"I don't think anyone can tell you. You have to see it."

Word soon trickled down from the captains that Alured was claiming the title of Duke of Immer. This meant nothing to Paks or the younger soldiers, but Stammel knew that the title had been extinct since the fall of the old kingdom of Aare across the sea.

"I'm surprised that the Duke of Fall and the other nobles are accepting it," he said.

"That was the price of his help this year," said Vossik. All the sergeants had gathered around one fire for an hour or so. "I heard talk in Fallo's cohorts about it. If Fallo, Andressat, and Cilwan would uphold his claim—and our Duke, of course—then he'd turn on Siniava."

"But why would they, even so?"

"It's an odd story," said Vossik, obviously ready to tell it.

"Go on, Voss, don't make us beg," growled Stammel.

"Well, it's only what I heard, after all. I don't know whether those Fallo troops know the truth, or if they're telling it, but here it is. It seems that Alured used to be a pirate on the Immerhoft—"

"We knew that—"

"Yes, but that's the beginning. He'd captured another ship, and was about to throw the prisoners over, the way pirates do—"

"Into the water?" asked Paks.

Someone laughed. Vossik turned to her. "Pirates don't want a mess on their ships—so they throw prisoners overboard—"

"But don't they swim or wade to shore?" asked Natzlin.

"They can't. It's too far, and the water is deep."

"I can swim a long way—" said Barra. Paks grinned to herself. Barra always thought she could do more than anyone else.

"Not that far. Tir's gut, Barra, you haven't seen the sea yet. It could be a day's march from shore, the ship, when they toss someone out." Vossik took a long swallow of sib, and went on. "Anyway, one of the prisoners said he was a mage. He cried out that Alured should be a prince, and he—the mage—could help him."

"I'd have thought Alured wouldn't listen to prisoners' yells," said Stammel. "He doesn't look the type."

"No," agreed Vossik. "He doesn't. But it seems he'd had some sort of tale from his father—about being born of good blood, or whatever. So he listened, and the mage told him he was really heir to a vast kingdom, wasting his time as a pirate."

"He believed that?" Haben snorted and reached his own mug into the sib. "I'd heard pirates were superstitious, but—"

"Well, the man offered proof. Said he'd seen scrolls in old Aare that proved it. Offered to take Alured there, and prove his right to the kingdom."

"To Aare? That heap of sand?"

"How do you know, Devlin? You haven't been there."

"No, but I've heard. Nothing's left but scattered ruins and sand. It's in the songs." He hummed a phrase of "Fair Were the Towers."