"Ahoy, captain, yer blockin' my line!" Kern boomed. "I'd ask ye to move yer ship out of my way! I have right of way!"
"I'm not here to accede to human demands," the Wikuni captain shouted back. He looked like a peacock in his multi-colored uniform and jacket, with a ridiculous wide-brimmed hat on his head. He was a dog-Wikuni, or some kind of canine, maybe even a wolf, tall and gangly with brownish fur and a white patch of fur over his left eye. "You're holding Lady Sheba Zalan of the House Zalan! You will surrender her to my custody immediately!"
"You mean Sheba the Pirate?" Kern asked acidly. "Aye, I've got her sorry hide on my ship. And it'll take me a ride to scrub the stench of her out of the hold! But I ain't gonna hand her over to ye, boy, cause ye'll just give her another ship to sail and send her back out to terrorize the sea lanes! And there's the matter of the reward, too!"
"That was not a request!" the Wikuni snapped, his fangs baring slightly. "Hand her over, or I'll blow you out of the water!"
"That'll be a neat trick, shootin' my ship out of the water without hurtin' yer precious Sheba, now won't it?" he asked with a wicked grin. "Besides, if ye do take a shot at me, I'll toss her over the side wearin' ten leg irons! I don't think she'll be swimmin' too well."
That put the Wikuni captain at a loss. He obviously hadn't considered what to do if Kern didn't hand her over. He spluttered a few times, then seemed to regain control of himself. "Father Tonta, would you kindly set fire to their sails?" he asked of his priest in a very loud voice, meaning for Kern to hear.
But Tarrin was already one step ahead. He jumped up onto the scarred railing and regarded the Wikuni frigate with glowing green eyes. He touched the Weave smoothly and easily, feeling the itching of High Sorcery start to seek him out, but he had enough time to weave together a thick rope of air and divine power, then release it at the Wikuni priest. It took the form of an invisible fist, and it struck the priest squarely in the middle of his ursine snout. The big bear Wikuni crumpled to the deck, out cold.
"It ain't that easy," Kern said with a waggling finger. "Ye got yer magician. I got mine. And as ye see, my magician beats yer bear. Now, if ye try that again, I'll have my magician tear out yer mainmast."
The captain stared at the priest in shock, then gaped at Kern with something approaching horror.
"Now kindly get that scowl out of my way, before ye make me angry," he snapped.
"Not until you release the Lady Sheba!" he blustered
"If ye want her that bad, you can fish her out of the Dayise dungeon and deal with the Council, but yer not gettin' her off my ship!" he said adamantly. "Not without paying me the reward!"
That made him hesitate. "What reward?"
"There be a bounty on Sheba 's head," he called back. "Ten thousand gold crowns, dead or alive. Pay me that reward, and I'll hand her over to ye."
"That's piracy!"
"No, what Sheba does be piracy. What I be doing is called blackmail. Ten thousand, take it or fish Sheba out of a dungeon cell." He put his hands on the railing and gave the captain a savage grin. "Would ye be wantin' her dead, or alive?"
The ugly immediacy of Kern's threat hit the captain like a fist. He stepped back visibly and regarded the grizzled captain with astonishment, then he tore his hat off his head. "All right all right! Ten thousand crowns!"
"Cash."
"How dare you-"
"Send over a chest, or ye'll be gettin' yer precious Sheba back in six seperate bags," he warned.
"I don't have that much money!"
"Then ye be havin' a serious problem. I'll just send ye as much of Sheba as ye can pay for. I'll keep the rest." He looked at his fingernails, then buffed them on the front of his canvas shirt. "Let's say, oh, two thousand crowns a limb. I'll give ye the torso for free. I be feelin' generous today."
"That's monstrous!"
"No. Sending good men down just for what their ship carries be monstrous. Yer precious Sheba be ten times more a monster than me."
"I can pay you five thousand in cash, and I think I have cargo and some jewelry that will cover the remainder," the captain said after a moment of intense silence. "It's the best I can do. I just don't have any more."
"I'll take yer five thousand, and I'll be takin' twenty kegs of gunpowder from ye to cover the difference."
"I can't give you that!"
"Then ye only be gettin' back half of Sheba. Which half do ye be wantin'?"
The captain glared furiously at him, but he finally slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Agreed. I'll start ferrying over your ransom. But don't think I'll forget about this! And neither will the Wikuni!"
"I don't think the kingdoms of the West be forgettin' that a Wikuni noble house be comin' to bail out the worst pirate on the Sea of Storms," Kern shot back. "After word of this do be gettin' out, there may not be many ports to welcome Wikuni ships."
That made the captain stare at him in momentary terror. Then he whirled around and started shouting orders.
"That was nervous," Kern whispered to Tarrin. "I do be appreciatin' yer help, lad. Ye put the priest out."
Tarrin jumped off the rail and onto the deck, then shifted back into his humanoid form. With Sheba being released, there was little reason to hide from the Wikuni. They'd know about him just as soon as Sheba started talking. "Why did you give her up?" he asked Kern curiously.
"Because I be in no shape to take on a Wikuni frigate," he replied calmly. "Best to give her over and get what I can be gettin' in the bargain, since they'd be gettin' her back no matter what. It be cheaper for them to buy her from me than it would be for them to be bribin' the ruling council of Dayise. At least this way, I be seein' profit from the exchange, rather than Dayise."
"True," Tarrin agreed. The galleon was still damaged from the fight with Sheba, and the frigate had cannons trained on them already. At such close range, they wouldn't last more than a few heartbeats. Kern would end up either handing her over or killing her, and killing her would be a death sentence for the Star of Jerod. At least by dragging money out of the Wikuni, Kern was getting something for his trouble. "Why ask for gunpowder?" he asked.
"Because I can sell it for a thousand crowns a keg," he said with a grin.
"Good reason," he said, rubbing his chin absently.
It took about a half an hour for the Wikuni to arrange the ransom in two longboats, then launch them. Kern's men hauled up the cargo quickly and efficiently, and it was stacked after it was checked to make sure it was the real thing. Kern then had his men bring Sheba and her surviving crew members up from the hold. Sheba looked victoriously smug, even arrogant, and she immediately started issuing outrageous demands. It only took seconds for her to get on Tarrin's nerves. He'd never directly talked to her, never even so much as given her a second glance, and from the way she was acting now, he was glad of it. He'd have killed her. When she looked at Kern after the man had come down from the helm, Tarrin accompanying him, she gave him a smile, but had eyes full of hate. "You're a dead man now, Kern," she warned with a bit of a sneer. "The first thing I do after I get a new ship is come and hunt you down."
"I don't think so," Tarrin told her, stepping between them and staring down at her with glowing, ominous green eyes. "If you so much as touch this man or this ship, I'll make sure you wish I'd never saved your life."
"I'm not afraid of you," she sneered.
"Then you're a fool," he snapped, grabbing her by the shirt and hauling her off the deck. He brought her nose to nose with him, her feet dangling over the deck, and he saw her eyes, eyes so much like his own, widen in fear. "If you come within a mile of Kern, I'll hunt you down and gut you, then tie you to the mast by your entrails," he hissed in a savage voice. "Don't think I can't do it. Don't forget how I almost brought your entire ship down around your ears. Now get out of my sight, before your father gets back nothing but a pelt."