Many Roads Home Read Online Free Page A

turn him away. Gil had left Uemire thirty years ago, after all. But Gil had assured him familial ties were powerful among his people, and his cousins would do as he asked for the sake of them. Yveni hoped he was right.
    Two weeks into the journey, most of the puking passengers had gained their sea legs, as Gerd put it. Yveni felt quite at home on the ship, and almost wished the journey to never end. Gerd, however, was impatient. Once Yveni had been safely handed over, he planned to travel to Karvis where he had “business”. Yveni didn’t ask what. The less he knew, the less he’d have to take notice of in the future.
    But one morning as Yveni walked the deck after breakfast, he noticed the mood among the sailors had changed—and so had the direction of the ship. “Why aren’t we going north any more?” he asked one of the men.
    “Storm coming. We need to go to port.”
    “Storm?” He stared up at the cloudless, bright skies. “How do you know?”
    “First mate. He’s a seer. He’s Seen it coming. Cap’n knows better than to ignore him.”
    “Does he know if we’ll sink?”
    “We will if we don’t move.”
    “When?”
    “Tonight, maybe tomorrow morning. Busy here, boy. Shoo.”
    Yveni hurried to find Gerd and tell him, but Gerd had already heard.
    “What do we do?” Panic, an unfamiliar and unpleasant emotion, rose in Yveni’s chest. “The ship will sink!”
    “Not if the captain judges it right. We’re about two hundred kilometres from the coast, and there’s a natural safe harbour. He can make that if he hurries. Be calm.”
    “Where’s the storm coming from? The sky’s clear.”
    “It’s the sea, lad. She’s full of surprises.”
    They stayed in their cabin, helpless to influence their fate, praying that the captain’s skill would be up to the challenge. Grimly the crew worked to turn the boat towards land as cloud began to build in the south and the wind rose. The purser came around to warn passengers about rough weather, tell them how to put on their life preservers and ask them to stay in their cabins. He didn’t actually mention the possibility of a shipwreck, but it was in Yveni’s mind and it had to be in everyone else’s.
    As night fell, the waves grew mountainous, crashing over the bows. The ship shuddered with every massive blow. Yveni, terrified and desperately in need of reassurance, clung to Gerd, uncaring if the man thought him childish. Gerd did his best to distract him, but even the most incredible stories of skulduggery couldn’t keep Yveni’s mind completely off the ship and the storm.
    A teeth-jarring crash sent them flying across the cabin, which tilted crazily away from the door. Yveni picked himself up and leaned against the floor, now at such an angle it had become a wall, for support. “What happened?”
    “Feels like we hit rocks. Damn it. We need to get out of here. Ready?”
    Yveni swallowed. “As I can be.”
    Before they could struggle to the door, the klaxon sounded “Abandon ship.” They found the far end of the passageway already filling with water and panicking passengers. Gerd grabbed two women and told them to put their life preservers on and leave their bags behind. Yveni yelled the same instructions to a man with two sons. Desperate for anyone to guide them, the passengers turned to Gerd and Yveni to lead them up onto the storm-ravaged deck.
    Sailors grabbed the passengers as they emerged from the hatch and helped them cling to the ropes strung along the deck for support, but it was almost impossible to keep a footing on the tilting surface, with the wind doing its best to rip them away from handfasts, and the waves crashing mercilessly over the sides.
    Wildly swinging battery lamps shone a dim light on the lifeboats launching into the water, although the wave spray and wind-whipped rain reduced visibility down to just a few feet. A sailor who could make fire did his best to add to the feeble illumination, but the gales tossed his fireballs