His ship held the center position, with others following in their wake. Distant shouts traveled over the relatively calm waters. They intermingled with the sounds pervading his ship. Heavy boots beat against the decking. Rope squealed in the pulleys as the crew adjusted the sails. Men bellowed at their mates scurrying up and down the masts. His people had always been masters of the sea so it should come as no surprise how natural everyone seemed. However, Kaz marveled at how quickly the Blue Island Clan sailors had taken a foreign ship’s design and made it their own.“What are you looking at?” asked Drake coming up on him.Kaz peeled his gaze away from the mizzenmast where one of the crew scurried upward like a squirrel. “Just thinking that if Nareash did anything positive for our people, it’s that he pushed us even past what my father attempted in innovation. Too bad we couldn’t have come across someone better to expose us to such things.”“Would you have accepted anyone else?”“It would have been my father’s decision.”
