Teldin nodded and gave his friend a tired smile. "Thanks," he said simply.

"Just think on it," Djan suggested. "And maybe try this again when you're feeling up to it." He tossed the amulet to the Cloakmaster, then he stood and walked toward the door. "Plus," he added over his shoulder, "I think you should get some rest."

As the first mate reached for the door latch, a diffident knock sounded. He quirked an eyebrow at Teldin-"Expecting company?"-and opened the door. The half-orc, Dargeth, was framed in the doorway. He tugged his forelock. "Sir, Captain." He shifted from foot to foot in discomfort. "Captain, do you have a moment, sir?" Teldin sighed. He didn't want to take a moment for dealing with ship's business, not right now, but duty does bind both ways, he reminded himself again. "Of course. Come on in, Dargeth. Have a seat. Is it all right if the first mate hears this, or is it personal?"

Dargeth ducked to avoid cracking his head on the overhead and crossed to the table. "No, sirs, it's not personal. It's…" He glanced at the open door behind him.

Taking the cue, Djan shut the door.

"Have a seat," Teldin repeated. To make the sailor more comfortable-obviously he didn't like the idea of sitting while his captain stood-he pulled a chair out for himself. "Now, Dargeth," he prompted, "what is it?"

Dargeth seated himself, hands in his lap, wringing them together uncomfortably. He glanced back and forth between his captain and the first mate.

"It's all right, Dargeth," Teldin told him, trying to inject as much reassurance as he could into his voice. "Whatever it is, it's all right."

The half-ore bobbed his head. "As you say, sir," he said tentatively, though he obviously didn't believe it.

"I've been thinking, Captain," Dargeth started slowly, his voice pitched little above a whisper. "About Blossom… about the helm-priest's death."

Teldin shot a quick glance at Djan, but tried to keep his face expressionless. "What about her death?" he asked, as lightly as he could.

"I've been thinking it's not an accident, Captain. Sorry to say it, but it's true. I think… I think she was killed."

The Cloakmaster sighed. Well, it had only been a matter of time, hadn't it? He had to admit he didn't have much respect for the half-orc's intellect, so if Dargeth was entertaining suspicions, what about the rest of the crew? "Why do you think that?" he asked coolly.

Dargeth shifted in his chair uncomfortably. "Lots of things, really, Captain," he mumbled. "I'm sorry, but…"

"No," Djan broke in, "no apologies. You've figured something out, or think you have. If you're correct, you did the right thing in coming to talk to us about it. If you're wrong, you still did the right thing. I've always told the entire crew I want them to use their heads, to think for themselves, haven't I?" The half-ore nodded. "You can be sure you're not going to get in trouble for doing what I told you to do," the first mate concluded. "Tell on."

The sailor looked immeasurably less uncomfortable, and Teldin again found himself respecting his friend's ability to deal with people.

"Like I said," Dargeth said, more confidently, "it's lots of things. I just sort of put them all together. First off, I got to wondering why the helm-priest would be checking the bilges or the keel." He looked directly at Djan, patently struggling not to drop his gaze. "I know you said you ordered her to, sir, but…"

"Yes," Djan said simply. "Go on."

"So there was that. Then there was the business about her falling and breaking her neck." Dargeth hesitated again. "It's just that Blossom… wasn't a small woman, if you take my meaning," he went on, "but nobody heard her fall. And, anyway, the distance in the bilges isn't much of a fall to get you a broken neck."

"She wasn't a small woman, remember," Djan pointed out.

Dargeth bobbed his head again. "I know that, sir, but it's like I said: it's not just one thing, it's a lot of things all coming together."

Teldin signaled for the man to go on.

"And then there's the hatch," the sailor continued. "Harriana said it was shut-not all the way, but shut. I don't think any of the other jacks remembered that, but I did. If Blossom fell and broke her neck by accident, who shut the hatch?"

The Cloakmaster was silent. Maybe he'd been hasty in underrating Dargeth's intelligence after all. "That's one thing," he pointed out. "What are the others?"

"The accidents, when we were fighting the pirates and before," the man answered. "When Merrienne fell, and when the catapult broke. All on their own, they didn't mean much." He-shrugged. "Things break on board ship, that's why you need jacks like me to fix them, but to have two things break, just when we're about to be attacked by a pirate who knew we were coming… Well, it made me think.

"And now it's the catapult again."

Both Teldin and Djan jerked upright in their chairs as though they'd been stung. "What's wrong with the catapult?" the Cloakmaster demanded.

"You know we wound it back when that metal thing was coming after us," Dargeth explained. "You ordered us to do it yourself, Captain. Well, when we were told to stand down again, it was my job to let the tension out of the catapult so it wouldn't be damaged staying ready to fire for too long.

"Well, when I was letting it back, I looked at the skeins and the bearing." His gaze settled steadily on Teldin's face. "They've been jiggered, Captain. Somebody split the bearing with a spike and cut one of the skeins. Not all the way through, otherwise she'd have torn apart right when we wound her back. But real clever, a couple of strands here, a couple of strands there, all the way around. If we'd left her wound back for any longer, she'd have gone soon enough. But she'd certain have gone the first time we fired her. She'd have torn herself right apart, and that first shot wouldn't have hit the side of a barn even if we'd been in the barn."

"Hold it." Djan raised a hand to interrupt the half-ore's rapid words. "When could this have happened? When did you last check the catapult?"

Dargeth shrugged. "During the repairs after we landed on the planet with those three-legged things," he explained. "I was tuning the catapult-Miss Julia was working with me- and everything was fine then."

So this happened recently, then, Teldin realized, during the voyage through the Flow after leaving the Nex crystal sphere. "Who else worked on the weapon, Dargeth?"

"Just me and Miss Julia at the time, Captain, but others might have come to work on it later. I don't know."

Teldin nodded. "Go on."

"So I put it all together, Captain," Dargeth mumbled, "and I'm sorry if I was wrong, but I think they're all connected. Somebody jiggered things so the boom and the catapult would break, outside Heartspace, just like somebody jiggered the catapult now.

"And"-his voice firmed up-"I think maybe that same somebody killed Blossom." He lowered his eyes. "If I'm wrong, Captain, tell me, and I'll take whatever discipline you see fit."

Impulsively, Teldin leaned forward, clapped the big man on the shoulder. "No discipline, Dargeth," he told the sailor. "I just have one question: who have you talked to about this?"

The half-orc looked up, surprised. "Why, nobody, Captain," he asserted. "It's not my place."

"And nobody else has talked about any of this in your hearing?" Djan asked.

"Nobody, sir," Dargeth said firmly. He paused and looked at his two superior officers.

Then I am right, sirs?" he asked quietly. He didn't wait or them to speak; apparently their expressions were all the answer he needed. "I won't mention this to anyone, ever, without you give me leave first," he stated flatly. "Is that what you want me to do, sir? Captain?"

"That's exactly what I want you to do," Teldin confirmed. He patted the big man's shoulder again. "Thank you, Dargeth. You've done exactly what you should have done, exactly what both of us would have wanted you to do." He smiled-difficult, since he didn't feel at all like smiling. "You can return to your duties now."