"Sweet Mary," breathed Mungo. "A falling star."

It arched across the sky, its tail undulating in a blaze of white and yellow. The whole of it sizzled as if the air around it were on fire, and it seemed to Elizabeth as wide as the sky itself and as bright as the sun.

"White panther in the sky," said Nathaniel, his voice hoarse with excitement.

"Aye," Mungo whispered. "He roars."

It did roar, but more faintly as the star spun to the east. They watched, the three of them focused on the sight of it until the ferocious light disappeared into the sea.

Elizabeth said, "Do you think anyone else saw it?"

"No," said Nathaniel, still staring at the spot where it had disappeared. "The sign was meant for us."

He looked down at her, and for the first time in so many weeks he smiled, really smiled, his teeth sparkling white in the dark.

"A sign," Elizabeth repeated. After more than a year with Nathaniel she was still sometimes taken by surprise by his faith in things she would have once dismissed summarily: unseen worlds; dreams that evoked truths beyond the ones that could be dissected by reason; a sky that opened itself to offer faith and speculation.

"Is it a good sign, then?"

"The best kind before battle," Nathaniel said. He covered her hand and squeezed it hard.

Mungo glanced between them. "Battle? Surely ye canna mean ye want tae fight Carryck."

Nathaniel nodded. "If that's what it takes to get home."

The boy licked his lips nervously, glanced up at the quiet sky and back to Nathaniel. He started to say something and then stopped.

"Mungo?" Elizabeth tried to catch his eye, but he would not look at her. "What is it?"

"I'm feart for ye." He frowned, and ground a knuckle hard into his eye. "I'm feart for ye if ye stay and I'm feart for ye should ye slip awa' and head for hame."

Nathaniel's expression hardened. "Say what you've got to say, Mungo."

The boy's face crumpled suddenly. "Carryck will come after ye, and he willna be alone. The earl wants ye alive, ye see, but John Campbell o' Breadalbane wants ye daid."

Nathaniel's expression was almost one of relief, to hear finally what he had suspected. "Tell me what you know of this business."

Mungo's face drained of color until it was so white that it seemed to have soaked up the moonlight itself.

Elizabeth could hardly breathe. "Mungo, please. Think of the children. Please help us."

"I owe ye my life, missus, I ken that weel enough." He let out a whistling sigh and met Nathaniel's gaze. "I can tell ye only what every man on this ship kens already. Some years syne, the earl's dauchter Isabel ran off tae marry Walter Campbell o' Loudoun."

Nathaniel jerked back. "Carryck has a living daughter?"

Mungo's voice shook. "He disowned her when she eloped wi' a Campbell o' the Breadalbane line. Wi'oot a male heir all Carryck falls intae John Campbell's hands. That canna happen, ye mun understan', and it willna happen, sae lang as there's a man alive under Carryck tae fight."

Nathaniel pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "Are you saying that all this--kidnapping women and children, the loss of a ship with two hundred men aboard, and devil knows what else--that it was all to keep his money away from his own daughter because she married into this Breadalbane clan?"

"No!" Mungo's voice wavered and broke. "It's got naethin' tae do wi' money. It's the land. Can ye no' understand? Carryck and every man who ever swore him an oath wad die tae keep the Scot territories free o' the Campbells."

Nathaniel's brow creased. "What does it matter to the men who sweat in Carryck's fields who owns the land?"

"Nathaniel," Elizabeth said, as calmly and firmly as she could. "Surely you understand the concept of a blood feud. You have told me similar stories of the Hodenosaunee."

"No," Nathaniel said, his jaw set hard. "There's something else going on here. I can smell it, and I'll wager Mungo can tell us what it is."

The boy's shoulders rolled forward, and his gaze darted away into the shadows. When he looked at them again, he was calm. "If I had anythin' tae tell ye that wad keep ye safe, I wadna keep it tae masel'. And that's aye true."

The bosun's voice came to them, raised in conversation with the marine on watch. Mungo sent them a pleading look and slipped away silently.

When the watch had passed and they were alone again, Nathaniel put his arm around Elizabeth and pulled her close. "Boots," he said, his voice ripe with satisfaction. "Our luck is turning."

"I trust you are right. At least things are starting to make some sense now."

He grunted, a low and comfortable sound. "You can't fool me. You might believe in me, but you can't believe in a sign out of the sky."

She tugged on his sleeve. "What do you mean, Nathaniel Bonner, with "might." Of course I believe in you. I have never doubted you for a moment."

With a little laugh, Nathaniel pulled her face up to his. "Slippery as ever. Listen, Boots. It's time for you to go below."

She ducked her head away. "For me to go below? And where will you be?"

"I've got business with MacKay," he said.

He kissed her, a hard stamp of his mouth. His stubble raked her cheek and then he put his lips to her ear, nipping there so that a ripple ran down her spine to the small of her back. "I'll be with you at sunrise. I swear it."