"Is he gone?" Gaye said in a loud stage whisper.

Teldin wanted to close his eyes, but pushed himself up on his elbows instead. "What in the lower blazes are you doing there?" he whispered fiercely. "This is the second floor!"

"I thought you'd like some company!" she whispered back, pulling herself fully into the room. The dark-haired kender was wearing a short purple dress with a red sash and no shoes. "I would have brought some fruit, but the gnomes said you weren't to eat anything but creamed soaked grains until you were released."

Teldin's stomach knotted at the thought of facing another bowl of that tasteless gray sludge. He was being fed five times a day now, and he hated every moment of it.

Gaye wiped her dirty hands on Teldin's bedsheets. "Anyway, now that I'm here, we have some time to talk!" she said brightly, seating herself on the bed. She was wearing a new sort of flowery perfume. "Aelfred said you brought us down when both the helms were knocked out," she said, leaning toward him excitedly. "Is this another power of your cloak? I don't mean to be nosy. Aelfred was trying to keep it a secret, but I overheard him yesterday talking to the navigator. I hope I'm not getting him into trouble or anything by saying that." "Well-" Teldin began.

"I guess I should first say thank you for saving us," Gaye continued quickly, "but that seems so inadequate. That big blue guy with the nose, General Gomma whatever, said you almost drowned when we splashed down, but he pulled you out. I was really grateful he did, too. We've only known each other for what, five days, and here we are, crashed on a flat planet with no ship left, and who knows what's lurking in wildspace for us, trying to get your cloak. That's what Aelfred was saying, but not to me. That was to the navigator."

"I don't-" Teldin said.

"Oh, don't worry, none of that's important," the kender went on. "None of us can predict the future, so we'd all better eat our desserts first. That's what everyone says, anyway. I like your mustache. So, what have you been doing with yourself lately?" She waited expectantly, her dark eyes shining.

Teldin opened his mouth to answer.

There was a knock at the door. "Teldin?" came Aelfred's muffled voice from outside. "Teldin, mind if I come in?"

"Oops," muttered Gaye, bounding to her bare feet. She looked hurriedly around the room, then dropped to her knees and crawled under Teldin's bed. "Don't tell!" she whispered with a wink, and was gone from view.

"Teldin?" came the voice at the door again.

"Come on in," Teldin said in defeat. "Why not."

The door opened silently. Aelfred had a new gash over his left eye, but it had healed already. He moved unsteadily, favoring his right leg. The big man gave Teldin a lopsided smile as he limped over and reached out to shake his hand. "Good to see you alive, old son," Aelfred said, taking a seat on a stool he pulled close to Teldin's bed. "Hope you don't mind a visit."

Teldin snorted. "Gomja was going to keep people out for me, but you must have missed him. Don't worry about it. How are things going here?"

"Well," Aelfred started, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together in front of him. His crooked smile faded, then was gone. "I've got some bad news, some good news, and some more bad news."

Grimacing, Teldin tried to prepare himself. "What?"

"The first bad news is that we did lose a few people," Aelfred said, not looking Teldin in the eye. "Asinwilk, the stern castle catapult crewman, he drowned, and Bor Oxeman and that new priest, Garioth, they were killed in the lower bridge by that catapult shot. We haven't found five others: Varisot, Mamnilla, Old Hok, Mithko the Elder, and Yishi Narsh, the cook. They could have fallen off anywhere in space or in the lake. We just don't know. Yishi was probably in the galley when it was hit."

Aelfred looked down at his interlocked fingers. His eyes saw nothing there. Teldin remembered Mamnilla and Old Hok, lying on the deck as Teldin had hovered over the ship in his dream, or whatever state the cloak had produced. Mamnilla had had a warped sense of humor for a halfling. An empty place formed in Teldin's stomach. He tried not to take it personally, but he knew he was the cause of all these deaths-he and his cloak.

"The good side," Aelfred went on, "is that the rest of us survived, which comes to thirty-nine people that you saved. The gnomes have their healers-real healers and priests-working on the crew, and we're getting back on our feet. They told us we should be at full strength by the day after tomorrow. Now, we go back to the bad news again."

Aelfred paused, not looking at Teldin, and swallowed. "The Probe's just scrap, I'm told," he said, no emotion in his voice. "The orcs, or whatever they were up there, did for us pretty well. You got us out of there in time, but the ship's going for kindling." Aelfred gave Teldin a rueful smile. "At least I got to be her captain for a while."

"I'm sorry," Teldin said. He was blanketed in misery. He knew more than ever that his presence threatened everyone he had ever cared about. "It's my fault," he mumbled. "I shouldn't have stayed and put you and everyone else in so much danger. The neogi, the mind flayers, the orcs, they want this cloak"-he gestured at the silver "necklace" at his throat, the cloak being kept small so it was out of the way-"and I couldn't even give it to them if I wanted to."

Aelfred made a short gesture as if brushing away a fly. "Don't talk like that. You're not getting anywhere with self-pity. We chose to be with you even though we knew it would be hard going. We stuck together, and you pulled our roast out of the cooking fire when things balled up." Aelfred rubbed at his face. "The point of all this is that my crew has nowhere to go, and some of them are thinking about staying here. They're not that crazy about gnomes, but they'd rather either settle down here and work or else wait for the next freighter that stops by and sign on her, no matter where she's bound. I released them all of their duties as of this morning, and paid them off with what the gnomes salvaged from the currency locker in my cabin. Everyone's staying here at the infirmary for now, but soon they're going to start going their own ways." Aelfred hesitated. "And Sylvie and I are going our own ways, too, old son."

I'm going to miss you, Teldin was ready to say, feeling even more depressed and responsible for the whole mess.

"So," said Aelfred, rising to his feet and stretching his right leg gingerly. "As soon as you get off your lazy ass and get some real food in you instead of this scavver dung they've been feeding us all, you and Sylvie and I are going to see this sage the elves want us to see. And if I have any luck at all along the way, I'm going to make some space orcs damned unhappy that they shot up my ship."

Teldin stared at Aelfred with an open mouth. The captain leaned down and gave Teldin a healthy punch in the shoulder. "I've also got to teach you about landing ships if you're going to spelljam them, if that's what you did to get us down. A blind-drunk liar bird would have done better. And I haven't forgotten that other problem you and I were going to work on, either. We can't do anything about it here, since all they have available are gnome women-unless you like that type-but we'll work on it." With a crooked, bowing grin, the blond warrior waved and headed for the door, letting himself out.

"You old dog, you," Teldin said, staring at the door. I can't believe you still want to travel with me, he thought. I just can't believe it. For the first time in ages, he felt a sense of lightness inside him.

"Hey!" came Gaye's voice from under the bed. "What kind of problem are you having? And why did he say you couldn't do anything about it here because of the gnome women?"