The Icebound Land- Character Reaction

9

"Can I read?" Lydia asked. Alyss nodded, and the book was passed to the other girl.

THE WOLFSHIP WAS IN BAD SHAPE. The Herons frowned, and Erak and Svengal scowled. SHE CRABBED AWKWARDLY toward the shingle beach, where the crew of Erak's ship was spilling out of their hut to watch. She was listing heavily, and she sat a good deal lower in the water than she should. The guardrail on the downward side of the list was barely ten centimeters from the water.

"Lorgan's fangs, what happened to her?" Hal exclaimed. Erak snorted.

"Slagor happened, that's what."

"It's Slagor's ship!" one of the Skandians on the beach called, recognizing the wolfshead crest on the upcurving bowsprit.

"What's he doing here?" another asked. "He was safe back in Skandia when we left for Araluen."

"Dirty little..." Erak muttered a few choice words, though no one could fault him for it, least of all Duncan and Cassandra.

Will had hurried around from the rocks where he had been tossing driftwood into the water. He saw Evanlyn making her way down from the lean-to and he joined her. Her former annoyance was forgotten at this new turn of events. Cassandra sighed, and Will grinned.

"Where did the ship come from?" she asked, and Will shrugged.

"Probably from a land mass," Halt replied. Cassandra's eyes widened in mock surprise.

"Really? I thought it fell from the sky?" She smirked, while Halt hid a smile.

"I have no idea. I was out on the rocks and I just looked up and there she was."

The ship was close in now. The crewmen looked haggard and exhausted, Will noticed. Now he could see gaps between several of the planks forming the hull, and the ragged stump where the mast had shattered and gone overboard. The Skandians standing around them noted these facts, and commented on them. Hal shook his head.

"Slagor!" Erak called across the calm water. "Where the devil did you spring from?"

"The devil is right," Halt muttered.

The burly man at the stern, controlling the ship's steering oar, waved a hand in greeting. He was plainly exhausted, and glad to make harbor. Will snorted.

One of the crew now stood in the bow of the ship and tossed a heavy line to Erak's men waiting on the beach. In a few seconds, a dozen of them had tailed onto the rope and begun to haul the wolfship in the last few meters. Gratefully, the rowers slumped back on their benches, without the energy to ship their oars. The heavy, carved-oak sweeps trailed in the water, bumping dully against the ship's sides as they pivoted back in the oarlocks. The keel grated against the shingle and the ship came to a halt. Sitting lower in the water than Wolfwind, it wouldn't ride as far up the slope of the beach. The bow struck and stuck fast.

The men on board began to disembark, hauling themselves over the bulwarks at the bow and dropping to the beach. The rowing crew staggered up onto dry land and stretched themselves out with groans of weariness, dropping onto the coarse stones and sand and lying as if dead. One of the last to come ashore was Slagor, the captain.

"Of course he's the last person," Svengal muttered.

He dropped tiredly to the beach. His beard and hair were matted and rimed white with salt.

His eyes were red and haunted-looking. He and Erak faced each other. Oddly, they didn't greet each other with the normal grasped forearms. Will realized that there must be little love between the two men.