Cloakmaster's fingers, one after another. The insectare stiffened, his body jerking in spasms as it was jolted again and again by the magic weapons. During the magic assault, Pearl's spell dissipated and a horrible searing hiss replaced the silence. The green face blackened, and fetid smoke rose from under the creature's exoskeleton. Finally the insectare tottered and fell to the floor with a dull clatter.
The stunned crew stared at the smoking remains. What moments before had been an insectare now was a pile of blackened plating and charred robe, nothing more. The creature's body had simply disintegrated from the force of Teldin's missiles. Awed and speechless, the elves and dracons raised their gaze to the human. Teldin, clasping his bleeding arm, stood over the dead insectare. His expression was dazed, and he looked disoriented and none too steady on his feet. Even so, power clung to him like a mantle.
'That was for Hectate Kir,' Teldin said faintly, addressing the smoking pile.
Deelia Snowsong was the first to collect herself. She darted forward and helped Teldin sit down on a storage crate. After a quick examination of the man's injury, she ripped away his torn sleeve and doused the arm with a foul-swelling herbal wash from a small vial. She'd already begun to stitch the wound before Teldin's startled oaths died away. The dracons suddenly realized they still held the insectare's severed antennae. Both shuddered and threw the things aside. Chirp produced a kerchief from a pocket of his leather armor and fastidiously wiped off his clawed fingers, and Trivit dashed tears from his green cheeks with the back of his hand. No one noticed the troubled, speculative expression on Pearl's face as she fingered her long raven braid, and no one saw her slip away from the cargo hold.
A subdued Vallus quietly came over to the makeshift infirmary. He watched silently as Deelia put the last of many stitches in Teldin's arm. The tiny healer poured another quick dose of her liquid fire over her handiwork, then she quickly wrapped Teldin's forearm in bandages.
Only once before had Teldin seen Vallus at a loss for words, and the elf s silence unnerved him. Looking about for something to say, he noticed that Vallus still held the items taken from the insectare. Teldin rose to his feet, ignoring the new waves of pain that radiated from his arm.
'How do you think the insectare got those keys?' Teldin asked through gritted teeth.
'I believe I can answer that,' Trivit broke in tearfully. The dracon turned and led the way toward the stern. The crew silently followed him past the machinery that drove the wing and paddle mechanisms. On the floor, in a scattered circle of tiny tools, lay Om's body. It was sprawled facedown, its head bent at an impossible angle. Around the neck was an angry red circle where the insectare's whiplike antennae had struck and killed. Teldin swallowed hard, and Trivit's tears began anew.
'Why would Om work with an insectare?' Vallus wondered, looking down at the gnome's body.
'More likely she bumped into it, like Gaston did,' Teldin suggested. The elf shook his head and handed Teldin the key taken from the insectare. A glance at the outlandish handle betrayed its gnomish origin.
'If I were to choose the least likely person on board to play the traitor, it would have been she,' Vallus mused. 'To all appearances, Ora cared for nothing but her machines. What could convince her to do something like this?'
Teldin's eyes widened as an answer occurred to him, and he groaned softly in self-recrimination. Once again, the truth had been just too damned obvious.'
Without offering an explanation, Teldin turned and strode back to the cargo hold. He picked up his sword and hurried up the stairs to his own cabin, worry dulling his pain and speeding his steps. If his theory was right, Hectate could be in grave danger.
Teldin kicked open the cabin door. As he suspected, the aperusa was no longer sleeping off the pilfered sagecoarse. Rozloom was standing, bent over the writing table. The gypsy whirled to face Teldin, and his black eyes widened at the sight of the blade leveled at his heart.
'She is yours,' the aperusa stated baldly, holding up his huge bronze hands in surrender. 'From this moment, Raven is the captain's woman and Rozloom will kill any man who says otherwise.'
