Ghost Ship Read Online Free

either. Egil’s map had made it look like an easy course, and it was certainly the most direct. Then, as if to confirm her fears, a shower of loose stones freed themselves from the cliff face and peppered the water. She turned the map around to show Rollo.
    “You see? If we want to avoid these cliffs, we’ll have to sail back the way we came”—she indicated the course with her finger—“then hook around this island here. Egil has marked it as a bay full of sea giants.”

    “Or we could go this way,” Rollo said, pointing out a different route.
    “That would add nearly six days to our trip.”
    They gazed at each other.
Northseeker
, sensing their indecision, had come to a standstill.
    “What should we do?” Rollo asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    “But you always know what to do,” he said.
    “Well, I don’t this time.”
    “Sea giants, or another six days on board, or between the cliffs?”
    Asa gazed up at the cliffs again. A sea wind howled through the passage, buffeting the ship and stinging her eyes with cold. On the other side, just a day’s sail away, was her baby sister.
    “Let’s go through,” she said.
    Rollo smiled. “That’s just what I was going to say.”
    They picked up speed and, laying the map out on the seat beside her, Asa took the tiller. “I’ll watch theeast cliff; you watch the west one. If any rocks and stones come loose, we’ll try to steer around them.”
    “Got it,” he said, turning his face up to the east cliff.
    “Other one, Rollo.”
    “Got it,” he said, studying the west cliff.
    Asa lined the ship up and willed her to move fast through the passage. It narrowed ahead of her and
Northseeker
slowed again.
    “Why are we going so slowly?” Rollo asked.
    Asa peered over the side. “Rocks,” she said. “The cliffs continue under the water, and the ship is avoiding the reef.” She pointed ahead, just on the other side of the passage, where the water was deep and blue. “The reef drops off there, so we’ll be safe again.”
    “On the other side.”
    “Yes. On the other side.”
    Asa concentrated hard, her eyes flicking from the reef to the arch of the cliffs above them. A scatter of small pebbles rolled down the cliff and echoed loudly.
Northseeker
was about to pass directly under the two jutting edges.
    “Asa,” Rollo said quietly.
    “What?”
    “Do you see it?”
    She strained her eyes. “Yes,” she said, her lungs filling with fear. A crack appeared in the edge of the western cliff.
    “Northseeker
, we have to go faster,” Asa said.
    But the ship kept her pace and scraped lightly over a rocky protrusion.
    Creak
.
    “It’s going to fall,” Rollo said, holding his breath.
    Creeeeeeeak
. The crack split, the rock dropped a fraction, then held. A shower of dust descended on them.
Crack!
    Asa shrieked. A huge rock, easily the size of the ship itself, was plummeting directly toward them.
    Northseeker
jerked forward, bumping Asa off her seat. The map next to her fluttered. The rock landed with a huge crash, barely an inch from the stern of the longship, and soaked them with icy water as they squeezed through the passage. The longship bobbedfree of the reef. Just when Asa thought they were perfectly safe and that nothing else bad could happen, a howling wind raced through the passage and ripped the map skyward.
    The map hovered above her for a half second. She reached for it, but accidentally knocked it farther away. Then the wind suddenly died and the map fell into the water.
    “Oh no!” She raced to the side of the ship and watched the map sink down into the icy blue.
    Rollo joined her. “Do we still need it?” he said. “You’ve been poring over it ever since we left home. You know the way, don’t you?”
    She shook her head. “Around the next island, there’s a bay with lots of shallow water and the course gets very complex. If I don’t know which way to take, we could run aground, or even tear a hole in the ship.”
    Safe once again in deep