Swarge had nodded gravely but said nothing, as was usual with him. Leftrin hadn’t really expected any conversation from him, but he would have welcomed more than a nod. He felt he’d been left too much alone with his own thoughts lately. Alise had been quiet for days, almost withdrawn. Oh, she smiled at him, and once or twice, she had taken his hand, so he did not think she was seriously regretting their interlude together. But she had shown no signs of attempting another rendezvous. The one night that he had tapped softly on the door of her darkened cabin, she had not answered him. After a time of anxious loitering, he had cursed himself for acting like a silly boy. She had shown him that when she wanted him, she’d make it plain. He’d not dangle outside her door when she did not.

Once when he’d found her silent and morose, staring over the bow, he’d dared to ask if what was troubling her had to do with him. She’d shaken her head so hard that the tears flew from her cheeks. “Please,” she’d said. “Please don’t ask me about it. Not now. It’s something I have to cipher out for myself, Leftrin. If I feel I can tell you about it, I will. But for now, I have to bear it alone.”

And so she had.

He suspected it had something to do with Sedric. The man spent a lot of time in his cabin. When he was not there, he was likely to be up on the nose of the vessel, looking at his dragon as she plodded stolidly along. Recently he had taken to visiting her ashore every evening. Daily he made an effort at grooming the creature. He, too, seemed to be in the midst of puzzling something out. He reminded Leftrin of a man recovering his strength after a long convalescence. He no longer seemed to care so much if his boots got muddy or his hair was not combed. Leftrin had surprised Bellin and Sedric in the galley, drinking coffee at the table together. More startling had been finding Davvie showing him how he fastened hooks to a long line for the bottom fishing lines that he sometimes set at night. Once he had seen Carson leaning on the railing next to him, and he wondered if that alliance might not be the source of Alise’s unhappiness. Carson, too, had been odd of late, and quiet in his watchful hunter way. Something was troubling him, but he hadn’t divulged it to Leftrin. If that “something” was his relationship with Sedric, then the captain was content to remain ignorant of it. He had plenty to worry about as it was; there was no room left in his brain for minding other folks’ business.