Carabella said urgently, "My lord, I beg you—"

"If they mean to seize us," he said, "they will seize us whether I am aboard their ship or mine. They have twenty ships for each of ours, and well-armed ones at that. Come, Sleet—Deliamber—"

"Majesty," said Lisamon Hultin sternly, "you may not go unless I accompany you!"

With a smile Valentine said, "Ah, well done! You give commands to the Pontifex! I admire your spirit: but no, I will take no bodyguards this time, no weapons, no protection of any sort except these robes. Is the floater ready, Asenhart?"

The basket was rigged and suspended from the foremast. Valentine clambered in, and beckoned to Sleet, grim-faced and bleak, and to the Vroon. He looked back at the others gathered on the deck of the flagship, Carabella, Tunigorn, Asenhart, Zalzan Kavol, Lisamon, Shanamir, all staring at him as though he had at last taken complete leave of his wits. "You should know me better by this time," he said softly, and ordered the basket lifted over the side.

Out over the water it drifted, skimming lightly above the waves, and climbing the side of the dragon-ship until snared by the hook that Guidrag lowered for it. A moment later Valentine stepped out onto the deck of the other vessel, the timbers of which were dark with the ineradicable stains of sea-dragon blood. A dozen towering Skandars, the least of whom was half again Valentine's size, confronted him, and at their head was old Guidrag, even more gap-toothed than before, her thick matted fur even more faded. Her yellow eyes gleamed with force and authority, but Valentine detected some uncertainty in her features as well.

He said, "What is this, Guidrag, that you offer me so unkind a welcome on this visit?"

"My lord, I had no idea it was you returning to us."

"Yet it seems I have returned once again. And am I not to be greeted with more joy than this?"

"My lord—things have changed here," she said, faltering a little.

"Changed? The free republic?" He glanced about the deck, and at the other dragon-ships arrayed on all sides. "What is a free republic, Guidrag? I think I have not heard the term before. I ask you: what does it mean?"

"I am only a dragon-captain, my lord. These political things—they are not for me to speak of—"

"Forgive me, then. But tell me this, at least: why were you sent forth to meet my fleet, if not to welcome us and guide us to port?"

Guidrag said, "I was sent not to welcome you but to turn you away. Though I tell you again that we had no idea it was you, my lord—that we knew only it was a fleet of imperial ships—"

"And imperial ships are no longer welcome in Piliplok?"

There was a long pause.

"No, my lord," said the Skandar woman lamely. "They are not, my lord. We have—how do I say this?—we have withdrawn from the empire, my lord. That is what a free republic is. It is a territory that rules itself, and is not governed from without."