“What’d I say? Adventure and excitement!”

  Flann waved his arm, gesturing expansively at the open ocean. Behind him, the charred body of an aquatic lizard with flippers as large as a human slid over the crushed railing of the ship. The corpse plopped back into the water with a dramatic splash, spraying everyone on deck with water.

  Flann squeezed the water from his tail as a group of human sailors got to work heaving the monster’s severed head overboard. They moved quickly, hoping to get the deck cleaned off before the circling spearheads descended for an easy meal.

  Jan leaned forward to snatch Flann’s cane away, and then put to use gently bopping Flann on the head.

  “Has your fuzz grown into your brain? We’re wet. Everything we own is wet. Is this your idea of excitement?”

  The meerkat’s nose twitched as he lightly jabbed a finger into Flann’s chest. “And you can’t fool me. You hate the ocean.”

  Flann looked down at himself. His wonderfully fluffy coat was, as Jan said, dripping with saltwater. It was a travesty, but he’d been trying to make the best of it.

  “You two stop flirting and help us up,” a voice rumbled from the water below.

  Flann peered over the edge of the deck to see Cleisthenes, the mighty hippo warrior, clinging to the side of the ship.

  “Why’d ya jump overboard anyway? Our problem was the sea monster comin’ up here. If it stayed in the water that would’ve been fine, yeah?”

  The hippo thrashed his head angrily. “Pelagius fell in when it shook the boat,” he grumbled, “and neither you two nor any of the useless humans moved to help.”

  Flann exchanged a look with Jan. He could tell that his old friend was thinking the same thing.

  “She can swim though, right?” Flann asked. He looked at the person in question, who was clinging to Cleisthenes’ side.

  The hippo sputtered with so much rage that Flann though he might drown.

  Jan cleared his throat loudly and handed Flann’s cane back. “Why don’t you go check on the humans while I help these two back aboard,” he suggested.

  Flann threw up his arms in surrender. He didn’t like leaving Jan alone with the rude hippo, but it wasn’t like Cleisthenes or his companions were evil, just unbelievably incompetent. He shook out his body and wandered off to find the captain.

  Flann didn’t rush – the day was warm and sunny, and the human captain hated being hassled even by his own leaders. Cleisthenes had already burned through whatever initial goodwill there had been between the captain and the semi-humans, and now the captain grimaced and spat whenever Flann came close.

  “Hey there, captain,” Flann greeted the man cheerfully.

  The captain grimaced and spat overboard. “We’re not stoppin’ for your blubberin’ friend. He said he could swim better than this ‘pile of driftwood’ that we call a boat anyway, right? You remember ‘im sayin’ that, yeah?”

  Flann regretted teaching Cleisthenes any Mycenaean. It had felt so harmless at the time. He put on his bravest, most foxy smile.

  “That was just a bad joke that didn’t translate well, captain. Jan is helpin’ them pull themselves back onboard right now. Anyway, I just wanted to check in with you and make sure these sea monsters aren’t causin’ any trouble.”

  The captain’s face scrunched into another grimace, but before he worked up another wad of spit their lookout blew a whistle from her perch atop the crow’s nest. Flann watched the young girl adroitly scramble down a mess of ropes to land gracefully on the pitching deck. He couldn’t help but feel a small pinch of envy – back when he was a young fox, no one would have been able to keep him from scrambling up and down every mast on the ship.

  The lookout didn’t pause to appreciate her youth. She quickly turned and sprinted to the captain, excitement in her eyes.

  “Baytown’s in sight, captain. But all her ships are in harbor or fled, and there’s great plumes of smoke rising from the garrison!”

  “Calm yourself,” the captain commanded. “What of the cannons?”

  “They’re unmanned, captain. I can’t tell what’s happenin’, but it looks to me like we’re catching them with their pants around their ankles!”

  The captain grinned. It reminded Flann of one of the feral semi-humans of the Golden Plains, full of cunning and bloodlust.

  “Good,” the man grunted, “a quick shiv in the back is what they deserve.”

  He spun to the young man who’s job seemed to be following the captain. “Lad, signal the High Speaker’s ship. Tell him that our target’s in sight, and that they’re vulnerable.”

  He spun to the rest of his crew, a wild gleam in his eyes. “Prepare the oarsmen, pilot. Commander, ready your assault team. If their cannons aren’t ready and their ships are asleep, I intend to drive this boat all the way to the town square.”

