“There’s the Black Dog.” Sirius pointed across the bay where a familiar dark ship had dropped anchor.

  “She’s not in port,” Stinger commented. Both he and Morgan stood beside Sirius watching the approach.

  Sirius nodded. “I think I know why.”

  Morgan gave a questioning look but Sirius didn’t answer. After several seconds of silence she gave a huff and remarked, “Well, at least it makes it easier for us to get closer.”

  “We should be able to pull up basically alongside her given how far out she is,” Stinger replied. He left to go and give instructions to whomever was steering the boat.

  Sirius could feel Morgan’s beady eyes on him. Perhaps he’d said to much when he’d mentioned that he knew why they weren’t in the port proper. It would be due to the blood. Sirius assumed Shiv would have found it by now and wouldn’t want to risk a hull search by going in close. But Sirius knew, given how late they were to Scarlet that Shiv would either have to be doing some trades out on the water or renegotiating handover times and both of those carried their own separate risks. He hoped Shiv wasn’t playing too fast and loose with the law. Getting banned from the port of Scarlett was the last thing they needed. There wasn’t much he could do about it until they got close though. There were several other things he needed to discuss with Shiv as well.

  Amanda was up near the bow of the boat, leaning over the railing, watching the city approach.

  Sirius watched her watching the city and for a moment he was reminded of their time spent back on the island together, back when it had been just the two of them. Things had been peaceful, quiet, and he found himself wishing he was back there. But he had a duty to do. He owed it to his crew to be there for them and to be a good Captain. He understood that in a way Shiv had given him a break, but it was over now and it wouldn’t be long before Sirius had some hard choices to make.

  The last few days had been hard on Amanda too. He could see that. It worried him. Life at sea was hard, perhaps not quite as hard as the last few days had been but it was a glimpse of how bad things could get. She was a tough woman, good at handling herself in most situations, and the situations where she’d been out of her depth he had managed to step in, at least this time. But what about the next time? He wanted to ask her to stay on the ship, to keep travelling with them, with him. But it wouldn’t be right to ask that of her, to force this life upon her, not unless he was sure it was something she wanted, and not just because of him.

  Morgan distracted him from his pondering with an offer of business.

  “So, shall we have a chat about that cargo in the hold then?”

  It didn’t take them long to come to an agreement. Sirius was surprised that Morgan wanted to keep the necromancy infusements though. Apparently, Riki’s stunt with them during the battle yesterday had convinced her they were a useful tactic. Given how difficult Amanda had said necromancy was to get right, Sirius was more than happy to let Morgan have them. The impression he’d gotten about the necromancy market was that it tended to prey on the desperate and as such he’d decided he preferred Morgan’s intended use for those infusements.

  He was even more surprised that she wanted to keep the books and for those he argued quite hard.

  “If you’re just going to sell them on, then you might as well let me buy some,” Sirius pointed out.

  “Well, sure, except the problem there is that currently I don’t know what their true worth is. Your girlfriend mentioned that the weird werewolf in Little Rock would be able to help with that. Once I’ve had them valued then you can make me an offer. You are going to Little Rock aren’t you?”

  “I’ve got one more stop after this place then we’re heading back that way. There’s no guarantee we’ll be there at the same time.”

  “And, I’ve got another wreck to salvage on the way. There’s a good chance we get there around the same time and if not well, tough luck.”

  “You could just let me buy a few now. I’m sure Riki could help with an estimated value,” Sirius protested. “Maybe, we could even borrow him until Little Rock and have him look at some of the books on The Black Dog.”

  Morgan snorted. “Don’t you be trying to poach my healer now. Shiv’s been tying to pull that shit for years.”

  Sirius shrugged. “Maybe Riki could use a break. Have you asked him?”

  Morgan sighed. “Maybe I could agree to sell you some books, as long as you promise to leave my damn healer alone.”

  Sirius smiled. “I suppose that would work.”

  No less than an hour later, Sirius walked back onto the Black Dog, his arms full of books Amanda had helped him pick out. He handed the pile off to one of his crew with instructions to take them down to the library for sorting through later. Then he watched as several more boxes were brought over from the Wolverine.

  “What’s all this then?” Shiv asked as he joined them.

  Amanda glanced sharply at Shiv with narrowed eyes. Her expression made Sirius glad that he was standing between her and Shiv. Hopefully he’d be able to convince them to play nice with one another. He needed to talk to Shiv about things but there was other business to attend to first.

  “Infusements,” Sirius answered, “Other items from a salvage we helped Morgan with. Several barrels of wine. Some is payment, the rest we’re buying. You still got a warlock contact in Scarlett?”

