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eyes glinted a little. He put down the fork and drank a little more beer. “I hadn’t heard that.”
    “During my short stay in the mainstream world I discovered that there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about the Community.”
    “Such as?”
    She flushed. She was not about to bring up the misconceptions about HE attitudes toward sex, at least not while he was eating her lasagna.
    “Never mind,” she said. “You know, I’ve got a picture of the original Harry Sebastian in my shop. I sell a lot of prints as souvenirs. You look just like your ancestor. But I’ll bet you get that a lot.”
    “Let’s just say that when I walked down the main street of Shadow Bay yesterday a couple of kids wanted to know if I was the ghost of Harry the Pirate.”
    “Can’t blame them. According to the legends, he never made it off the island after he buried his treasure. They say his ghost walks the Preserve at night.”
    The first Harry Sebastian was a legend in the islands of the Amber Sea and, as was usually the case with legends, very few hard facts had survived. Most historians were convinced that he was nothing more than a notorious buccaneer who had preyed on shipping and the tiny island townsduring and immediately after the lawless Era of Discord.
    But here in the islands, there were those who claimed that he had been a hero—if a mercenary one—who, for a price, had protected ships and the small communities from the real pirates. It all depended on your point of view, Rachel thought.
    The only aspect of the story that everyone agreed upon was that the original Harry had vanished after burying his treasure. The most popular theory was that his partner in the pirate-hunting business, Nicholas North, who had accompanied him on the treasure-burying excursion, had murdered Harry inside what was now the Preserve. According to the tales, North had not made it out of the forbidden territory, either. He was presumed to have fallen victim to the strange forces at work in the dark part of the island.
    “A few minutes ago you said there were a lot of misconceptions about the Harmonic Enlightenment community,” Harry said.
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Well, there are a few misconceptions—or maybe I should say historical inaccuracies—in my great-grandfather’s legend.”
    “Of course,” Rachel said. “It’s the nature of legends to become inaccurate over time. That’s what makes them interesting. What are some of the misconceptions about your ancestor?”
    Harry took another bite of the lasagna. “Let’s start with the fact that he did not diehere on Rainshadow. His partner, North, did not murder him. Both men made it off the island after they buried the so-called treasure.”
    “I sure hope you don’t go spreading that word around town. It would be very bad for business. I sell gazillions of copies of the
Tales of Harry Sebastian
to the tourists. The books are a young adult series written by a local author named Jilly Finch. She works part-time in my shop. We could both be ruined if you squelch the legend.”
    “Don’t worry; legends always survive the truth.”
    “Good point,” Rachel said. “So what really did happen to Harry One and Nick North?”
    “The Era of Discord was almost over by the time they came ashore with the treasure. They saw the writing on the wall. The days of pirate hunting for fun and profit were coming to an end, and they had both collected a sizeable circle of enemies.”
    “Not surprising. Pirating is probably the kind of business that attracts enemies.”
    “Got news for you, anyone who runs a successful, highly profitable business attracts enemies sooner or later,” he said.
    “Really? Do they teach that in business management school?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t go into finance or business management. I left that for others in my family. I got stuck with the same talent that Harry the Pirate had, so my options were fairly limited.”
    “You mean you could be