"Put your backs into it, lads!" the Admiral growled, and the rowers immediately dug more deeply with their oars. "We've a meeting to keep, and I'll twist in the Abyss before I'll let that bloated bag of pus get there first." Admiral Kriton seethed as he glanced backward and surveyed what remained of Serpent's Coil. The fires were now all but out, yet the thick smoke that rose up from the trees betrayed that something devastating had happened in the harbor town. That was true enough, he thought, and no use hiding that. The insurrection could not have come at a worse moment, and both fires and explosions had rocked the town and his stronghold, destroying his harbor cannon, part of the palace, and all of his firesand stores. Several of his most trusted men were still roaming through the town, putting down pockets of resistance in a speedy and excessively savage manner. Still, he thought, Bloth doesn't need to know that. Any smull-brain can see the smoke and some of the damage; we'll chalk it up to the Reef Runner's treachery, a distraction while they escaped, nothing more. We must take a puffer-fishes' appearance at this meeting, seeming larger and more dangerous than we are - especially now.

He glanced down at Deniera, huddled in the bottom of the longboat and gave a petulant tug at the leash she wore. The collar she had been forced to don choked her for a moment, but she did not rise. Her energies had been completely spent trying to calm and re-secure the leviathan before it destroyed the entire armada - as it was, it had taken down four (Four!) of his fleet, one of them a special warship that had taken almost a year to design and build, and damaged several others. At least the damnable beast had also attacked the Maelstrom as well, sensing (or smelling) the origins of the huge warship's hull, which allowed most of the fleet to scatter. Still, the cost had been too great to his forces. He would have to reconsider keeping the beast, no matter how impressively it churned the seas to bloody foam.

"Davron's Beard, this is a historic day," murmured Captain Enden from his seat behind the Admiral. "The two most fearsome pirate lords in all the Twenty Seas meeting to discuss articles. History has never seen such a moment."

"And you, coercing the both of us into the open," Kriton grumbled. "It must be quite a streamer to hang from your sail, Enden."

"It was the only place in the area that both powers could be certain was secure from ambush," the pirate replied. "Lord Bloth was very particular about that." He pointed toward the looming outline of the Maelstrom in the distance. A number of shapes scurried about on its hull and in the rigging, looking like ants on a minga-melon. It was certain that the pirate's forces had taken some considerable damage, as well. That he had agreed to meet at all was further proof of that.

The Admiral scowled and spat over the side at the mention of Bloth's name. "That for his `lordship'. I don't like it, I don't trust it, and I don't trust him." He squinted in the direction of the hated ship, and finally spotted a similar longboat bobbing among the waves, making speed in their direction. Aft was the looming, rotund figure of Bloth himself. "I'd pop him like a boil right now, if I didn't think that he could be of use to us. And make no mistake, Captain; I'd do the same to you. Your skill in diplomacy is the only thing that keeps you from sharing Hilaa's fate."

Enden repressed a shudder. The Admiral had not taken Hilaa's account of events well. In a rage, Kriton had apparently lopped off the wizard's hands, feet and tail himself, ordered the wounds seared closed, and left the stump of a creature, still alive, to be impaled upside down on a nest of stakes for all to see. Enden would not have believed such an atrocity, had he not seen the stakes and the still-wriggling body himself on the way to the boat. This was Admiral Kriton's wrath on those that had failed him; it was calculated, vicious, and something not to be incurred. "Aye, Sir. I am. aware of that."

The longboats were headed toward an object rising out of the water in a low arc - the hull of one of the pirate fleet's warships, foundered on a coral reef and lying uselessly on its side. Both parties paced their oars so that the boats would arrive and disembark at the same time, at opposite ends of the hull. According to the negotiated terms of the meeting, each boat had the same number of people in it - oarsmen, mages, bodyguards; no one was to have the upper hand. Using the railing as a kind of staircase, the pirate lords and their respective entourages climbed onto the hull and tensely waited for someone to make the first move.

"Kriton, you pile of Dagron stench. I had always known that this would be how I came aboard one of your ships for the first time," Bloth rumbled smugly. "As a shattered hulk."

"Stow it, windbag. Your bloated carcass is liable to capsize us all," retorted the Admiral.

Bloth only smiled, a baring of teeth daring the other to take action. "By the Shadow Moon, he still has fight in him. I'd thought that island living would make a sailor like yourself soft and cowardly."

"I am no mere sailor, Bloth." The Admiral visibly bristled. "I control these seas, and all the pirates that prowl them. And you are not welcome here."

"Noy j'tat, it must be, what, seven years now since last we stood on the same ship together." Bloth's good eye sparked. "If I remember correctly, I kicked you over the side. How is the arm, Kriton?"

Kriton's lip curled back in a snarl. "Step over and I'll show you."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen. Let us get to the business at hand," declared Captain Enden soothingly, inserting himself between the two men. "Each breeze that blows takes our objective further from us."

"I know why I'm here, Enden," rumbled the pirate lord. "I have an interest in that thrice-cursed catamaran, and I have no intention of changing my course because some scurvy stump of a sea-dog growls at me."

"I also lay claim to her," answered Kriton, "and for a better reason than your passing `interest'. Her captain has stolen my property and murdered my kin. I have an oath of blood to avenge, and by the Abyss, I will destroy anything or anyone who hinders me in exacting my vengeance." He smiled, a menacing, toothy smile of shark-white teeth. "I invite you to get in my way."

"My lords, it appears we are all on a similar tack," Captain Enden observed. "The Admiral wants the Reef Runner's crew and captain, and to regain his stolen property. And Lord Bloth wants." He looked to the pirate lord and his aides, prompting for a response. The aides looked to Bloth for a cue, who scowled stubbornly for a few long moments. Finally, the ogre glanced over at his wizard, nodded and grunted dismissively.

"Lord Bloth has an interest in some cargo stored upon the Reef Runner when it sailed out of Octopon," stated the wizard evasively. "He lays claim to that cargo, and whatever other items he sees fit to take, and scuttle the rest."

"Cargo, eh? Still chasing after the interests of the Son of Primus, are we?" taunted Kriton.

Without warning, the pirate lord's temper flared. The massive scimitar that hung at Bloth's side all but leapt into his hand, pointing at Admiral Kriton's head. Kriton reacted by drawing his own sword, and the spike on his wrist leapt out to become a parrying blade; a split second later, everyone's weapons were out, Bloth's crew with secreted crossbows and concealed blades, and Kriton's men with firesand weapons pointed and at the ready. Everyone froze.

"NO ONE speaks to me about the Son of Primus," snarled Bloth, "and lives. You of all people should know that, Kriton."

"My Lords! My lords," cried Captain Enden, clearly desperate to quell the hostility. "A little reserve is in order. If none of us leave this meeting alive, the only ones to benefit are the fish." No one moved. "And of course the Reef Runner." Slowly, the two leaders lowered their respective weapons, and their escorts hesitantly followed suit a few moments later. "Better. Now, should we join forces to hunt and capture this ship, Admiral Kriton gets the crew and retains his property, and Lord Bloth will get his choice of. cargo. Are we agreed on those conditions?" Both leaders begrudgingly nodded, still glaring daggers at each other. "Now, we shall have to draw up some further articles."

The meeting lasted for the remainder of the tide, and when they all climbed back into their respective longboats, preparations had been made for the largest pirate fleet in the Twenty Seas and quite possibly the entire history of Mer to sail in pursuit of a common goal: the destruction of a single ship. From his place in the aft of the longboat, Captain Enden permitted himself a crafty, cunning smile.

Quite a streamer from his sail, indeed.