Read Online Storming Paradise by Rik Hoskin - Free Book Online

it is, exactly, that we’re going.”
    Seeing the captain’s surprise, Iolaus made a show of laughing at his companion’s words. “Ignore my friend,” he said. “He’s a little . . . eccentric in the head. We know where we’re going, right, Hercules?”
    Hercules looked at Iolaus who was nodding encouragingly. “Yes, we’ll know the very moment we get there,” he agreed. “Just get us out on the water.”
    Uncertain, but happy to get out on the water, the fisherman unfurled the sail of the boat and pushed off from the harbor. “Night fishing can be dangerous,” he told his passengers as they sailed out into the open waters. “Let’s get moving, and you fellows point the way.”
    Iolaus had to admit that Hercules had been right about one thing. As they sailed beneath the waning moon, its crescent casting a Mallen Streak across the surface of the water, they could hear a wonderful stillness like nowhere else in Greece. Out here on the nighttime water there was a palpable tranquility; the shushing of the waves against the hull and the whisper of the wind soon faded from consciousness, leaving just an empty void of sound, populated only now and then by the sounds of activity on a distant shore.
    Having told the fisherman to head north, they drifted out into open water and listened for sounds of the street party that was plaguing the area. Hercules heard it first.
    â€œI think I hear something,” he said, cupping a hand to his ear and turning his head. “That way,” he said after a moment. Then he addressed the fisherman who sat at the rudder steering. “Captain, you know these waters well,” he said. “Is there an island over in that direction?”
    The captain looked where Hercules indicated, and nodded. “A little cluster of them,” he said, “three in all.”
    â€œCan you head towards them?” Hercules asked.
    Adjusting the rudder, the captain assured them that they could. “We’re on our way,” he said.
    As anyone will tell you, traveling the sea by night can be dangerous. Hazards like sandbars and rocks, while obvious in the daylight, can be almost impossible to find, let alone navigate, in darkness. There were other dangers out there too, and even knowing where the strong currents were was no guarantee that one could always avoid them. Thus, it was no reflection on the captain of the vessel, whose experience and courage on the water were above doubt, that the fishing boat ran into trouble before it reached its destination.
    The nature of the trouble, however, was something that no one could have predicted. As the boat sailed towards the clustered islands, the sounds of the street party came in ebbs and flows across the water, each burst dragged by the wind, and something moved alongside the boat, closing in on them from their starboard side.
    Hercules and Iolaus were up front in the prow, where the empty nets were stacked while not in use, concentrating on the fractured sounds of the street party as they became more solid, trying to locate them by their muddled narrative. The fisherman was adjusting the sail, catching as much of the night breeze as he could as the boat cut through the dark waters. As such, neither he nor his passengers realized the danger they were in until it was almost too late.
    One moment, the small vessel was bobbing along the surface, making passage towards the islands without hindrance. The next, the boat shuddered to a sudden halt, so sudden that it was pulled back in mid-motion, its prow rising up and out of the water.
    As the prow lifted, Iolaus stumbled sideways and suddenly he had dropped over the edge of the boat and into the water with a splash.
    More sure-footed, Hercules tottered in place before scrambling to the side, searching for his companion. “Captain!” he bellowed. “What just happened?”
    Hercules glanced back up the length of the