Jan pulled himself to his feet and stood at the rail, watching as the shore faded from view. Despite his fear, he, too, felt a strange sense of elation. To be on the sea, with a friend like Samos and a ship that was as swift as the wind—this was a wonderful thing. Terrible danger might be waiting. But for the moment, for this one golden moment, he felt wild and free, and close to the edge of a question that was worth answering.

Samos came to stand beside him. “Sea air,” said the old man. “There’s nothing like it. Even living right on the shore you don’t get this. I’ve missed it.”

“But what is this ship?” asked Jan.

“I don’t know.”

“But you’re always telling me stories about the sea. You must have heard something about a ship like this.”

“Oh, ghost ships, certainly,” said the net maker. “But being empty and being a ghost ship are different things. I was on a ghost ship once. You could feel the death in the air—sense the dead men hovering around you. This is no ghost ship we’re riding, Jan.”

“Then what is it?”

Samos shook his head. “I wish I knew.”

They stood at the rail for a long time. Then, with Jan leading the way, they went to explore the ship. It was tight and trim, clean and polished. Belowdecks they found three good-size cabins. One had a trunk filled with weapons. Jan, delighted, chose both a dagger and a sword for himself. He had never owned a blade before and had always wanted one.

As he began to strap the sword to his waist, he saw something that made his fingers tremble. On the hilt of the sword was a blue enamel circle. Inside the circle was a gull in flight. Above the gull was a single star.

“What is it?” asked Samos, when he heard Jan’s gasp.

“This sword bears the sign of my family. What does it mean?”

He could not bring himself to ask the question that was really tearing at his heart: “Does it mean my father is dead?”

When Jan had recovered from his shock, they continued their exploration. They found a small galley. It was bare of food, which worried Jan until that night, when they entered again, planning to search for any crumb, and found a hot meal waiting for them.

Where the wine and cheese, the cool fruit and savory meat had come from they had no idea, and its strange arrival was almost as worrisome as the absence of food had been earlier. But they ate it anyway, and found it good indeed.

Later they went on deck, and Jan described the sky to Samos, who nodded and smiled as the boy talked in wonder of a darkness deeper than he had ever seen, and stars that twinkled more brightly than he had imagined possible.