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another quarter point to the south, Sir,” Symkee replied, with what struck Zhones as maddening deliberation, and the captain smiled slightly.
    “Very well, Master Symkee, that will do well enough.” He turned his attention back to the sails and frowned.
    “Any orders, Sir?” Symkee shouted after a moment, and the captain turned to raise one eyebrow at him.
    “When any occur to me,Master Symkee, you’ll be the first to know!” It was, of course, impossible for anyone to shout in a tone of cool reprimand, but the captain managed it anyway, Zhones thought.
    “Aye, Sir!” Symkee touched his chest in salute and carefully turned his attention elsewhere.
    *   *   *
    Despite his calm demeanor and deflating tone, Sir Dunkyn Yairley’s brain was working overtime as he considered hisship’s geometry. The wind had grown so powerful that he’d had no choice but to put Destiny directly before it some hours earlier. Now the galleon scudded along with huge, white-bearded waves rolling up from astern, their crests ripped apart by the wind. As the wind shifted round towards the east, the ship was being slowly forced from a northeasterly to a more and more northerly course, while theseas—which hadn’t yet adjusted to the shift in wind—still coming in from the south-southwest pounded her more and more from the quarter rather than directly aft, imparting an ugly corkscrew motion. That probably explained young Zhones’ white-faced misery the captain thought with a sort of detached sympathy. The youngster was game enough, but he was definitely prone to seasickness.
    More to thepoint, the change in motion had alerted Yairley to the change in wind direction and brought him back on deck, and if the wind continued to back, they could be in serious trouble.
    It was impossible even for a seaman of his experience to know exactly how far east he’d managed to get, but he strongly suspected it hadn’t been far enough. If his estimate was correct, they were almost directly duesouth of the Garfish Bank, the hundred and fifty-mile-long barrier of rock and sand which formed the eastern bound of Scrabble Sound. Langhorne only knew how many ships had come to grief on the bank, and the speed with which the wind had backed was frightening. If it continued at the present rate, it would be setting directly towards the bank within the hour, and if that happened.…
    *   *   *
    The wind did continue to swing towards the east, and its rate of change actually increased. It might—possibly—have dropped in strength, but the malice of its new direction more than compensated for that minor dispensation, Yairley thought grimly. The rapid change in direction hadn’t done a thing for the ship’s motion, either; Destiny was corkscrewing more violently than ever as the waves rolledin now from broad on her larboard quarter, and the pumps were clanking for five minutes every hour as the ship labored. The intake didn’t concern him particularly—every ship’s seams leaked a little as her limber hull worked and flexed in weather like this, and some water always found its way in through gunports and hatches, however tightly they were sealed—but the wild vista of the storm-threshednight’s spray and foam was even more confused and bewildering than it had been before.
    And unless he missed his guess, his ship’s bowsprit was now pointed directly at Garfish Bank.
    We’re not going to get far enough to the east no matter what we do, he thought grimly. That only leaves west. Of course, there are problems with that, too, aren’t there?
    He considered it for a moment more, lookingat the sails, considering the sea state and the strength of the howling wind, and made his decision.
    “Call the hands, Master Symkee! We’ll put her on the larboard tack, if you please!”
    *   *   *
    Sir Dunkyn Yairley stood gazing into the dark and found himself wishing the earlier, continuous displays of lightning hadn’t decided to take themselves