Ship of Magic

Sorcor narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “I'd say, how much is this going to cost me?”

“Exactly. And I'd name a fat price, but you'd be willing to pay it. Because you'd just add that fat price to your goods at the end of your run. Because you'd know you'd get through safe to sell those goods. Paying a fat price for that assurance is much better than sailing free and taking a big chance you'll lose it all.”

“Wouldn't work,” Sorcor declared.

“Why not?”

“Because the other pirates would kill you if you gave out the secret ways of our cha

“Because they'd get a cut of it, one and all. Every ship that came through would have to pay into a treasury and everyone would get a cut of that treasury. Plus, we'd make them promise that there'd be no more raids against us or our towns. Our folk could sleep peaceful at night, knowing that their daddies and brothers would be coming home safe to them, and that there'd be no Satrap's boats coming to burn their towns and take them as slaves.” He paused. “Look at us now. We waste our lives chasing their ships. When we do catch one, then it's bloodshed and mayhem, and sometimes for naught. Sometimes the whole ship goes down, cargo and all, or sometimes we battle for hours and what do we get? A hold full of cheap cotton or some such trash. Meanwhile, the Satrap's ships and soldiers are putting into our villages and towns, and rounding up everyone who doesn't flee to be carted off as slaves, in revenge for our pirating. Now look at it my way. Instead of risking our lives to attack every tenth ship that comes through, and perhaps come up with nothing, we'd get a cut of every cargo on every ship that passed through our waters. We'd control it all. At no risk to our lives save what any sailor must face. Meanwhile, our homes and families are safe. The riches we garner, we keep to enjoy.”

An idea dawned slowly in Sorcor's eyes. “And we'd say no slavers. We could cut the slaves-trade's throat. No slaveships, no slavers could use the Inland Passage.”

Ke

“Men,” Sorcor interrupted harshly. “Women and kiddies. Not wares. If you'd ever been inside one of those ship… and I don't mean on the deck, I mean inside, chained up in a hold… you wouldn't say ‘wares.’ No. No slavers, Ke

“All right, then,” Ke

“That's likely so,” Sorcor agreed after a moment's pondering. “So. How do we get them to listen to us?”

Finally. The question he had been leading him to ask. Ke

Sorcor scowled at him. “Ke

“The Paragon” Ke

“Why a liveship?” Sorcor asked bewilderedly. “I don't get it.”

“I… want one. That's why.”

“Well, then. I'll tell you what I want.” For some odd reason, Sorcor thought they were striking a bargain. “I'll go along with it,” he conceded grudgingly. “We'll chase liveships when we see them, though I don't see much use to it. Not that I'll admit that to the men. In front of the men, I'll be as hot to go after them as a hound on a scent. But you make me this balance. For every liveship we chase, we go after the next slaver we smell. And we board them, and throw the crew to the serpents, and see the slaves safe back to a town. No offense to your judgment, Cap'n, but I think that if we stop enough slavers and do away with the crews, we'll gain the respect of the others a lot faster than by capturing a liveship.”