Open Wardrobes

Well, I haven't been slacking off in the actual writing (I made it to 32,000 words today), but clearly I have in actually posting! So here is three-days worth of Red Foxx:




Lemuel looked up and something in Red's eyes reminded him...
"I must have been there with my father," Red continued, "for I remember him pulling me from the water. I was washed overboard, but he saved me when around us others were dying."
Lemuel stood to look Red in the eyes.
"Your father's ship was at a safe distance, that much I know," Lemuel said, "so how could you have..."
Red Foxx was all business once again. "Enough, this is pointless. Believe what you will, Captain Drake, but your misfortunes are not the fault of my people. And you have enough already without adding to yourself any more. I will have the map, and I shall hunt down every last refugee of the Ruined Kingdom to find it."
Red crossed to the door and opened it, signaling to the pirates outside to take the prisoner away. Red looked back and was surprised at the change in him. He seemed now highly troubled, not by his own imprisonment, but a deeper anguish that Red did not understand.
Lemuel was taken and imprisoned below deck. Red had not expected him to give up much information, not yet at least, but hoped that in time he would be more inclined to bargain. Red would gladly give his freedom in exchange for the Heart, oath or no oath. After all, there would be plenty of time for further such encounters.
The Black Arrow continued on its course towards Montegal. They had seen no further sign of the Savage, or any of the Ruined fleet, and would be able to made the necessary repairs there without hindrance. Red often stopped to check on his prisoner and marveled at the marked change in his demeanor. He had eaten nothing since being taken on board and spoke not a word to anyone. Whatever internal struggle plagued him consumed all his energies.
The next day Lemuel put in a request to his jailers to be allowed to take a walk on deck. Red Foxx saw no harm in this. He was weighed down enough with chains that there was no danger of his trying to swim for it. Red placed two sailors on him at all times just in case, but Lemuel did not seem bent on escape. He hardly looked at the sea at all, in fact, and instead spent his time studying the crew. Red found himself wary. When they had held their private meeting Red left with the feeling that Lemuel had been on the trail of something, but of what Red did not know.
"Captain."
Red turned to see Lemuel standing just behind him, a strange gleam in his eye.
"Mister Drake?"
Lemuel smirked and the fact that this insult did not affect him unnerved Red.
"You have a secret, Captain Foxx," he said.
"I'm afraid that I do not follow you."
"Let me see your wrist," Lemuel demanded.
Too surprised by this strange request to deny him Red pulled up his sleeve and bared his wrist. A thin scar went across Red's wrist and at this Lemuel stared intently. Red thought he looked as if he had a seen a ghost.
"I remember that day," he murmured, then snapped to and looked at Red. "How did you get it?"
Red laughed. "I bear too many scars to remember the origin of each."
"It was my fault," Lemuel confessed. "I had taken a couple of practice swords for us to play with, without my father's knowledge. I cut you there too deep, but you never betrayed me to your father."
"I know of not what you speak," Red said.
"I thought you were dead," Lemuel said and looked at Red with a mixture of joy and disbelief in his eyes. "After the Great Disaster, I never saw you again."
"I told you, I was there with my father and he rescued me when I fell overboard."
"Yes, perhaps I have thought less of him that he deserved," Lemuel admitted. "He must have found you amidst the wreckage, and your own father dead..."
Red Foxx did not know what game Lemuel thought he was playing, but he had had enough of it. He signaled the jailors to recover their prisoner.
"Why did Grey Foxx do it?" Lemuel asked. "Did he think no one would accept for his heir a daughter?"
Red drew a knife and in half a moment held it to Lemuel's throat.
"You had best watch your tongue," Red hissed.
"There are no secrets here, I imagine, for if I guess right all your crew are women." Lemuel stared into Red Foxx's eyes and saw there a flash of fear.
Jat had heard everything and leaned into the Captain's ear. "Best be done with it, Captain. 'Tis too early yet for this to be known."
"We seem to always come back to this," Lemuel taunted. "Perhaps I should not give you so many opportunities to take my life in cold blood."
"You be threatenin' us," Jat spat. "'Tis not so cold where I stand."
"Perhaps you had best listen to him. Her," Lemuel corrected. "You shall find it difficult to buy my silence on this matter."
Red struck him across the face with the flat of the knife. A trickle of blood dripped down, but Lemuel was unrepentant.
"Go ahead," he told her, "for she who was dead to me I now find alive. What more can I ask of life?"
