- "You have as much chance of fitting in here as I do growing a second head, marrying myself, and moving to Corasan to start a pottery business."
- ―Horatio Nebevay[src]
Captain of the White Dragon, native of Ge'en who retains a sense of pride in his island people, and devotee of the cult of the Mo'Jaal. April first meets him in Marcuria's harbour, restive because his ship cannot sail.
A sarcastic man with a dry sense of humour, Nebevay treats April's greeting to him of "Ahoy!" with the contempt it deserves. The driving forces in his life are his duties as a captain - including delivery of his cargo on time and taking care of his crew - and his religious terror of the Mo'Jaal, whose precepts he follows closely. He appears, however, to be a devotee mainly because the "temple rates are very reasonable."
Nebevay was raised aboard ship, never spent more than a month ashore and never had a formal education, so he cannot read or write. When April tries to get him to sign her Delivery List, he attempts to get out of it by saying that, according to the teachings of the Mo'Jaal, writing his signature will sign away a piece of his soul. April has to negotiate this thorny theological issue and play some music on her flute to distract the Mo'Jaal while Nebevay scrawls his signature on her list. As Nebevay is illiterate, April just has him mark his name with a wobbly "X".
When April needs to get to Alais in a hurry, she manages to convince Umber Ianos to call in a favour from Nebevay on her behalf, which he is less than pleased about. It turns out Nebevay used to serve under Ianos when he still captained a ship, and at some point he saved Nebevay's life. Nebevay is also the one who sets April on her quest to defeat Roper Klacks, explaining that he cannot get to Ge'en while Klacks holds the wind prisoner (and no, they cannot row all the way to Ge'en, as April suggests). Once April defeats Klacks, brings back a vial of Wind Potion and finds Nebevay a navigator, Tun Luiec, The White Dragon sets sail.
Despite his bluff exterior, Nebevay cares deeply about his crew. Despite April's protests he turns aside from their course to Alais to protect his crew, vessel and cargo when a Chaos Storm threatens, and is furious when April confuses their compass to set them back on their original course. When the White Dragon founders on the reef and sinks, Nebevay leads the evacuation onto the magical life-raft, but deliberately leaves April clinging to the wreckage. According to Crow, his final words were " 'Aye, let the wench drown!'...or something, I could be mistaken."
Captain Horatio Nebevay is voiced by John Henry Cox.