Leonard eased the door closed to the captain's quarters, locking himself and Silver inside. Silver sat behind the desk he never used, and Leonard squeezed into a rickety chair facing him.

"So laddie," Silver said, leaning his elbows on the desk and interlacing his robotic fingers with his normal ones in front of him, "are ye gonna tell me what happ'ned 'r do oi haffta dangle ye from th' boom fer awhoile?" The dangerous calm in Silver's drawl had its intended effect; Leonard swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

"Well, Cap'n, after I talked to you, I went back to the ship and told Bonnie she could go. She might as well have been a kid at Christmas, because she just jumped up and hugged me and thanked me, just on and on, how happy she was." Leonard shook his head bemusedly. "So we took a longboat down to the planet, but she wouldn't let me land just anywhere. She told me there was only a certain place they'd let her go, and by 'they' I suppose she meant the Equuiranh."

"Equa-who?" Silver cocked an eyebrow. He never knew the horse-beings on Tereth Three had a name.

"Equuiranh. They look like horses, but they have toes, and they're taller than normal. They're almost as tall as me at the shoulder. But they're very secretive, it turns out. Bonnie made me orbit the planet for an hour before she found a place we could land. Apparently, the Equuiranh have this sort of force-field or barrier set up around Tereth, and only those who have been there before know where the 'door' is, I suppose. So we landed in this huge, grassy field with an Uka forest on one side, you know, those tall trees that look like huge mushrooms? Well, Bonnie told me to stay in the boat, that the Equuiranh already knew we were here and were testing us. So we sat there and waited for several minutes. Bonnie sat patiently, but I could tell she really wanted to get out and see whoever she had come to see. When I started tapping my foot, she told me to stop, that patience was part of the test. When I asked her to tell me more, she just shushed me. Eventually, I heard a noise coming from the Uka trees. It sounded sort of like a zebris, that kind of whooping bray. Bonnie stood up in the boat, smiling like you wouldn't believe, and returned the call. Then, two or three Equuiranh galloped out of the trees toward us. Bonnie said to stay in the boat, that they'd tell us when to get out. I have to say Cap'n, right then, I wasn't concentrated on Bonnie. It was those Equuiranh that I was looking at. They were huge. They told us in perfect English that we could get out of the boat, and when Bonnie ran up and hugged one, the top of her head was just even with the creature's chest."

"She hugged one?"

"Aye, Cap'n. She knew them."

"Were these 'er friends that she was goin' on about?"

"Yessir. There were three of them, two bigger than the third one. The two bigger ones looked like brothers, because they were the same shade of pale yellow, the color of the grass. The third smaller one was a darker brownish-yellow, and that one was the one she knew. She called him Cato, and the brothers were Khesari and Karvo. All three of them had three toes on each foot, and each toe looked like a miniature hoof. Cato walked with a limp, and was missing the dewclaw on his left hind leg. He was chatty with Bonnie, and they seemed to really know each other. Khesari and Karvo were obviously sent to watch me, even though Bonnie made sure to tell Cato that I was with her. They walked on both sides of me as we left the boat and walked a long way into the Uka forest. Neither of them said a word. Cato and Bonnie walked ahead of the brothers and me, and as we walked I listened to Bonnie and Cato talk. They reminisced about the last time they had met, and talked about Bonnie's parents. As far as I could figure, Bonnie and her parents had visited Tereth before, several times, and that was how Cato knew her."

Silver nodded. "Aye, she told me her parents were in a crew o' pioneers by trade, goin' round, sniffin' out th' lay o' th' land on other planets."

"Oh, aye, that would explain the bit about a young botanist accidentally falling into a thicket of cacti. I thought it was just her and her parents."

So far, this story had all the makings of a heartwarming reunion between old friends and none of the makings of a secret meeting of conspirators planning to capture him and his crew. But Silver refused to jump to conclusions. There was always a flick of the hand or a wink that gave it away. "So where was th' distant fam'ly she was talkin' 'bout, lad?"

"I was getting to that. So then Cato asked Bonnie who I was, and she told him I was her friend, introduced me as Leonard, the first mate aboard the Benbow, and told him she was the master cook. She didn't mention you or the Benbow being a pirate vessel. But Cato laughed and said the spacers aboard our ship must be the best fed in the galaxy. Then they talked more about Bonnie being the cook for her parents, and all the funny things they used to do. Then Cato asked what the occasion was for Bonnie's visit, and at first she didn't say anything. She turned around and looked at me, with this expression on her face that said 'Please don't tell anyone about this'."