Red Foxx looked ready to fulfill Lemuel's wish, but she stayed her hand. She dragged him one-handed in her rage into her cabin and tossed Lemuel upon the floor. She slammed the door behind and stared at Lemuel, death in her eyes. Lemuel remembered well the cold fire that so easily burned in her eyes when anger struck her. Still blazing with fury Red Foxx turned those eyes upon the sea, at a loss for words.
"Amarantha..."
Red spun around to face him. "That is not my name."
"I believe it is." Lemuel looked up at her. "I thought you dead."
"I never knew you before two days ago."
"Do you not remember?" Lemuel pleaded. "How we played together when we were young?"
"Do you think the child of the pirate king would play with the whelps of a kingdom such as yours?" Red struck back.
"Something it seems fitting," Lemuel said, mostly to himself. "You always loved playing with ships and hearing stories of the pirate. They never frightened you as they did most children, even I."
"There was a river where I played with toy ships..."
"Yes."
Red Foxx trembled. In minutes her world had been shaken to its foundation. What could she do now? To let her prisoner live would mean that her secret, her crew's secret, would be exposed. She had always planned that someday... But Jat was right, it was too soon for such a revelation. What other choice remained than to kill this man here and now?
"You do not want to kill me," Lemuel said, guessing her thoughts.
"I have never been one to spill blood without reason," Red said, "or did you not think the pirate-folk so civilized?"
"I find myself today much surprised by the pirate-folk," Lemuel admitted. "But then you are not one by birth."
This only served to enrage Red further. To question her parentage was the greatest insult she could receive. The knife returned to Lemuel's throat.
"You seem bent on your own death," she whispered fiercely. "I could give you to Jat and he would soon find a reason to give it to you."
"She," Lemuel corrected and then gasped as his face struck the floor.
"Let us understand one another," Red said with barely controlled fury. "If you are at all inclined to betray this secret than you never shall leave this vessel alive. My father spent twenty years preparing for the day when I would assume his crown and I will not have his plans foiled thus."
"Then he did not think any would accept a pirate queen," Lemuel stated.
"Any who question my right to rule will meet my blade," Red promised.
Lemuel slowly righted himself as he considered the situation. What had first put the idea in his head he was not sure, but he realized that he had perhaps overplayed his hand in revealing his knowledge so quickly. Red would be faithful to her promise, that much was clear, and he would be of little help to his own people dead. As for his oaths... He could not see how to break them without either betraying the pirate Captain or finding his own death first.
"I shall make you make to you a deal," Lemuel offered.
Red laughed harshly. "I have sworn many oaths to end your life. What need have I of any such bargain?"
"You would rather take my life in battle, else you would have already ended it. But hear me out."
Red scrutinized Lemuel carefully. A change had indeed came over him since he learned Red's secret. Whoever it was he thought she was had touched him greatly and perhaps she could use that to her advantage.
"Speak your offer," she demanded.
"It is this: I shall keep this secret for you and breath of it to no one."
"In return for?"
"To hear the story of why Grey Foxx chose this path for you."
"Not your life?" Red Foxx asked.
"It is not mine to offer. It lies within your hands already," Lemuel said.
"I do not understand you, Lemuel Drake."
"Nevertheless, will you accept?"
"I shall need time to decide your fate," Red answered after a moment. She opened the door and Lemuel's jailors grabbed hold of him to return him below deck. They did so none too kindly as they knew already that he had threatened to betray their secret. Jat had seen to that.
Red closed the door again and sunk into her bunk. How hard her father had labored to ensure her inheritance and now in her misplaced mercy she already threatened to undo it all! All reason told her to end the life of her enemy at once. Had she not already sworn to do so? Once already had she granted him freedom in order to better face him in battle. Now she had done so, defeating his proud ship and escaping his trap, and again the son of Drake fell into her hands. Was this not fate? Was this not the destined fulfillment of her oaths? With Drake gone, who would be left to oppose her as she sought the heart? So she sat, brooding, until the end of day.

Grey Foxx placed the sailor's scarf around his daughter's head and stood back to admire his work.
"There now," he said to Red, "none now would e'er guess you be a girl and not a boy."
Red admired her new costume in the looking glass. She felt proud to be dressed like to one of her father's crew, and it made no different to her whether they thought her a girl or boy. She had live thus far on an island more remote, with those Grey Foxx trusted most. He loved his daughter dearly. But as it looked he would have no other heir he feared the fleet would not so easily embrace a woman as their queen and so the line of Foxx would end. For the past few years, as Red grew in age and stature, he began to brew a plan that would solidify her place before the truth could be known. Already he saw in her the seeds of a great pirate and wished he could trust others to see the same. It grieved him to ask of his child this masquerade which must needs last until well after his own death. But she did not seem to mind and looked pleased with her new outfit.