  Flann scurried back to Jan as quickly as his old legs would take him. In spite of his experience, his heart still thumped at the upcoming battle. As he used his cane to hurry his uneven gait, Flann couldn’t help but bemoan his age and all of his little aches and pains; a younger him would have been leaning over the prow of the ship to launch the first fireball.

  “I’m gettin’ too old fer this,” he wheezed at Jan.

  “It is the duty of the old to pave the way for the young and vigorous,” Cleisthenes butted in.

  Flann considered shoving the hippo overboard again, but decided that he had better things to do. “We’re comin’ up on Baytown, Jan. Seems like it’s a bit on fire, and maybe undefended, so the humans are gonna charge straight in.”

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  His meerkat friend smiled. “Well, that’s alright by me. To be honest, I think I’d rather wrestle some sheets and a nice, soft bed than get into another fight. All this pitching back and forth is doing bad things to my knees.”

  Flann nodded. “I’ve been thinkin’ that too. Y’know, with Technis’ Blue Wall gone, rain is makin’ it over the mountains again.”

  Jan rubbed his hands together. “You thinking of finding a nice, new oasis out there somewhere? Maybe dig ourselves a neat little burrow?”

  Cleisthenes thumped his chest angrily. “It is the duty of the old to support the young and protect the species.”

  His tiny ears twitched as he glared at the smaller, older men. “You two have families, don’t you? You should spend your time with them.”

  Jan shrugged. “Eh, half of them are real lost causes and the other half don’t need our help. Wouldn’t mind if some of the more interestin’ young ’uns game to visit though.”

  Cleisthenes opened his large mouth to respond, but he was interrupted by the clamor of a fully armed troop of humans rushing from the hold of the ship and assembling on the deck. The disciplined soldiers grabbed onto hand and footholds placed throughout the deck and got busy waiting for their landing.

  “We’d better brace ourselves too,” Flann said. “Wouldn’t want to go overboard again.”

  Cleisthenes shot him a dirty look before taking charge of Pelagius and leading her to a secure bit of railing.

  Flann and Jan moved away from their distasteful ally and settled in for a tense wait. As usual, they went silent before the battle, but Jan imagined that his old friend was reliving their former exploits, old victories and failures both. They didn’t have to wait long – the ship was being driven by a full crew of oarsmen whose ability-strengthened rowing lurched the ship forward like a skipping stone.

  Flann squinted into the distance as they approached the sprawling port town. “Is that a ship?”

  Jan squinted in the same direction. “Where?”

  “There.” Jan pointed.

  “That’s land. Your eyes are going.”

  “No, that little thing.”

  “That bird?”

  “No, you blind old fool, the boat!”

  Jan’s nose twitched. “The boat? Sure, I see it.”

  Flann groaned in mock frustration while Jan bent over the railing and chortled until he was short of breath. Then the meerkat straightened up and took a closer look at the vessel.

  “It’s a little fishing ship, I think,” he said. He looked back at Flann and grinned. “Unless the person on board is someone scary, I’m guessing that they’re here to talk. No fightin’ today, I’m guessin’.”

  Flann stroked his chin as he thought about it. “High Speaker Cove isn’t going to want to slow down, though, in case of a trap.”

  Flann’s ears twitched as someone jumped into the water from the High Speaker’s ship. They went overboard with nothing but a plank of wood and an enormous sail.

  “That thing’s more sail than ship, I reckon,” Jan said.

  “Fast though.”

  “It is. Interestin’ use of wind to push it along, although a water manipulator would do better.”

  “Bah, water,” Flann replied, swishing his tail dismissively.

  They watched with interest as the wind manipulator’s miniature sailboat cut a deep furrow through the water. Once he got close enough to the fishing boat, he jumped aboard with a wind-propelled hop. Flann strained to see better, but all he could discern at their distance was that a few words were exchanged beforethe wind filled the fishing boat’s sails, bringing it back to the High Speaker’s boat with breakneck speed. He and Jan watched the crew of the High Speaker’s boat grappled the smaller vessel as it passed by and three people climbed up a rope ladder: the wind manipulator, a rough, bulky woman, and a scrawny youngster.

  Enough time passed for Flann to start feeling sleeping when some flag signals went up from ship. Flann was still a bit bleary-eyed when the captain came to fetch him and Jan.

  “You two,” the captain declared. “The High Speaker summoned you over to his ship.”

