Brotherband 4: Slaves of Socorro by John Flanagan

the ship.
    ‘I do indeed.’ Then, without further preamble, he said, ‘How would you like to go to Araluen?’
    Stig and Hal looked at each other in surprise. Whatever they might have expected from Erak, this definitely hadn’t been on the list. Stig recovered first.
    ‘What for?’ he asked.
    Erak shrugged. ‘Well, for eight or nine months. That’s the usual term.’
    ‘I think he meant why?’ Hal said.
    ‘Oh, I see. Well, you know we assign a ship each year as the duty ship in Araluen?’
    The two boys nodded. It had been a longstanding practice, since the treaty brokered years before by two Rangers and the royal princess of the western kingdom.
    ‘I’ve heard about it. I’m not sure what it entails,’ Hal said, glancing at Stig, who shrugged.
    ‘Basically, I place a ship at the disposal of King Duncan,’ Erak told them. ‘If he needs to get people somewhere in a hurry, the duty ship takes them. Our wolfships are faster than anything they have in the Narrow Sea.’
    ‘And Heron is faster than any of the other wolfships,’ Stig put in.
    Erak turned a heavy-browed frown on him.
    ‘With the possible exception of Wolfwind , of course,’ Stig added diplomatically.
    ‘Exactly,’ the Oberjarl agreed. Then the frown disappeared. ‘In addition, the duty ship patrols the Narrow Sea for King Duncan and takes care of any smugglers, pirates or slavers in the area.’
    ‘Are there many of those?’ Hal asked.
    Erak nodded. ‘Oh yes. Since we gave up raiding, other countries have swarmed in to fill the gap. Sonderlanders, some Magyarans, of course, and corsairs from the Constant Sea. Iberian slavers are a problem, too. What is your dog doing?’ he said, abruptly changing the subject.
    Hal looked down. Kloof had wriggled forward and was licking Erak’s prized walking staff, where it rested against his chair.
    ‘She appears to be licking your . . . walking stick.’
    ‘Well, tell her to stop,’ Erak said. He had considered shoving the dog away with his foot, but she was a very big dog, after all. ‘And it’s an official staff, not a stick,’ he added, with some dignity.
    ‘Cut it out, Kloof!’ Hal snapped. She looked at him, a guilty expression on her face, and he gestured for her to get away from Erak’s chair.
    ‘Go on! Out of it!’
    Reluctantly, she moved back, her tail lowered. She lay on her side again and sighed heavily.
    ‘You were saying?’ Hal asked.
    Erak nodded and resumed. ‘Oh yes. Well, there’ll be bags of things to do. Quite a bit of fighting, chasing slavers, catching smugglers, that sort of thing. Should suit your boys down to the ground.’
    ‘Certainly sounds better than playing nanny to the fishing fleet,’ Stig said.
    ‘We’re right in the middle of re-rigging her,’ Hal said. ‘That’ll take a few days.’
    ‘No rush,’ Erak said. ‘You can wait until after the festival if you like. That’ll still give you time to get round Cape Shelter before the Summer Gales set in.’
    ‘In that case, we’ll take the job,’ Hal said.
    Erak cocked his head. ‘Don’t want to speak to the others about it?’
    Hal paused, but it was Stig who answered.
    ‘Hal’s our skirl. We go where he says.’
    Erak nodded, impressed. That was the way he had run his ship when he was skirl. He sighed. Sometimes those days seemed so long ago.
    ‘That’s settled then. I have some dispatches to send to Duncan. I’ll get those to you in the next day or so. Then you can head off after the festival.’
    Hal and Stig grinned at each other. They both felt a stirring of anticipation. The prospect of a new mission, a long way from home, appealed to their adventurous spirits. They stood to go, shaking hands with the Oberjarl.
    ‘Speaking of ships,’ Erak said, ‘have you seen Tursgud’s?’
    The eager grins faded from the two boys’ faces. Tursgud, their nemesis during brotherband training, had turned out badly since losing the brotherband title to the Herons. He had become surly and