Scimitar Sun by Chris A. Jackson

and port. Finally! she thought. Perhaps the schooners are the point of this visit . “With all the varied ships that must pass your harbors, I would not think that such a small and simple ship would be of interest.”
    “Small, yes, but, if the rumors are to be believed, a speedy craft, and able to sail closer to the wind than even the Fire Drake , if you discount the warship’s ability to propel itself with sweeps.” He finished the last of his dinner wine and relinquished his glass to the waiter. “Such a ship, if produced in quantity, could present a significant naval force.”
    “But the schooners are merchantmen, not warships. Their purpose is commerce.”
    “Ah, but a ship may be put to many uses.” He accepted his glass of port and sipped, his eyebrows arching in appreciation. “Your mistress is building these schooners at an astonishing rate. If they were armed…”
    “Count, please,” Camilla said, fixing his too-languid gaze with her own. “Any notion that Cynthia Flaxal is creating a private navy is sheer nonsense.”
    “Yet from these surroundings, and your most exquisite attire,” he smiled and nodded to her, raising his glass, “she is not exactly destitute. She appears to have made her fortune, but her wealth grows with the proceeds of every new ship she builds.”
    “Much of what you see here, Count Norris, once belonged to the pirate Bloodwind,” Camilla said as she gestured at the finery, striving to keep the annoyance out of her voice. “She has put a great deal of that wealth into the production of a merchant fleet, and into the shipyard here, where she employs a shipwright and a small yard crew to design new ships. We produce perhaps one ship a year here, which I would not call extravagant.”
    “Yes, she employs the shipwright Master Ghelfan, a rather renowned fellow. And the Keelson Shipyard in Southaven has produced six of her schooners in the past two years, all financed completely by her, with no lending of monies from outside sources.” He sampled his dessert, a sweet coconut custard, made a faint distasteful grimace and pushed the dish away. “It has also been reported that she bestowed a king’s ransom in reward to the captains who aided in her rescue from Captain Bloodwind, and even gave one fellow one of her ships for his own.”
    “I didn’t say that Captain Bloodwind amassed a small fortune, Count Norris,” she said with her best smile, though she was beginning to feel the strain of maintaining a pleasant demeanor. “In fact, it was quite large; the proceeds of more than fifteen years of unopposed piracy.” Camilla hoped he would pick up on her subtle yet heartfelt indictment of the emperor’s lack of success in this endeavor, but he showed no indication and kept on his single-minded course.
    “Exactly! And she is putting all that wealth into building more ships.” He sipped his port and eased back in his chair. “You must see how this appears from our emperor’s point of view, milady. A powerful seamage with her own fleet of ships, and what appears to be her own army of natives who, by your own admission, hold her in complete adoration. And she controls the entire archipelago, which holds a strategic position between the Great Western Sea and the Southern Ocean.”
    “Yes,” she agreed patiently, meeting his gaze unwaveringly. “But what you neglect to put into your equation, Count, is that Cynthia Flaxal has absolutely no need of a navy.”
    “And why is that, pray tell? Surely if she wanted to strengthen her position here, a naval force would make that task easier.”
    “A naval force would simply get in her way, I’m afraid,” she said.
    “Get in her way ?” The count’s eyebrows shot toward the ceiling and he leaned forward. “How could that be?”
    Camilla immediately lamented her lapse. She considered telling Norris of the true alliance of forces that Cynthia worked toward, but reconsidered. If he thought building ships to be an aggressive act,