Read Online In The Wreckage: A Tale of Two Brothers by Simon J. Townley - Free Book Online

cabin.”
    “You can’t steal his map. They’ve helped us. They’re taking us to Svalbard. They didn’t have to. We’ve got what we need. They’re good people.”  
    “Are you going to help me?”  
    Conall rolled over so he could see Faro’s face in the gloom. “No.”  
    “You serious?” Faro glared at him, hate in his eyes.  
    “The treasure isn’t yours to take. Or the map.”
    “They don’t belong to Jonah either, or the captain. You get what you take in life. You’ll learn. You’d better stand guard. Or else.”  
    “Or what?”  
    Faro’s hands twitched with anger. Conall stared back at his brother. He’d face him down, even lying in a hammock. Faro had four years on him, he was taller, heavier. But Conall fought like a terrier, never giving up. And Faro knew it.
    “Last chance. You help now or get nothing.”
    “You’ll be caught and it’ll ruin everything. They’re taking us to Spitsbergen. This is our chance.”  
    “Our chance to get rich. To have power. Or you want to be scrounging for food all your life? Not me. I’ll take what I need.”  
    “I’m not helping.”  
    “After all I’ve done for you, for years? Fine, you’re on your own, how does that feel?” Faro stormed from the room and slammed the door as he left.  
    Conall sunk into his hammock. What if Faro got caught? Or found the map? What would Jonah do? And how would Conall find his parents without Faro’s help, on an island full of wildmen at war with slavers, at the far ends of the Earth?

    ≈≈≈≈

    On the second day out of Bergen, Conall sat with the first mate on the poop deck. Jonah steered the boat, his big hands on the massive wooden wheel, using Conall to run messages to the crew working in the rigging. The Arkady sailed up the western coast of Norway, making good time in strong winds but using more diesel than the crew would have liked. The engine was a safety net, Argent said, keeping them away from danger when the wind swirled or dropped. But the fuel was precious, it might run dry before they reached Spitsbergen, and no one knew where they’d get more once the supplies were gone.  
    The sea was littered with islands. The mainland was an ocean of rock with green farmsteads dotted wherever people found enough soil to set up home. They passed countless towns and villages perched over the water, houses built of wood and painted bright blues, whites and reds. Jonah told him there were more settlements, out of sight, deep within the fjords.
    “Have you sailed this coast before?” Conall asked. “You speak as if you know it?”  
    “Many times, in my youth.”  
    “You’ve been to Svalbard?”
    “No, not that far north. It was different then, climate’s changed so fast. There were glaciers on Spitsbergen, ice the year round if you can believe it. Gone now, they say. But it still snows up there, I’ve heard, in depths of winter. Long winters. Dark all day and night.”  
    “It’s true then? The sun never rises?”  
    “Never sets in summer. Unnatural place to be farming, if you ask me, but the captain’s set on it, or says he is at least.”  
    “You don’t believe him?”  
    “I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth young Hawkins. Now get over to the fore mast and tell Jim to put a bit of slack in that clewline.”
    When his turn on deck was finished, Conall went below to muck out the animals. He opened the door to the pens and found Faro there already, with Heather, the two of them laughing, watching the piglets play. Heather turned and waved but Faro ignored him and left without speaking a word.
    Heather gave Conall a questioning stare. “You two not speaking?”
    “Guess not. How’s Rufus?”  
    “Missing you. What did you argue about?”  
    “Nothing. If he causes trouble, just tap him on the nose. He understands that.”  
    “I assume you mean the dog, not your brother.”  
    Conall grunted, shovelling pig muck into a bucket.
    “Brothers. You’ve