Caleb unwrapped Ferris Pender’s kerchief. To his surprise, whatever was inside felt extremely heavy. Rory joined them just as he pulled the last fold back.

“Prayer’s up,” the eldest of the Murray triplets gasped. “Never have I seen the like!”

The object was vaguely cylindrical, though it tapered to a dull point at both ends. It was smooth, with only a few ripples along its length and an odd semicircle of dull, flat marks. But all that was inconsequential.

The important detail was that the bright yellow object sitting in the folds of the kerchief appeared to be solid gold.

“Ferris,” Caleb said, “As we say where I’m from, ‘gimme the deets’. You’re saying that you found this behind your sea chest?”

“Aye,” the young man said. “That I did. It was lyin’ on the floor, wedged into the gap between my sea chest and the ship’s hull.”

“And when did you find it?”

“Not a quarter hour ago, give or take. I got off duty and decided to take a shift in my bunk to chase sheep over fences for a while. That’s when I heard something rolling around behind my chest. I thought maybe someone had lost a line dowel, so I felt around…and that’s what I pulled out.”

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Fifteen minutes ago? What did you do next?”

“I showed my friends what I’d found, then headed up to let the Quartermaster know about it.” Ferris looked embarrassed as he added, “I’d have brought it to you, Captain, but you were still flat as a board in the infirmary.”

“Eh, fair enough.”

“But as soon as I came out on deck, I ran into a that bunch of ludders sportin’ for my friend Rory. I couldn’t let that pass, could I? I jumped right in, just as my friends started hollering that I’d pulled out a hunk of gold from my locker…and you saw what happened. If it hadn’t been for Helmsman Sheahan, I might’ve been tossed into the drink!”

“Well,” Caleb said after a moment, “it doesn’t sound like you were hoarding anything, valuable or not. After all, there are other substances that can mimic gold.”

“Oh, it’s definitely gold!” Ferris enthused. “I bit into it, and it took on my teeth marks! You can see ‘em on the side. Only pure gold is soft enough to do that.”

He’s right about that part, Caleb thought to himself. A suspicion began to form in his mind as to what the object could be. He turned to Rory next.

“All right, it’s your turn. What happened to rile everyone up against you?”

“My brothers and I had just come up on deck to take the midday watch,” the redhead replied. “That’s when MacMorrow came stormin’ on deck, claiming that I’d somehow stolen a double handful of silver out of the treasury. He got some of the others on board riled up, and you saw the rest of what happened. I mean, imagine that! As if I could spend the money I’m supposed to have stolen while on board ship!”

“It does seem that he jumped to conclusions awfully quick. That tells me there’s bad blood from before this incident. What’s the deal between you two?”

The redhead coughed into his hand. “It’s, ah, country matters, Captain.”

“Country matters?”

“He means that he and a lady were churning butter,” Ferris helpfully supplied. “Signaling the stork. That he was shakin’ the sheets. Conquering the pink fortress.”

Rory chuckled. “Oh, that last’s a rib tickler! Hadn’t heard that one before.”

“All right,” Caleb continued on doggedly. “You shook the sheets with someone that MacMorrow didn’t want you, ah, churning butter with. I’ll go out on a limb and guess it was his sister.”

“Aye, his sister. And, ah, his mum.”

That got Caleb’s attention. “You’re…quite the overachiever, Rory.”

“Well, her husband had died many years ago!” the young man said quickly. “As for havin’ both mum and sister…it wasn’t at the same time! I’ve got some sense in me!”

“Some, yes. Enough? That’s an open question.”

Captain, I’d have thought that bygones were just that when the servant of Myr rounded us up and shipped up to Irongrasp for slaughter. But now that we’re free…”

“Old scores can pop up again.” Caleb let out a sigh. “All right, I see why MacMorrow would jump to thinking the worst of you.”

“Maybe he figures you’re the one who’s been eating the contents of the treasury,” Ferris put in. “I thought you daft when you first brought it up, but maybe there’s something to it.”

The deck planks underfoot shifted as Donal brought the Spitfire around on its new heading. The gentle breeze had held, and now that he had put the sloop running ahead of the wind on a broad reach, she started to pick up speed.

Sienna emerged from the door beneath the helmsman’s wheel and came over to join Caleb, Ferris, and Rory. Her face was at turns grim and confused.

“Captain,” she announced, “it looks like MacMorrow was partially correct about a double-handful of silver coins missing from one chest.”

Caleb gave her a look. “Partially?”

“Before I had MacMorrow bring over the treasure from the Dromos Bay, we had two chests in the treasury closet. One lay ajar, which is probably why the man opened it. I opened the second, which also had a sizeable scoop of silver missing.”

