"Admiral!" said the admiral of the treasure fleet to me.

I glanced to the gold-bordered, purple flag, the admiral's flag, flying from the halyard strung between the forward starboard mooring cleat and the height of the stem castle. "Strike that flag," I said, "and put there the flag of Bosk, from the marshes."

"Yes, Captain," said Thurnock.

"Admiral!" protested the admiral of the treasure fleet to me.

"Take him away," I told my men.

He was dragged from my presence.

I snapped shut the book. "If these figured are correct," I said to Clitus, "as doubtless they are, we and the Captains of Port Kar are today the master of much treasure."

He laughed. "Surely enough," said he, "to make us all among the richest of men!" "More wisely spent," said I, "these goods would go to increase the arsenal fleet of Port Kar."

"But surely," said he, "the arsenal does not require so much?"

I laughed. "The arsenal share," said I, "is eighteen shares of thirty." Eighteen of the ships in my fleet had been arsenal vessels.

I had, by agreement with the council, reserved to myself twelve shares of thirty divisions, as well as all slaves taken.

"Captain," said a voice.

"Yes," I said.

A seaman had approached me.

"The Lady Vivina," said he, "asks to be presented to you."

"Very well," said I. "Tell her that her request to present herself to me has been granted."

"Yes, Captain," said he.

I reopened the book of cargo lists.

When I lifted my head again I discovered that the Lady Vivina was, and had been, standing before me.

Seeing me, she started.

I smiled.

Her hand was before her veil. Her eyes were wide. She wore swirling, dazzling robes of concealment, of purple and gold cloths, brocades and silks. The veil itself was purple, and trimmed with gold.

Then she caught herself and presented herself before me, as a high-born lady. "I am Vivina," said she, "of the city of Kasra of Tyros."

I nodded my head. "Call me Bosk," I said. "I am a captain of Port Kar." Behind the girl, in robes almost as rich as hers, were two other high-born maidens.

"I gather," she said, "I am your prisoner."

I said nothing.

"You will, of course," said she, "be severely punished for what you have done." I smiled.

"As you know," she said, "I am pledged to be the Free Companion of Lurius, Ubar of Cos. Accordingly, my ransom will be high."

I indicated the two girls behind Vivina. "How many of these are there?" I asked Clitus.

"Forty," he said.

"They did not appear," I said to him, "on the master cargo lists."

Clitus ginned.

The girls looked at one another uneasily.

"My maidens," said Vivina, "will also be ransomed, though their ransoms will be less than mine."

I regarded her.

"What makes you so certain," I asked, "that you will be held for ransom?" She looked at me, stunned.

"Remove you veil," I told her.

"Never!" she cried. "Never!"

"Very well," said I. I returned my attention to the master cargo lists. "What is to be done with us?" she asked.

I turned to Clitus. "The Lady Vivina," I said to him, "will of course grace the prow of this ship, the flagship of the treasure fleet."

"No!" she screamed.

"Yes, Captain," said Clitus.

Already two men held her arms.

"Take then those that were with her," I said, "and distribute them to the extent of their number among our other ships, the twent most beautiful to our twenty tarn ships now with the fleet, and the most beautiful of the twenty to the prow of the Dorna, and the other twenty set at the prows of twenty of our prizes. "Yes, Captain," said Clitus.

Men laid hands on the two girls behind the Lady Vivina, and they cried out with fear.

I again turned my attention to the master cargo lists.

"Captain!" said the Lady Vivina.

"Yes," I said, lifting my head and looking at her.

"I–I," she said, "will remove my veil."

"That will not be necessary," I said.

I handed Clitus the book of cargo lists and strode to the girl, jerking out the pins that held her veil, face stripping her.

"Beast!" she cried.

I gestured that the seamen should remove the veils from the two girls who stood behind her.

They wept.

They were beauties, all.

I looked down into the face of the Lady Vivina, who was beautiful.

"Put her at the prow," I said to Clitus.

I turned away, taking the book of master cargo lists from Clitus, and again giving them my attention. The other two girls were taken from my presence. The Lady Vivina, to one side, was readied for the prow.

Within the Ahn we were ready to sail for Port Kar. I had the admiral of the treasure fleet, Rencius Ho-Bah of Telnus, in his chains, brought before me. "I am returning one round ship to Cos," I said. "You withe certain of the seamen captured, will sit chained at her benches. Beyond this, I will give you, from among our prisoners, ten free men, six seamen, two helmsmen, an oar-master and a keleustes. The treasure from the ship, of course, will be placed aboard other ships, taken to Port Kar as prizes. On the other had, your ship will be adquately provisioned and I do not doubt you will make port in Telnus within five days"

"You are generous," said the Admiral, dismally.

"I expect," I said, "when you return to Telnus, should you decide to do so, that you will make a reasonably full and accurate accound of what had occured here recently."

"Doubtless," smiled the Admiral, "I shall receive requests to that effect." "In order that your information my be as accurate as possible, at least to this point, I inform you that seven of your treasure ships have, at least until now, eluded me. I expect to pick up some of them, however. And, of tarn ships, I have one captured, your flagship, and from the reports of my captains, some eighteen or twenty have been seriously damaged or sunk. That would leave you with some ten, or perhaps twelve, ships yet abroad on Thassa."

At that point, from the foremast of a nearby round ship, where I had placed a lookout, came the cry, "Twelve sail! Twelve said abeam!"

"Ah," said I, "twelve ships, it seems."

"They will fight!" cried the admiral. "You have not yet won!"

"Doubtless they will strike their masts," I said, "but I do not think they will fight."

He looked at me, his fists clenched in his irons.

"Thurnock," said I, "signal seventeen of my twenty ships to present themselves to our apparoaching friends. Let two remain on the far side of the treasure fleet. The Dorna, for the time will remain here. The seventeen ships are not to enter battle unless accompained by the Dorna, and under no conditions, if battle ensues, are any of my ships to move more than four pasangs from the fleet." "Yes, Captain," roared Thurock, turning and crossing on the plank to the deck of the Dorna, then taking his way to the shielded flag racks at the foot of her stem castle.

Soon the flags were whipping from the halyards.

Battled preparations were underway on my ships. Seventeen soon began to move around the fleet, or come about, to face the approaching twelve vessels. Men sat ready at the oars of the Dorna, should I come aboard her. Others, with axes, stood ready to chop away the lines that now bound the Dorna to the flagship. "They are striking their masts!" came the cry from the lookout.

In a quarter Ahn my vessels were aligned for battle. The enemy fleet, the twelve ships, was now, by estimate from the lookout, with his glass, some four pasangs distant.

If they came within two pasangs, I would board the Dorna.

I had the admiral freed of his leg irons and he and I, from the stem castle of his own ship, regarded the approaching ships.

"Do you wager," I asked him, "that they come within two pasangs?"

"They will fight!" he said.