Gunnar emerged on deck wearing his cutlass and not much else.

Night had fallen, and there was still not a cloud in the sky. He was barefooted and bare-chested, wearing only a pair of trousers and his sheath. Bumped, pinkish scars lined his chest, leaving tracks of bare skin where the hair no longer grew. Day-old stubble coated his face, and the twin braids of his mustache hung low. The locks of his long, black hair rested on his back.

Only a few of the Gryphon II's sailors were ...