Honest angled her wings, eyes watching the ship below carefully. Pheda joined her, leaning over carefully. The men on deck hadn't seen them and the Furies - yet. Minutes later, a cry of alarm confirmed that they'd been spotted. Let the raid begin, Pheda thought softly. Surround the ship. Several choruses of 'on it!' rang in her mind. Honest swerved, reared up, tucked her wings tightly against her sides, and dove.

0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0

Pheda's eyes scanned line after line of writing on paper after paper from stack after stack. After a few minutes, she slammed them down on the table in the captain's cabin with a cry of annoyance. Honest, who was scanning the maps with interest, looked up.

Pheda slammed her fists down on them, fighting back angry tears. Nothing! Again! We go to all the trouble of raiding this place, and what do we get? Nothing! How much longer, Honest? How much longer?

Honest left the maps, and walked over to nuzzle the desperate young woman, and whispered to her softly. 'Pheda, we knew that this was a risk. We knew that we might find nothing, and we might find something. I don't think that the answers we seek can evade us much longer, but that is only a guess. I do not blame you if you want to give up, but think of Lindyr and Milehck.'

Pheda took a shaky breath, and, though she didn't feel like it, forced a smile. You're right, Honest.

0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0

Starflinger looked out over the slightly-burnt deck, blue-green eyes narrowed as she scanned all the possible hiding places. Some of the members of the crew had inexplicably disappeared, and if she and her siblings didn't track them down quickly, then they would be in big trouble with Pheda and Honest.

After another minute or so without success, she spotted Moonshadow climbing out of the hatch that led to the hold, and dove down to land again on the deck. "Find anything?"

The deep-blue Fury shook his head. "No."

Spirit came out of the doorway that led to the crew cabins, and Starflinger looked at him hopefully. "Were they in there?"

The pale silver Fury paused, then shook his head. "No. Well, not the missing sailors, anyway. We did find something. Onyx's with her."

Starflinger cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

"There was a child in there. A human girl."

"A. . . ?" Starflinger reeled, trying to process the new information. "Okay, we need to tell Pheda and Honest. Now."

0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0.o.0

A soft, questioning rumble filled the room, unmistakably Spirit.

Pheda didn't bother to turn around. She started to speak, but Honest beat her to it, answering it with a soft croon.

Pheda shot her a confused look, and the Night Light answered her unspoken question with her mind. 'Spirit doesn't say much. He never interrupts anybody unless it's really important. If he's bothering us, chances are it's serious.'

Spirit continued, but this time with his mind, so Pheda could hear. 'Please don't be mad, but some of the sailors went missing. We were trying to find them, and. . . well. . . Onyx and I were looking in the crew's cabins, and we found something.'

Pheda hardly dared to hope. Were the answers she'd waited so long for finally here? She spun around, barely keeping from mentally shouting. What did you find?

'There was a kid. A human girl,' Spirit answered slowly, clearly nervous.

For a brief moment, Pheda was crestfallen, then her mind filled still more questions. A child? These thugs had a child on board?!

She snapped back to her senses. Take us to her, Spirit. Please.