Silver grinned. This was what he had been expecting. "So what did she say, laddie?" He leaned forward.

"Well, she didn't actually say anything. She just looked at Cato and he seemed to know what she wanted. The smile left Cato's face and he nodded, then he turned and led us south, off the path in the forest."

Silver had to bite back the urge to yell at Leonard to get on with it.

"We cleared the forest and were in another wide-open space, but it was hillier than the field in which we had landed, and it was not naturally open. The trees had been cut and right in the middle of the clearing was a small log building, square, with a thatched roof. I couldn't imagine how the Equuiranh could have built this thing with no hands, but there it was, big enough for maybe two Equuiranh to fit inside. There were a lot of plants: bushes, flowers, shrubs and things, that made a small fence, sort of, behind the building. There were no windows in the building, only just an opening for a door on two opposite walls, like you could walk right through the building into the garden or whatever it was on the other side. I couldn't see what was on the other side, except for those plants. There were plants there that I had never seen before, some so wild I never even knew they could exist. But I was confused at this point; did Bonnie drag me all this way just to visit a garden?

"All four of them were very quiet as they approached the little cabin, but I could not see the expression on Bonnie's face. There was no one else around, and even the brothers watching me let down their guard; I could feel it.

"So we stopped at the entrance to the hut, and I smelled several different kinds of food... I smelled meat, at least three different kinds of bread, cheese, all kinds of fruits and things. I could just barely see inside the hut, which had shelves from the floor to the ceiling, covered with food. And not just food! I saw a shovel, several glass bottles, two backpacks, a rifle hanging above the lintel, just... everything. But what got me was what was in the garden. We stood in front of the doorway, and there was another doorway at the back wall like I said before, and I could see out into the garden. It wasn't a garden, because all the plants just made a fence around this one area behind the hut, and in the middle of that small grassy place was a gravestone. I couldn't read what was on the stone, but before I could, Bonnie stepped into the hut, and Cato followed her. They stayed in the hut for several minutes, but I couldn't see what they were doing. The suns were bright outside and it was dim in the hut. I smelled incense, and then I heard them talking. I couldn't hear all of it, but I heard my name, and by my reckoning, they were trying to decide whether I'd be allowed in the hut or not. They turned round, and Cato glanced at the two brothers, who bowed their heads and walked away. Bonnie said I could come in, and I did.

"I looked all around the hut, which had no furniture, just those shelves. There were six levels of shelves going up the wall, all filled with things, just everyday things: pots and pans, dried flowers, a rock with a crystal in it, a toy ship, logbooks, clothes... basically, someone's whole life was in this hut. But there was nothing that gave me any clue whose life it was, no photographs, no heirlooms, nothing with a name. But none of it needed a name, Cato suddenly said, as if reading my mind. He told me that if I looked close enough, the name would appear in the fibers of that shirt, or the rust marks on that pot, or the scratches on that pair of spectacles. Nothing in the hut was nameless, quite the contrary. He told me all of it simply vibrated with the name of the person who had once used that rifle and had read that book.

"I looked at Bonnie, and she was staring straight ahead, out at the gravestone in the little courtyard, everything about her totally blank and silent. I asked Cato who it was that had owned all these things, and he just told me to follow Bonnie. She stepped out of the hut into the sun, and I followed her to the graveside. The stone was just a simple one, rounded at the top, like you'd expect, and all it said was 'GEORGINA WHITLAW PUCKETT, Steady As We Go'."

Silver had a good hunch who it was that slept with the worms, but that still did not explain the mutiny. He kept quiet, waiting for someone in Leonard's story to melt out of the trees with an armful of weapons and a conniving grin.

"Bonnie went over to one of the plants, a big bushy affair with flowers as big as my hand, and I let her borrow my switchblade to cut one. She snipped it right off and laid it down on the grave. She turned back to face me and gave my knife back, and I saw she was crying. She smiled a little, and right then, it was amazing the difference between her green eye and her grey one. The grey one was dull, didn't even reflect the sunlight. If it didn't move with the other one, I'd have thought it wasn't real. But the green one was just shining and sparkling and more than made up for the other one. I can't describe it, Cap'n, I really can't. Her green eye was the only one that shed tears, but it shed a lot of them.

"She knelt beside the flower, a big orange and yellow one, and kissed the stone, right by the name Georgina. Then she said 'Hi Ma, howzit hangin'?' Now, I had an idea since I saw the name on the marker that that's who it was, but it hit me hard anyway. I felt that lump in my throat, Cap'n, and even Cato behind me was misty-eyed."

