The Shark, like the Swordfish and most other Maag vessels of that era, had preyed on the wallowing tubs of the Trogite Empire, although Captain Jodan, so far as Skell could remember, had never once used the word ‘Trogite’, preferring instead the word ‘Trog’. Skell always had to cover his mouth when his father said that. For some reason, the word ‘Trog’ always struck him as hilarious.

After Captain Jodan’s sons had served as officers on the Shark for a few years, the ship had hauled into the port of Weros to lay in a supply of fresh beans in the galley. Mildewed beans don’t really taste very good, and the crew had been growing increasingly grouchy.

Skell cleverly foisted the task of buying fresh beans off on Torl, and then he went off along the scabby-looking waterfront for a tankard or six of strong ale. He was more than a little startled when he saw cousin Sorgan working on a battered-looking old ship tied up against one of the long wharves jutting out into the bay. ‘Ho, Sorgan!’ he called out. ‘Have you decided to build them instead of sailing them now?’

‘Very funny, Skell,’ Sorgan growled, dropping the hammer he’d been using to pound caulking in between the obviously new boards that formed the deck. ‘This ship will be the Seagull - if Ox, Ham-Hand and I can plug up all the leaks in her hull. She doesn’t look too good yet, but give us a bit more time, and she’ll be mine.’ There was a definite note of pride in cousin Sorgan’s voice.

‘You actually broke down and bought your own ship, Sorgan?’ Skell asked, walking out on the dock.

‘I surely did, cousin,’ Sorgan replied. ‘From here on out, I’m going to be getting the captain’s share of the loot when we rob a Trogite ship.’

Skell looked the tired old ship over. ‘You’ve got quite a long way to go, cousin,’ he said skeptically. ‘Fixing her up is going to cost you a lot of money.’

Sorgan gave him a sly wink. ‘Money’s easy to come by here in Weros, Skell. A sailor who’s been out at sea for six months works up quite a thirst, and by midnight, he’s usually so far gone that he couldn’t see lightning or hear thunder if his life depended on it. When we start running short of money, I just send Ox and Ham-Hand out along the waterfront to troll for sailors who still have money in their purses.’

‘You’re a thief, Sorgan,’ Skell accused his cousin.

‘‘All Maags are thieves, Skell. The Trogites don’t just hand over their gold because they like our looks, you know. We have to threaten them to get what we want. Say hello to Torl and your papa for me, all right?’

‘First chance I get, cousin,’ Skell replied, giving Sorgan a brisk salute.

Sorgan thumbed his nose in reply, and they both laughed.

Business on board the Shark was very good for the next few years, and Skell observed that Captain Jodan was putting away sizeable chunks of his share of the booty. Then, shortly after Skell’s thirty-first birthday, Captain Jodan abruptly called his sons into his cabin.

‘I’ve had enough,’ he announced. ‘I’ve spent most of my life at sea, and I’m tired of it. I’m going to live on dry land, and that means that the Shark is yours now, Skell.’

Skell resisted a sudden impulse to jump up and dance on his father’s tired-looking old table.

‘There’s one stipulation, Skell,’ Captain Jodan advised his eldest son. ‘From now on, I get one fifth of everything you steal, and don’t try to cheat me. The first time you try something like that, I’ll sell the Shark right out from under you, and you’ll go back to being a common sailor.’

That ruined Skell’s sense of jubilation quite noticeably.

The crew of the Shark relaxed more than a little after Captain Jodan’s retirement, and Skell soon realized that he was going to have to quite firmly establish a few facts. First off, despite his youth, he was the captain of the Shark, and the crew would obey his orders. For some reason, the crew of the Shark didn’t seem to take him seriously, and that soured Skell even more.

Finally, Skell’s blond-haired brother Torl came into Skell’s cluttered cabin late one evening. ‘You’re not doing it right, big brother,’ Torl advised, seating himself at Skell’s dirty table. ‘You smile too much. The crew won’t take you seriously as long as you’ve got that silly grin on your face. If you want the crew to pay any attention to you, you’re going to have to try to look more like papa. He never smiled. Try to look grim and sour on the outside -even when you’re laughing on the inside.’

‘If I tried something like that, I’d explode, Torl.’

‘I don’t think you really will,’ Torl disagreed. ‘Just keep telling yourself that you’re hiding your real feelings from the crew. Then you can sneak back to your cabin here and laugh all you want to.’ Torl looked around the cabin. ‘It’ll give you something to do when you’re cleaning this mess up. If papa happened to stop by and see what you’ve done to his cabin, he’d skin you alive.’

‘I’ve been sort of busy here lately, Torl.’

‘Trying to find a clean shirt, maybe? Now then, don’t you think it’s just about time for us to get me a ship?’

‘What do you need a ship for?’

‘Let me put it to you in a different sort of way, big brother. Did you really want me to stay here on board the Shark? When you get right down to the bottom of things, I’m at least as ambitious and greedy as you are, and if you keep me here on the Shark, I might just start getting certain ideas that won’t make you the least bit happy. Do you get my drift?’

‘That’s mutiny, Torl!’

‘I think that’s the word people use sometimes, yes.’

‘How can I possibly buy you a ship, Torl? Papa’s taking one fifth of everything we steal right off the top.’

Torl shrugged. ‘We’ll have to steal my ship, then. Papa only wants gold. He wouldn’t have much use for one fifth of a ship -even if we could find a saw big enough to cut off part of it.’

Skell scratched his chin, squinting through one of the portholes in his cabin. ‘Gaiso, I think.’

‘I didn’t quite follow that.’

‘The crew of every ship that sails into Gaiso goes directly to the taverns - probably because the tavern-keepers of Gaiso don’t water down their grog like the keepers in other towns do. The few sailors who stay on board to guard the ship have barrels of that Gaiso grog on board to keep them pretty drunk as well. If we slip into the harbor of Gaiso along about midnight, you’ll be able to pick which ship you want, and we’ll steal it. If we put different colored sails on it and change a few other things as well, nobody’ll ever know that we stole it, will they?’