diff --git a/pkg/compressio/compressio.go b/pkg/compressio/compressio.go
index f8e92fa96..dfd86869d 100644
--- a/pkg/compressio/compressio.go
+++ b/pkg/compressio/compressio.go
@@ -690,27 +690,30 @@ func (w *Writer) Write(p []byte) (int, error) {
 		pendingInline = 0
 	)
 	callback := func(c *chunk) error {
-		if pendingPre == 0 && pendingInline > 0 {
+		if pendingPre > 0 {
+			pendingPre--
+			err := w.flush(c)
+			c.uncompressed.Reset()
+			bufPool.Put(c.uncompressed)
+			return err
+		}
+		if pendingInline > 0 {
 			pendingInline--
 			return w.flush(c)
 		}
-		if pendingPre > 0 {
-			pendingPre--
-		}
-		err := w.flush(c)
-		c.uncompressed.Reset()
-		bufPool.Put(c.uncompressed)
-		return err
+		panic("both pendingPre and pendingInline exhausted")
 	}
 
 	for done := 0; done < len(p); {
 		// Construct an inline buffer if we're doing an inline
 		// encoding; see above regarding the bytes.MinRead constraint.
+		inline := false
 		if w.buf.Len() == 0 && len(p) >= done+int(w.chunkSize) && len(p) >= done+bytes.MinRead {
 			bufPool.Put(w.buf) // Return to the pool; never scheduled.
 			w.buf = bytes.NewBuffer(p[done : done+int(w.chunkSize)])
 			done += int(w.chunkSize)
 			pendingInline++
+			inline = true
 		}
 
 		// Do we need to flush w.buf? Note that this case should be hit
@@ -720,6 +723,9 @@ func (w *Writer) Write(p []byte) (int, error) {
 			if err := w.schedule(newChunk(nil, nil, nil, w.buf), callback); err != nil {
 				return done, err
 			}
+			if !inline {
+				pendingPre++
+			}
 			// Reset the buffer, since this has now been scheduled
 			// for compression. Note that this may be trampled
 			// immediately by the bufPool.Put(w.buf) above if the