The Shark-Baiters had never as much as appeared on any map that Camicazi had ever. Of course, Camicazi never bothered with maps and much less anything that had to do men. But they were kin, as far kinship sort of matters went, and Camicazi had always been taught that one should not be too horrible to a man when there was something that one needed or wanted. The Shark-Baiters's island was settled to the south, a good scream's distance from her own. There was occasional communication, both out of necessity and pleasure, and both tribes knew an outsider attack on one tribe meant troubling both. Kinship and partnership worked that way.

She took a rowboat over the gap, one forgotten to the fisherwoman, one that no one would miss, and within minutes had landed on the Shark-Baiters' island. She hopped from the boat, her stomach already prepared for the sensation of the island under her feet. It was not covered in the usual sand or soil of every other home in the Archipelago, at least not entirely. The waves echoed up through the island's ground surface like they would through the bottom of a boat. Without waiting to ponder it she marched forward, enjoying the vibrations beneath her. Aught but a tree decorated this island—in fact, nothing strong at all but their best offerings of men. Out of the corner of her eye she looked to the south. Pure ocean blocking whatever lay elsewhere. And no men fishing that way today.

A few men were about, repairing the island by laying down the wooden beams stolen from destroyed ships. They looked up in suspicion as she approached, eyes watching with the question of just what Princess Camicazi was doing here. She supposed it had been months since she had set foot on this place.

At last one approached her. A big man—all the Shark-Baiters were as big as could be expected—neither tribe bothered to keep 'round a male who was not. Not this far west. She didn't know his name, of course, nor cared. "Camicazi," he said simply.

She looked up at him, sure to meet his eyes. Tiny as she was, he was still but a man. "I need a ship."

He laughed, a deep thunderous sound that in wonder did not crack his ribs. "Another woman comes knocking on our doors for her seafaring needs. Tell me, are you all too great with child?"

She considered kicking him, one swift leg-punch to the groin. She had yet to fathom how Shark-Baiters could be so disparaging of women. But as they were there was no question on the nature of the two tribes living together or not. A Bog-Burglar would never give up acknowledgement of superiority. "Shut up your male mouth and take me to my father before I break your sorry excuse for an island."

The man, still laughing, managed a nod and gestured her to follow. Which she did, silently and furiously. She'd make sure this particular man would never father another daughter.

"The island is growing bigger," the man said proudly as soon as he apparently no longer felt like laughing. "We're expanding to the south. A few more ship raids and we will have all the wood we need."

Camicazi mumbled something breathlessly in response, but could not keep her eyes from the edges of the island. Past the rag-tag assembly of huts the island did seem to have grown from the last time she had visited.

"At least men can build an isle from nothing."

Good job, she thought with some disgust.

At long last the arrived at her father's hut. The shack was merely that, a small thing, but according to Shark-Baiter tongue no true man really wanted to hide in a shelter when he should be out braving the elements. Every building on the island was as makeshift as the island itself. Without a word of thanks she shoved open the door. "Dad?"

No answer.

"He's out back." Another irritating deep laugh.

She rolled her eyes, considered again a groin kick, and stomped to the back of the hut.

Her father saw her first. He had a shark stretched out between a couple of poles, all kinds of fish juice dripping into a trough as his bone knife skimmed over the thick shark skin. With a mere turn of his head he glanced at her, hand and knife moving all the while.

"Hi, Dad!" she said sweetly. Her father was one of the few men she could tolerate, even respect. Her mother had certainly picked a fine one in finding a father for her daughter and heir.

"My own heart!" he declared. In a single moment the knife scraped a large load of skin from the shark then flashed back to his belt where five other identical knives waited. In another single moment he had her in his arms and right up above his head, which was no joking matter. He was a large man, of course, the largest and most powerful of the Shark-Baiters. True enough, neither Shark-Baiter or Bog-Burglar bothered to keep around a male who wasn't up to a few tough jobs, but her father Seasblood was terrifying huge, bigger even than Bertha. His hair was light brown, grown pale from years under the harsh northern sun, hardly a shade different from his weathered skin. He was covered in scars and burns, battle souvenirs from sealife and seafarers alike; the Shark-Baiters kept themselves busy that way. The most impressive was a missing chunk of flesh where his right shoulder should have been. Camicazi had yet to be told that story.

