Now that his top officers and closest friends were jammed into his cabin, Caleb didn’t waste time mincing words.

“All right,” he announced, “we’re going after that Myrkur sloop.”

The reactions around him were mixed, to say the least.

“Finally!” Shaw crowed. “Thou hast seen the need to seize glory when thou doth see it!”

“Nay, have you taken leave of your senses, Captain?” Donal cried. “Our crew’s down to barely more than forty souls!”

“I have to agree with Donal,” Sienna said. “We’re scarcely able to crew the ship effectively, and I’ve had to rob the sail teams to make up a single gun crew. I hate the servants of Myr as much as anyone on board. But we should be avoiding a fight with them right now, not seeking it out!”

She glanced at Tavia for support. But the unicorn was watching Caleb closely. She flicked her tail and bobbed her head, as if finally making her decision.

“I’ve come to learn that our Captain never makes a decision without some method behind what seems like madness,” she finally said. “Much as I’ve been a slow learner as of late, I trust Caleb’s decision.”

Sienna stared at her for a moment. Then she let out a sigh.

“Then I will too,” she said. “But I need to know why. We may be going into battle against superior numbers once again.”

“I agree, you need to know,” Caleb said. “What’s more, it’s not just my decision. It’s advice that comes direct from Goddess Danu.”

That got him strange looks from around the room.

“I assume,” Tavia said, “that you mean that metaphorically.”

“No, I mean that literally. As in, the goddess of the seas chose to speak with me over a nice alcoholic drink, complete with a miniature umbrella stuck in the glass.”

With that, he explained the entire meeting with Danu, from the time he passed out on deck to waking up in the infirmary under Doc Harper’s care. Caleb grabbed a sheet of blank parchment from the cabin’s deck, then located a store of quill pens and ink. A bit of scribbling later, and he passed around what Danu had told him, written out word for word.

Seek a purpose where the sharks gather.

Seek a mentor who can put a feather in your hat.

Seek love where the sky silvers to lavender.

Seek your salvation where gold turns to emerald.

Shaw let out a leonine snort after reading the lines.

“I mislike prophecy,” he pronounced, “for words and phrases can be twisted into meanings without end.”

“So do I,” Tavia agreed. “But the first line does seem to tally with what you observed to our north and east. A place where sharks were gathering.”

Sienna looked troubled. “But how is this a place where you’re supposed to seek a purpose? I mean…we have a purpose already, don’t we? To keep this crew alive, and find a new home beyond the reach of the Myrkur?”

Caleb took a breath before answering carefully.

“It’s our long-term mission, and one I take very seriously. Believe me, I want to get us out of the Myrkur’s reach too. But beyond that…my gut tells me that we ignore this piece of the prophecy at our peril.”

“Then I hope you’re right, Captain.” His quartermaster crossed her arms in thought. “A sloop our size could be crammed with twice our numbers of fighting men.”

“As it should be!” Shaw asserted. “‘Tis the only way to keep the contest challenging!”

Caleb coughed into his hand. “Uh, yeah, about that. I’ve been thinking on ways to make the contest less challenging, especially when our numbers are down.”

“Prayer’s up, I can get behind that,” Donal muttered.

“We should be able to catch up to that sloop in a few hours,” Caleb went on, “So long as I add a little assist with the wind. In that time, I want our gun crew ready. I want our cannon loaded. I’ll need both a group of riflemen on the afterdeck, as well as a group waiting below as a boarding party.”

“Doesn’t sound too different from our attack on the Taipan,” Tavia remarked. “Only we’re trading one of the two boarding parties for a rifle group.”

“Well, I’ll be counting on our griffin to make up one of those parties,” Caleb said. “Shaw, when it comes to combat, there’s no equal to a griffin.”

“Aye, ‘tis so hard to be humble,” Shaw admitted, as the drake’s chest puffed up in pride. “Yet one cannot but admit the truth of the matter.”

“But that strength is in close quarters combat. The challenge will be to neutralize the Myrkur’s distance weapons, their rifles and pistols, so that Shaw can get in close.”

“My magic can help there somewhat, I think,” Tavia put in.

“It shall, and I’ve got some new ideas there as well.”

Caleb gave out his orders and sent his officers out.

He turned and went back to his wardrobe, going through its meager offerings with a growing sense of despair. He held up different articles and looked at himself in the mirror.

Nothing in any of his outfits said Corsair to him.

“How could it?” he asked aloud, in a frustrated tone. “It’s all cast-offs captured from a captain of the damned Sea Vipers! At best, it says ‘pirate’ if I mix and match everything around into a mess.”

A thought occurred to him.

Caleb brought up his Character Sheet once more. He zoomed in on the Buff / Debuff section.

Existing Buff / Debuffs: Innate Charisma increased 9%. (Corsair abilities reduced by 75% due to the wearing of inappropriate attire for an extended period.) Potential Buff / (Debuffs): (Corsair abilities shall continue to decrease in an individual who does not conduct himself properly.)

All right. If I can’t improve things via an improved outfit, then maybe I can conduct myself in a way that can compensate? To be more Corsair-like?

Caleb considered that for a moment. Should he even consider that option? Pirates, even corsairs, weren’t the nicest people on the planet.

And neither were you, his mind helpfully supplied. You still feel the pull, don’t you? The same red rage that saw you through killing your former best friend. The same cool calculation to shoot everyone aboard the Rabszolga off Boca Raton.

“Danu, you’d better not be steering me wrong,” he said aloud.

“Are you praying to Danu?” a little girl’s voice said from behind him.

Caleb whirled at the sound. At first he didn’t see anything. Then a pair of golden eyes appeared atop one of the shelves across the room. Daffodil’s scales shifted from the wood tones it had been mimicking back to her usual golden hue. She looked at him curiously.

“Praying?” Caleb chuckled. “Well, sort of. More of a talking-and-hopefully-listening kind of thing.”

“Uh-huh,” the little dragon said. “I think that’s praying. Only you’re doing it very differently than the people I saw on Gilarska do it.”

“Oh?” He closed the wardrobe and leaned back against the door. “Now you have me curious. How did they do it?”

“Lots more begging and throwing gold at an altar. Like this.”

Daffodil lay on her belly. She stretched out her forelimbs beseechingly, and mimicked the movement of both begging and throwing. Caleb couldn’t help but laugh.

“All right, I needed that,” he said, and Daffodil sat up eagerly, her tail flicking back and forth like a puppy’s.

“I’m so happy!” she enthused. “You looked so grim!”

“Well, we’re going into another battle soon, so my mind’s on grim things. We may be badly outnumbered.”

The little dragon got up and idly scratched one wing. “Why’s that? Oops! I meant to say, ‘Why’s that, Captain?’”

“We’re going after a Myrkur sloop. A sloop is a ship that’s roughly our size. Sloops typically have a crew of sixty to eighty men aboard. But we’ve only got around forty. Basically, they’ll be able to bring a lot more men to any fight.”

Daffodil blinked and cocked her head at him cutely.

“Really? ‘Cause I don’t think so. Not with what I heard all of you talking about. With the prophecy and all.”

That stopped him. He fought to keep the eagerness out of his voice.

“Okay. Tell me why you think that. Because that would help us a heck of a lot.”

“Well, it’s the sharks. They only follow a particular kind of ship. I heard about ships like that whenever certain men came to visit King Nevin. The men always came off vessels that flew red flags adorned with black skulls.”

Lir and Danu as my witnesses, he thought. That’s the Myrkur banner.

“Go on,” he said aloud. “Tell me more.”

Daffodil did so.

Caleb’s eyes widened as he realized what he was dealing with.