"What think ye?" Grey asked her. "You look all the world like a pirate now."
Red beamed in that smile that smote Grey to the heart.
"Thank you, father," she said. "Does this mean I may now join you on board ship when next you set sail?"
"Aye, my child," Grey answered, placing a hand proudly on her shoulder. "It be time for you to learn the craft of yer fathers. For some day ye must take me place when I be gone."
Red looked up at him sadly.
"But where would you go, father? I would have you with me always."
"Aye, and so would I, but all children must need lose their father when his days be done. I hope that not be for a great time yet."
"So do I, father," she said and embraced him.
"Ye need not worry, Red," Grey told her, "I have more than a few years left. Time enough to teach ye all ye need to know. Now then, do ye remember what I told ye? The plan ye must follow if ye are to take me place someday?"
"Yes, father," Red answered. "I am your son, the pirate Red Foxx." And she made such a fierce-looking scowl that Grey Foxx could not help but laugh.
"Aye, ye be the most fierce pirate that I e'er seen!" Grey chortled. "Ye'll do well, no doubt. Now then," Grey added, more serious, and Red looked up at him with eyes that matched. "Now then, Red, it be important that to all the world ye be as my son. I wish it did not have to be so, but it be most important that you betray this secret to no one. De ye swear?"
Red nodded. "I will do all you ask, father," she told him. "I shall not tell a living soul, I promise you."
"That be a good child," Grey said. "Someday ye may tell all else the truth, if ye wish, when the time be right. But for now, carry this secret deep within ye as ye learn all the pirate ways. I be proud of ye, Red. I always have been, and I know ye shall do me proud all the more when I be gone." Grey embraced his child, unable to escape the feeling of loss in so hiding his daughter. "Shall we now take ye aboard ship? There be much to learn, me young Red, and best we began."
Grey Foxx led his "son" to his ship, the Marauder. Red had not set foot upon it since... Well, Grey thought, best not to think much of that. Grey had indeed kept his child much out of sight, though there were rumors of such an heir. Grey had been careful not to let too many know if that child be son or daughter and now that caution gave him room for this subterfuge. Grey showed Red around the vessel and Red was proud to be seen at last by her father's side. That day he taught her the names of all parts of the ship and showed her all the duties that must be done to keep the vessel seaworthy. The Marauder was the pride of the pirate fleet, commanded before him by Grey Foxx's father. And when they set sail later that day Red at last received her wish and sailed with it.
As the years passed Red grew into a fine young sailor and became adept at concealing the secret her father had entrusted her with. Her skills on the water surpassed even Grey Foxx's greatest hopes. All who sailed, be they pirate or no, admired her. She showed a great aptitude as well for strategy and Grey Foxx learned to trust her thoughts in battle. Once fully grown into adulthood Grey Foxx entrusted Red with a command of her own, the Black Arrow, commissioned specially for the young Foxx's eighteenth birthday. Here now, however, Grey Foxx feared a chink in his plan. Thus far Red had always sailed under his command and in so doing was it easier to maintain the illusion that he trained a son. But now, as she readied to captain her own ship, Grey grew uneasy. He would not be there to protect her if the secret became known. As they rested on the Sacred Isle and prepared for the birthday celebrations, Grey Foxx confessed this fear in private to his daughter.
"My child," he said to her, "how proud I have been to watch ye grow into the fine sailor you now be. Already yer name draws fear wheree'er ye go. Ye bear well the name of Foxx and I be most proud to be yer father."
"I thank you, father," Red answered. "All that I know I have learned by your side." She had never quite adopted the style of pirate speech, Grey noted to himself. "But I guess that something still weighs heavily upon you." She looked into his face, grieved as if she herself had done something to upset him.
"Red, I hope ye have never born with any ill will the role I have thrust upon ye. Never think I be less than proud to have ye as a daughter."
"I do not, father, for I have long understood the reasons for this guise," she told him. "You have laid this plan most cunningly and I shall see it through."
"Aye, I be glad to hear ye say such words," Grey sighed in relief. "But I tell ye what lays upon my mind: it be but a small flaw in this plan o' mine. When ye be captain of the Arrow, as surely ye will in but a few short days, who then can help ye with this disguise?"
To Grey's surprise, Red Foxx laughed. "Is that all that worries you? You need not, father, for Jat will always be my confidant."