Silver sighed. One puzzle solved, dozens more to go.

"She knelt and talked to her mum for a while. I even thought at one point she had fallen asleep, but when I put my hand on her shoulder, she jumped and looked up at me like I had scared her. I asked her if everything was okay, because she had stopped crying, and she said yes, that she was almost ready to leave. I had been about to say that, because the suns were setting, and she had promised to be back before dark. Cato told me to let her be and brought me back into the hut. Despite myself, Cap'n, all the questions just started pouring out of me. I wanted to know how her mum died, where her dad was, what they looked like, how she had come to be buried here, how old she was, what the epitaph on her stone meant, her entire story, and Bonnie's too. But Cato just laughed and shushed me. He said that it was not his place to tell, that only Bonnie should tell that, and she'd do it when she wanted to. We waited a bit more for Bonnie, and then she stood up and came back in the hut, smiling again, and said that she was ready to go in that chirpy little voice of hers, as if nothing had happened. Cato led us out of the hut and back into the woods, trying to convince Bonnie and me to come visit his town. But Bonnie shook her head and I said that we had to be back to our ship by dark. Cato nodded and just took us back to the longboat. We took off, and Bonnie just waved goodbye. Cato shook his mane and brayed, and then the clouds covered him up.

"Bonnie was her normal self on the ride back. She gabbed on and on about her mum, how good she was to Bonnie, how much fun they had, you name it. She didn't seem sad at all, which surprised me. She smiled and laughed like nothing had happened. So we got back aboard the Benbow, and Bonnie suddenly told me she was tired and went straight to bed. I followed her down, just to be safe, and before she fell asleep, she told me to tell you thank you for letting her go, and she hoped that you'd be less suspicious of her after I told you what happened. Oh, and she also said that you'd probably want these. I forgot to tell you." Leonard dug in the massive pocket of his leather jerkin and laid two daggers in leather sheaths on the desk. Silver blinked. The sheaths were undecorated, just two pieces of tanned leather stitched roughly together, the points frayed and the edges near the hilt curled back from years of use. The daggers were small for his and Leonard's hands, but for someone like Bonnie, they were large and heavy, perfectly weighted for throwing. Silver pulled one out of its casing and examined the plain wood handle, willing to bet his good leg it would fit Bonnie's grip perfectly.

"Cato gave Bonnie those when we were in the hut the first time. They used to be her mother's, but Cato said her mother wouldn't find much use for them now."

"Aye, she wouldn't," Silver mumbled, half-closing his natural eye and letting his red laser wander over the sleek, flawless surface of the blade. It was unassuming, with no decoration on the hilt, no swirling flourishes on the blade, but splendidly forged and expertly shaped. The metal was diamond-hard and glossy, and was kept sharp enough to bury itself up to the hilt in the wall beside Leonard's head.

"G-good aim, C-cap'n," Leonard spluttered.

Silver sighed. "Did Bonnie give ye these, lad?"

Leonard quickly composed himself. "Aye, Cap'n. Cato gave them to her, and she kept them with her until we got out of sight of Cato, and then she gave them to me without me asking for them. I was going to take them from her while she was sleeping, but she just took them out and handed them to me and said that you'd probably not like her having them. She said you could keep them, but just don't get rid of them. They are very special to her."

"D'ye know if she can use 'em?"

"No, Cap'n, I don't know."

The knives, one in its sheath and one glinting bare on the desk, seemed to gaze up at him, chanting all the riddles in his mind that could not be answered and holding the answers just out of his reach.

It all seemed to jibe. Nothing was suspicious, nothing was wrong. Leonard had done his duty and told the truth; Silver's close watch had seen to that. Bonnie did what she was told, did not put up a fuss, and made sure to keep Leonard close by so he could hear all there was to hear and see all there was to see, to prove to Silver she had nothing to hide. But Silver could not convince himself to believe all the evidence around him. His gut still told him it all jibed for a reason: Bonnie was not planning a mutiny; she really had put that herb in his drink just to help him relax. She had been eager to go to the planet not to scheme in secrecy, but to visit old friends and pay her respects to her mother.

There was a soft rap on the door, followed by a tiny voice: "Cap'n, sir? Should I start breakfast, or d'you want the cabinboys to do it again?"

Leonard glanced at Silver. "If I have to eat Matthew's cooking again, you might very well be without a first mate, Cap'n."

"You go ahead, lassie," he called, the daggers on his desk seeming to draw his eyes toward them.

"Aye, Cap'n."