“Not all that great,” Skell replied as Red-Beard paddled his canoe up beside the Seagull. “You and I can keep our men pretty much under control, but some of these ship captains you saddled me with seem to have no idea of the meaning of the word ‘discipline,’ and they’ve got barrels and barrels of grog on board their ships. As soon as we got here, a fair number of the men in the fleet went on a rampage. I guess they thought that every hut here in Lattash had walls of solid gold, and they all seemed to get those kinds of ideas about the womenfolk here. That caused a lot of trouble. The Dhralls killed a few dozen of the rowdier ones, and things were real nervous for a while. I had a few sailors—and a couple of ship captains—flogged, and things quieted down after that.”
Sorgan winced. “Wasn’t that a little extreme?”
“We were right on the edge of open war, Sorgan,” Skell replied. “I had to do something to get back on the good side of the Dhralls.”
“Have you seen any sign of the enemy yet?”
“I haven’t personally,” Skell said as Red-Beard pulled his canoe alongside the Seagull, “but the Dhralls were scouting up on the rim of the ravine that river comes down through, and they told us that the invaders were coming downriver and that they had us outnumbered by more than just a little. The weather turned foul on them, though, and I don’t think they’ll be moving very much for a while. They’re bogged down in about fourteen feet of snow right now.”
“It sounds like luck’s on our side for a change,” Sorgan observed.
“I wouldn’t reach for my dice just yet,” Skell said, standing up and reaching for the rope ladder hanging down the side of the Seagull. “The weather around here can change in the blink of an eye.” He climbed up the ladder to the Seagull’s forward deck, and he and Sorgan gravely shook hands off to one side of Rabbit’s anvil.
Sorgan looked across the harbor to the village. “There seems to be quite a few more huts than there were when I came here last summer.” He said.
“Old-Bear’s tribe came here right after the local Dhralls saw the enemy coming down the ravine,” Skell reported. “The two biggest tribes here in western Dhrall are here, and there are more on the way.”
“Were you able to get any of your men up into the ravine before the weather turned bad?” Sorgan asked.
“Quite a few. We had to scout up on the north side of the ravine because a snowslide had blocked off the side closer to the village, but I picked the narrowest spot I could find and put a couple dozen ship crews to work building a fort across it. I doubt that they got much of it done before that snowstorm came out of nowhere. I haven’t been able to get anybody up there to find out, though. The snow’s too deep.” Skell looked out at Sorgan’s fleet. “It looks a little skimpy to me, Sorgan. Was that the best you could manage?”
“Things got a little wild back in Kweta right after you left, Skell. Do you remember Kajak?”
Skell made an indelicate sound.
“That comes close to what he really was,” Sorgan agreed. “He came up with a scheme to get his hands on all that gold I had on board the Seagull, but he came up against Longbow and Rabbit here. You wouldn’t believe how many people the two of them killed in short order. Anyway, after that I went back to hiring more ship captains, but then Lady Zelana’s brother came by and told her that things were starting to heat up over here, and that her people were going to need us before too much longer. I left your brother Torl back there to recruit more ships and men. He should be along in a couple of weeks.”
“We’ll probably need him,” Skell said, “but the way things stand right now, I don’t think anybody’s going to be able to move around very much until the snow melts.”
“We’d better start making plans for what we’ll need to do after that happens,” Sorgan said. “The snow might hold the invaders off for a while, but it won’t last forever. When it melts, we’d better be ready to deal with them.”
“That’s what we’re getting paid for, I guess,” Skell agreed.
“Where’s Longbow?” Red-Beard quietly asked Rabbit as Sorgan and Skell continued their discussion.
“He’s back in Lady Zelana’s cabin,” Rabbit replied. “Do you need to talk with him?”
“There are a few things he should probably know about. You might as well come along too, Rabbit. That way, I won’t have to tell the story twice.”
They went on back to the stern of the Seagull, and Rabbit tapped lightly on the door of Sorgan’s old cabin.
“You can come in if you want, Bunny,” Eleria called, “but don’t forget to wipe your feet.”
Rabbit sighed, rolling his eyes upward.
“Does she say that very often?” Red-Beard asked.
“Every single time,” Rabbit said, opening the door.
As usual, Eleria was sitting on Longbow’s lap, but the tall man firmly put her down on the floor and stood up. “Has there been any trouble between the tribes?” he asked Red-Beard.
“Right at first I guess there was,” Red-Beard replied with a faint smile. “The younger men didn’t get along with each other too well—you know how that goes.”
“Oh, yes,” Longbow agreed with a note of resignation.
“Things had quieted down by the time I came back here with Skell’s fleet, though. My chief, White-Braid, and your chief, Old-Bear, spoke very firmly with the young ones of the two tribes, and everyone’s behaving now.”
“Does that sort of thing happen very often here in Dhrall?” Rabbit asked.
“All the time,” Red-Beard said with a shrug. “Young men seem to need the attention of others, and as soon as one of them says, ‘My tribe’s better than your tribe,’ the fights begin.”
“That has a familiar ring to it,” Rabbit said with a faint smile. “Tavern brawls over in Maag break out for almost exactly the same reason. I guess that the only good thing about being young is that you’ll get over it—eventually.”
“Where did Chief Old-Bear set up his lodge?” Longbow asked Red-Beard. “I should probably speak with him before too long.”
“His lodge is near the berm,” Red-Beard replied. “He spends quite a bit of his time with your tribe’s shaman, doesn’t he?”
Longbow nodded. “They get along with each other quite well. One-Who-Heals is very wise—and very practical. He explained many things to me before I went to the hunt.” He paused. Rabbit got the distinct impression that they were approaching a subject they weren’t supposed to mention in his presence. “There seems to be more snow on the ground than there was when we left,” Longbow continued quite smoothly. “How long did the storm last?”