"Do not tell me ye have told the boy?" Grey exclaimed. "I know ye be the best of mates, but this is a secret none can know! Ye promised me..."
"Do not be upset, father, until you understand fully," Red assured him. "I have not broken my promise to you quite." She stood and called out the door. "Jat!"
Jat entered and sat down before Grey and Red.
"My father fears I have broken my promise to him by telling you my secret," Red said to Jat, "and one could argue that he speaks rightly. I must, with your leave, balance the scales and break a promise I have made to you such that my father's mind may rest more easy as we take the Arrow to be our own."
"Aye," Jat said, "whate'er ye think be best. There is nothing I can fear my lord king to know."
"You see, father," Red said to him, "for all your wisdom you have overlooked one truth that can but bolster my own position." She nodded to Jat who removed scarf and coat and cut hair loose.
Grey stared at the young man and realized how much he to Red was alike. Then he understood.
"Can it be?" he asked.
"Yes," Red answered, smiling, "I am not the only one in your fleet so disguised. Now you may I think better believe that Jat shall not betray us."
"I always thought ye like a brother to my Red," Grey said to Jat, "now I see ye be more alike than e'er I hoped. Come, embrace me as a sister to my own child."
Much relieved indeed was Grey Foxx to learn this truth. He had long known Red would take Jat as first mate when the day came. Now he saw it was a far wiser choice than ever he knew.
Indeed this revelation had come much as a surprise to both Red and Jat when they learned of it some years earlier. Jat had, like Red, come to serve on board the Marauder in her own time of training. It was Grey Foxx's way to have the most promising young sailors spend time under his own eye. These were the youth he hoped would one day form the new generation of captains to serve under his "son."
Red had watched the new young sailor carefully before discerning the truth herself. Being thus so hidden from the world she was more apt than even her father to see through this disguise, which in many moments felt to her painfully thin. And so one day she dared confront Jat with what she suspected. The Marauder sat that day in port while all the men enjoyed the comforts of leave. Red had been placed in command over all the boys onboard, ordered by Grey Foxx to remain behind and clean the vessel from fore to aft. Jat stood swabbing the top deck in the hot sun as Red approached. They had not spoken much before then and Red studied the young figure carefully before daring to speak. No one else stood within earshot and Red felt it best to broach such a delicate subject away from the ears of the older men.
"Jat."
The sailor looked up.
"Aye? What does the Captain's son be wantin' with me?" Jat had never been one to be easily cowed by authority.
"I believe you have been less than honest with my father and I," Red said.
Jat frowned. "I cannot say I take yer meanin.'"
"When did you first take to the sea, Jat?"
"I be in my sixth year on the water," Jat answered, unsure of where this was going.
"Was it difficult?"
"Sir?"
"To hide."
"There is nothing I have to hide," Jat insisted, but clearly was nervous.
"You do not have to be afraid," Red told Jat, "for if I am correct we share the same secret."
After that Jat confessed, more from surprise than anything else. Later they talked privately, glad at last to have someone else to share the difficulties they faced as young women in the men's world of the pirate fleet. From then on they were the best of mates and Grey was glad to know his child had found such a friend. And together Red and Jat learned they were not the only ones so disguised in all the fleet.
After Red Foxx gained command of the Black Arrow she and Jat began to search for those who were most like to them. Slowly they brought these brave sailors to serve on the Arrow, inducting each of them in Red's own secret, until Red commanded none but women sailors. Red thought she must have had the most loyal crew in all the fleet, for this secret bound them more closely together than anything else could. When her crew had been all thus recruited Red Foxx at last confessed this secret to her father. Grey Foxx was indeed surprised to know how many young sailors served thus in his fleet. At first he remained uncertain of Red's wisdom in crewing her ship so, but Red Foxx's crew continued to prove themselves the most able sailors on the sea and Grey Foxx soon learned to trust them as his daughter did. He realized that the plans he laid were no longer his alone, but Red's also and that she pursued them as fiercely as he himself. And so Grey Foxx watched his daughter grow into her own with pride...

After nightfall Red visited Lemuel below deck as he languished in his cell. She bid the jailors depart and faced Lemuel, her fingers unconsciously toying with her pistol.
"Do you understand the position you have placed me in?" she asked him.
"Perhaps I do," Lemuel answered. "You have the safety of your crew to think of. Does this mean I am about to witness my own execution?"
"I have not yet decided," Red said harshly. "Certainly you would be if I put it to a vote."
