That was the problem. It took him three days of arguing in the intervals between their lovemaking before he could get her to start taking him seriously. Years ago when Blade had been senior field man for MI6, he had occasionally argued with J over the conduct of a particular mission. He thought then that J was the world's most stubborn and tenacious arguer. Now he knew that Lady Alanyra could out-argue J any day of the week.

Eventually he got her to the point where she didn't burst out laughing and try to kiss him when he explained what he had in mind. After a few more days, she was agreeing that his plan made sense. And a few days after that, she was making suggestions for improving the scheme, based on what she knew of the situation in Nurn.

But then there was Oknyr to be convinced.

«You and he are both mad,» said Oknyr. Alanyra knew that thirty years' faithful service to four successive heads of Clan Gnyr gave him the right to speak thus. It was to his credit that he seldom abused that right.

«Perhaps we are,» said Alanyra. She met his gaze without flinching or turning color. «But if we are, perhaps it is a madness sent by the Goddess in the Foam, to clear our vision instead of cloud it. With this newly cleared vision, we are seeing a way to peace between the Sea Cities and the Sea Masters.»

«You are seeing a dream, Lady,» said Oknyr with a sigh. «A beautiful dream, but still a dream. If there were any substance to it, do you think the war would still be going on?»

«I do not know, Oknyr. I think that perhaps Blade is right when he says there has been a terrible blindness on both sides. So terrible that we could not see a chance of peace if one came up in front of us. He says that perhaps there are those in the Sea Cities, among our people, and in Nurn, who do not want the war to end.»

The Orderer of Battles pulled at one elongated earlobe. «Does he say who might be these-deceivers?»

«Stipors the Black, the Autocrat for War among the Sea Cities. He does not know enough of our people or of Nurn to be able to name any. That is why he wished to travel among us, and why he wishes to go to Nurn. He has hopes of finding a man who knows some of Nurn's secrets, and who can be given Truth Finder and so be made to reveal them to us.»

«Will even that be enough to convince the Sea Cities to leave us alone?»

«Blade says he believes it will. He says that the Sea Cities would gladly be free of Nurn for all time to come if they had a chance. They have not had that chance only because of the war.»

Oknyr nodded slowly. «There I have reason to believe Blade speaks the truth. I have heard the same from certain prisoners before they died or were sent to the Slave Reefs. If the Talgarans really hate Nurn so much, perhaps-«His face twisted, as though he felt inside him a pain that he was desperately trying to hide.

Alanyra watched him in silence with great compassion. The old warrior had fought in the war too long to be able to easily conceive of its end.

Finally he shrugged. «Lady, I still say you are mad. But you say that it is a madness sent by the Goddess, and this I am willing to believe. But there remains one thing. How are we to conceal this from the other Clans? You said you told Blade of the danger if word got about. Have you considered the danger enough yourself?»

«Why should any suspect us? We are only setting free some of our own Clan's prisoners, and not that many, either. A mere twenty or so.»

«That will still look strange to the other Clans. Is there need to send any at all?»

Alanyra nodded. «Blade made it clear to me that there is. If he were to return to the Sea Cities alone, it would be suspicious. After their defeat, the Talgarans will be trusting no one, not even a returned prisoner. And if he is suspected of evildoing, not even Autocrat Krodrus will help him make the voyage to Nurn. Besides, why should it look strange that we release certain prisoners as a gesture of contempt for the Sea Cities? Take them back, we can seem to say. Take them, and let them not come again to our Reefs, or this time they may remain forever!»

Oknyr laughed at Alanyra's fiery phrases. «Lady, are you sure that you are less wedded to the war than I am?» Seeing that she did not laugh, he sobered, then said, «What about afterward? When he-and you-sail for Nurn? What then?»

Alanyra shrugged. «The Clan will not be involved, either way. If we succeed, we will bring back a victory so great for both peoples that no one will ask stupid questions.»

Oknyr was silent, but his eyes expressed the question he did not want to put into words.

Alanyra licked her lips before replying to that questioning stare. «If something goes wrong, it will go wrong far out of the sight of either Sea Cities or Sea Masters. We will vanish like a stone dropped into the Great South Deep, and none will ever see us again to chide us for our failure.»

Blade never wanted to take a worse sea voyage than the one from the Sea Masters' Reefs back to the Sea Cities of Talgar. Wind and weather kept them at sea nearly longer than their food and water supply could last. Two full-fledged storms nearly sent the battered, ill-equipped little scout boat to the bottom of the crystal seas. At least half of the nineteen freed prisoners with Blade were too badly wounded, too sick, or too apathetic to lift a finger to work the ship. Half of the remainder were energetic, to the point of being barely willing to recognize Blade's authority. He had to quell at least one near-mutiny by using his fists.

But four or five of the men proved loyal, willing, and able. Without them Blade had no doubt that the little ship would ever have made Talgar. As it was, they spent seventeen days at sea. Seventeen days, with Blade existing on a daily ration of a pint of water, three salt fish, half a pound of bread, and three hours' sleep.

Eventually they reached the South Channel and were hailed by the patrols. They were nearly sunk by the patrols too. The ships of Talgar seemed to Blade to be even more trigger-happy than usual. But the patrols did hold their fire long enough for Blade to identify and explain himself.

They put a guard aboard the ship, gave food and water, then towed it back to the Sea Cities.

Talgar seemed to be a land under siege. After Blade learned the details of the defeat of the great fleet, he could understand the feeling. He didn't like it, for it would make his own job more difficult. But he could not blame the people of the Sea Cities.

Of the ten thousand men that had sailed eastward aboard the great fleet, more than two thousand had never returned. Of the two hundred ships and boats, forty were gone. And because the losses had fallen upon the fighters of the Cities, the Cities were far more dangerous than they might have been otherwise. In barely two months the Sea Cities had lost nearly one-third of their first-line fighting men, thousands of civilians, and more than a hundred ships of various sizes. Their morale was shattered, their nerves taut, and their soldiers and civilians alike walked with one eye cocked behind them. There was an ugly feeling in the Sea Cities, and Blade knew that he would be happier when he was on his way to Nurn.

That took more time than he had expected. Officers of the Conciliar Guard thoroughly interrogated all the returned prisoners-to find out about conditions among the Fishmen, they said. But Blade suspected it was to find out if any of the returned prisoners had committed treason. There was a wide-spread conviction in the Cities that the two disasters must have involved treason somewhere, a conviction that bode very ill for the Conciliators, who were still in prison.

There was also one of Stipors' most notorious henchmen among the officers. Blade was careful to lead that man a merry chase down a dozen useless avenues of inquiry. Fortunately the officer was not a very good interrogator. But all this nonsense took time. By the end of a week Blade was ready to bite off all his fingernails and tear out all his hair in sheer frustration. He did not dare breathe a word of any of his plans to anyone except Krodrus. But he could not even ask to see Krodrus until the interrogation was finished.