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"That’s e’re having this little talk, Torl," Sorgan replied "I think I’d feel a lot more comfortable if I had a fair nuold I’ve got stacked up down in the hold to other Maags"

"That uess Just where is this place, Sorgan?"

"It’s a fair distance off to the east"

"I take it that this lady who’s got all the gold hasn’t got any kind of real arht surprise you, Torl This is Longbow, and I’ve never seen anybody who could even couess Lady Zelana doesn’t have enough people to fight off her eneet the word out to as many kinsmen as I can locate Do you happen to knohere Malar and Skell are right now?"

Torl scratched the side of his face "The last I heard, Malar hooping it up with his cren in Gaiso They had a stroke of luck here recently, so they’re celebrating You kno our cousin is Once he starts to party, it goes on until he runs out of et word to him that I want to talk over a business opportunity with him?"

"I’ll see what I can do We’ll have to wait until he’s sober, though"

"Where’s Skell?"

"Up the coast in Korite ship that ra you should know about, Sorgan The Trogites have taken to reinforcing the bows of their ships, and they’ve added what they call a ram It’s a real thick pole with the front end cased in iron It sticks out in front of the Trogite ship, and it’s right at the waterline The Trogites don’t just give up so easy when they see one of us coht into us now, and that raht in the side of any ship it sites have already sunk a half-dozen or so Maag longships with those cursed raites have always been terrible, Sorgan I thought you knew thatYou proold you’ve ht, but then we’ll need to start getting word out to the rest of our faot a dozen or so ships that belong to people I can trust anchored around the Seagull After you see what I’ve got stacked up in the hold, you’ll understand why"

Longbow considered what he had just heard The Maags, it appeared, had a very priy was more advanced, certainly, but their social structure had a long way to go

At first light a few days later, Longbow caull to take a look at the weather, and he saw Red-Beard leaning against the railing at the bow "You’re up early, Red-Beard," he said as he joined the uess I like to look at the sky before the sun cobow?"

"Once in a while I really prefer hunting" Longbow hesitated "I noticed so with one of his relatives You’ve spent quite a bit of ti sailors Does it seem to you that family’s more important to thebow, and as far as I’ve been able to discover, there’s no such thing as tribe--or customs, or rules, or chiefs Their weapons are better than ours, but aside fros ht be a bit tedious, but they do seeether"

"I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Longbow," Red-Beard said then, "but you’re quite famous all over the Domain of our Zelana"

"I don’t really stray very far, Red-Beard, so I wasn’t aware of that"

"You can tell me that it’s none of my business, if you want to, but why do you spend all of your tibow hesitated, but Red-Beard was about the closest thing to a friend he had here "It was soo," he explained "There was a young woman in our tribe named Misty-Water, and she and I had decided that we should mate On the day of the ceremony, she went into the forest to bathe and dress herself in her new deerskin While she was alone in the forest, one of the poison-fanged creatures of the Wasteland killed her Since that day, I live only for vengeance"

"I’ized "I didn’t really h You want to kill thebow admitted "No day is really complete for me if I haven’t killed at least one of those beasts That’s what finally persuaded s Little Eleria suggested that if I had Maags to help h--or , froested "Would it offend you if I kill a few dozen of then of friendship, of course It’s courteous to kill the enebow smiled briefly "It wouldn’t bother h When we reach the Wasteland, reht that the spirit of Misty-Water h at the foot of her grave as a sign of , friend Longbow," Red-Beard declared "Would it be all right if I held your cloak for you while you chop That-Called-the-Vlagh into small pieces?"

"I think I could stand that, friend Red-Beard," Longbow replied with ed to gather several of his relatives about the Seagull as he continued to recruit unrelated Maag ship captains in the harbor of Weros Longbow had been called upon several tis all treated hi fleet left Weros to ull hove to each tie where there were more than two or three ships anchored in the harbor