At first, I didn't believe him. A ship? Out here? After all those days on the open sea, it sounded almost too good to be true. But now a strange voice echoed down to us, calling in a language unknown to me to climb the ladder.

Eryon, with his superhuman hearing, had long since detected the ship—an eternity before I could have even discerned a dark shadow on the horizon. Without hesitation, he had grabbed the oars and steered us toward it with powerful, swift movements. But even with all his strength, it had taken another half hour before we were finally close enough to be heard and seen.

Now...