Read Online Dreams of the Compass Rose by Vera Nazarian - Free Book Online
Authors: Vera Nazarian
Ads: Link
them.
Lero was frozen with anguish as she felt the ship and its crew tossed upon sudden unnatural gusts of power, while the cold wind had risen into a gale, and ripped their hair, tore into their skin.
“ Varian!” she managed to utter with alien strength. “Release me . . . no one to guide . . . the ship. . . .”
“ The ship! That is all you care about, is it?” roared Varian, holding her against his chest as waves rose from all around, starting to crest the rails of the upper deck.
He had to cry to be heard now, for the gale had become a storm, and overhead the sky, only moments ago sun-filled, was now black.
Ocean water poured upon the deck, drenching the frozen figures. Suddenly one of the crewmen, still doubled over in the same pose, was tossed overboard with a last stifled scream.
Lero’s eyes were bulging with effort. She fought against the force holding her, fought against the stiffness of her own muscles, the miraculously petrified bones. . . .
Varian staggered away, releasing her, and stretched his hands, glorying in the gale wind, while lightning crackled all around and another two sailors were washed overboard as the Eye of Sun rode a succession of impossible cresting waves, each over fifty feet high.
And yet somehow, miraculously, the ship remained afloat. Water went glancing off of it, as though it were oiled. And the great sail, instead of tearing, collapsed of its own accord as the sailors that held it taut were thrown off like ants into the angry black waters.
“ No!” Lero howled in anguish, seeing another old friend, a sailor who had been on this ship forever it seemed, ripped from his place near the bow and thrown far out into the churning waters like a still puppet.
“ So, you’re invincible?” Varian raged, screaming insanely at the mast, at the deck, the timbers themselves, but never at her. “You think that you will stay afloat forever? Watch this!”
A wave began, greater than the others, and as the floor below them gave way—for the deck was now vertical—the Eye of Sun began to fall straight down. Lero felt herself tumbling, her stiff body receiving any number of bruises as she rolled toward the railing, knowing that she was about to be removed from this ship forever. At the last moment, something allowed her fingers to grab stiffly onto the wood, the very dear wood of her ship—it was what saved her, the only thing that saved her.
Or maybe Varian’s spell upon them all was waning. And no wonder. It took so much power to hold them thus and simultaneously wreak the storm all around.
Even now, he himself was holding onto some roping precariously, mad in his unconcern for his own safety.
“ Damn you!” she cried, feeling her lips, the muscles of her jaws freed at last, holding on for dear life, while all around she heard the screams for help of the dying crew. “Damn you, hellspawn, who’ve come to destroy my ship and drown my men! I wish I’ve never seen your father, nor his accursed gold, never made this mad promise. I hope you drown in these waves now! I hope to all the gods that you fall like a dead weight and go straight to the bottom! I will not take you any farther on this ship, gods help me, but I would throw you overboard myself! Oh gods, take me! Take all my crew, only let nothing befall my ship!”
And then, with a great pause of silence, someone heard her.
The wind screamed, and the waves arose suddenly all around them like a great mountain.
And the one that was Ocean came forth from the abyss. And as the maddened form of Varian paused in his own moment of surprise and silence, looking up at the wall of water all around them, Ocean leaned forward with a breath of inner deep, of utter silence, and swallowed him, took him and all of them into itself with a flick of one wave, a finger. . . .
Lero was left alone on the ship, spinning now at the bottom of a well, an abyss of waves and silence.
A s the spell came suddenly away, releasing
Lero was frozen with anguish as she felt the ship and its crew tossed upon sudden unnatural gusts of power, while the cold wind had risen into a gale, and ripped their hair, tore into their skin.
“ Varian!” she managed to utter with alien strength. “Release me . . . no one to guide . . . the ship. . . .”
“ The ship! That is all you care about, is it?” roared Varian, holding her against his chest as waves rose from all around, starting to crest the rails of the upper deck.
He had to cry to be heard now, for the gale had become a storm, and overhead the sky, only moments ago sun-filled, was now black.
Ocean water poured upon the deck, drenching the frozen figures. Suddenly one of the crewmen, still doubled over in the same pose, was tossed overboard with a last stifled scream.
Lero’s eyes were bulging with effort. She fought against the force holding her, fought against the stiffness of her own muscles, the miraculously petrified bones. . . .
Varian staggered away, releasing her, and stretched his hands, glorying in the gale wind, while lightning crackled all around and another two sailors were washed overboard as the Eye of Sun rode a succession of impossible cresting waves, each over fifty feet high.
And yet somehow, miraculously, the ship remained afloat. Water went glancing off of it, as though it were oiled. And the great sail, instead of tearing, collapsed of its own accord as the sailors that held it taut were thrown off like ants into the angry black waters.
“ No!” Lero howled in anguish, seeing another old friend, a sailor who had been on this ship forever it seemed, ripped from his place near the bow and thrown far out into the churning waters like a still puppet.
“ So, you’re invincible?” Varian raged, screaming insanely at the mast, at the deck, the timbers themselves, but never at her. “You think that you will stay afloat forever? Watch this!”
A wave began, greater than the others, and as the floor below them gave way—for the deck was now vertical—the Eye of Sun began to fall straight down. Lero felt herself tumbling, her stiff body receiving any number of bruises as she rolled toward the railing, knowing that she was about to be removed from this ship forever. At the last moment, something allowed her fingers to grab stiffly onto the wood, the very dear wood of her ship—it was what saved her, the only thing that saved her.
Or maybe Varian’s spell upon them all was waning. And no wonder. It took so much power to hold them thus and simultaneously wreak the storm all around.
Even now, he himself was holding onto some roping precariously, mad in his unconcern for his own safety.
“ Damn you!” she cried, feeling her lips, the muscles of her jaws freed at last, holding on for dear life, while all around she heard the screams for help of the dying crew. “Damn you, hellspawn, who’ve come to destroy my ship and drown my men! I wish I’ve never seen your father, nor his accursed gold, never made this mad promise. I hope you drown in these waves now! I hope to all the gods that you fall like a dead weight and go straight to the bottom! I will not take you any farther on this ship, gods help me, but I would throw you overboard myself! Oh gods, take me! Take all my crew, only let nothing befall my ship!”
And then, with a great pause of silence, someone heard her.
The wind screamed, and the waves arose suddenly all around them like a great mountain.
And the one that was Ocean came forth from the abyss. And as the maddened form of Varian paused in his own moment of surprise and silence, looking up at the wall of water all around them, Ocean leaned forward with a breath of inner deep, of utter silence, and swallowed him, took him and all of them into itself with a flick of one wave, a finger. . . .
Lero was left alone on the ship, spinning now at the bottom of a well, an abyss of waves and silence.
A s the spell came suddenly away, releasing
Similar Books
