“Nikos…” Dorza waved weakly. “Let him go. You cannot want anything from him.”

“Ah, but I can and do. I want him beside me while you answer my questions.”

The captain’s eyes darted away from his captive child, scanning the rooms for other bandits. Daikonas Vo could all but hear the man’s thoughts: Surely so confident a criminal as this one must have confederates. There were no confederates, of course, which was how Vo liked it, but it also forced caution. Dorza was a head taller than him; if Vo hurt the boy the captain would be on him like a mad bear.

Vo wanted to head off the next problem too—anything to keep the man calm as long as possible. Any moment now he would notice the body crumpled on the floor just behind the door. Better simply to tell him.

“I have bad news for you, Captain Dorza. Your wife is dead. She caught me by surprise. I did not know she was in the house. She was a brave one, it must be said. She tried to kill me with that club—a belaying pin, I think you sailors call it? So I had to kill her. I am sorry. I did not wish to do it but it is done, and…ah, ah, careful…if you let anger get the best of you the boy will die, too.”

“Tedora…!” Dorza looked around frantically, at last saw the blood-soaked shape behind the door. “You…you demon!” he shouted at Vo. “Nushash burn you, I’ll send you to hell!” His eyes, red with tears, widened again. “The other children…!”

“Are under the bed. They are safe.” Daikonas Vo prodded gently with his long blade at the boy’s gorge, eliciting a squeal of fear. “Now speak to me or this one dies, too. You carried a young woman on your ship. Some say she was Guard Captain Jeddin’s mistress. Where is she now?”

“I’ll break you…!”

“Where is she?” He pulled the boy’s chin back until it seemed the skin of his throat, downy with his first beard, might part without even the touch of the blade.

“I don’t know, curse you! She stayed here with us but I threw her out when I found out what she was!”

“Liar.” He pinked the boy just enough to make a drop of blood grow, wobble, then slide down into the neck of his shirt.

“It’s true! She came to me with a note from Jeddin, saying to bring her here to Hierosol where he would meet us. I did not know she was the autarch’s wife!”

“And you didn’t know Jeddin was a traitor? You are surprisingly ignorant for a veteran captain.”

“I didn’t know anything until we arrived here. She hid it from me. She came with orders to leave that evening—the very evening when…when Jeddin was arrested.”

“I do not think I like your answer. I think I will take one of the boy’s eyes out and then we will try again.”