power she’d called upon to destroy the soul construct.
“Is it truly stealing if you found the coins yourself just five minutes earlier?” Arayevo asked.
“Yes.”
“They probably cleaned out everything in the cave.” Dak sighed. “It’s too bad I didn’t know which rowboat she would use. I could have placed an explosive on the side of that one too.” He looked at Yanko, as if it was his fault that his mother didn’t have a special boat of her own.
“If we’re captured again, I’ll be sure to suggest she have a flagship rowboat made and reserved for her use.”
“Is there any attack this boat can throw at her now?” Arayevo patted a control panel.
Dak shook his head. “This craft has mugra, but they couldn’t get through the reef.”
“Mugra?” Yanko asked.
“I don’t think there’s a Nurian word for them. A large arrow-shaped cannonball, with an explosive charge in the head.”
“Explosives? In a Kyattese research vessel?”
“As the original designer of these vessels discovered, sometimes weapons are needed to convince the sea creatures not to molest you.”
Yanko thought of the kraken and how Dak had once said they liked to wrap their limbs around underwater boats.
“I don’t suppose there’s a sea creature nearby that we could convince to molest Snake Heart’s boat?” Lakeo asked.
Arayevo brightened. “Yes, Yanko, is there? Then we could swoop in and snatch up the treasure that falls to the bottom when the boat is destroyed.”
Lakeo smacked a fist into her palm. “Dak could put the fishbowl back on and go out and pick it up off the bottom while the pirates are still trying to figure out what happened.”
“Fishbowl?” Dak asked.
“I already checked,” Yanko said. “There aren’t any big sea creatures around. I don’t think they like the shallow water here. This isn’t like the Kyattese port where it gets deep very quickly once you leave the beaches.”
“It’s deeper out here beyond the reef, isn’t it?” Arayevo waved at the porthole, to the dark water surrounding them. There was no longer any sign of the bottom.
Yanko shrugged. “Sorry, I didn’t sense anything. I’ll keep watch, but we may have to come up with some other way to get the lodestone from her.”
Besides, his mother could probably drive away a kraken that dared attack her ship. Yanko did not want to admit to defeat, but he couldn’t imagine how they could get past numerous mages, including the infamous Snake Heart.
Chapter 10
“They’re making ready to sail,” Dak said from the periscope, his voice waking Yanko from his spot on the deck, sitting against the hull.
He had been dozing off and on, trying to come up with a plan in his waking moments, but mostly having nightmares about his mother shooting people. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but his clothes had mostly dried. It had to be well after midnight and moving on toward dawn. Dak had been watching the ships, but they had remained active, with too many people roaming the decks, making preparations to sail, to consider sneaking aboard.
Arayevo, who had taken the seat Yanko had been occupying earlier, slapped her hand against her thigh. “It’s night time. Why wouldn’t they stay here and sleep before heading back out to sea? Relax. Enjoy their spoils...”
“There are a lot of people looking for those spoils,” Yanko said. “I also wouldn’t wait around for an underwater boat to sneak up and dispense a band of people who wanted my lodestone.”
Arayevo made a sour face at him. “You’re the one who needs this lodestone, and you’re just lying there and napping. Aren’t you on a quest to save our people? And regain your family’s honor?”
Yanko frowned at her. “I haven’t given up. I’m just considering my options.”
“Is that hard to do while snoring?”
“No.”
Arayevo pointed a finger at his nose. “If that was Sun Dragon up there, you’d be pacing and planning a way to get onto his ship and steal the stone. Instead, you’re sitting here sulking because it’s your mother, and you’ve already given up because you think she’s some supreme goddess that nobody can hurt. Well, she has to sleep sometime, Yanko. She’s still human. I think you just don’t want to deal with her. Lakeo said she didn’t hurt you or threaten you, that she just planned to take you back to her ship.”
“To torture me later, I’m sure. If she didn’t find the lodestone here.”
“Maybe she wanted to talk to you and see what kind of person you turned into,” Arayevo said.
Yanko turned his frown toward Dak. “Maybe