"This reeks." Starling scuffed a sandal across the deck. "I'm gonner try to get up there. One of our lot will tell us what's going on even if the pommers won't."

Elaine sighed. "Star, we know what's going on. Navy ship. Pirate ship. Spider's papa. Personally, I don't want to be left alone around a bunch of Navy leches."

This seemed to remind him where they were. He calmed down a little and sat down. "Great. It's gonner be us against them the whole way back."

Elaine sat down beside him and dropped her head onto his shoulder. "i'm sure they're not that bad. I just don't trust a lot of strange men to be anything but leches. How long will it be, anyway? A few days?"

"Maybe, if they go straight from here to shore now that they've got what's-his-name." He scooted an arm around her shoulder and leaned against her companionably. "It's more like we're gonner have to spend however long it is hiding. Navy's a bunch of pricks. Grandmum gets snitty because they won't listen to her 'cause she's a girl, and they have officers younger'n we are."

"So can we pretend to be officers?" Elaine asked. "They're basically French. I can speak French at them." She made a face. "Judith told Lang to hang around Curr's pa as much as possible and the Navy would piss off because they wouldn't mess with another man's woman. But they said they wouldn't take you seriously enough for me to do that."

Starling scowled. "Of course. They would say that. Stupid. Stupid them and the Navy, I mean, not you. They're not gonner take any of us seriously because we're a bunch of faeries bein' ordered about by a woman. That's the long and short of it."

"Pretty much," Elaine replied. Then she gave Starling a mischievous look. "D'you think any of them might have ever met the imperial family?"

Starling snorted. "The closest any of these blokes have been to the Emperor is slammin' the door on the tax collector." He took in Elaine's expression and chuckled. "Uh-oh. What are you thinkin'?."

"The Empress is Gali," Elaine pointed out. "And there is at least one princess." She ran a hand through her hair. "And she would look like me."