Lady of the Haven (Empire Princess Book 1) by Graham Diamond

Author:Graham Diamond
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Venture Press
Published: 2015-09-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Captain’s Diary

Day seventeen of our voyage. The weather, as it has been for the past week, remains good. Strong westerly winds have allowed the ship to hold a steady course. We are maintaining good speed; the crew works at their best. The blue whale, Salome, as she is fondly called by most, still tags alongside. In one of her more playful pranks she nearly caused a collision today when she dived directly off the bow. Fortunately no one was injured when her fin struck the rail. Day and night she remains within sight, never straying more than a few hundred meters in any direction. Sometimes I think that she actually considers herself our guide, flipping as she does and pointing her head in the course we take even before we take it.

Everyone aboard remains in cheerful spirits, although I am concerned that the first signs of tension are beginning to show. For all our efforts we have yet to see the slightest indication of land.

Commander Trevor has done a fine job of keeping his troops fit and trim. He maintains a daily program of exercise and drills on the main deck. The Rangers do likewise at different hours. All in all, they have high morale and genuine inspiration. Even our hunters are bearing up well.

One noteworthy development I have noticed is that Stacy has come to be regarded as a leader — not only for her wolves but also for the Ranger girls. She is beginning to show qualities that I had not known she possessed. Thoughtful and level-headed, she dutifully spends long hours at night with Alryc in the study of the stars. Alryc speaks quite highly of her, often referring to obscure lines of poetry written by Bartok. He says that Stacy already has a basic knowledge of navigation and can plot rough charts and fixes. If so, I must admit that she is far more astute than I gave her credit for. I think Alryc’s influence has been good for her — but what drives her with such intensity I cannot understand. But she at last seems fully able to blend both her human qualities and her forest ways — and with her natural aristocratic bearing she seems a born leader. I hope all this potential will not be wasted on a voyage that leads us nowhere.

Elias,

Ship’s Captain

“Good, Stacy! Good!”

The girl beamed as Alryc put down the roughly sketched chart. Overhead the stars sparkled in the black night sky.

“You’ve fixed our position well enough, little wolf princess. But see, you missed a point.” His fingers ran across the chart. “When you measure the angular height of the North Star with our latitude, you must make allowance not for where we expect to be but for our dead position. You got ahead of yourself.” He handed back the assignment.

Stacy sighed. “You’re right, of course. I guess I was trying to second-guess the stars. But I promise not to make that slip again.”

“Nonsense, girl! You’ve done well! By

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