She tolerated the childish toss in the air, even enjoyed it, though it was over almost as soon as it began. Neither tribe was much for superfluous displays of affection.

"So," Seasblood said, returning her to the ground, "what is the nature of this joyous occasion?"

She looked up at him, making sure to meet his eyes with all the seriousness she could summon. "I'm looking for someone to father a daughter."

She did so much like the way his eyes bugged out of his head.

"You're not even sixteen years of age yet."

She shrugged and nodded and made her way over to the shark's body, where she wrapped her finger around a flap of skin for study. "So? In the east, even on the continent, that doesn't matter. Proper marriages are made, nice and early."

"Women are all but useless there," he said with a snort.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Don't expect me to give much praise to your tribe, Camicazi, but we'll keep our peace and you keep yours. No man on my island will be yours until you've proved yourself. Your Burgle-Bane is completed, I doubt it."

"I choose not to bother with such things."

"You're not even accepted into that silly tribe yet."

At that point she could keep a straight face no longer. She burst out laughing and after a few moments of shock Seasblood joined in as well.

"A ship," she said when she had regained control. "All I want is a ship."

The relief in his face was even more than she had expected. "A ship. Smart girl, you are. Not going to bother with one of those crummy ships your mother's people makes, are you?"

She shook her head. Pride in the Bog-Burglars be damned, she wanted a true seafarer's boat. "I want one of yours, of course. In this case I'll tolerate something a man has to make."

He did not seem to be offended. "For your Burgle-Bane, then?"

She nodded. "I'm setting out as soon as I have a ship."

"And what makes you think I'm going to give a shrimp girl like yourself one of my ships? What makes you think I'm going to put one of my beauties in the hands of a female?"

She put forth her best smile. As useless as men could be and as strange and twisted the relationship with them she was beginning to understand just how to work with them. "Because, Dad, it's me. Camicazi."

He laughed, and Camicazie realized he was merely keeping the ship back from her for his own amusement. "I'll give you a ship, then, if you promise not to destroy it in your idiotic ways of women."

"Any woman can properly handle a ship!"

He rolled his eyes at that comment. "Sure they can. Sure they can take a tubby boat and make it float between a few islands, but I bet none of your tribe has done much more than that."

"I just might."

"Open ocean darker than any of the seas in the Archipelago. No woman can handle that stretch of nothing." Seasblood continued laughing, his wide chest shaking with each gasp. "Come."

The dead shark behind them, Camicazi followed her father from the island's center down to its makeshift dock where four of the Shark-Baiters' ships waited. She had seen the men's work a few times before, but never so close and it was hard to fight back the spark of envy igniting deep inside. Her mother had always mocked the men's ships, called them nothing but too much attention to things that don't matter, but Camicazi was more than certain one of those could survive the journey she intended to take. Though the men had their larger ships, crafts meant for half-determined expeditions, these were of the smaller variety, hardy vessels meant for small-but-tough crews, the kind with more bravery and attitude than their size suggested. Camicazi liked them immediately.

"What is a tiny thing like you plotting for her Burgle-Bain?" Seasblood asked as he stopped on the dock just before the first boat.

"It's a secret."

"Women are always full of secrets," he muttered under his breath. Louder, he continued "I hope that means something saga-worthy and not some suggestion you have no idea what you're doing."

"I'm sure you'll love it, Dad. I might even let you see what I bring back."

"More useless trinkets? Does your kind do anything but steal pretty things?"

She shook her head. "A Bog-Burglar never misses a chance to steal."

Seasblood hopped into the first boat, touched and rapped on its various parts, then hopped right back out with a shake of his head. "Onto the next one."

Camicazi wondered if he planned on giving her a good ship or the worst one, something he wouldn't miss. It would be just like a man to do the latter. Ah, well, if her father pulled a stunt like that she would just return later and steal exactly what she liked. "A trader came by last night."