  Flann looked over at the other vessel and then down into the wet sea the separated them.

  “I don’t suppose–”

  “Yes,” the captain interrupted, “we’ll pull up alongside and someone can jump you over.”

  The irritated human glanced at Cleisthenes. “At least you’re of a reasonable size.”

  Flann bowed respectfully to hide the grin that popped up whenever any complained about the large hippo. “A quick jump sounds wonderful!”

  It wasn’t wonderful – Flann nearly lost his lunch when the jumper rudely hoisted him into the air – but he was thankful that it was over quickly. The jumper deposited Jan next to him a moment later before leaping back to his own ship.

  “Gentlemen,” the High Speaker greeted them. “Good Woman is one of the fisherfolk from Baytown. She brings us interesting news.”

  He nodded to the woman, but she had gone quiet as she stared at the fox and meerkat semi-humans.

  Jan quickly cleared his throat and briefly bowed to the surprised woman. “Hello. My name is Jan, and this is Flann.”

  “I’m Good Woman,” the stocky lady responded.

  “I don’t doubt it,” Jan replied with diplomatic gusto.

  “Naw,” she interrupted. “It’s ma name. Good Woman.”

  “Oh, ah, good to meet you Good, uh, Woman.”

  Flann snickered quietly at Jan’s sudden fumbling, although he wondered if they were misunderstanding the Satrap variant of the language somehow. Then he twitched his snout and looked at the youngster who was half hiding behind the woman’s legs with his mouth slightly agape.

  “And who is this?” he asked in a friendly tone.

  The woman shrugged. “Some brat.”

  “That’s not his name, jus’ what he is,” she added quickly. “Parents got killed somewhere, I reckon, and now he jus’ follows me around. Sticks on ma legs like a damn barnacle.”

  The High Commander cleared his throat.

  Good Woman looked at him before nodding slowly, as though she were remembering what she was doing.

  “Ah, yeah, so I’m from Baytown,” she started. “Technis’ soldiers were there, y’see, forcin’ us to catch ’em food and such.”

  She glanced at the Speaker. “By force, y’see, not because we liked ’em.”

  The High Speaker nodded. “Of course.”

  “Anyway, they’re all dead now, or run off. Some crazy shape shifter showed up. I saw most of it from the hill where we keep our dryin’ racks.”

  The woman scratched her arm as she tried to come up with words.

  “At first, her body was dark and poisonous and if she touched a person they’d wither like an old carcass. Then she turned into a hell spawn like my old man would talk about, with long, glowing horns and everything. She breathed fire, too.” The woman gesticulated wildly, waving her hands over her head to indicate a ridiculous set of horns and flame shooting from her mouth.

  Flann’s tail twitched with mirth.

  “And now she’s walkin’ round with snakes on ’er head,” the woman finished. “She wanted a volunteer ta come and tell ya that she’s friendly to anyone besides Technis, so I took the opportunity to get my shit outta there.”

  “Did she seem violent?” Flann asked.

  “She near took down the whole damn garrison by herself! O’ course she’s violent! Ya think I’m stupid?”

  Jan nudged him in the ribs. “Think it could be Bel?”

  Flann shrugged. “Maybe? Didn’t the old priestess say she was expecting Bell soon?”

  “The High Priestess Warrenier,” the High Speaker said, with a particular stress on the woman’s title, “did say to expect Lempo’s child. Is this her?”

  Flann shrugged. “I’ve never met any other gorgon. Who else would it be?”

  The Speaker turned to a nearby soldier and commanded, “summon the High Priestess.”

  “And the Delvers,” he added, after a brief pause.

  “Why don’t we just land and then meet up there?” Flann suggested. “High Priestess Warrenier isn’t exactly spry, and we’re wastin’ time–”

  Jan stepped on his foot. “Flann means that time is important. If this is Bel, and she truly captured the town, then Technis may be forced to respond. After all, doesn’t this mean that you’ve got a clear sea route to his capitol while most of his army is stuck fighting our folk out west near the Spines?”

  The High Speaker considered that for a few moments before nodding. “Very well. We will make for the docks then, with all haste.”

  Flann glanced back at Good Woman, who seemed less than ecstatic to go back into the town. The young human was still hiding behind her legs, staring at Flann with wide, unblinking eyes. His slack jaws clicked together and he smiled, showing off a full set of perfect, shining teeth.