When the row boat came back and bumped up against the hull of the Bloody Galia minus one quartermaster, there were questions that needed to be answered. The captain, however, seemed in no mood to explain her lack of personnel.

She went first to her cabin to deposit her sea bag and on the way asked for the crew to be assembled on deck so that she could address them. Most of them had already heard the news of her solo return to the ship. It didn't take much persuading to gather the rest.

In another five standard minutes the captain stood on her quarter deck and faced her crew. They waited expectantly for her to speak.

"You all may have noticed…" She paused. "That the weather has begun to turn colder. It is my decision that we should follow the example of the migrating birds and fly south. It is my belief that some of our prey may also be heading on this tack and we should be able to take more than a few prizes before the spring comes again."

She had said the right thing. As soon as she had mentioned prizes she had the agreement of most of those assembled.

Sanya smiled confidently until a man spoke up from the midst of the crew. "And will we be needing to vote in a new quartermaster for this voyage?"

"Aye!" agreed a chorus of voices amid other questions of "where's Jak?" and she thought she might have even heard a murmur of suspicion that she might have done away with this one like she had the last.

She wasn't surprised. She took it in stride. "Quartermaster Frasier is fine! He just wanted to sit out another trip down the river. There was a little fishing hole on the island and he was enjoying the peace and quiet too much to…" She didn't want to discuss the particulars with all of them. "He told me to express his regret that he wouldn't be joining us for the journey."

"So you didn't just knife him and leave him to rot?" Someone called, but the tone was in jest.

She grinned and shook her head. "I respected his choice to sit this one out. And I'd do the same for any of you who might want to go home and spend salt and light with family and friends before we make our heading south." Then she shrugged. "I'm told they've never even heard of the holiday south of the old Shechel lands."

"It's true," Freddie spoke up. "In the last Flint port town we had visitors who didn't even honor the salt gods."

Sailors are a superstitious lot even if they're not technically religious otherwise. More than one of them pressed a thumb to his lips and held out his palm out to the horizon.

Sanya wasn't sure if the other female had guessed that this was all a misdirection to lead them away from the subject of Jak Frasier aka Jamos Blackwell but she was grateful for the assistance. "So I won't think the worst of any man who would rather spend his winter closer to the good old Northern Sea. Those who wish to join me on a cruise to a warmer local are of course welcome but I won't force anyone. None of you were pressed to this crew."

There were a couple who muttered the wish to see loved ones again for the holiday season and the Captain assured them that they would be allowed to depart at Flint Locke and find their own ways home from there. And if they ever saw fit to go back on the account and Bloody Galia would be glad to have them as seamen in good stead.

Even with those terms agreed upon there was still the matter of their need for a quartermaster. The captain had seen Markos Flint eyeing the list of those who would be stepping away from their positions. He was getting on in years and had been with the Bloody Galia from the beginning. He had earned a considerable sum from the prizes they had taken over the years and had a family back towards Harkon Hall who he could spoil mightily with that accumulation.

But just then Sanya couldn't bear the thought of seeing him go. He'd been more of a father figure to her than her own, though he'd allowed her to mark her own course and he had never challenged her authority as captain.

Before he could set his name to the list she called out over the hubbub of voices, "I would like to nominate Markos Flint as our interim quartermaster!"

He looked up at her in surprise and before he could respond several men clapped him on the shoulders in agreement with the suggestion. A few of them even removed their names from the list to leave. They'd make the trip south if Markos was going.

It was a unanimous vote and Markos accepted humbly with the provision that he would return the mantle of leadership to Jak upon his return.

…

That being settled, the course laid in and the sails set, Sanya wanted nothing more than to return to her cabin and sleep. Maybe it was all the emotional stress she had been under the last few weeks. She had said goodbye to a trusted crew member and friend. She had been reunited with her sister and discovered the hardships that her family had faced since she had last seen them. And she had witnessed her sister's wedding to a man she had always considered to be a sworn enemy.

