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. Radiz
was silent.
Artavash ordered message pennants sent as the galley
churned to its haven. They passed large numbers of fishing
smacks moored to buoys. They were waterlogged from
neglect. In the main dockyard, large merchant ships swung
untended at anchor, their rigging ragged and their main
yards lying rotten on their decks.
"Strange," said Lady Ilys. "Everything looks
abandoned. I thought this would be a teeming port."
"Not a soul in sight," agreed Mistress Carin.
That changed when a light ketch skimmed out to meet
the SEA RAVEN. A Kernaffi stood in the boat and called to
the galley in his native tongue. Radiz replied at length.
"What do they say?" asked Sturm.
"Merely the greetings of our great lord to his returning
ship," said Artavash. The man in the boat did not look so
very pleased to Sturm.
SEA RAVEN dropped anchors fore and aft. The oars
were run in. The pilot ketch put about and tacked back to a
long stone pier. Radiz shouted orders, and all hands except
slaves assembled on the main deck.
A squat barge rowed out to the galley's bow. Sturm, his
mother, and Carin followed Artavash to a ramp that led
down to the bobbing barge. Sturm stopped short of the
ramp's end
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