  Shiv nodded. “I do.”

  “Good. Have Thatch sort out payment here with Morgan then send a runner to book a meeting with the warlock.”

  Shiv gave nod and then left to go and organise that.

  Neko appeared beside them a moment later, looking nervous. “Hey, welcome back Captain,” he said, his head slightly lowered as if he expected admonishment.

  Sirius had decided to ignore the crew’s involvement in the mutiny for now. He gave the bard a nod.

  He had expected that to ease Neko’s nervousness but the man still seemed a little jumpy.

  “And Amanda. I’m sorry about all the stuff that got said before and for what happened.” Neko’s eyes jumped between the two of them. “It...” His mouth opened and closed but for once, Neko seemed to be struggling with words.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “It’s fine, Neko,” Sirius told him. “The crew has the right to decide who’s captain.”

  “We’re going to have a vote again this afternoon. They’re likely to re-elect you. Shiv’s been making changes to the meals and some of them aren’t too happy about it.”

  At the mention of meal changes, Sirius saw Amanda frown and start to open her mouth to say something. He held up a hand to stop her.

  She clamped her mouth shut but she didn’t look too happy about it. Sirius understood this discussion with Neko was all just formality though. He also knew that Shiv knew exactly what sort of effects messing with the meals would have on the crew. It left little doubt in his mind as to what Shiv’s long term plan had been. He also understood that Neko was telling him about it precisely so he would know what Shiv’s plan had been.

  “Thank you, Neko,” Sirius told him.

  Neko still looked nervous. He glanced from Sirius to Amanda. Was he worried about her reaction? Or something else?

  “What is it?” Sirius asked.

  “Well...” He sighed. Focusing on Amanda, he said, “A lot of the crew are no longer scared and have since come to appreciate exactly how useful fire can be when it’s used by an individual with very good control such as yourself. They have discussed the events of night and have since come to realise that actually, without you, many of them may not be here.”

  Sirius could see Amanda softening a little even though he thought Neko was laying it on a bit thick. He was certainly taking his time getting to whatever point he had in mind but Sirius didn’t interrupt him. Amanda would probably appreciate Neko’s attempt at reconciliation more if Sirius kept out of it.

  Neko stumbled over a few more words but eventually he go to his question. “Now, I know we have no right to ask this of you after what we did, kicking you off the ship and all, but well... there are some eggs-”

  Amanda’s eyes widened as she remembered. “Oh, shit! The dragon eggs!” And with that, she took off toward the hull without waiting for Neko to finish asking for her help.

  Neko just stood there stunned for a moment or two.

  Sirius gave a chuckle. “All you had to do was remind her. Did they survive then?”

  “We managed to get something going to heat them up but as to whether it’s worked or not, well, that remains to be seen. We couldn’t get them as hot as she could. I just hope it’s not too late.”

  Sirius nodded. He hoped so too, in part because he knew Amanda would feel responsible if the eggs hadn’t survived.

  Neko left as Shiv returned.

  “Amanda’s dealing with the eggs,” Sirius told him.

  Shiv nodded.

  “We should talk.”

  Another nod. And without a word the two men walked to the wheelhouse and shut the door.

  “So, how’d it go then, with Sirena?” Sirius asked once the door was closed behind them. “And why are you anchored so far out of port?”

  “You know why,” Shiv retorted. “Those gods damn barrels of blood is why.”

  “Well, maybe if you hadn’t mutinied your captain that wouldn’t have been a problem,” Sirius replied in a calm voice. Just stating the fact. A bit of back and forth was required. Shiv would expect it.

  Shiv looked at him.

  Sirius looked back at Shiv.

  Shiv held up a finger. “It still would have been a problem, unless you’re about to tell me I’ve missed a drop off somewhere.”

  “Well, you would know if you hadn’t mutinied your captain.”

  Shiv crossed his arms. “There’s nowhere else to drop it before here and we were already late for Scarlett. I’ve had to reschedule several deliveries. It’s bad enough we’re shifting shit from Morgan’s ship to ours in broad daylight.”

  “They won’t mind one out of port transfer,” Sirius replied.

  “Yeah, that’s what I figured, which is why I rescheduled the others. But we still need to figure out a way to dodge a full hull inspection when we go in. And the guy with the dragon eggs couldn’t wait. He’s on his way out here this afternoon, which reminds me-” He started toward the door.

  “Amanda’s already gone to take care of that,” Sirius reminded him.

  “Right. Right.” Shiv sighed and leaned against the navigation table. “You could have told me about those before we dropped you off on the island.”

  “I didn’t know about eggs,” Sirius replied. “I didn’t know what they were until Amanda told me. And it wasn’t like you gave me much warning.”

