Tahn relaxed, and a twisted smile came over his narrow face.

"It will be a short fight," he said softly.

III

Aqua's sizzling sun was getting hazy as it settled behind lower Pelo Head, outlining the violent peaks like teeth in some savage jaw. Ward stood on the bridge of the first-liner, Bad Weather, and watched the fleet and the late returning gliders. He never failed to marvel at these ships—sleek, sea-flying catamarans, steady, tall and wonderously beautiful. Their twin hulls skimmed the seas with hardly a roll. Their speed was something you had to feel to believe.

He watched the second-liner. South Bird, come around to catch her glider.

Both soaring upwind, they aimed for an intersection. As they drew closer, two long booms with netting between were extended over the stern. Slowly they angled together. When it appeared that the glider would crash the bridge it pulled up, stalled and fell softly into the net.

He never failed to exhale a long breath after such a landing—catching, rather.

Launching was even more spectacular. The ship raced out on fast beam reach with its glider poised upwind on its two poles. Then a streaking corvette hissed up under the stern, swung slightly upwind, caught the braided stretch-line and actually yanked the glider aloft. Ward was quite sure it was something he never wanted to try.

The Bad Weather was coming around now. He caught the white flash of her glider high downwind. Tahn came to stand by him, his quick, cat-like motions betraying his eagerness.

"They bring more news," he grinned. "The Grimnal in Anda Bay is starting to raise sail."

Ward frowned.

"They think to trap us between them. Perhaps they expect us to race into the Passage after dark."

Tahn coughed his pleased cough.

"But our—uh—tactics, is it? They are to keep out of the Passage?"

Ward smiled.

"For now. We fight them as two separate fights, not as one. We will overwhelm each in turn."

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