Read Online Brotherband 3: The Hunters by John Flanagan - Free Book Online Page B

steady supply of detritus from the land with it – logs, tree branches, leaves, even the occasional dead animal – and a layer of brown mud scoured from the banks and mud flats further upriver. The brown water stained the surface of the Stormwhite for several hundred metres before it dissipated and blended in with the sea water.
    The land on either side of the river was low-lying and thickly forested. There was a steady breeze blowing from the sea that would drive Heron upriver at a good pace. As the ship rocked gently on the water, Hal climbed onto the bulwark by the steering position, steadying himself with one hand on the backstay. He shaded his eyes with the other hand and peered at the surface of the river, looking for telltale swirls and eddies that might indicate sandbanks, shoals or rocks. But the broad surface appeared calm and unruffled.
    Thorn stood on the deck below him. ‘It’s a major trade route,’ he said. ‘It’s cleared regularly so that it’s navigable for hundreds of miles through the continent.’
    ‘So the navigation notes tell me,’ Hal replied. ‘But it never hurts to be sure.’ He dropped lightly to the deck and rubbed his hands in anticipation. ‘Well, let’s go up the river and see what we can find.’
    He took the tiller and called to the twins to sheet home the sail. As he swung the ship into the river, he brought the wind over their port quarter. Ulf and Wulf let the sail out accordingly, then adjusted it so that it formed a smooth, bellying curve. The Heron began to knife through the small ripples, throwing up a bow wave against the force of the outflowing tide. Hal glanced at the shoreline to gauge their progress and nodded to himself. They were making good headway.
    ‘Be quicker when the tide turns,’ Thorn said.
    ‘We’re doing all right as we are.’
    They sailed on, the river bubbling and chuckling against the hull as they moved further and further from the sea. It was a strange, almost eerie feeling to see the green, low-lying banks on either side, instead of the empty, wave-tossed sea stretching out to the horizon. They were headed towards the western bank and, after fifteen minutes or so, Hal decided they were close enough to it. He uttered a warning to the twins and swung the bow to port. They hauled in on the sail until the ship was sailing on a reach, angling across the broad river, the wind now well on their beam. The river surface was much calmer than the Stormwhite. The ship still rolled, but it was a gentle, pleasant motion and there was none of the violent pitching they had experienced on the open sea.
    The crew, with little to do, sat back on the rowing benches and relaxed. Ulf and Wulf made occasional small corrections to the trim of the sail as the wind veered slightly.
    As they neared the end of that long reach to port, they saw the first bend in the river approaching to starboard. There was an air of expectation on the ship as they waited to see what was around the next bend.
    That was the difference, Hal thought, between sailing on a river, even a massive one like this, and the open sea. Every bend in the river brought the prospect of something new and exciting – even dangerous.
    ‘Stand by to wear ship,’ he called. Here on the river he didn’t need to bellow his orders. The crew moved to their stations. Ulf and Wulf stood ready by the sheets. Hal nudged the tiller and, as the ship began to turn, called the order.
    ‘Wear ship.’
    The twins let the sail out as the wind came further aft, then, as the Heron settled on her new course, they hauled the sail in tight. The Heron slipped round the bend and the new stretch of river opened before their expectant eyes.
    More trees. More low-lying banks. Nothing out of the ordinary. The tension, the expectation of something new and different, went out of the crew like air escaping a punctured ball. Hal felt his hands relax on the tiller as he studied the long, empty stretch of river that lay before them. In the