“Pish!” said Cloth-of-Gold. “I’ve never heard such rot in all my centuries. I don’t believe it for a moment. Captain Axe, throw this man in the brig.”
“Gladly, your honor, only there ain’t a brig. Regardless—” Axe stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle that Alix could well imagine hearing over the roar of a gale. There was the sound of pattering feet, then two sailors with muscles like corded rope appeared behind the master. He indicated Father Ubb. “Smythe, Ortland, clap this man in irons and stow him somewhere out of the way. We’ll let the Azure Guard sort him out when we make land.”
The sailors grabbed hold of Ubb, a man to each arm. The priest immediately began struggling and caterwauling, but the seamen dragged him implacably away.
“You’ll regret this!” Ubb shrieked as they wrestled him down a companionway. “The Sea King will reclaim his own, you’ll see!”
Alix had no chance of falling back asleep after a scene like that, so she and Gally fixed their clothes and found a spot on the deck to watch the sunrise. It was no less splendid than sunset the night before, rising in a great shimmering white sphere like the heart of a flame and casting a long silver path on the face of the sea.
“You could almost walk on it,” said Gally, watching the glitter.
“But don’t,” Alix said. “Unless you’re half mermaid and I missed it somehow.”
She thought that would earn at least a chuckle, but Gally just slumped against the rail, staring pensively out to sea. They were crossing Daring Sound, the great depths between Sunhollow and the Isles of Azure. The water was uneasy here and Mariamber rolled to every swell.
“Tell me if I’m right,” Alix said at length. “You’re considering the padre.”
“You don’t think he did it, did you?” Gally turned, speaking rapidly, like the bottle of her thoughts had been uncorked and they were all spilling out. “If he really woke Cloth-of-Gold the moment he stepped in the cabin, how could he have taken the rings? I’m inclined to trust his alibi, too, or his excuse, or whatever you’d like to call it. He looked genuinely afraid that the Sea King would rise up and seize us. Whether or not he’s right, he believes it, I’m certain of that. And even if he had stolen the jewels, he couldn’t have tossed them overside. You and I were between him and the deck, remember?”
“I remember,” said Alix. “Being as how it was just fifteen minutes ago. So where are the gems?”
Gally deflated as rapidly as she’d sprung to life. She slouched against the rail and looked back at the sea’s silver shimmer. “I don’t know.”
“But you’re fixing to find out.”
Gally shrugged vaguely. “How many thefts am I expected to solve? I’m a bard, Alix, not a Judge Investigator. I’m not Mother.”
Alix, however, had taken hold of her argument like a terrier at the hole. A good challenge would bring her girl back to life or nothing would. “True enough, Gally girl. But tell me this: didn’t you just love your big moment at Nosepig’s wedding? All eyes on you, commanding the room, laying out the whys and wherefores of that whole tangled mess. Tell me that ain’t a bardic scene.”
Gally was silent, her face contemplative.
“Go on, tell me.” Alix leaned gently against her, and Gally’s slouch straightened somewhat as she returned the gesture. A moment later her head was on Alix’s shoulder.
“Even if I did unravel it,” she said through a sigh, “I doubt they’d let me sing the solution.”
Alix snorted and put an arm around her girl. Together they watched the sun rise, bright and heavy.
An hour later, Cloth-of-Gold called them all together on the quarterdeck. Captain Axe stood beside his burly sailors, who held a shackled Father Ubb between them. Chiss slouched against the rail, picking her teeth with a splinter of wood and looking for all the world like a spectator at some cheap melodrama. Bishop Draskis, back in his voluminous sand-colored robes, stood a little apart, clutching his ear trumpet.
Cloth-of-Gold stood as straight as the mainmast. He brushed a lock of shining golden hair behind his ear. “I have asked you here to witness a spell of finding. Father Ubb may think me a fool to be easily fleeced, but this is not so. Every merchant with any sense knows how to guard his goods, and I am pleased to say that finding spells are the most effective method. The magic will discover my stolen jewels in but a moment.” He fixed Father Ubb with a glare. “Assuming they’re still aboard, not salting over at the bottom of Daring Sound.”
“I told you, I didn’t have a chance,” said Ubb, his face reddening. “I only pray whoever took your baubles has the good sense to toss them overboard.”
“We shall see,” said Cloth-of-Gold. He reached into his voluminous robes and withdrew a small vial. Within it, specks of gleaming silver floated in what looked like blue-gray mist. “I give the thief one last chance to come clean.”
Chiss rolled her eyes. Bishop Draskis coughed into his free hand. Father Ubb glowered.
“Very well.” Cloth-of-Gold gripped the stopper of the vial and wrenched it open with surprising vigor. There was a moment of silence, then Alix heard a tinkling sound just at the edge of her senses as the mist slowly rose from the vial. The silver flecks flashed in the morning sun.
The mist spread, getting harder to see as it thinned, though the bits of silver were still visible as winking motes that caught the eye as they tumbled slowly through the air. Alix watched as they began settling on surfaces around the deck like expensive snow: casks and barrels, ropes and sails, even the onlookers’ hair. She felt a sudden itch and tingle on the back of her hand and looked down to find a fleck had landed there.
Gally laughed. “They tickle.”
Sparkling mist was still rising from the mouth of the vial, far more than it could have contained. The passengers watched in admiring silence as the spell rolled down the quarterdeck companionways to the maindeck. The sailors working there paused, sweating in the summer sun, then began chuckling and slapping at themselves and each other as silver settled on them as well.
Minutes passed as the spell blanketed the ship, but it was so hypnotic that Alix was startled when Cloth-of-Gold announced at last, “Now we shall see.”
He crushed the empty vial in his hand—it crumbled like sand rather than shattering—and let the dust fall to the deck. It pattered down in a little pile and didn’t move.
“Hm,” said Cloth-of-Gold.
“Something wrong?” asked Captain Axe.
“I should say so. If my rings were anywhere within the spell’s range, the dust spirit would have flown right to them. My treasure is not aboard this ship.”
“Tossed overboard, eh?” Captain Axe gestured to his sailors. As they were already holding Father Ubb, each gave a demonstrative flex of the muscles to illustrate the firmness of his grip. “Haul him back below. We should raise the Isles sometime in the next watch, anyhow.”
Father Ubb hung his head as he was led belowdecks, though his face was the same beet-red as ever. The other passengers watched him go in awkward silence. When he had disappeared down the companionway they split up, each heading to their own private spot on the deck to stare out to sea and think whatever thoughts seemed warranted.
Gally and Alix remained on the quarterdeck, though Gally turned and leaned on the taffrail. Nothing but sea could be seen, but Alix knew her girl was staring back across the water to Sunhollow and, somewhere beyond it, Lackmore.
“Funny how he quit arguing,” Alix said, feeling like a trapper setting out bait. “The padre, I mean. You think he did it after all?”
Gally turned, her eyes flashing. “Not for a moment, cavalier. It’s just not possible.”
