The King's Buccaneer (Riftwar Cycle: Krondor's Sons) by Raymond E. Feist

Author:Raymond E. Feist [Feist, Raymond E.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780553563733
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2017-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

13

ASCENT

The fire smoldered.

Brisa hugged herself in a vain attempt to stay warm beside the dying embers. Others huddled around two other little fires or walked up and down the beach trying to stay warm. The previous day they had explored up and down the coast. At every turn in the shoreline they found nothing but beach and rock, and a seemingly endless wall of stone to their backs. What little wood they had found was now gone, and while the days were searing hot, the nights were bitter. Enough wreckage had washed ashore so a rude lean-to had been fashioned from sails and broken spars, but the wood that had drifted ashore from the ship was too wet to do more than smolder on the fire. The salt pork had been ruined, but the dried apples were edible. There was a fair supply of water and enough salvage to permit a few of the sailors to fish off the rocks. Some fish were trapped in tide pools, but without a pot to cook them in, they were poor fare. Seabirds were absent in any numbers, and the few that flew overhead did not appear to be nesting anywhere close.

Anthony had regained consciousness the next morning, without much memory after his attempt to cancel the spell that had trapped them. He was shocked and shaken to discover the ship gone, and had seemed to come out of his own panic only when it was obvious his skills as a healer were needed.

The second morning was dawning and Amos came to Nicholas. “We’re dying,” he said flatly. “If there’s a less hospitable stretch of coast in the world, I’ve not seen it.”

“What do you want to do?” asked Nicholas.

“One longboat isn’t going to carry fifty-eight of us. We have two choices. Either we select a crew to attempt to row south, past this escarpment, to whatever passes for civilization around here, coming back with help for the rest of us, or we all try to climb the cliff face. Or we do both.”

Nicholas said, “No. We stay together.”

Amos seemed on the verge of arguing, but then shook his head. “You’re right. One thing is certain: we can’t stay. We’ll starve.”

Nicholas said, “We’d better start looking for a way up.”

Amos nodded. “I’m the oldest man here, and I don’t relish the climb, but it’s the cliffs or nothing.”

Nicholas sighed. “I’ve never done much climbing. My foot…” He turned to Calis and Marcus. “Would either of you know a path up these cliffs if you saw one?”

Marcus frowned, but Calis nodded and stood up. “Which way?”

“You go that way,” said Nicholas, pointing to the northwest. Turning to Marcus, he said, “And you go the other way. Travel no more than half a day. When the sun is overhead, return here.”

They nodded and set off, moving purposely but not fast enough to deplete energy they couldn’t restore. Hunger was on everyone’s mind, and Nicholas knew that without fresh food soon, they would all begin dying.

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