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back to her passenger. Lau Cheung Fen, like Devorast, stood over the unconscious bodies of drunken dockhands. “Miss Ran,” Devorast said.
    She turned back to face him, sheathed her sword, and said, “Master Devorast, is good to see you once again.” Lau Cheung Fen stepped up behind her, and she added, “May I present my passenger, the honorable Lau Cheung Fen of Liaopei.”
    “Mister Lau,” he said. “Are you injured? Do you need any further assistance?”
    “Your manner…” Lau said. “So like Shou.” Devorast just looked at him.
    “We will require a crew to unload our cargo,” Ran Ai Yu answered. “These men tried to…” She paused, searching for the word.
    “Who is this manfLau asked her in Kao te Shou, their native tongue.
    She looked at Devorast, but detected no outward trace that he was offended by Lau’s speaking in front of him in a language he did not understand.
    “Master Ivar Devorast is the man who created the great Jie ZuoV’she answered in the Common Tongue of Faerun.
    “Ah,” Lau responded, and his head bent low on that strange long neck of his. His eyes glittered black in the sunshine. “You are the great genius. It is truly an honor to meet you, Master Devorast.”
    “Master Lau is a most important dignitary from my province,” Ran said in hopes that she could help Devorast frame his response properly.
    “Thank you, Master Lau,” Devorast said, but his eyes stayed on Ran Ai Yu.
    “You have built many such ships, then,” Lau said. “I should purchase a number of them. Though my home is far
    from the sea, many in Shou Lung have commented on the strange and wonderful ship of Ran Ai Yu, and would pay much for one of her kind.”
    “There are no more of her kind,” Devorast said before Ran could say the same thing.
    “You have sport of me,” said her passenger.
    “No,” Ran Ai Yu cut in. “He has built only this one, and will build no more like her.”
    “This is true?” he asked Devorast.
    “It is,” was the Faerunian’s only reply.
    “7s this some secret the white men seek to keep from us?” Lau asked in Kao te Shou.
    “With apologies, Master Devorast,” she said, then turned to Lau. “It is no secret. He is a very unusual man, and that is all. He will likely find it rude, however, if we continue to speak in a language he does not understand. With respect, Master Lau, he is a friend and important trade contact.”
    “Indeed,” Lau replied, then bowed to Devorast. “Please accept my most humble apologies for my rudeness, Master Devorast. Perhaps you would be so kind…if you no longer build your tile ships, what is it that occupies you? Perhaps if it is one of a kind as well, I might have it instead.”
    “It’s a canal,” Devorast replied.
    The two Shou merchants exchanged a glance.
    “Pardon me,” Lau said. He asked Ran Ai Yu, “Kuh-nahl?” She gave him the word in their language, and he nodded. “Well, then I will not be able to take it with me. Pray, where is this canal?”
    “Northwest of here,” he replied.
    “To connect the Lake of Steam with your great Inner Sea,” Ran Ai Yu said. Devorast nodded.
    “This will be a mighty boon to trade,” said Lau.
    “For me,” said Devorast, “it’s a canal.”
    “I should like to see it,” Ran Ai Yu said. A memory tickled the edge of her consciousness—a similar conversation that she had had with Devorast when she’d last seen him.
    “I should like to show it to you,” he said. “But in the meantime, we should see to a dock crew for you.”
    “Is this the way trade is always conducted here? With such violence?” asked the tall merchant—a man Ran Ai Yu had her suspicions was no human at all. He gestured to the fallen dockhands, some of them beginning to rise.
    “It was not so when I was last here, two years and three months ago,” said Ran.
    “They made a mistake,” Devorast said.
    Ran Ai Yu smiled.
    7___
    20Alturiak, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) The Canal Site
    When she first saw the