Burnt Sea: A Seabound Prequel (Seabound Chronicles Book 0) Read Online Free Page B

the left and made a slow,
lumbering arc around the struggling ships, narrowly avoiding the tangle. As
they eased around, the boom of the sailboat scraped along their hull, making a
shrieking sound worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. Judith felt like making
that sound herself.
    The harbor mouth was a solid mass of flashing steel and flailing sails.
She could barely distinguish one ship from another. There was no way they were
going to dodge that. Behind them, what had once been a billowing cloud was now
a massive wall bearing down on them like a fog bank.
    A few others on the deck stared out at the devastation, pale faced,
shaking. The man from the promenade had joined them. He stared at the city,
phone still pressed to his ear. Tears filled the corners of his eyes but didn’t
fall. Judith looked back at the harbor mouth, her own eyes dry. They were
almost there, but it wouldn’t matter. They weren’t going to get through.
    Suddenly, a steely mass appeared on Judith’s left. That was the port
side, wasn’t it? A warship cut through the water beside the cruise ship,
sitting low in the water. Navy sailors wearing gas masks moved purposefully
across the deck about ten feet below Judith. A single sailor manned a crow’s
nest that was level with the deck of the cruise ship.
    As it came even with them, Judith locked eyes with the sailor standing
there. Thick eyebrows above a gas mask. A strong, high forehead. A crisp uniform. Then the warship passed her, carrying the sailor with it.
    Ahead, the jam of ships pulsed like a tangle of sea snakes in the
harbor mouth. The wind whipped violently around them, seeming to come from all
directions at once. The warship didn’t slow as it approached the jam.
    It must be there to help,
right? It’s the US Navy!
    A heavy whump sound burst forth. A shell
exploded from the warship into the gaggle of civilian boats in the harbor
mouth, blowing a yacht into the sky. Chunks of fiberglass rained down with the
ash. Seconds later the warship fired another shell into the mass of ships. A
wider gap opened. Screams rent the air. A third shell exploded, and then the
warship barreled into the civilian boats, its prow cutting through them like butter.
Boats fled from the warship as quickly as they could, but some were already
sinking. A gap widened like wake behind the warship.
    Whoever was steering the cruise ship must have seen the gap too,
because they sailed in behind the navy vessel, keeping close as it plowed
through the smaller boats.
    Judith’s fingers wrapped so tightly around the railing they hurt. The
warship was wide and low, but she didn’t think the path it cleared would be big
enough for them. Nevertheless the cruise ship squeezed into the space after it.
Every second Judith expected to feel the bone-rattling jolt of a collision.
    But the other boats were fleeing the navy vessel, and the cruise ship
slid through too.
    For a moment the clear blue of an empty sky burst above a pure crystal
sea. Then the ash rolled over Judith’s head.

 
    Simon

 
    Simon
felt numb as the navy ship shoved struggling, sinking civilian vessels out of
its way. Their occupants leapt into the water or hung on to scraps of
fiberglass. Bodies floated, some in pieces. People were dying not forty feet
away . He’d never known with absolute
certainty that people near him were dying. But it was happening now, on the
boats, in the water, in the city behind him.
    Nina. Naomi. Their names roiled in his
mind. Was there any way they could have survived the onslaught of that cloud?
    Miraculously, their cruise ship was able to follow in the path of the
navy vessel. Whoever was steering knew what they were doing. They cleared the
mouth of the harbor and swung perpendicular to the shore. Then they headed
straight out to sea.
    The water beyond the harbor mouth was clear as glass for a moment.
Sparse sunlight rippled on the sea, more like twilight than morning sunshine.
The sky was the blue of sapphires.
    Boats fleeing