‘When I was young I fell in love with the sea. So much so that all I wanted to do was be on it. But my parents would not hear of such a thing. They wanted me to be a merchant like my cousin Almer back in Muslvik.’ He gave a little shake of his head. ‘So I ran away from home and joined a ship as a cabin boy.’

‘Your parents must have been worried.’

‘Yes, they were. But after a few years at sea I returned. My father and mother were overjoyed to have me back. But they realised there was seawater, not blood, running through my veins and so they used their savings to buy me a share in this vessel. Eventually, after making many voyages, I managed to buy the rest of the ship and became her sole owner.’

‘What’s it called, your ship?’

‘She is called Ra’magulsha.’ He smiled when the boy repeated the name, struggling a little to wrap his lips around the strange vowel sounds. The captain patted the mast as if he were petting some giant beast. ‘The name comes from the story of a princess who once lived in the lands I am originally from.’

‘What happened to her?’ Lann asked.

‘When she was a maiden she fell in love with a merman. But their love was doomed. The young merman, Langorel, could not leave the ocean, and Ra’magulsha could not leave the land. One day, while out in her father’s sailboat, the vessel ran into a huge storm. The princess fell into the sea and sank down into its inky depths where she drowned. Langorel found her. He breathed life back into her, and they were finally together beneath the waves.’

‘Then it strikes me as a strange name to give to a sailing vessel,’ Lann said after a few moments of silence.

‘Why so?’

‘She sank and died …’

‘No, little man. She gave herself up to the ocean and finally got the one thing she had always wanted. A sailor is the same. He gives himself to the sea and hopes it will give back.’

‘And does it?’

‘Sometimes. But more often than not, it takes.’

Lann was about to say something else when a great shout went up above him from the crew member placed high in the rigging as a lookout. ‘Ship ahoy!’ the man shouted. The two words had a disturbing effect on the crew and their captain. Men shouted out to each other, moving around the deck and in the rigging with renewed speed as they went about their work. Lann could sense the tension, a shiver of nervous excitement and fear running through him.

‘Where away?’ Fariz called up to the man. The lookout pointed to his left.

Captain Fariz mumbled something under his breath about gold and women and bad luck as he pushed past Lann, heading towards the port side so he might see the vessel for himself.