  “You knew about the blood.”

  “So did you.”

  Shiv narrowed his eyes.

  Sirius smiled. “You telling me as a quartermaster you weren’t suspicious about a couple dozen unlabeled barrels. I know you check the logs.”

  “I suspected. It ain’t the same thing. You’ve said half a dozen times we don’t do risky cargo so tell me, why do we have so many barrels of the stuff?”

  “Polly needed to offload them. His ship was stuck at Wildwater and we were going to the drop off location anyway, the same place the bones are going. Those bones also increase the risk of entering the port at Scarlett anyway so what difference is a few more barrels of blood?”

  “A hell of a lot more risk is what it is,” Shiv retorted. “They find the bones we get a warning and maybe a more through inspection next time. They aren’t technically illegal, just a little weird. Get caught with the blood though, undocumented and unregulated blood, and they could confiscate the entire ship.”

  “I have a plan for that,” Sirius replied.

  “What? What’s your plan?” Shiv asked. “Cause I can’t see how it can be done. And I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me.”

  “I didn’t tell you because the less people who know the better. What about you? What was your plan with Sirena?” Sirius retorted a little less calmly. “Make nice with Michael and hope he gave a good report and she ignored the fact that we killed all her beetles?”

  “The beetle deaths were on her and she already accepted that.”

  “Already accepted?” Sirius gave him a direct look. “You already traded?”

  “I had to. Had to get the pegasus off this ship before you got back, well, before she...” he waved a hand absently.

  Sirius knew he was referring to Amanda. He sighed. “That makes two open water trades, three if you count the coming dragon egg owner, and we have to do at least one more before we go into port.”

  Shiv frowned.

  “Something Polly set up. To deal with the blood.”

  “You want to move blood from ship to shore right outside the port of Scarlett? You must be mad.”

  Sirius shook his head. “No, we’re moving something else from shore to ship. It’s innocuous on its own but it can’t go through the port. We’re going to have to do it at night I think but given what it is, worst case we should be able to bribe our way out.”

  “Why? What is it?”

  “Wine. I’ll explain later. So Sirena, did she blacklist us?”

  Shiv gave him a narrow-eyed look but then he sighed. “I don’t think so. She wasn’t happy but I think we’re in the clear, at least for now.”

  “She’s going to notice if I’m back in charge. Your plan’s not going to hold up in the long run.”

  Shiv shrugged. “Ship’s change hands all the time.”

  Sirius cocked an eyebrow.

  Shiv sighed. “Fine, it was a stupid plan long term but I had to do something. Whatever way things went, they would have gone a lot worse with her still on board. It had to be done. Plus you got a nice little vacation.”

  Sirius narrowed his eyes.

  Shiv didn’t relent. “Admit it. She’s trouble. She couldn’t be here for the trade and it wasn’t like we could just dump her on an island alone, and you weren’t going to let anyone else go with her but if I’d made that your choice then crew would have seen it as you abandoning them and that would have been no good for anybody.”

  Sirius was quiet. Shiv had made several good points and given the way things had gone, he couldn’t really complain too much. He did feel a little bad for Amanda. She probably wouldn’t be happy to find the pegasus gone, but it wasn’t like there was anything any of them could do about it now.

  He discussed a few more points of business with Shiv and then he went out on to the deck to find Amanda. He saw Neko but Amanda wasn’t with him.

  “Eggs alright?” Sirius asked him, noting that Neko looked a little worried.

  Neko shrugged. “Won’t know until the buyer gets here and maybe not even then. Amanda said they seemed in okay condition though, Apparently they can feel different once they’ve been dead awhile so either we did a good job or it just hasn’t been long enough to tell yet.

  Sirius nodded. It looked like they’d almost finished unloading things from Morgan’s ship. Still no sign of Amanda anywhere though.

  “Where is she?” he asked Neko.

  Neko looked guiltier than ever.

  “Neko?”

  “She went to look for that pegasus.”

  “What?!” Sirius’s heart sank into his stomach.

  “When?”

  “A few minutes ago. She went to check on the animals after helping with the eggs and when she saw the pegasus was gone she demanded to know where.”

  “And you told her?”

  “Well yeah, but I didn’t think she’d go looking for it. I thought she just wanted to know. But then she hijacked one of the long boats and sailed it in to shore.”

  “And you what, just watched this happen?”

  “I tried to argue with her. What was else I supposed to do, hold her down?”

  “If you had to,” Sirius growled. But he knew it wasn’t Neko’s fault.

  “What are you going to do?” Neko asked.

  Sirius look out toward the dusty red city. “I’m going after her.”