Doul does not smell of salt and sea. It's unusual. Or at the very least, it's unusual for their mutual experience. Instead, he smells of grass, dust, and rusted metal. Has he gone ashore and stayed there?

"And yet, they've brought me on." So long as he's allowed to pursue his own interests, Doul is more than willing to fight another man's war. It's just an extension of what he'd been doing back on Bas-Lag.