Corsair

sky!”

“No, we can’t, but I refuse to abandon Mirya to Kamoth and Sergen,” Geran replied. “Sooner or later, Kamoth’s got to bring his ship to port. Wherever that is, we’ll find him again.” If nothing else, he might be able to find an archmage to teleport him there. Perhaps Hamil was right, and she was relatively safe so long as she had value as a hostage. But if Kamoth and Sergen decided they no longer feared pursuit, they might not see any reason to continue to spare Mirya and her daughter.

He stared into his cup, absently rolling the dry red wine across his tongue as he considered the puzzle before them. There had to be a way to follow her! “Sarth, what do you know about flying ships?” he finally asked.

“Little, I fear,” Sarth said. “I have heard it said that great ports such as Waterdeep or Westgate sometimes see ships that call from far places indeed-cities in different planes or lands beyond the Sea of Night. And I have read accounts of some such visits in old tomes. For instance, there was a wizard named Gamelon Idogyr who visited Waterdeep a few times in the years before the Spellplague. He called on the Blackstaff on occasion, and one of the Blackstaff’s apprentices recorded Gamelon’s accounts of his voyages in the Sea of Night. Gamelon was said to arrive and depart aboard a mysterious ship of strange design that no seafarer had ever encountered elsewhere.”

“A flying ship?” Hamil asked. Sarth nodded in reply, and Hamil continued. “Then all we have to do is find one of those mysterious ships, so that we can follow Sergen and Kamoth to their lair. How hard can it be?”

“Most such vessels hide their origin. They shift planes or take to the skies a few miles away from their destination and simply sail into harbor like any seagoing ship would.” Sarth smiled bitterly. “And I’ve heard nothing of any visits in a very long time. I suspect that the masters of sky-sailing ships-if any still visit Faerun-keep their secrets to themselves in these darker and more dangerous times.”

“Well, we know of at least one that is still around,” Hamil observed. “How did a pirate like Kamoth come by a ship like that? Is he a wizard of some kind?”

“Kamoth is no wizard,” Geran answered. “And I can’t believe that he has any powerful mages at his command, or we would have seen their magic at work in Hulburg.”

“In that case, how does one make a ship fly? Or shift planes? Or otherwise behave in a manner that ships shouldn’t?”

“According to the account of Gamelon, skyfaring or plane-sailing vessels are powered by some sort of magical device, such as a helm or a keel carved with potent runes,” the sorcerer answered Hamil. “Creating such a device requires a powerful and knowledgeable wizard, but controlling one that has already been installed on a ship is much easier. Kamoth might not need a mighty wizard. He would only need a little training in the arcane arts and the knowledge of how to steer.”

“In which case, why did he wait so long before taking to the air?” Geran mused. “Was he simply toying with us? Did he hope to avoid us without giving away his secret? Or was there some other reason?”

“Could it be something about the Talons?” Sarth asked. “Or sunset? Perhaps to sail the Sea of Night he must wait until the skies grow dark?”

They fell silent, nursing their goblets of wine. The ship rode lightly over the swells, stretching out her legs with a full spread of sail and a following sea. Geran finished his cup and began to pour himself another. He realized that he was exhausted. Between the last desperate days on Moonshark and the hurried pursuit of the fleeing pirates, he’d hardly slept in three or four days.

Hamil cleared his throat. “You mentioned a magical device, Sarth,” he said. “For example, a compass?”

Geran and Sarth stared at the halfling. “The starry compass,” Geran breathed. “That’s why Kamoth sent Narsk to Mulmaster. He wanted Moonshark fitted with one too. And we left it on Moonshark’s quarterdeck!”

“We had more pressing matters to deal with at the time,” Hamil reminded him. “However, if it’s something that you have to know how to use, I don’t think we need to worry about Murkelmor or anyone else left on Moonshark taking to the skies. Whatever the Red Wizards taught Narsk about using the device died with him.”

