Leftrin spoke hastily. ‘Your youngster looks like he knows his way around a deck. When you think he’s ready to try a term under a different captain, he’d be welcome aboard Tarman. Things are a bit more rustic and he’d be sleeping in the deckhouse with the crew, but I’d be glad to foster him for a trip or two.’

Brashen and Althea exchanged a look, but it was not the boy’s mother who said, ‘Not quite old enough yet. But I’ll take you up on that offer when he is. I know he’d like to see his aunt and uncle soon. Not to mention his cousin Ephron.’ Brashen smiled as he attempted to change the subject. ‘When do you think Malta and Reyn might be bringing the baby downriver for a visit?’

‘You’d take Boy-o off my decks?’ Paragon was appalled.

‘Only for a short time, ship. I know he’s yours as much as ours,’ Brashen replied placatingly. ‘But a slightly wider circle of experience wouldn’t hurt him.’

‘Hmph.’ The figurehead crossed his arms on his carved chest. His mouth went to a flat line. ‘Perhaps when Ephron is old enough to take his place here for a time. An exchange of hostages, as it were.’

Brashen rolled his eyes at them. ‘He’s in a mood today,’ he said in a low voice.

‘I am not in a mood! Merely pointing out that you are a liveship family, and that you should think well before letting one of our own go off on another liveship, with no guarantees that he will be returned. Ideally, the exchange should be a member of Tarman’s family.’ He turned his gaze to Leftrin and Alise. ‘Do you expect to breed soon?’

Leftrin choked on his tea.

‘Not that I’m aware,’ Alise replied demurely.

‘A pity. It might be productive for you just now.’ Paragon was politely enthused.

‘Can we please just not?’ Althea asked him, almost sharply. ‘It’s bad enough to have you offering Brashen and me your helpful insights into productive breeding without you extending your wisdom to our guests.’

Alise could not tell if Brashen were embarrassed or red from suppressing laughter.

‘It was Tarman’s suggestion that they might find such information helpful, as so far they have enjoyed breeding, but fruitlessly. That’s all.’ Paragon was unflustered.

Brashen cleared his throat suddenly. ‘Well, speaking of hostages—’

‘Were we?’ his ship interjected curiously.

‘We were. Speaking of hostages, how did all that work out? There were rumours in Bingtown, but we left to go south to pick up your stock, and then returned right up the river. So we haven’t heard much of that.’

‘Sadly, if you ask me,’ Alise replied. ‘I’m sure you know that the Chalcedeans chose to drown themselves rather than face the Council or be ransomed to their duke. The Council did finally pay us, but only, I think, because I was present to speak for the keepers, and to testify that nothing nefarious had befallen any of us, except what some members of the Council itself had planned for us. Trader Candral went back on his word, and denied everything, even when confronted with all the pages he had penned while in Kelsingra. He maintained that we had forced him to write such things, and one of the Jamaillian merchants vouched for him. Personally, I suspect that some sort of a private trade agreement was brokered during the voyage back to Trehaug, one that was very profitable to the Jamaillian merchant. I fear we will never see justice for what was done to us. We should, perhaps, have kept Candral sequestered from the others.’ She looked to Leftrin as she said this, and he shook his head.

‘As loaded as Tarman was? Small chance of that. And I think there were others on the Cassarick Council that had more than an inkling of what was going on. He was protected.’ He shook his head. ‘Well, they’ll pay a price for that. Tarman will never carry any cargo for them again. Nor will the Warken or the White Serpent.’ At Brashen’s quirked eyebrow, Leftrin clarified, ‘The keepers and dragons have finally named their impervious ships. Come the end of summer, they plan to make their maiden voyages on them, but to Trehaug. They won’t stop in Cassarick at all. No goods from Kelsingra will ever be traded there, until the Council investigates and punishes those who plotted against us.’

‘The most solid blow that a Trader can take is to his purse,’ Althea approved. ‘You may yet rout out the rotten apples in the barrel. And the others?’

‘The slaves who were working the ships stayed in Kelsingra. Some seem to be adapting. Others may want to leave. We’ve left that up to them. There were others, some from Bingtown, a few from Trehaug. None of them wanted to stand as a witness against Candral. So we can’t actually prove that Candral or any others on the Council were either bribed or threatened by the Chalcedeans to sabotage us. So. Refusing to trade with them is as much as we can do to them,’ Leftrin concluded sombrely.