Tina Daniell - Maquesta Kar-Thon

She looked at him quizzically.

"You've a taste of being a captain now. I can't see you doing anything else."

Maq had to admit she felt a satisfaction at the respect accorded her by the Perechon's crew. No longer was there any hint of her being merely the ship's mascot or someone who had to be treated as special because she was the captain's daughter. She was the Perechon's captain-at least for another week, and everyone on board recognized that. Once or twice it had occurred to her to wonder what it would be like with Melas taking over again as captain, and her following orders once more. But she quickly pushed such thoughts away as the ultimate disloyalty.

"My father is the captain of the Perechon . It's that simple."

"Kof brought back pockets full of gems. Enough to buy your own ship," Fritzen posed. "And a lot more."

Maq hung her head. "I know. I've been thinking about that. I want to offer some of the gems to Attat, an attempt to buy Kof. He deserves his freedom. Lord Attat is liable to not let him go-just for spite. But if Attat did go for it, there still would be enough gems left over to pay this crew a year's worth of wages and to buy a fully-rigged two-masted ship. I'd hate to leave my father. But, despite everything, I sort of like this. Being in charge."

Fritzen grinned. "It shows."

"I'd have to get a crew," she mused, dreaming.

"Well, for starters you'd have Kof, if Attat can be tempted. And you have me."

Maquesta looked up at him, and Fritzen drew her into his arms. He kissed her, and she lingered in his embrace, then she pulled away, confused, and worried that someone might have been watching. "I-I have to take the wheel," she stammered. "It's my shift."

"I'll relieve you in a few hours," he offered, grinning.

Maquesta nodded, backing away and realizing she must be blushing horribly. Turning and bouncing up the stairs, she allowed a wide smile to creep across her face.

As Lendle busied himself in the hold working on his oar engine, Ilyatha helped him, relishing the darkness of the ship's belly and delighting in the gnome's company. The shadowperson told the gnome that the work kept his mind off his daughter, Sando. Though from time to time Ilyatha stared off into the distance, as if in a trance. Lendle suspected he was trying to telepathically contact his daughter. Finally, the shadowperson's words confirmed it.

"We are still too far away for my mind to touch hers, to reassure her we are coming," Ilyatha said sorrowfully.

Lendle tried to be compassionate. "We're still many days out of Lacynos," he said. "She'll be all right. You'll see."

The shadowperson made some adjustments here and there to the gnome's odd-looking oar machine, then glanced at Lendle. "But what happens, my friend, if we are late? According to Kof, Lacynos is eight days away. Our thirty-day deadline is seven days away."

The gnome scowled and retrieved a crate of rods, cylinders, clamps, bolts, winches, and pulleys. "We'll make it," he said slowly and sadly. "Maquesta Kar-Thon will think of something. She will not allow us to be late."

Belwar continued to monitor the Perechon's voyage. Every now and then the magnificent ki-rin would swoop out of the clouds and hover over the ship, sending the sailors friendly greetings and, on a few occasions, loaves of bread, wheels of cheese, sacks of oranges, or something else good to eat. Often the food was in the shape of mythical birds or long-finned fish, as the ki-rin created it from his imagination.

The great creature most often conversed with the sea elf on these visits, though Maquesta sometimes was treated to his words of wisdom.

"I sense the evil growing," the ki-rin told her on one of these special occasions. It was nearing sunset, and he made it clear that during this visit his time would be spent only with Maquesta. "Snaring the morkoth stopped only a small speck of the wave of evil gaining strength in the Blood Sea."

Maquesta looked into Belwar's iridescent eyes. "You talked about this evil before, when we first met you. How can you sense this? And can you tell what the evil is?"

"It is in my nature to feel the good and bad pulses in this world. Too, I can sense good and evil in planes that exist side by side with your world of Krynn." The ki-rin shook his head sadly, his golden mane glittering and causing Maquesta to blink. "There is always evil in every world, but when the pulse of it gets stronger, when those with foul intentions become more powerful, it makes me uneasy. I am uneasy now, and that is why I know the evil is becoming more tangible."

The ki-rin hovered above the deck and looked to the sky. "I have business again on another plane, though I suspect it shall not keep me for more than a few days. I will return to you when my tasks are complete." With that, he climbed into the air, shimmered, and turned into a translucent, glittering cloud that dissipated in the wind.

As the Perechon approached the section of the Blood Sea known as Blood Cup, the site of many sunken ships, Maquesta stood near the capstan, her spyglass pressed to her eye. She was beginning to worry in earnest about making it back to Lacynos on time. The flute had been a boon, but they were four days out of the minotaur port city, and the deadline was three days away.

"There's something odd about the water."

Maquesta put the spyglass away as she saw Tailonna climb up over the railing. Maq had gotten used to the sea elf's frequent excursions into the water to catch fish for the morkoth-or just to swim.

"Odd, how?" Maq asked, padding over to join her.

"There are no fish. At least nothing small for me to catch for your beast." Tailonna shook herself, this time staying far enough away from Maquesta that she did not drench the captain. "I saw a couple of barracuda and one large bullshark. That was it. Though fish that size tend to keep the smaller fish away, I swam far enough that I should have seen at least a school of queen angels or some cuddlefish hanging near the bottom."

Maquesta looked toward the aft deck. Hvel was talking to Kof, who had the wheel. Maq rubbed her chin. "Maybe the presence of the morkoth is spooking them; the thing certainly has made me uneasy. That hasn't caused a problem with fish before now, but maybe because he is stronger…" She took a few steps toward the center of the deck and waved to Hvel. "Check on the morkoth!" Hvel nodded, and Maq resumed her conversation with the Tailonna.

Though Maquesta still considered the sea elf haughty and somewhat irritating, she was starting to warm to her. Maq had gained some respect for the comely Dimernesti. The sea elf had taught her about several drop-offs in the Blood Sea, things Maq was sure even her father didn't know about. Tailonna detailed where the coral cities of the mermen were and where other sea races frequented, and she explained that the mermen were often more than willing to trade with surface dwellers, though the mermen were shrewd bargainers.

"Far to the west is the Pit of Istar." Tailonna started to regale Maq with tales of another feature of the sea floor. "The water there is more than three hundred feet deep, and halfway down there is a whirlpool above an ancient rune-covered column."

Maq, listening to the story, glanced casually over her shoulder to watch Hvel. She squinted her eyes to see what he was doing. Working with the chain on the cage, she suspected, maybe pulling some seaweed free from it. Hvel worked and worried over the cage, then he started playing around with the mechanism that held it to the deck.

"No!" she shouted, finally realizing what he really was doing.

Maquesta broke away from the sea elf and darted toward the aft section of the ship, her sandaled feet slapping hard over the polished wood. A softer slapping sound indicated the barefoot sea elf was on her heels. "Stop it, Hvel! You'll release the cage!"