And then there was Jak. He had all but proposed. But what was she supposed to do? Marry him? Submit to settling down and being a wife to a lesser northern Lord and listen to all of them say, "We told you so"? She couldn't. She wouldn't.

She had already done what she had done and now she was exhausted. She didn't really want to acknowledge the knock on her cabin door.

"Captain? It's me, Freddie," came the voice from the other side.

"Aye, come in." The least she could do was to thank the woman for suggesting the place.

Freddie let herself in and closed the door behind her. "I just wanted to ask if everything on the island was alright."

"It was great. And it had everything we needed, just like you said it would." Sanya walked over to her table and spread out a map but she didn't really focus on any of the places it portrayed.

"And Mister Frasier liked it so much he decided to stay?" Freddie inquired.

Sanya shrugged. "Don't really know. He was asleep when I left."

"So, you marooned him?" Freddie pressed gently.

Sanya made a sound that might have been half chuckle and half sob. "He wanted to marry me. He wanted to take me back to Blackhold. Everything that I left behind, everything that I tried so hard to be free of…" She swiped at her face with the sleeve of her coat. "Besides he's got plenty of food and water and shelter and he'll have plenty of time to think about just what he was asking of me!"

"I don't blame you, Captain."

Sanya turned to look at her. She had only heard a little of Freddie's history but she knew this was another young woman who had struggled for freedom in a male dominated world.

"I wonder though if maybe he didn't quite mean it like that." Freddie held up her hands as if in surrender. "He loves you. I'm sure of that. And maybe he's just proud of you and wants to show them what you've made of yourself to prove them wrong and that there might be another way?"

Sanya's gaze returned, unfocused, to the map on the table. She didn't really want to think of Jak as inocent or noble after what she had done to him. "I… still don't believe he'd care for a journey south this time of year. He'll be fine where he is and maybe someone will come along looking for him before we get back."

Freddie took that for the dismissal she knew it to be. "Aye Captain. I'm sure you're right."

…

Their trip down river was going swimmingly after their short stop at Flint Locke. In the end they'd only lost three crew members who didn't want to make the journey south and Sanya didn't even leave the ship while they were at anchor.

She remembered her visit there on her sixteenth birthday: meeting Jak, kissing Leon in that pub. She didn't really want to walk those streets again anymore than she wanted to stay too long at any other northern port. The stores for the journey were replenished without her having to do so and that was all the better.

With all that over and done with she was able to direct her full attention to their course. The last time they had come this way she had been distracted with disastrous ramifications. Now she was ready with a full watch for whatever river pirates who might be lying in wait for them around the next bend.

Her vigilance paid off. Before they had even reached the area Jak had once pointed out on the map as the furthest south his brother had ventured, they had taken two prizes. What they lacked in credit value they at least held staves in moral for the men. This is what they were supposed to be doing. This is what they had signed on for.

Sanya recognized the little island midstream where they had dropped off Drokko Kira as they passed it. Of course he was no longer there. The thought of him made her smile. Every league they traveled brought them closer to his jungle abode, that is unless he had decided to go back to Iziz and fight for his rightful throne.

Somehow she couldn't see that happening. They were of one mind on the subject of submitting to the natural order of their supposed nobility. Maybe that was why she was anticipating their next meeting.

She chided herself for imagining a reunion with Drokko before remembering that she might get to see her dear friend Mhaegen again. It would be wonderful to unburden herself of all that had happened since she had last seen her faithful medic. And perhaps when she did, she could get Jon off her back about getting a checkup.

…

Just like on their original journey it was the sound that alerted them to the presence of the beast riders. It could have been another battle for all the whooping and carrying on but as the Bloody Galia moved drifted closer it was clear there were no enemy fighters from the city of Iziz attacking their one time allies. It was a celebration of some sort, the likes of which the pirates sometimes engaged in to whip themselves up into a frenzy before a boarding mission.

