The Ships of Air (The Fall of Ile-Rein) Read Online Free Page B

and the boat began to plow forward against the waves, taking them away from the island.

Chapter 2
     
 
    The wall rose out of the sea and the fog, up and up, bigger than a mountain, taking up all the horizon like another sky….
     
    — “Ravenna’ s voyage to the Unknown Eastlands,”
Abignon Translation
     
    T remaine thought the water in the cove was rough, but as the launch left the shelter of the rocks, the high waves flung it into a violent roll. She slid from her seat to the deck, clutching the bench and trying valiantly to keep her stomach down where it was supposed to be. She hadn’t ever been seasick before, but the waves tossed the boat like a tin cup.
    Gerard pushed his way up to the bow and held on to the rail next to the sailor wrestling with the wheel. Everyone else was clinging to the seats, trying to brace themselves. Ilias was beside Tremaine, gripping a stanchion, and Giliead was braced next to him. Even with the wind and the spray in their faces they were watching something with awed expressions. Whatever it was Tremaine didn’t think she wanted to see it. The sudden onset of nausea had sucked any interest in staying alive right out of her; it was almost like being back home again. Then the wind died suddenly and she realized the sea was less violent, the boat’s wild dips and sways less agonizing. She grabbed the rail and dragged herself up a little to look.
    At first all she saw was a giant gray wall. She thought it was mist or a low cloud formation, then she realized it was the Ravenna , looming over the little boat like an avalanche. Ilias and Giliead must have been watching her advance and turn.
    The pilot turned from the wheel to shout, “We’re all right now! She’s come to our windward side so we’re in her lee.”
    Oh good, an optimist , Tremaine thought. “She’s shielding us from the wind,” she translated into Syrnaic for the Syprians, though being sailors they probably didn’t need her to tell them what had happened.
    The boat chugged rapidly toward the Ravenna now, making good progress over the still-rough sea. Peering up at the ship, Tremaine could see a few lights glowing along the upper decks and a searchlight sweeping the water, fixing on the launch to guide it in. The gray paint made the ship fade into the heavy overcast sky and her upper decks were draped in mist. It fell over the ship like a giant’s shroud, catching in diaphanous streamers on the three enormous smokestacks. She didn’t dwarf the island behind them in actual physical size, but she gave the impression she wanted to try. The Ravenna had been built to be a passenger liner, the largest in the Vernaire Solar Line, and she was far from home, just like everyone else from Ile-Rien.
    Somehow approaching the liner by sea was more daunting than just walking up to her on the dock; the Ravenna was free now and all-powerful in her element. As they drew steadily closer to that great gray wall, Tremaine suddenly remembered the smashed warehouse and the sheared-off pier, victims of a miscalculation during the ship’s leave-taking from Port Rel. It had seemed funny at the time; it didn’t now.
    The pilot brought the little boat alongside the wall between dangling cables, then worked frantically with the other crewman to get them locked in place at the bow and stern. With the others, Tremaine stared nervously at the huge hull so dangerously close that she could count rivets. Gerard stood at the wheel, holding it steady as the two seamen worked. She saw Gyan up toward the bow with Arites and Dyani; he looked a little better though his face was gray in the dim light. He was staring at the Ravenna with nervous astonishment. Halian shouldered his way back through the others, his face intent, leaning over to ask Tremaine, “What are they doing?”
    Giliead and Ilias both leaned in to hear her answer. She swallowed to clear her throat. “They hook those cables to the front and the back and then there’s an electric winch