But that relief quickly passed. The Algarvians in Forthweg weren’t after him. They were after Vanai-and he was horribly afraid they had her.

He ate barley bread and olive oil and salted, garlic-tangy almonds for supper, washing the food down with harsh red wine. Then, instead of talking and laughing and probably making love with Vanai, he spent the longest, loneliest, most miserable night he’d ever passed. He might have slept a little. On the other hand, he might not have, too.

When dawn came, he made a breakfast much like his supper. Then, yawning, he started back to Pybba’s pottery. Someone-more likely several someones-had scrawled a new graffito-Habakkuk!-on walls and fences. Dully, he wondered what the nonsense word meant. Nothing in Forthwegian, Algarvian, or classical Kaunian; he was sure of that.

Pybba glared when he got to work. “You’re late,” he rasped, as he did most mornings whether Ealstan was or not. Then he took a longer look at his bookkeeper. “Powers above! Who hit you over the head with a rock?”

“I wish somebody had,” Ealstan answered. He wasn’t late. Anything but-he and Pybba had the offices to themselves. “My wife wasn’t home when I got there. She still isn’t. I think the redheads have grabbed her.”

“Why in blazes would they want her?” the pottery magnate demanded. “You two didn’t just have a fight or something?”

“No,” Ealstan said flatly. “Why would they want her? She’s Kaunian, that’s why.” He’d never told his boss that. Pybba hated Algarvians, aye, but he had no great use for blonds.

Now Pybba stared at him, eyes big as the saucers he turned out by the tens of thousands. “Oh, you fool!” he cried. “You great stupid fool!”

Habakkuk-the first Habakkuk, the nameship of what would be a growing class-glided east along a ley line not far from the island kingdom of Sibiu. The hobnails in the soles of Leino’s boots dug into the great vessel’s icy deck. The Kuusaman mage smiled-no, he grinned. He was as proud ofHabakkuk as if he’d invented her. Along with a good many other Kuusaman and Lagoan mages, he had.