The World Above the Sky Read Online Free PDF

attention to herself, away from the fragile craft.
    Garathia and Eugainia angled off to the east. Two dorsal fins followed. The Orca cow held her line, slicing toward the curragh.
    Sir Athol estimated the distance to Reclamation . Too far.
    He looked back to the shore. Skrelings struggled through the bloodied water. Most made it; some did not. Four voracious juvenile Orcas, who had trailed the main pack, hurled their slick bulks up the slope, clamped jaws on the legs and torsos of terrified Skrelings who flailed for a foothold in the treacherous stones. The twisting whales slid down the slope, back into the sea, their human prey writhing in blood-and-sea-slicked jaws. The Skrelings’ screams careened across the surface before being drowned in water reddened by their own blood, and the blood of the men they’d slaughtered. The Skrelings’ anguish flooded Athol’s blood. He pulled deep on his oar, roaring his fear, wringing strength from aching arms, terror tearing muscle roped into knots on his back.
    The Orca cow rose, jaws open, the frail curragh within reach. Sir Athol raised his double-headed axe. He released his last jolt of power. The Orca sank, the axe embedded in her head, where snout slopes up to join the glistening skull.
    The Orca bulls circled back, toward Reclamation .
    Directly below the galley’s port bow, Henry and Morgase witnessed the day’s second miracle; Garathia rolled to her back, exposing her belly. For a moment she floated, motionless and vulnerable. Then, a shudder...
    Still grasping the rail, Eugainia’s spirit departed her mother’s Selkie body, rose high above Reclamation . Her spectral image reformed then floated briefly, her blonde hair flowing away from her head as though awash in the sea. Her wavering sapphire garments shed light as glass sheds beaded water. Soft rain fell from a cloudless sky on the upturned faces of her people.
    Eugainia’s body shuddered. A sharp intake of breath. Her fixed stare softened.
    â€œThanks be to Almighty God,” Prince Henry said. “You’re back among us.”
    Gunn and his men clambered up Constante ’s side-sticks. An Orca bull clamped its jaws on the bow of the abandoned curragh; a second seized the stern. With a single twist they ripped the craft in two. They dove and rose in a double arc over the wreckage, wolves pissing victory on the corpse of a rival.
    Eugainia was seized by her second contraction. Her breath became rapid and shallow. Her heart began to race.
    Morgase tightened her grip.
    â€œCome, my dear. It’s time to bring forth the Holy Child.”
    Morgase’s attempt to lead Eugainia to the aft-castle failed utterly. Eugainia would not permit herself to be moved from the rail.
    A seal shot through the surface not five metres distant. Its graceful arc ended in two rows of ivory teeth. The Orca cow, Sir Athol’s axe protruding from her snout, rolled to her back, her squirming prey clamped in her jaws. Predator and prey slid from sight.
    Eugainia slumped, unconscious, too soon to witness the flash of light rise from the bloodied surface and shoot high into the sky where it faded from sight. Garathia’s spirit sped home to the stars.
    Henry carried Eugainia to the aft-castle, set her gently on the bed. Morgase drew the curtains against the chill of a rising wind.
    The mirrored sky blazed vermilion, then orange, then a deep lustrous gold. The sun flared crimson then slipped below the surface of the sea.

CHAPTER TWO
    â€¢ • •
    The wind in the gulf was kind enough at first. A slate-grey mass of cloud rolled in from the north masking the moon and stars. Henry could make no sense of the luminous haze rising through darkness from the surface of the sea. Mist became rain, resolved back to mist and then ceased. The wind remained light and held its quarter. The twelve ships of the fleet rode a moderate swell.
    Dawn flushed the sky a sickly green. The unseen force behind rising