"Yes," Lemuel said, "I am sure your first mate will have seen to that."
"What do you expect when you have placed all of us in such jeopardy?"
"I always thought that loyalty was a point of pride with the pirates," Lemuel said. "Or have I been so deceived?"
Red whipped out her pistol and cocked the first barrel. "Do not pretend you know so much about us," she told him. "One bullet and I may prevent many a potential tragedy. Understand this, if nothing else: we do not consider that to be cold blood."
Lemuel nodded and fell silent for a time. Red watched him, trying to understand herself why she felt any reflectance to end this man's life. She need not even do the deed herself. One word and she would have a hundred willing volunteers. Or the thing could be done here and now, and no one would in the least question it. Far from it, once word spread her position as the pirate Captain would be secured. Even were she to reveal her long-held secret no one would then question her, the Captain Foxx who had struck such a blow. So what then stayed her hand? All it would take was a single shot...
When Lemuel spoke again he seemed to have come to some decision.
"I offer you my apologies, Captain Foxx," he said, much to her surprise. I have perhaps acted rashly in trying to force your hand thus. But I still have an offer to make you."
Red's lip curled upwards as she began to understand this deep change of mood. "This is about her, is it not?"
"Her?"
"What did you call her... Amarantha. You still believe I am she."
"I know it."
Red laughed. "What a fool I have captured! Two days ago you would have struck me dead without a thought. But now that you have convinced yourself that I am some whelp you knew twenty years ago you will forsake all your oaths?"
"To the letter."
Red stared down at the man and could see him with nothing but disgust. "I have no time for those who would renounce what they have sworn on so little cause."
"You have lived too long among pirates to understand, it would seem," Lemuel said sadly. "But how can I swear death now to one who has returned to me from the dead?"
"You can and shall," Red said, for now she knew to what use this worm could be put. "If you wish to ransom your own life, then you shall make an oath to me which I shall see you cannot break. Clearly your oaths on their own are worth little."
"What would you have me give? I promised already not to reveal your secret."
"You shall not, but that is but the precondition for us to do business," Red Foxx said coldly.
Lemuel nodded. "If that is how it must be. What then do you ask of me?"
"The second half of the map."
"I do not have it, nor know where it is. You have known about it longer than and heard all I have about it. How can I further be of aid to you in this?"
"You will find it, be it with Ward Brawn or another. They will not hide from you."
"I will not deliver the man himself into your hands," Lemuel said firmly, and for a moment Red again saw the light of an enemy flicker in his eyes.
"I do not ask it. The map will be enough."
"Just the map? Not the heart?"
"I will not need your help once the map is complete."
"And you will spare my life if I do?"
"I will return your to your vessel if you promise this, but I make no promises as to your life after that."
"I see. You ask much of me and offer little in return."
"It is your choice. I can always send Jat to be your jailor."
"I would rather be tossed into the sea, chains and all," Lemuel said grimly.
"Then you are wiser than I give you credit for."
"Are there other conditions?"
"One remains. So that I may know you shall keep your oaths, you shall swear again to hold all that you have made, even those concerning my own person."
"You wish me to swear anew your death?"
Red withdrew the Captain's Stone. It was not a sight many outside of the pirate-folk had beheld. Even in the dim light below deck it burned within an Lemuel caught the flicker of many red fires. He knew it at once to be alike to the Heart of Destiny, and even though he thought them nothing more than stones he trembled to see this object now.
"What is that?" he asked.
"Another heirloom of my house, and though less in virtue than the Heart it shall suffice for this moment."
"I do not take your meaning."
"An oath made upon this stone is not one to lightly break. Should you do so it shall punish you in its own fashion."
"You think my tongue will be bound by mere superstition?"
Red held the Stone between the bars of Lemuel's cell. "Place your hand upon it," she commanded. "Or else I shall give you over to Jat's keeping," she added on seeing his hesitation. Lemuel obeyed and the Stone seemed to him warm and distasteful of his touch. Had he been wrong about this?
"Swear thus: to preserve the secret of my crew even unto death," Red began. Feeling uncertain now about this path, Lemuel reluctantly obeyed.
"To do all in your power to yield up to me the second half of the map that leads to the Heart of Destiny," Red continued, "and to do no harm to I or any of my people until such a deed be accomplished." Lemuel echoed her words feeling more and more bound in some new prison.
"And last of all, to hold to any oath previously sworn, however much you may repent of them." Lemuel did so and wondered if being cast into the sea was not less punishment.
"So swear you."
