Read Online Salamaine's Curse by V. L. Burgess - Free Book Online

wasn’t
braver,
maybe he was just quicker at grasping their situation. Maybe his courage sprang from the fact that he recognized something Tom hadn’t yet.
    There was no other way aboard.
    Porter picked up speed, gaining momentum for the leap. Tom matched his pace. Then his foot tangled with a length of rope obscured by shadows. He pitched forward. Rather than jumping for the ship, he staggered awkwardly and teetered at the end of the dock, nearly tumbling into the murky water below.
    Beside him, Porter leapt. His brother sailed over the channel … and missed the
Purgatory’s
deck. He slammed face-first into the hull and grabbed hold of the ship’s barnacle-laden side. It was the barest of holds, but it was enough. Umbrey’s men grabbed him and hauled him up, unceremoniously tossing him on deck like a sack of grain.
    Tom’s relief that Porter had made it aboard dissolved as his own predicament hit him.
    He’d missed the boat. Literally.
    The
Purgatory
was coasting out to sea without him.

CHAPTER SEVEN
B EYOND L OCKED G ATES
    P anic coursed through Tom. He judged the distance between the ship and the dock. Too far. He could jump, but he’d never make it. Not now. Not when the vessel was picking up speed. He scanned the wharf. No nearby boat he could use to row out to the
Purgatory
—not that rowing through scavenger-infested water struck him as the brightest of ideas.
    Most likely they’d overtake him before he got anywhere near Umbrey and his crew. Indecision froze him in place. He couldn’t go forward, he couldn’t go back. But neither could he just stand there.
    A guttural hiss sounded just over his shoulder, reinforcing that point. He jerked around to see a horde of scavengers lurching toward him, their skeletal arms stretched out as though hoping to wrap him in their ghoulish embrace.
    That got him moving. Keeping parallel with the ship, he raced along the dock, leaping over crates, dodging carts and barrels. He scanned his surroundings as he ran. Surely there was something that could help him gain access to the ship— some way he might still be able to get aboard.
    From the deck of the
Purgatory,
Willa and Porter were shouting, and jumping up and down to get his attention. Their words slowly penetrated the fog of panic that surrounded him.
    â€œThe gates! The gates!”
    Breathing hard, Tom drew to a stop. The towering walled gates of Divino loomed just ahead. He peered through the night and realized why Porter and Willa had been so frantic. The enormous, impenetrable gates—gates toward which the
Purgatory
coasted at an impressive clip—were firmly bolted shut. The gatekeepers who monitored the river traffic had either been taken by scavengers or had deserted their post. Either way, the
Purgatory
was headed for disaster.
    Umbrey’s ship was sturdy, but it was no match for massive wooden gates reinforced with thick bands of iron. A collision would almost certainly shatter the hull, splintering the ship into pieces.
    While half of Umbrey’s crew was occupied battling the scavengers who had slunk aboard, the other half loosened the rigging to let the sails go limp in an attempt to slow the vessel. It worked, but only to a degree. The tide, which they’d raced to catch, propelled them relentlessly toward the gates.
    Until that moment, Tom had merely been keeping pace with the ship. Now he sprinted faster.
    The guard tower was tall and rectangular, with an interior staircase that twisted upward at least one hundred feet off the ground. Tightening his grip on his torch, he threw open the door and bounded up the stairs, terrified that with each twist of the staircase he’d come face-to-face with a scavenger.
    Incredibly, his luck held. He reached the top, breathing hard. The guardroom was empty. No sign of scavengers. Tom’s gaze flew to the thick wooden lever in the center of the floor. He slipped his torch in an empty sconce and threw