'Just for the record, her name is Pearl, and you know damn well this isn't about her,' Teldin said evenly. The sword felt awkward in his left hand, and he hoped he didn't appear as unsteady as he felt. The aperusa seemed suitably cowed, however, and he raised one hand to flick beads of sweat from his gleaming pate. Teldin's eyes narrowed. 'What's that green stuff on your hand?' he demanded.
'Green?' Rozloom spread his hands before him and studied his fingers as if he'd just acquired them. Understanding lit his broad face, and gold teeth flashed in relief. 'Ahh. Is nothing. Merely the healing herbs I grind to feed the captain's friend.' The gypsy gestured to the small mortar and pestle on the writing table.
'Let me have them,' Teldin said, holding out his free hand. Panic flared in the aperusa's black eyes, but his smile never dimmed. 'I think not, Captain,' he said. 'Herbs, they can be dangerous if one knows little of them.'
'You might as well know that K'tide is dead,' Teldin said bluntly. Rozloom's jovial expression vanished, and he sank heavily into the chair. 'So is Om,' Teldin added quietly, but the second piece of information did not seem to register with the aperusa.
'I see.' The gypsy's usually booming bass voice sounded strangely subdued, and his face sagged in the resignation of defeat. 'And of course there are many questions. What would you have me to tell, Captain?'
The thunder of approaching dracons drowned out Teldin's response. Two green heads poked in through the door, their puzzled faces framing Vallus. 'Get Deelia,' Teldin told the elf.
'I'm here.' The healer pushed her way into the room.
Teldin pointed to the dish of crushed herbs and asked her what they were. Puzzled, Deelia went over to the writing table and touched the tip of one finger to the mixture. She sniffed it, tasted it, and spat.
'Nightsorrel,' she breathed, glancing at the gypsy with dawning understanding. 'No wonder the half-elf never woke up.'
Rozloom sighed and removed a small green flagon from the folds of his sash. 'This will help,' he said, handing it to the healer. Again she tested it. Satisfied, she quickly poured the liquid into Hectate's slack mouth. She produced a vial of her own, a healing potion of some sort, and administered that to Hectate as well. Almost immediately the half-elf's color looked a bit better, and he sighed in his sleep.
'He should start coming around soon now,' Deelia murmured. Teldin nodded his thanks and sheathed his sword. Feeling a little light-headed, he pulled the room's only chair over to Hectate's bedside and dropped into it. Leaving Rozloom to the furious elven wizard, Teldin renewed his vigil over his half-elven friend.
'How long have you been working for the insectare?' Vallus demanded, coming forward to stand over the aperusa.
'Work?' The gypsy shrugged off that concept like an ill-fitting garment. 'My people salvage old ships. K'tide's money was good. The insectare, he wished also to buy information. The money for that was even better.'
'What information?'
'Harmless things: Where the captain goes. What he does. What he wears. Very much K'tide liked stories of the cloak that changes color, so I tell what I see. Is business,' he concluded with another shrug. Teldin, who had looked up when Rozloom mentioned the insectare's interest in the cloak, got the distinct impression that Rozloom had little notion what the fuss was about.
'Who else was with the insectare?'
A bushy brow arched. 'The insect-elves, but this you know already, yes?'
Vallus winced visibly. 'So it was K'tide and the bionoids who supplied spelljamming vessels to the Armistice goblinborn. Why?'
'That, I did not ask.'
'All right, then, are the scro involved?'
'Scro!' Rozloom snorted. 'Who is to say? What scro do is hidden even from those who read the cards. The aperusa trade but little with such creatures.'
'Is anyone else working with you?'
'From time to time,' the aperusa allowed. 'For a good price, a beholder helped me to make the captain's acquaintance.'
'In the tavern on Garden,' Teldin said slowly, remembering the beholder who had fired over his head and sent him, the dracons, and Rozloom into flight. Rozloom's revelations also explained the insectare's appearance in the tavern that night, just before the aperusa troop's arrival. Still, Teldin was puzzled. The insectare wanted the cloak,