Geran stood and paced toward the stern end of the cabin. A wide row of windows provided a fine view of the darkened Moonsea and the stars low in the sky. Kraken Queen sailed somewhere in that sky, even as he stood gazing out at the night. Wherever she was going now, Seadrake could not follow without a starry compass of her own. It was possible they could obtain one from the Red Wizards in Mulmaster … if the arcane merchants had another one they would be willing to part with, and if their price was something he’d be able to meet. On the other hand, he knew there was a starry compass aboard Moonshark. The pirate galley was damaged and shorthanded; she’d be easy prey for Seadrake.

“We need Moonshark’s compass,” he said over his shoulder. Maybe he could persuade Murkelmor to part with it peacefully and leave the Moonsea; he didn’t relish the thought of crossing blades with his former shipmates. “Sarth, can you divine her location?”

“I will attempt it immediately,” Sarth answered. He stood up and left the cabin.

“The last I saw, Moonshark was headed southeast past Hulburg’s Arches,” Hamil said. “Where do you think Murkelmor would have taken her?”

Geran thought about it. The gale blowing from west-northwest would have made it nearly impossible to make any progress toward the west, so Moonshark would have stood south-straight out to sea and ultimately to Mulmaster on the opposite coast-or turned east to hug the shore and flee into the uninhabited coastlands of the Galennar. Mulmaster probably offered the best haven available in the eastern half of the Moonsea for a pirate ship on the run, but he doubted that Murkelmor would have wanted to chance stormy, open water with a damaged bow. No, it was more likely that the dwarfhad steered eastward, searching for some deserted cove or sheltered bay in the desolate Galennar where he could make repairs and reorganize the ship’s crew.

“My coin’s on the Galennar,” he told Hamil. “It’s a hard and dangerous coast, but there are places where a ship can lie hidden. And it’s uninhabited, so Murkelmor won’t have to worry about the rest of the crew deserting the ship-or some local lord seizing it.” Of course, they’d been much closer to the Galennar two days ago when they had sailed from Hulburg. “On the other hand, I’ve already guessed wrong in chasing Kraken Queen. If Sarth’s divinations can tell me something about which way to set my course, I’d feel much better about sailing to the far end of the Moonsea.”

Sarth rapped on the door and then came in with a heavy leather satchel. “My cabin’s too small for this,” the sorcerer explained. Geran and Hamil retreated, giving him space to work. Sarth opened the satchel and took out a stub of charcoal, drawing a circle about ten feet across behind the table and marking it with runes. He arranged candles at several points around the circle, lighting them with a wave of his hand. Then he removed a plain iron nail from his satchel-a fitting from Moonshark, or so Geran guessed. The swordmage watched as Sarth repeated the ritual he’d performed in the conjury of his small tower, reading from an old tome and flinging pinches of mysterious powders into a small brazier he set up beside his reading stand. Sarth inhaled the fragrant smoke rising from the brazier and stared blankly into space.

Hamil glanced at Geran, but Geran motioned for him to wait. Thirty heartbeats passed, and then the sorcerer exhaled and shook his head. “Moonshark lies in that direction,” he said, pointing toward somewhere that would have been off the port bow had they all been standing on the quarterdeck. “She is perhaps two hundred miles distant, drawn up on the beach in a cove surrounded by steep bluffs. There are ruins above. I see a bonfire on the beach, and many of our former shipmates. They are all armed. They fear the night.”

“Does that seem familiar to you, Geran?” Hamil asked.

“Ruins … it might be Sulasspryn, but they’d be fools to put in there. In any event, the direction and distance confirm my guess. They’re hiding out somewhere in the Galennar, all the way at the far end of the Moonsea.” Geran sighed. The winds favored them, but it would be a day and a half to cross the Moonsea again … assuming Moonshark stayed where it was and didn’t sail off somewhere new in the meantime. At least they’d have a good night’s sleep. “I’ll tell Andurth to change his course. I doubt that we can crowd on any more sail, but he might find a way.”

Sarth and Hamil returned to their own cabins. Geran went back on deck and told the sailing master to steer for the eastern end of the Moonsea at the best speed Seadrake could manage. Then he came back to his cabin and fell into his bunk. He lay awake for a time, desperately hoping that Hamil was right and that Mirya was unharmed. He couldn’t bear the thought of harm coming to her, not on his account. Yet that seemed to be exactly what had happened. Five months ago House Veruna’s sellswords had tried to deflect him from