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being organized. They, too, had been creatures who knew how to amuse themselves with the strangest objects! He sighed. “We can’t afford to lose anything we’ve been entrusted to get to Kahrain safely.”
    “Once we get it all to Kahrain, what happens then, Captain?” Gunnar asked wearily.
    “Why then, my hearties, we have time to decide what has to be brought on the fleetest winds and vessels to the north.” There were sufficient groans to cause him to smile reassuringly. “But with more leisure available to make choices.”
    “It’s a fair ol’ haul to the place they’ve chosen in the north,” Anders Sejby said in a neutral tone. He was a big man, phlegmatic in temperament, but astonishingly agile physically. He had big hands, big feet, broad shoulders, and solid legs that threatened to burst the seams of his waterproofed trousers. He tended to go bare-chested, and barefooted, but there wasn’t a mariner on the planet that wouldn’t sail anywhere with him, Jim Tillek included. “Any sort of a pier there? Or do we have to lighter stuff in from the bigger ships?”
    Jim gave him a blank stare. “I dunno. I’ll find out.”
    “You mean,” asked Ben, who fired up easily, “we’re busting our nuts doing all this and we’ve got to—”
    Jim held up his hand to stem Ben’s indignant protest. “All will be prepared for us there.”
    “Bet it wasn’t until you mentioned it,” Ben said sourly.
    “Be not of faint heart, Ben,” Jim said, laying his hand in a benedictory fashion on the dolphineer’s salt-encrusted curls. “By the time we get there, we’ll have wharf facilities. The good Admiral Benden solemnly promised me.”
    Ben snorted, unrepentant.
    “Now,” Jim went on, “let’s sort out what we’ve got to move tomorrow.”
     
    Garben moved first. The warning they received gave them a scant two hours and the advice that everything that could leave Monaco should be gone well before that time limit. Later, no one had any coherent memories of that period. The wharf was a frenzy of activity; still, neither of the bigger ships, the Cross or the Perseus, was fully loaded when the alarm came. They were sailed far enough out of the projected danger area. If the wharf—and the cargowas left when the eruption was over, they would go back in and finish loading.
    Everyone did have memories of Garben’s spectacular eruption, seen at a safe enough distance to be clear of the pyroclastic debris. It was truly awe-inspiring, and immensely heartbreaking, to see the community that they had achieved in such a short time showered with ash and burning missiles, then disappearing behind dense gray clouds.
    “Did everyone get out?” Theo called from the waters on the starboard side of the Cross.
    “So we were told,” Jim said. “D’you want to come aboard?”
    Theo raised her eyebrows at the already overcrowded sloop.
    “Lord, no, Jim. I’m safer with Dart.” On cue, the dolphin surfaced and pushed her fin against the hand Theo idly circled as she trod water. “See what I mean . . .”
    Her voice dwindled as the sleek little dolphin propelled her farther from the ship and Monaco Bay.
    At last all but a few damaged loads and other debris had been burned or buried by the beach wardens, and Jim allowed the Cross, as the last ship, to leave Monaco Bay.
    “What about the bell?” Ben asked just as the gangplank was being pulled up.
    Jim paused, squinting up at the bell. “Leave it. The dolphins get such a kick out of ringing it.”
    “Even with no one to hear?”
    Jim heaved a sigh. “Frankly, Ben, I don’t have the energy right now to dismantle it.” He looked around at the decks crammed with lashed-down pallets. “Hell, where would we put a thing as big as that?” Then he shook his head. “We can come back for it. Ezra’ll be wanting to check the Aivas interface once the volcanoes have settled.” Then he gave the orders to release the lines forward and aft. “Yeah, we’ll get it next