Read Online First Watch: A Watcher Bay Adventure by Auburn Seal - Free Book Online Page B

all. She whispered quietly, hoping Enric wouldn’t pick up on her anxiety.
    “How rough, exactly, do you think?”
    He squeezed her hand and chuckled lightly, possessing the calm demeanor of one used to space travel.
    She rolled her eyes. “We can’t all be daredevils, Gunnar.”
    They didn’t speak again. The turbulence was too rough, and Levra wasn’t in the mood to talk. The ship tipped from side to side, tossing Levra around in her seat with every bump. She squeezed Gunnar’s hands until her own knuckles were white as they jostled their way toward the ground. Her palms were sweaty and she was nauseated. Even with the magnetic motion bracelets she wore, she felt like she might throw up on her husband at any moment.
    She willed herself to think about something other than the storm raging outside their ship. Watcher Bay was now visible outside her window. Even through the pelting rain, there was enough moonlight for her to see the massive bay clearly. A small village sat on the north side the bay, in the shadow of a massive white-capped mountain. Near the south side of the bay sat what must be the Outpost where her and the crew would stay, at least temporarily. The buildings there were more angular and taller than those of the buildings in the village of Glanmorr.
    From her vantage point she could see miles of white sands, practically glowing in the moonlight. The sand stretched across the crescent shaped shoreline. The beaches were broken up by short stretches of shear cliffs that seemed to fall hundreds of feet from the shore into a very turbulent ocean.
    Her mind went unwillingly to the strange comment from Morgan Moore. She needed to distract herself, but the idea that there was some secret plot to toy with the Ddaerans didn’t make her feel any better. Especially if Gunnar had anything to do with it. The choice between a dark conspiracy or falling out the evening sky was no choice at all.
    She sighed and shook her head. She was going to throw up no matter what.
    “Don’t worry, Lev.” Gunnar whispered in her ear. “We’ll be landing very soon. Try not to think about it.”
    She gulped and nodded. “I know. It’s hard not to think about Mitch in situations like these.” She had a thought, something she hoped would make her feel better.
    He didn’t respond.
    “Hey, do you have the coin? I think I’d feel better right now if I could hold on to it.”
    Gunnar looked at her with a blank stare. “Coin?”
    Levra couldn’t believe her ears. “Seriously? The coin I gave you before you left?”
    He tried to laugh it off. “Oh, yeah, right. The coin you gave me. No, sorry. There was an accident on-planet in the Altius system—at Tortia—and I think I lost it there. I haven’t seen it in years.”
    As though feeling her devastation at his words, the ship touched down rather roughly, and then the unloading began in something of an ordered chaos. Levra kept Enric close while the crew unloaded, grateful there wasn’t an opportunity to talk to Gunnar right now. If she spoke to him now, he might not survive the hostility. When she stepped off the ship and touched Rasian soil for the first time, she didn’t have time to process that she was one of the first Founders to touch the ground here on this portion of the Iantha continent. The gravity of the moment was swept away by the unforgiving conditions outside the ship.
    The weather raged around her. The rain came in from a sideways direction, pelting her skin roughly, and then the wind blew fiercely around them in a circular motion. She couldn’t get her bearings. Which was up or which way was sideways was impossible to determine. She held Enric close to her. The wind seemed to be picking up in intensity in the few moments since she’d stepped off the ship. Levra looked around for some kind of shelter for Enric while the ship was being unloaded, though she couldn’t see how they could unload in these conditions, or even how the ship had landed. To her left,