The Sea-Witch was not a vessel of refined pedigree. She was a merchant galley of considerable girth, constructed of dark, seasoned timber that groaned with a rhythmic, musical melancholy every time a swell caught her underbelly. She smelled of wet rope, salted cod, and the sharp, medicinal tang of pine resin used to patch her leaks. For Mordren, however, she was a sanctuary—a moving island of anonymity that promised a destination far removed from the watchful eyes of Aethelgard’s new, earnest, and—if he were being entirely honest—tediously virtuous bureaucracy.Mordren leaned against the polished mahogany railing of the captain’s walk, his fingers idly brushing the stiff, impeccably pressed cuffs of his slate-grey doublet. He had insisted on maintaining his standards of dress even here, amidst the grit of the Oribal docks. A man might wander the world as a nomad, but that was no excuse for

The Sea-Witch was not a vessel of refined pedigree. She was a merchant galley of considerable girth, constructed of dark, seasoned timber that groaned with a rhythmic, musical melancholy every time a swell caught her underbelly. She smelled of wet rope, salted cod, and the sharp, medicinal tang of pine resin used to patch her leaks. For Mordren, however, she was a sanctuary—a moving island of anonymity that promised a destination far removed from the watchful eyes of Aethelgard’s new, earnest, and—if he were being entirely honest—tediously virtuous bureaucracy.Mordren leaned against the polished mahogany railing of the captain’s walk, his fingers idly brushing the stiff, impeccably pressed cuffs of his slate-grey doublet. He had insisted on maintaining his standards of dress even here, amidst the grit of the Oribal docks. A man might wander the world as a nomad, but that was no excuse for