The the Tremblers by Raquel Byrnes

Author:Raquel Byrnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christian Fiction
ISBN: 9781611169744
Publisher: Pelican Book Group
Published: 2017-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

21

Ashton bent over the rusting rudder controls of the boat and tried to jerk them free once more. The converted airship had all the tools of the sea vessel it had been before taking to the sky; unfortunately, they were all in disrepair. With the air bladders melted and only one unbroken mast to support the sail, they had very little chance of making shore without a way to change directions, but try as he might, he could not concentrate.

Every sway and dip of the vessel reminded him of their precarious position. Ominous shudders pulsed through the water, buffeting the ship as steam hissed from surfacing heat plumes all around them. In the distance, a crimson glow bubbled the surface, the dark shape at its center growing ever larger.

Ashton wrinkled his nose at the gaseous cloud passing across the bow. A hot eddy of air moved it quickly, but his eyes watered all the same. The soft glow of the Tesla Dome’s grid just beyond the haze was promising, but the fact that they did not yet need gas masks gave credence to his guess that they were still a ways off shore.

He scanned the dark waters beyond the railing, searching for the tell-tale silhouette of a horde ship. These waters had more than just the dangers unleashed by the quakes. Bands of pirates and looters trolled the seas near the coast. Without a security force ship as their chaperone, they were exposed to attack. He closed his eyes, straining to hear the metal grind of the steel-bottomed ships pirates used to ram passenger and cargo vessels.

Another thump against the hull elicited a stifled yelp from outside and it pulled his gaze. There, moving in the darkness, Charlotte toiled on the sails while Berkley erected the aethergraph antennae. Dark swaths of clouds floated past the nearly full moon, muting the light and casting mottled shapes on the deck. She worked by candle, the glow of the flame pooling on her dark tresses.

He’d lost himself earlier. Embracing her and kissing her as if she were his to do so. She is so brilliant, so brave. I don’t know if I am losing my way with her or if I am finally, after so long, finding it once more. Shaking his head, he wrenched on the locking pin only to shear it off. He wiped his brow with a sleeve and found his gaze going back to Charlotte. His doubt with The Order fueled the unsettled feeling within him, and yet he knew it was Charlotte’s influence that gave him pause. From the very moment he’d encountered her she’d relentlessly pulled him from what he had always known and trusted. She saw the world differently and he wasn’t sure if he hated or loved her for it.

Where he strove to understand intellectually, Charlotte’s compassion seemed deeply personal. First for her father and then Berkley, setting off a near riot in Port Rodale out of fear the old man was in danger. It was a reckless path, but so far it was the one course of action that achieved results.

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