They slowed their progress as much as possible without actually dropping anchor. Who was to say if they would be greeted warmly after not long ago taking the beast riders' leader and then leaving him to find his own way back to his people. The crew of the Bloody Galia stood quietly on deck. They had weapons ready but not brandished in an overtly hostile manner.

It was several minutes after they came around the bend in the river and into the full view of the camp before anyone noticed the northern pirate ship. First one and then another of the beast riders paused in their revels to stare at the slowly moving vessel.

There was absolute quiet for another span of standard minutes and then completely uncoordinated a cheer went up from the southerners to welcome the Bloody Galians into their midst.

The captain might have advised caution, it could have well been a trap, but when several of her crew members made their way ashore and were greeted with mugs of ale and pats on the back she shrugged her shoulders and joined them. She saw many familiar faces but kept an eye out for Drokko only sipping at the drink she was offered. She wanted to keep her wits about her.

She walked among the revelers still on alert for any threat when she heard a deep voice purr, "Well, I'll be kriffed. If it ain't Sanya the knife."

Sanya turned with a slow smile. All around them conversations ceased and beast riders and Bloody Galian's stopped what they were doing to witness the reunion.

"I see you found your way home, Kira." She appraised him coolly, shaking her head.

And then suddenly with a growl of a laugh he rushed at her, lifted her off the ground and spun her around. He finished the salutation with a hard kiss that she indulged for a moment before shoving him away. "Watch yourself, Beast rider, or I'll carve you a new smile." But there was no bite in her words.

"Ha Ha!" he threw back his head and laughed again. "So where's ol' Jak hiding himself. I notice he hasn't bothered to come and wrestle you out of my arms."

She'd been smiling a moment before but now her face grew more solemn. "He's a son of the north and… he needed to think about some things rather than make another southern voyage with the rest of us."

Drokko was sure there was more to the story than she was telling but he knew better than to try to get it out of her here in front of their audience. Both her crew and his were very avidly observing. It was neither the time nor place.

She changed the subject. "And what about you? It couldn't have taken you all this while to get back here from where we left you. Or have your people been celebrating your return all this time?"

"They celebrate." He heaved a sigh that might have been equal in weight to her own feelings about the whole situation with Jak. "Because I've been invited back to Iziz to parle with the throne warden."

The buzz of conversation picked up around them as the beast riders excitedly gossiped with the pirates.

"You're going to take back your throne?" Sanya asked the beast lord.

He didn't confirm or deny he only led her toward one of the larger tents on the outskirts of the clearing with an arm around her shoulders.

She allowed him this even though she couldn't help but think that perhaps he wasn't the kindred spirit she had thought of him before.

When they entered the space that gave them a measure of privacy along with muffling the noise behind cloth walls he took a moment before he spoke with his back to her. "No. I don't want a throne or a crown or whatever goes along with it."

She let out a breath of relief and he turned at the sound to see her smile, "Then why do you have to go?"

"If I don't give some sort of formal statement to deny my claim they'll always worry that I'm out here building an army. I'll never have any peace."

Sanya nodded. "It could still be a trap to just get you out of the way completely."

He grinned. "Maybe I should bring along a bodyguard who's good with a blade."

Drokko made his way across the space towards her stalking like a jungle feline. "Now you tell me what happened with Blackwell that you should arrive on my doorstep all alone."

She looked up at him as his arms circled her once again. "You were right. He wanted to take me to Blackhold and paraide me in front of his father and brother and sister-in-law like some prize he'd captured."

Her forehead dropped to his chest. She was trying to hide the moisture that had beaded up in her eyes but he felt the tears through his tunic and he gathered her closer. "You can stay here as long as you like."

"Thank you, Drokko."

"Although…"

Sanya glanced up warily.

"I will ask you to come with Iziz with me." He chuckled, he was only half joking. "I don't want to face them on my own."

"Alright then." She covered her own feelings with a sigh of mock frustration. "If you need me to protect you."