"So swear I," Lemuel forced out, "Lemuel Drake." Suddenly the Stone beneath his hand did burn though he could not pull away. It held him fast and Lemuel knew that Red had not lied about the potency of these oaths. When at last the Stone cooled Lemuel jerked his hand away and he thought for an instant he beheld some brand upon it, but just as speedily it faded.
"That is done," Red said and was content with it. "I shall keep my own word and release you to your own people. Alive, though Jat even more than I may seek her second chance."
Lemuel nodded, too shaken to speak. What had he done?
"We shall speak later," Red informed him, "and you shall tell me all you know about the whereabouts of any lord who swears allegiance to the Ruined Kingdom."
"I did not say I would give them up!"
"And I did not say I wold give them their death," Red snapped. "But you have sworn to do all in your power to aid me, and I shall do what must be done."
"You leave me in a bitter place," Lemuel lamented.
Red leveled her pistol at the prisoner. "This one is still yours, if you ever want it." And she turned to go.
"I was a fool to think..."
Red spun around. "I am not her, whatever you thought. That you let that thinking lead you into this I cannot answer for. Perhaps if you had kept your wits about you long enough to not spit out such a secret to those who would kill to keep it." She strode quickly away leaving Lemuel to wonder what fate he had condemned himself to now that he had sworn himself to the death of one he had once loved.

*****

Red found Jat alone at the helm. The anger in her eyes was clear and Red, Captain she may be, did not welcome the task she must now undertake.
"Captain."
"Jat."
"Have ye made a decision?"
"I have, Jat."
"And what be ye plannin' for the prisoner?"
Red paused before explaining the dead she had made with Lemuel. Jat did not at first reply but stood stock still steering the ship.
"It'll be trouble," Jat said at last. "E'en if he keeps his word, I swear to ye it'll mean trouble in the end."
"He sword upon the Stone," Red said. "That is not an oath to be so easily broken."
Jat shook her head. "E'en so, the Stone may only punish ye for an oath broken. It cannot always keep ye from breakin' it in the first place."
"True enough," Red admitted, "but I certain this is the best course of action."
"And when he falls into your hands a third time?"
"Do not forget yourself, Jat," Red said sternly. "I may trust you above all others, but I am still the Captain. Finding the Heart comes first."
"Aye, as you wish it, Captain," Jat said coldly and clearly considered the conversation at an end. But Red was not finished.
"Jat."
"Aye, Captain?" Jat asked through clenched teeth.
"When he does fall into our hands for the third time, it shall be the last time," Red promised. "Then he is yours. I hope that shall balance the scales."
Jat nodded and Red knew that was as close to a sign of agreement as she was like to receive. Red left Jat at the helm, they would dock in Montegal before too long, and climbed the riggings to the crow's nest. Whatever it may seem to Jat, she did not enjoy the idea of keeping Lemuel Drake alive. But she could not escape the feeling that he would be needed to find the Heart. And if that is what it took Red would endure the survival of her enemy a little while yet.
They reached the Isle of Montegal not along after nightfall. Only a handful of ships sat in port when they arrived and Red did not see the Savage among them. Just as well, she thought, for she still had to twist what information she could from Lemuel Drake. Oath or no oath, he would not give up what he knew too willingly. As the Arrow docked Red slid back down to deck. Jat had already disembarked, bringing with her a few others from the crew, and set about the business of securing a new mast and seeing to the other repairs. Red on the other hand went below deck to ask Lemuel one question.
"Who of your people dwell in Montegal?" she demanded of him.
"I thought we had docked," Lemuel said to himself. He then looked up. "To answer your question, I do not know, but I can find out."
"What you know you can tell me, and I shall deal with the rest."
"I thought you planned to release me to my people?" Lemuel asked.
"I shall, in good time," Red answered, "but I would have more information first."
"Very well. I know some years ago that Gregan Mot, a knight of the Ruined Kingdom, dwelt on this isle. Whether he does still, I do not know, but if you are not yet content to let me leave this cell, it is a place you may start."
"Good," Red said simply then added, "Your ship is not in port. Where do you think they made for?"
"They will look for someplace more friendly to make repairs. It is but a few days sail to reach the coast of the Forest Kingdom. That to me would see more likely than Montegal," Lemuel answered.
"Your first mate would put that above the map then?"
"He would not think it as urgent as you, of that I am certain," Lemuel told her.
"Do not forget your oath," Red warned. "You would be wise to speak true."
"I have not forgotten. I will do what I can to recover the map, but I have given you no word to put my crew in danger."