The line of spear bearers had stopped as well and now looked at them in surprise.
“Bruce is at the town,” one of them said. “I think he’s expecting you.”
“I’m Edmund Talbot,” Edmund said. “How far is it?”
“Not far, just out on the edge of the deep,” the mer replied. “I’m Jason Ranger.”
Herzer wondered what it was about his voice that was strange and then realized that it wasn’t a voice at all, but the computer in the mask converting it. It had no particular timbre. The mouth of the mer-man didn’t move, except for slight changes that might have been subvocalizations.
“This is Lieutenant Herrick, my aide,” Edmund replied. “We’d like to visit your town. My wife and daughter are with us as well.”
“And wyverns,” Jason said.
“Yes, there’s a ship beating around to here. We expected to find you over by Bimi island. The wyverns are going to need to fish for food. Is there somewhere they can do that?”
The mer paused at that and shook his head.
“Wyverns fish?”
“They’re learning,” Herzer replied. “They catch reef fish well enough. And sharks,” he added.
“These fishing grounds around here are ours,” Jason said. “I’d prefer they not get fished out. And don’t let Bruce find them hitting the reefs or you’ll lose any goodwill you might have. But if they want to move up or down the coast a few klicks, that should be fine.”
“I can show them,” one of the spear-bearing mer-men interjected. He had blond, nearly white, hair and a light tan tail.
“This is Pete. When he’s not out hunting, he’s one of the best chefs in the mer-folk.”
“When I’ve got spices, I’m the best chef in the mer-folk,” the cook said. “But if we can get me up on one of those wyvern, I can show you where they can fish. There’s a drop-off to the east. Lots of grouper and big hogs, but too far to make it worth our while to fish there.”
“Herzer?” Edmund asked.
“We’ll have to more or less strap you on,” Herzer pointed out. “You don’t have legs to go in the mount.”
“Understood,” Pete replied.
“Will you need me in the town?” Herzer asked.
“No, but go get Daneh and Rachel. Tell Warrant Officer Riadou that I’d like him back here no later than sundown and that if he can get the wyverns to catch some fish, and not just eat them, that would be an interesting, and useful, experiment.”
“Will do, sir. One question, what about Bast?”
“What about her?” Edmund replied after a brief pause. “I don’t have a mask for her, or a set of fins. Have Rachel bring out the net,” Edmund added as Herzer, following Pete, started to swim back in.
“You have nets?” Jason asked.
“We just have one with us,” Edmund replied. “All the room we had. But there’s more on the ship.”
Evan looked up as a rabbit landed on his workbench with a thump.
“What’cha doin’?” the rabbit asked, raising one paw to vigorously scratch at his ear.
Evan looked at the apparition blankly for a moment, then said, distinctly: “Working on a device.”
The rabbit hopped over and looked at the device, then shrugged.
“So you’re making a flamethrower. Big deal.”
“You know what it is?” Evan said, surprised.
“Of course I know what it is,” the rabbit snapped. “I’ve had them turned at me enough times. Used them a time or two for that matter.”
Evan noted at that moment that instead of normal rabbit feet, the rabbit had handlike forepaws with opposable thumbs.
“Well, maybe you can tell me what’s wrong,” Evan said. “I can’t get it to maintain a stream, no matter what I do. I’ve been working with water, obviously, but it sprays outward when I fire it. I don’t want a wall of flame.”
The rabbit hopped from one end of the scattered parts to another, then shook his head.
“You do good work.”
“Thank you.”
“And I know what your problem is,” the rabbit added. “But to tell you, I have to extract a price.”
“Why?” the engineer said with a puzzled expression.
“Bloody programming, that’s why,” the rabbit sighed. “I can’t just tell people things that they need to know, even when I want to. And I’d like to have you make a flamethrower. I like flamethrowers.”
“Okay, as long as it’s not going to get the ship in trouble,” Evan replied.
“Actually, I want two things, come to think of it,” the rabbit said, scratching at his ear again.
“Well, you’re only telling me one,” Evan pointed out.
“Okay, you’ve got a point,” the rabbit admitted. “What do you want for the two things?”
“Well, what do you want for the information on how to build a flamethrower?”
“A smaller one,” the rabbit replied. “Small enough for me to use. And you’ll be surprised how much weight I can carry.”
Evan thought about that for a moment, then frowned. “It’s not to be used against this ship, or any other ship of the free states. Nor any member of the free states. Nor any ally.”
“Jeeze, you drive a hard bargain,” the bunny said with a sigh. “I guess that means I can’t use it on that damned elf.”
“Correct.”
“Okay, you’ll make it, though?”
“Yes.”
“In that case,” the rabbit said, holding up a length of pipe. “You need three venturi holes, here, here and here,” he said, pointing. “About two millimeters across.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. But you still owe me the downsized flamethrower.”
“Not a problem.”
“What about the other thing I want?”
Evan contemplated him for a moment then shrugged. “What is it?”
“A still.”
“A still?”
“Do you know that I have not been able to find one drop of booze on this tub,” the rabbit said, angrily, his beady red eyes positively glowing. “I get all ticky when I don’t have booze.”
“Stills give off a quite distinctive smell,” Evan said. “But it’s possible. For your use, not to sell to the crew, right?”
“Man, you are forever putting conditions on things,” the rabbit snarled. “Okay!”
“What do I get?” Evan asked.
“What? I let you live while giving me conditions, didn’t I?” the rabbit asked. “I could just beat you up a little. That’s one of my programs; beating up nerd-boys!”
“In which case you wouldn’t get your still,” Evan said. “And I’m not a nerd-boy, I’m an engineer.”
“There’s a difference?” the rabbit asked. “Okay, okay, I’ll give you one favor, to be called in. If it’s completely out of line, I can tell you to jump in the ocean. But I’m not allowed to go back on favors unless it’s out of line.”
“Okay,” Evan replied after thinking about it for a moment.
“And no ‘I wish for three wishes’ or asking for my pass codes or anything like that. Tit for tat.”
“Fine,” Evan replied. “I’ll make the still. I know just where to put it.”
“Okay, I’m gonna blow this joint,” the rabbit said, bitterly. “Some island cruise.”
The wyverns had been upset about taking off again without being fed — they could smell the salt beef in the bags — and even more upset about backtracking. But after a while they settled down to a steady cooing and twittering which Herzer knew was their form of muttering.