“How many coins?”

“I’d have to do a detailed count to tell you exact, Captain. But off the top of my head, I’d say fifty from each chest, at least.” Sienna pursed her lips before going on. “Even stranger, both the silver chests were unlocked when I checked them.”

“Well, they’d have to be unlocked. How else would you get to the silver inside?”

“Aye, but anyone possessing a key and a lick of sense would know better than to leave them unlocked. Their theft would’ve gone unnoticed for longer. Maybe long enough for us to find a port where they could spend their loot.”

That’s a fair bit of speculation, Caleb thought. If even your own Captain doesn’t know when we’ll be putting into port, that’s one heck of a gamble.

Right then, his brain threw in one extra curve.

What if whoever it was didn’t care about spending it? What if they just wanted to eat it?

All of a sudden, the pieces started falling into place in Caleb’s head.

The image of a little dragon covered from head to toe in glossy sunflower-yellow scales popped into his mind. She had an intelligent face that reminded him in parts of a dog or a fawn. Twin horns sprouted from her head, and a pair of sleek golden wings lay furled on her back.

“My name is Daffodil, Sir Knight,” she said, in a cute little-girl’s voice.

A brand new character screen popped up when he squinted at her.

Name: Daffodil Class: Rogue Alignment: True Neutral Alloy Dragon-Specific Specialties: Unique to Species (100) Rogue Sub-Specialties: Sneak Attack, Evasion, Stroke of Luck Existing Buff / Debuffs: Impulsive Nature. (Effects variable) Potential Buff / Debuffs: Vulnerable to Intimidation, Ennui. (Effects variable)

But I brought her back to King Nevin after I ‘rescued’ the princess, didn’t I?

Caleb remembered the King shoving the little dragon into one of the page’s arms. “Take her away and bring the Corsair here his reward!”

The page bowed, then turned to carry his burden off down one of the castle’s corridors.

“Goodbye, Captain Ledger,” Daffodil said softly, waving one forepaw as she was carried off. “Thank you for rescuing me...”

Didn’t I?

A short time after the page had taken her away, he and Nevil had continued to negotiate over the miserly pile of gold coins placed in an open chest.

The chest’s open lid had fallen shut with a thump.

Didn’t I?

Back on board the Spitfire, the chest tipped over with a crash. The lid hung askew, and the small pile of coins spilled out. Caleb blinked. Shaw must’ve set it down at an odd angle.

In his mind, he saw Daffodil’s eyes gleam as she boasted, “If I don’t want someone to find me, it’s not like I can’t do something about it. I’m aces over kings at hiding!”

His mind went back to one line on the dragon’s Character Sheet.

Alloy Dragon-Specific Specialties: Unique to Species (100)

What are those Alloy Dragon Specific Abilities? Caleb asked himself.

He thought back to watching Daffodil as she made her sinuous way over to the bars at the far end of the cell. With four quick snaps of her jaws, she bit through a pair. The bars fell away with a clang.

Could those abilities include not just biting through…but consuming metal? And if she can eat metal, what does she leave behind?

“…and so we’re at least a hundred pieces of silver short now,” Sienna concluded.

Caleb blinked as his attention came back to the present.

“I wouldn’t be too worried about coming out on the wrong end of things,” he said, as he pulled the kerchief back on the object he held in his hands a little more.

His quartermaster’s eyes went wide at the sight.

“By Lir’s beard!” she breathed. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Solid gold, yes. And given that gold’s twenty times more valuable than silver, I think we’re coming out ahead on this one.”

“But…how?”

One more memory flashed through Caleb’s mind.

Just as he was settling in to sleep in his great cabin, he’d caught a flicker of movement at the edge of his vision. He peered as best he could up at the rafters that made up the cabin’s roof. He looked over to his friends, but Shaw remained asleep, and Tavia hadn’t looked up from her work.

“I think I have an idea.” Caleb turned to the two young men. “Rory, you had nothing to do with the thefts. Ferris, the Captain always has the first claim on any gold treasure. I’ll take it and compensate the crew’s shares in silver. And I’ll see that you get an extra two hundred silver as a finder’s fee.”

“Aye, thank you Captain!” Ferris replied.

“I want both of you up on the afterdeck, even if it’s not your duty station right now. Sienna, I'd like for you to join them,” he added, as he handed her cutlass back. “Keep these two from mixing it up with the rest of the crew again until I address everyone.”

He got a trio of Yezzirs at that.

“And what about you, Captain?” Sienna asked.

“I need to check on something in my quarters,” he replied. “Be ready, I may call for you shortly.”

With that, Caleb turned and limped towards his cabin as quickly as his wounded leg would permit.