.

"Very well," Rolf answered. "I agree. Where is the map?"

Tristan shook his head. "First I tell you." He beckoned the pirate closer. Rolf finally lowered his knife.

Tristan came closer and said a few words that Tyranny couldn't hear. Rolf nodded, then smiled.

"And now the map," Rolf demanded.

Tristan reached into his right boot. The parchment was wrapped around the handle of the brain hook, just as he had left it. Losing it to Rolf was a terrible risk, but he had no other choice.

With a single, sure stroke he pulled them both out and slammed the pearl handle of the stiletto into Rolf's jaw, rendering him unconscious. Rolf's knife went clattering to the floor.

In a flash Tristan was behind the pirate, holding him upright, his blade at Rolf's throat. Several of the other pirates from the crowd had already come to their feet, weapons drawn.

There was no time to lose, Tristan knew. What he said and did in the next few moments would surely determine whether he, Tyranny, and Scars lived or died.

"Stay where you are or I'll cut his throat!" he shouted, praying that none of them would come any closer.

"Why should we care?" one of the ones in front shouted back. Several of them inched forward menacingly.

"Because I am willing to cut you all in on the money!" Tristan shouted. Smiling, he looked out into the crowd. "Even the whores! Tell me, do you think Rolf would ever have done that? And Rolf now carries part of the location inside his head. If you try to kill me and I kill him before you do, you'll still have only half of what you need to find the money! He is worth far more to you alive than dead! Now back off!"

Greed won out, and some of the men lowered their weapons slightly.

Tristan looked at the two men still holding their sabers to Scars' back. "Let him go, or Rolf dies. Do it now!"

After looking skeptically at each other, they cut Scars' bonds. But what happened next surprised even Tristan.

Scars whirled on the first of them, pulled the saber from his hands, and then lifted him over his head to send him crashing down on top of the other one.

Tyranny wasted no time either. Grabbing up one of the discarded sabers, she was at the prince's side in a flash.

"Now what, rich man?" the pirate in front shouted at him. It was clear they were nearing the end of their patience.

"You let the three of us go, and as a precaution against your doing anything stupid, Rolf comes with us," Tristan ordered. "I will give you the map tomorrow at dawn, after you deliver my spars and sails to me. Don't worry-our ships are in no condition to sail very far without what we need. If they had been, we would never have come here."

Finding the swindling sailmaker in the crowd, Tristan nodded at him. "Ichabod the sailmaker knows where we are moored," he shouted. "After what we need has been delivered and we have been given time to make our repairs, we are also to be given at least a half-day's start. If we are followed, Rolf dies, and your dreams of wealth die with him. If we are not followed, I will set Rolf adrift in a small skiff along with the map, and then you shall have both parts of the location and can do whatever you want with him-even kill him, for all I care. All the more for you. But mark my words-if you try to double-cross us or take us prisoner, not only will I kill Rolf myself, but I will also destroy the map. At that point, I would have nothing more to lose, and you will have lost the chance of a lifetime."

Pausing, Tristan looked hard into the crowd before speaking again. "Take it or leave it," he said with finality.

Greedy and confused, the pirates started shouting angrily among themselves. Tristan waited and watched, desperately hoping his gamble would pay off.

"I says we take him up on his offer!" a woman shouted, her voice rising above the din. She had climbed up on one of the tables and was gesturing wildly with her arms. Looking closer, Tristan saw that she was the whore who had propositioned him at the bar.

"What have we got to lose except for these three?" she went on. "And we might just make a bloomin' fortune! That sounds like a good bargain where I come from! I say we let them go, and see what happens!"

Tristan smiled and shook his head slightly. It seemed the whore had done him some good, after all.

But at the same time he realized that they needed to take quick advantage of the crowd's hesitancy if they were ever going to get out in one piece; there were flaws in his story, and allowing the pirates time to think things through was certainly not to his advantage.