With his newfound friend, Samar, therefore, Kalesh soon learned the ways of the sea. Samar had a strong boat crewed by his two oldest sons and by several others, he knew the Sea of the South, and was a good man besides. Kalesh and his women had eaten at the dwelling of Samar and his wife and children, and they at Kalesh’s, and the bond was strong between the older, sunburnt trader and the boy who wore the ring of the giants. Samar, nodding calm and indulgent, seemed to understand the black-haired traveler’s wanderlust, for it was akin to what drove the sailor himself onward.
At first on short trips, and then later on longer ones, Samar took the boy where he would, showing him the use of oar and soon even the workings of sail. Most often they followed the shore, and yet he showed Kalesh as
