They boarded the ship the next morning. Aidan was half blinded by sunlight, and was glad of Flame's hand guiding him aboard. He was gladder still when they descended below decks. There were only two small cabins for the seven of them to share. Lavasida, Aidan, and Flame took the smaller, windowless cabin while the other four shared the slightly larger cabin with little portholes that looked out just above the water line.

The first day passed without incident. Aidan slept most of it away. The night was uneventful as well. It was even rather pleasant. Aidan had suffered from seasickness all his life, but apparently vampires were immune to that particular problem, because he felt not even the least twinge as the ship rocked and bobbed amid the waves. He sat on the deck, watching the waves go by, with Flame Song at his side and enjoyed the peaceful night.

Peace, however, was not to last. Mid-morning on the second day Aidan was awakened by someone calling his name. “Aidan! Aidan! Wake up!”

“Huh? What?” Aidan opened his eyes to see Lavasida bending over him, the other vampire’s sword drawn.

"Come! There is a battle up there, and we are needed."

Aidan jolted to full awareness and drew both his daggers. He followed the Dark Lord through the narrow passageway and up a steep stair onto the deck. In a glance Aidan took in the situation. A thick veil of fog, for which Aidan was profoundly thankful, hid the sun. The sky was still far too bright for his taste, but at least he wasn’t feeling the punishing blow of direct sunlight.

A second ship, which flew no flag, was grappled to their own ship. Scruffy men, presumably pirates, were pouring aboard the ship and the baron’s sailors were fighting them off with Aidan’s friends fighting alongside. Aidan quickly took to the air, gaining the high ground, and picked his first target. He hadn't fed for the last several days, so this was a welcome opportunity. One pirate quickly went down, dead or simply fainted from blood loss Aidan didn’t know. He caught a glimpse of white fur as he returned to the sky and looked down to see Flame dispatching a pirate. He also saw a second pirate behind her who, rather than closing with the deadly cat, had a dagger in his hand, pulled back to throw.

“Flame!” shouted Aidan, but before he could do anything the pirate had thrown the knife. It thudded into Flame’s side and she cried out. And then all of the sudden her form blurred and wavered and instead of a huge firecat there was a slender human woman standing there, unarmed but for a small dagger of her own.

The pirate grinned and drew a curved cutlass. Flame backed into the rail, having nowhere to retreat to. And Aidan dived, daggers drawn. He hit the pirate from behind, with the full force of his dive behind him and his left-hand dagger leading the way. The pirate and Aidan together crashed into the deck. Only Aidan got up. He pulled his dagger from the pirate’s heart and wiped it off on the dead man’s shirt.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes," said Flame. "It's not a terribly deep cut. What about you?”

“I…” Aidan started to say, “I’m fine,” but the fog had begun to break up and a beam of sunlight shone directly on the ship. Aidan gasped and collapsed, flattened to the deck by the hammer blow of pain and light. Flame looked up to see the other ship breaking off, cutting away the grapples and retreating back into the fog.

“Looks like we won. Guess I’d better get you back below deck.” She draped Aidan’s arm over her shoulder and hoisted him to his feet. She made a little noise of pain as the attempt to lift her husband sent a sharp twinge of pain through her wounded side.

“Here,” said a voice out of nowhere, “I’ll get the lad.” Aidan rose into the air apparently unsupported as the invisible Belak easily lifted the slight aerian.

“Thanks,” said Flame. Aidan just groaned. The sunlight was just about the most painful thing he’d ever felt. He felt as though his skin was on fire, though there was no visible reddening. But it wasn’t just his skin that hurt, it was his whole body. The sun seemed to pierce him and pass through him, reaching every bit of him. When at last Belak carried him down the hatch the cool darkness below was the best thing he'd ever felt.

“Here, I’m alright. Put me down.”

“Sure lad,” said the dwarf, putting Aidan back on his feet. “And now I’ll go fetch the cleric for you, lass,” added the voice from nowhere, and the tread of heavy booted feet was clearly audible going back up the stairs.

“Are you really alright?” asked Flame, clearly worried.

“Yeah. Sunlight doesn’t seem to do my any real damage, it just hurts like nothing else.”

“And you’re very lucky that it works that way here,” said a voice from the stairs. The Dark Lord, Lavasida, was descending. He let out a relived sigh as he reached the shadows. “Back on Aretha sunlight will burn you and it can even kill you. If you were there, you might well have died just then, and I most certainly would have. Then again, if we were on Aretha my amulet would be working and I wouldn’t have to suffer the pain of sunlight, and you would yet be a breathing man, quite immune to its effect.” He smiled a sharp-toothed smile. “There’s nothing you can slice so thin that there aren’t two sides to it.”

“How do you stand it?” asked Aidan.

“You’re young yet, and new to vampirism. You learn to deal with pain as you gain more experience. But then you’re not likely to remain a vampire long enough for it to make much difference.”

Just then Lon came down the stairs. “Belak told me Flame Song was injured?” he said, making the statement into a question.

“Yes. Not badly though. I got a dagger in the back. It didn’t go in very deep, and I was a firecat at the time.”

“It’s getting far too crowded in the hall,” said Lavasida, trying to avoid touching the cleric in the narrow passage.

“Come on, Aidan, let’s go back to our room.” Aidan nodded and made his way to their little cabin. He sat down on one of the two narrow beds in the room and relaxed.

“Lavasida,” he said, “do you ever want to be normal again?”

“Normal." The other vampire considered for a long moment before answering. "This is normal for me now. But... I do sometimes have regrets. I’ve never discussed this much. Who is there to speak to?” He favored his fellow vampire with a rare smile. “But I suppose you can understand this as well as any. There are occasionally things about being a mortal man that I miss, I’ll not deny it, but no. I wouldn’t trade in what I am now if I could. I did go through a stage where I regretted what I’d done very greatly. I chose to be a vampire, I sought it out, and I thought it was what I wanted. At first it was perfect, but as I grew older I came to see the negative side as well. I’ve given up many happy ordinary things.” There was a faint look of sadness in his eyes, and Aidan wondered what it was that the Dark Lord regretted. “But had I chosen to remain mortal I would now be more than five centuries dead, so I never would have…” he stopped suddenly and turned away. “Never mind.”

Aidan wanted to ask Lavasida what he’d meant, but he knew better than to pry. So he simply lay down on the bed. By the time Flame Song came into the room he was sound asleep.