Read Online Ship of the Dead by James Jennewein - Free Book Online

up the coastline, exploring every river that emptied into the sea. Seven times they had gone upriver and seven times they’d found nothing. Grelf secretly hoped they would fail again; the last thing he wanted to see was more horrific draugrs.
    Along the way Grelf had learned all about the legend of the Ship of the Dead. Centuries ago, Thidrek told him, when the gods were warring, Odin had sent a giant wave to destroy Hel’s ship. It was said that the wall of water had swept the craft and its draugr crew to shore and all the way up a river, where at last it had sunk beneath or near a waterfall, and there it lay to this day, its magical secrets there for the taking. Grelf no longer believed there was such a ship, and even if there was, it seemed doubtful that they would ever find it.
    Thidrek took the torch from Grelf. “We mustn’t dawdle.” Grelf followed his master, edging toward the falls along the treacherous rocks slick with wet moss.
    Thidrek disappeared from view, and Grelf realized he had slipped through a narrow gap between the curtain of water and the vertical rock face. For a moment Grelf considered fleeing, jumping into the river and letting the current take him down to where the horses were tethered. He would gallop away, taking the other horse too, and be free of his rotting lord!
    But he hesitated a moment too long, and Thidrek’s skeletal hand grabbed his collar and pulled him through the passageway. When his eyes adjusted, he saw he was now behind the waterfall, standing at the entrance to a gaping black cave.
    â€œWeren’t thinking of escaping, were you, Grelfie?”
    â€œNo, my lord! Never would I leave the side of my master.”
    Still grasping Grelf’s coat, Thidrek pulled him close. The stench was overpowering and Grelf almost gagged. “Good. Because if you ever did leave my side , you would regret it. Most painfully.” Thidrek released him and started into the cave. Grelf followed like a slouching, whipped dog.
    Entering the chamber, Grelf saw its dimensions were enormous—certainly large enough to accommodate a marooned warship.
    â€œKeep a sharp eye for anything protruding from the sand,” Thidrek said. “If the ship is here, most likely it’s buried.”
    Farther into the cave they went, the roar of the waterfall dying behind them. If the ship was here, Grelf thought, the wave carrying it this far inland and this deep into the cavern had to have been truly monumental.
    Grelf tripped over something and fell into Thidrek. “Idiot! Watch your—” He froze, his gaze fixed on the floor. Poking through the sand, illuminated in torchlight, was a long, pointed piece of wood, the very thing Grelf had stumbled over. Thidrek dropped to his knees and brushed away the sand from around it. The carved head of a strange beast began to appear.
    â€œIt’s the figurehead!” Thidrek shouted. “We’ve found it!” Thidrek rose to his feet, done with his part of the manual labor. “Start digging, Grelf. Hurry!”
    Grelf started scooping away handfuls of sand. Thidrek struck him hard across the ear.
    â€œFaster! Make the sand fly!”
    And Grelf did. He not only felt like a whipped dog, he dug like one too.
    Soaked by the cold, relentless rains and feeling the ache of death upon him, Lut struggled to keep up with the pack. Though night had fallen, Dane had driven them onward across a vast and treeless plain that fell away from the mountains to the east. When the rains came, as Lut had known they would, they were caught out on the flat and shelterless expanse with no place to hide. On they rode in the punishing rainstorm, the once-dry streambeds now raging torrents that threatened to sweep horse and rider away. The worst, Lut feared, was yet to come. He spied the flashes of lightning in the distance, and with the accompanying booms of thunder growing louder, he knew Thor’s fury drew nearer. Their one hope was