Unrak gave Nathel some very extended advice before the King of the Thulls was deposited in a seaport town in his own kingdom. The advice had to do with the need for Nathel to assert himself and to break free of the domination of his mother. Unrak didn't look all that optimistic after the young Thull departed.

The Seabird turned her course southward then, still following Greldik's wake as they ran along the barren, rocky coast of Goska in northeastern Cthol Murgos. "That's disgraceful, you know that?” Barak said to Garion one day, pointing at Greldik's vessel. "It looks like a floating shipwreck."

"Greldik uses his ship rather hard," Garion agreed. "I’ve sailed with him a few times.”

"The man has no respect for the sea," Barak grumbled, “and he drinks too much.”

Garion blinked. "I beg your pardon?" he said.

"Oh, I'll be the first to admit that I take a tankard of ale now and then, but Greldik drinks at sea. That's revolting, Garion. I think it might even be irreligious."

"You know more about the sea than I do," Garion admitted.

Greldik's ship and Seabird sailed through the narrow strait between the Isle of Verkat and the southern coasts of Hagga and Gorut. Since it was summer in the southern latitudes, the weather continued fair and they made good time. After they had passed through the dangerous cluster of rocky islets strung down from the tip of the Urga peninsula, Silk came up on deck. "You two have taken to living up here," he observed to Garion and Barak.

"I like to be on deck when we're in sight of land," Garion said. "When you can see the shoreline slipping by, it gives you the sense that you're getting somewhere. What's Aunt Pol doing?"

"Knitting." Silk shrugged. "She's teaching Ce'Nedra and Liselle how it's done. They're creating whole heaps of little garments."

"I wonder why," Garion said with a perfectly straight face.

"I’ve got a favor to ask, Barak," Silk said.

“What do you need? “

"I'd like to stop at Rak Urga. I want to give Urgit a copy of those accords, and Zakath made a couple of proposals at Dal Perivor that my brother really ought to know about."

"Will you help chain Hettar to the mast while we're in port?” Barak asked him.

Silk frowned slightly, then he seemed to suddenly understand. "Oh," he said. "I'd sort of forgotten that. It wouldn't be a very good idea to take Hettar into a city full of Murgos, would it?"

"A bad idea, Silk. Disastrous might come even closer."

"Let me talk with him," Garion suggested. "Possibly I can calm him down a bit."

"If you can manage that, I'll have you come up on deck and talk to the next gale we run into," Barak said. "Hettar's almost as reasonable as the weather where Murgos are concerned."