The Days of Peleg by Jon Saboe

Author:Jon Saboe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

On the thirteenth (approximate) day of the storm, the waves and rocking began to subside, and within a few hours, the heavy clouds could be seen moving past them to the northeast. Eventually the rain abated, and soon the skies began to clear, revealing a late afternoon sun in the west. Slowly the men emerged from the holds and their cabins to look with fondness at the clearing skies.

They noticed land to the east which appeared to turn into a large channel, and as the Urbat continued to bob towards the north, they soon saw land appearing on the far side of the channel.

Peleg approached Thaxad who stood at the railing, watching the new land emerge. He heard Peleg behind him and turned.

“Start taking some measurements,” he instructed without comment or greeting. “We need to determine where we are as soon as possible.”

“I really can’t do much until I see where the sun goes down,” said Peleg, pointing over his shoulder.

“Of course you can,” snapped Thaxad. “There is a quarter moon just rising over there. Measure the distance between them, and its direction, and using your almanacs you should be able to determine our latitude and date.”

Peleg nodded in submission. He could just make out the moon’s wedge through the haze of distant rain. This would be a great deal of extra work. If he could just wait a few hours, he could avoid all of the extra calculations.

“Look!” someone shouted.

The Urbat was now centered between the two strips of land, and turned directly into the channel in the distance. They could now see the ridges on either side of them curving concavely off in the distance. It was a perfectly balanced picture; and they could see what appeared to be a great expanse of water that spread out beyond the channel and disappeared into the horizon. But this isn’t what had caught their attention. Arching above the channel in perfect symmetry was a large, beautiful rainbow which seemed to straddle the channel, creating the illusion of a large, multi-colored, radiant tunnel which appeared to be inviting them in. Rising up in the center of the arc was the sliver moon which seemed to have its own bands of coloring as it sparkled—filtered by the mist’s vibrant spectrum.

Captain Phaxâd joined the men as they enjoyed the display, but Peleg turned to look at Thaxad, who seemed, instead, to be in shock. He was swallowing hard, and shaking his head slightly.

Peleg moved closer to him, and heard him mutter, “It’s the promise!” But when the Mentor noticed Peleg, he looked away, pretending to have said nothing.

Thaxad motioned for Captain Phaxâd.

“It looks as if somehow we have arrived outside the Western Gateway,” he said. “We’ve never seen it from this side, but as soon as Peleg verifies our latitude…” he turned and scowled at Peleg, “I’d say that I’m quite confident we are here.”

“I agree,” said Phaxâd. “I even think I can see the tall rock outcropping to the north.”

The rainbow slowly faded, but Thaxad continued to stare in its direction long after it was gone.

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