A treasure ship.

Cangrus leaned forward conspiratorially. “You’ve heard of Countess Melithine?”

“The Queen of Whores? What of her?”

Melithine was one of the most famous sluts in the world. According to rumour, she had been born in a low-class slum brothel, but the gods had blessed her with beauty, cunning, ambition and an insatiable wanton appetite. By nineteen she was already a famous, high-class courtesan, with a reputation for being willing to do anything to please her customers, no matter how perverse. Now in her thirties, she was still said to have the beauty of a goddess, and any red-blooded man would be willing to pay a fortune for a night in her bed – which is what it would take. She whored herself to kings, nobles, archmages and merchant princes, although it was rumoured she’d also take as a lover anyone who caught her eye.

Lashiya had always admired what she’d heard about her. She’d hoped one day to meet the Queen of Whores – and to fuck her, of course. But she couldn’t see why Cangrus was bringing her up.

“Have you heard that she’s betrothed to Duke Torlak?” Torlak was the governor of the Kingdom of Ralenon’s colonies in the Thousand Isles. He was famously rich and decadent.

Lashiya laughed. “Good luck to him. He’ll end up like all the others.” Melithine had been married five times, each time to a higher ranking noble. And each of her husbands had died within a few years at most, slain in duels with her lovers or simply dying of exhaustion in the face of her endless sexual appetites.

“Ah, but that’s not the good part. The good part is I’ve heard a whisper about when she’s setting off to be with her adoring new fiancé. On a galleon laden with a fortune in treasure from her own personal funds, as well as the fortune that Torlak paid to get her to marry him. Not to mention the third fortune you’d get for Melithine at any **** market, or in ransom.”

Lashiya’s eyes lit u at the prospect. “Oh, Cangrus. When we next meet, I am going to fuck you half to ****. But right now–”

“You have a ship to catch?”

“Damn right!”