“Hold on!” yelled Astrid.
The ship slid down a gigantic slope, then rose again as if it were ascending to the heights again. It felt as though their stomachs and hearts were trying to leave their bodies.
“I’m going to throw up!” Gerd yelled.
“Don’t, or you’ll make me do the same!” Viggo said beside him.
The ship tilted forward again and slid down a thirty-foot wave, only to rise as high again a moment later.
“This is horrible!” Nilsa cried.
A new wave broke on them, followed by more rain and wind, which made it very difficult to gulp air without swallowing water at the same time. They were soaking wet by now, and the rain showed no sign of stopping.
“The sea’s going to swallow us!” said Nilsa.
Lasgol tried to encourage them. “Hold on, we’ve got to ride out the storm!”
“We’ll make it!” Ingrid shouted.
Gerd and Viggo were having such a rough time that they could not even speak.
The tremendous wind and gigantic waves swept several oarsmen from their benches. They were immediately swallowed up by the sea.
“It’s going to drown us all!” Nilsa yelled.
“Hold on!” Lasgol shouted He was holding Ona as hard as he could to prevent the wind from taking her with it. Astrid was holding Camu, though thanks to his palms he was firmly held to the deck and did not move. All the same, he appreciated Astrid’s efforts to help him.
Suddenly they felt a terrible impact. Several more sailors were plunged into the sea amid cries of horror and the sound of splintering wood. Lasgol held on to Ona with all his might, and the panther sank her claws into the wooden deck to avoid being dragged away. They felt another terrible sway which ended with another, even louder impact. The timber of the hull was cracking. More sailors were thrown to the sea under the force of the terrible impacts.
“We’re aground!” came Captain Olsen’s cry.
The storm went on lashing the ship, which by now had stopped moving.
They woke up on deck. The ship was slewed on to its starboard side. Lasgol got to his feet carefully. Beside him Astrid too was waking up.
“Are you all right?” he asked her as he watched her.
“Soaked, bruised, but fine,” she smiled.
“Let’s find the others.”
When he tried to find why the ship was listing, he saw they had run aground between rocks. Beyond the rocks he could see land. A long beach of white sand and turquoise waters disappeared into the horizon. Tropical plants and jungle covered the foreshore and rose toward hills. The Eternal Mist could be seen in the distance, out at sea.
Meanwhile Astrid had found Nilsa beside two sailors who were beginning to recover. “Nilsa, are you all right?”
“Yeah … I think so,” she said, and tried to stand up with Astrid’s help.
Lasgol saw Ona coming toward him, with fear in her eyes. Ona. Good. How are you?
He stroked the shivering panther and tried to calm her down. The experience had been traumatic, and the great cat was deeply frightened.
Camu, are you all right?
I fine. I hold tight, he transmitted, to Lasgol’s enormous relief.
Look after Ona. I’m going to see about the others.
Gerd got to his knees and felt his head. He was bleeding, and Ingrid checked the wound.
“You’ve bumped your head on something,” she said. “It’s nothing. A couple of stitches and you’ll be okay.”
“You’re bleeding too,” Gerd pointed out.
“Me? Where?”
“Your leg.”
“Oh, that? It’s just a couple of grazes. I must’ve scraped against something sharp. Nothing serious.”
“What a trip,” came Viggo’s voice as he came up the slanting deck to them. “I want my money back! Who on earth thought of running aground? I ended up at the stern with a lump on my head the size of a pelican’s egg!”
Lasgol smiled. Clearly his friend was fine.
“Come with us,” Astrid said to him.
They gathered at the dragon’s head and waited for Nilsa and Gerd, the ones who had been most badly hurt in the wreck, to recover. While they did so, the survivors among the crew – less than half of them – were also trying to recover.
“All the wounded, astern!” came Captain Olsen’s order. He had survived. Beside him was Eicewald, and although the Mage’s white robe was dirty and bloodied, he seemed to be all right. He waved at them and put his hands to his mouth.
“Are you all right?”
“Everyone’s fine, sir!” Lasgol called back. “Battered, but okay!”
Eicewald nodded. “So am I,” he assured them, although he was limping as he moved.
Gerd and Nilsa recovered under the care of Ingrid and Astrid. The survivors too, recovered slowly. Captain Olsen went through the ship and down into the hold to assess the damage.
The team went carefully astern to be near the Captain and the Mage and see what they were to do now in this new situation.
“Two holes in the hull,” came the Captain’s voice from the hold. “We’re stranded. The ship was driven into the rocks on this side of the island by the storm. It’s not going to be going anywhere for a while.”
“At least we reached land,” the Mage said, sounding optimistic.
The two men surveyed the beach, then the mist out at sea.
“It looks as though the storm freed us from the mist, only to drive us ashore on this island,” Eicewald said.
“It’s wrecked us on this island, the Captain said angrily, “which is a different matter.”
“We’re still alive, which means we carry on with our mission.”
“I’ve got some bad news. We lost the cargo during the storm.”
“All of it?”
“The gold, the weapons and almost all our supplies are gone. They