"Let me guess. You took all of his wares and his clothes and one of your mother's soldiers is siring a son off of him right as we speak."

Camicazi didn't think so. "But if someone is, it's going to be a daughter."

"Bah.

She would never understand why the Shark-Baiters preferred sons. "He had some really interesting things. You can't even imagine them."

Seasblood now examined the third boat. "I can imagine a lot of things, Camicazi. Things your tribe would never even bother with. Once found a squid that had swallowed an entire human skull."

That did sound pretty cool. "This guy had stuff he had made."

"Made?" Her father lifted his head, his eyebrows raised and impressed. "The trader made it."

"Well, that someone else had made. Here, look." She fished the little wood-and-metal object from her pouch and walked down to the third ship. "Have you seen anything like it before?"

Seasblood stared at the object, his eyes now narrow. He stared so long Camicazi thought he would shoot fire from his eyes and set the little thing on fire. "No."

She beamed. "That's what I'm going to do for my Burgle-Bane. I'm going to find the island where these were made, still hundreds of them, and bring them back to prove myself the greatest burglar in the Archipelago."

"Even greater than whomever stole the shield of Grimbeard whatever-his-name-was?"

"Yep. Speaking of which, I need to return home and snatch that up. I figure it will come in handy."

"Against rogue Vikings and Outcasts?"

She made a face. "Nah, I just think it would look awesome attached somewhere on the ship. Sort of totem for me, you know."

That drew quite the look from her father, one she couldn't decide to be of pride or bewilderment. She decided she did not want to think much about it and picked pride.

"You plan on nailing up the legendary shield of Grimbeard the Ghastly?"

"Sure. Why not?"

He shook his head in what was clearly disgust and picked up the little object. "Back to this, then. No, I have never seen one of these, but I have heard about it."

"What?" She tried to snatch the object back but her father simply was too tall for her. "You're telling me that other people besides me have seen things like this?"

"Did you really think you were the center of the universe, Camicazi?" Seasblood took the opportunity to poke and prod at it with his gnarled fingers. "Did you really think the sun revolved around you and not the rest of the earth?"

She folded her arms over her chest, rather put-out.

"Automatonic," he said at last, returning the object to her. "At least, I think that is what they are called.

"That's the most ridiculous long word I've ever heard. I refuse to repeat it."

"All right. I think this ship here will suit your needs. If you don't bring it back we will be storming after it."

She gave the object another once-over with her eyes and stuck back into her pack. "What does… whatever you said… do?"

Seasblood was back on the boat. "I don't know. Moves."

"Odin's beard, lots of things move."

"It moves by itself."

She still was not impressed. "So does a boat. So do leaves. You can say that about any animal or human."

"But it's not an animal or human. Ever seen a rock move by itself?"

"Yes. I saw one roll down a hill once." Great. The object was even less interesting than she had expected. That worship had better have something worth its salt and more importantly her time.

"So why do you want to steal these?"

"Because…" She no longer had an idea. "Because they are far away and no one on my island has seen them before. That's why."

That seemed to satisfy him. "All right, then. Your ship is ready, my dear."

"Wonderful." She hopped onto the boat. It seemed as sturdy as she could expect a Shark-Baiters' ship to be. Oh, this was going to be fun. "How do I work it?"

"You'll need a second person."

Camicazi sighed. A second person to hang around her. Ah, well. She supposed she could swing over to Berk and see who was willing to be dragged into one of her schemes.

"Your brother will be coming with you," her father continued.

Her eyes flashed to her father as her mouth fell open. At that moment she might as well have been on a burning pyre for how the boat felt beneath her. "You can't be serious."

Her brother was SeasSweat and he was her twin. The union had thus satisfied both Bertha and SeasBlood. Each had an heir in one go. Perfect. Not that Camicazi particularly cared. SeasSweat was a boy, of all things.

"I'll come back tonight when you're asleep and take my ship," she declared.

"Suit yourself," SeasBlood said, turning back toward the island. "I wasn't aware you had become such an expert on sailing."

For a moment she wanted to throw something at him, but didn't.

Fine.