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[Carthrat]

"Not a captain," replies Rudy. "She was just an artist back in Salerno. Besides, we already know about who he's trying to meet up with- The Collective, correct?" He glances at the distant smoke. "If this is where they make port, I doubt they'll be too difficult to find."

[Corwin]

"She was," Henrietta confirms. "I'm living in her house, now. It is a very nice house."

[Carthrat]

"There's something morbid about that."

[Corwin]

"Really? What is it?"

[Carthrat]

"Well, think about it," replies Rudy. "She's either in on this scheme with VV, which's got a good chance of putting her in our way. Or he's tricking her like he tricks everyone, which means for all we know she could already be at the bottom of the sea. Either way, things don't look so good for her."

[Corwin]

"If she was tricked we could... save her?" Henrietta says, pausing in consideration. "And if not, about going through her... do we even need to find Vanthus? I mean to say, isn't it enough to contact the Collective and give them that last letter?"

[Carthrat]

"Because it went so well when we just gave Penkus' letter to the Lady of the Lotus," snorts Rudy. "Even if they accept it, I want to make sure we know exactly what happens to him."

[Corwin]

"We thought she was being tricked!" Henrietta protests. "But she wasn't! She was in on the entire thing!" She takes a moment to smooth out her clothes, mindful of her side. "This is entirely different. The pirates are surely being tricked, unless they want to be set on fire and have their ill-gotten gains stolen."

[Carthrat]

"I'm sure they will believe us. We are total strangers, so of course we can be trusted," replies Rudy. "You think we should try and figure out how he plans to set all the boats on fire before we tell them? Would you just need a torch? The ocean's all wet, how hard can it be to put out a fire at sea, anyway?"

[Corwin]

"What do you need to set a large ship on fire?" Henrietta asks Trucy, who serves as her resident expert.

[Ebiris]

"Boats are made of wood," Trucy observes laconicly, tapping her foot on the deck. "Doesn't matter if all that water down there keeps the fire from burning every inch, a ship burnt to the waterline's way far past dead."

"But most ship wood gets treated so it doesn't burn so easy," young Grant pipes up hesitantly, having overheard. "I mean, for expensive ships, that is. Ye'd need lots of oil or something to make it take ta fire properly."

[Corwin]

"So, for instance," Henrietta muses, all too happy to make use of Grant's experience as well, "if someone were to want to burn several large ships this way and did not want their plot discovered too early... where would they keep all that oil?"

[Ebiris]

The blond boy opens his mouth to reply but is promptly interrupted by a scowling Trucy, "I know that!" she snaps, before turning back to Henrietta, "Remember Glenn chucked a firebomb at Vark on the Blue Nixie and barely scorched the varnish? What you'd want to do is get a bunch of oil, maybe some alchemist's fire and some other stuff like that, and just hide it in the cargo hold amidst all the other junk. The cargo's most likely going to burn more readily than the hull anyway, so it can fuel a really big blaze and gut the boat from the inside. The smoke'd make it really hard for anyone to try and go down and put it out, too," she smiles at having reasserted her knowledge and usefulness, while the young fisherman shrinks back in a chastened manner.

[Corwin]

Henrietta nods to herself as she listens. "So if the letter is not proof enough, then we should have one of the pirates search the cargo hold of his ship? If they find oil there, it would serve to prove our case." She mulls over this briefly. "Uh, and how far before departure would you store all the oil away for this? It seems to me that if you hide it too early, it runs the chance of being discovered. And, well, if you wait too long, you might lose your chance altogether."

[Ebiris]

Trucy looks completely blank, eventually offering a defeated shrug. "I dunno? Maybe he'd do it in the middle of the night and then set the fires right away rather than setting it up and just sitting on his ass for a few days?"