The captain gave her a sidelong look. "Why carry a weapon you say you'd never use, girl?"

"I didn't say I'd never use it. If she had come at me with knife or sword, I would have done what I had to. But if I had threatened her and she had called my bluff, I couldn't have killed someone for trying to protect herself."

"Bold words." The captain removed the pistol from its holster, examined it again, then suddenly tossed it to Kira. She caught it in a proper grip without thinking. "It's loaded, is it not? Make it safe."

Kira released the magazine, caught it, pulled back the slide to ensure the chamber was empty, then set the safety. "It's safe."

"Now ready it again."

She had never been one to show off, but sensing a need to impress these sailors Kira twisted the magazine in her free hand, ramming it home in the pistol, her thumb releasing the safety so that the slide could rock forward again and load a bullet. The process took only a couple of seconds, after which Kira paused, the weapon pointed up at the sky, her forefinger straight alongside the trigger guard.

She heard murmuring from the watching crew behind her.

"Safe it again." The captain held out his hand, palm up.

Kira removed the magazine, emptied the chamber, and set the safety again, then returned both clip and pistol to the captain.

"You just passed two tests, girl," the captain said. "You showed that you truly know how to use that weapon, and you showed that you know when not to use it. Anything else?" the captain asked the first mate.

"Her knife," the first mate said, handing it to the captain.

The captain looked it over, a stern frown forming on his stony face. "Where did you get this?"

"Also a gift from my mother," Kira said.

"Your mother is a very generous soul, it seems. A sailor's knife. With the mark of the fellowship on it. Where does this mother of yours sail, girl?"

"She hasn't sailed for a long time," Kira said, realizing the reason for the captain's suspicion. The fellowship was the name pirates called themselves, a very loose and very ill defined grouping that nonetheless had certain shared traditions. One of those traditions honored Jules, revered by all sailors and the most famous pirate in the history of the world, as well as being an ancestor of Kira's mother, and Kira herself. "When she did, it was in the Umbari."

"The Umbari? Does she hail from Syndar?"

"No!"

The vehemence of Kira's reply produced a brief, grim smile from the captain, one that quickly vanished as he looked at her. "And what of you? You sneak aboard my ship and we find a knife on you with the mark. Is it fellowship business you're on?"