Читать книгу Love will save the Planet. Fantasy - Mikhail Kurseev - Страница 4

In his team, the Prince selected fifty of the best and experienced sailors. The captain of the ship n of the order of the king himself, he was appointed, the senior assistant took his loyal friend Robert. Corvette fast and maneuverable chose the best in the kingdom, with powerful tools of ten barrels from each side. Three masts with sails could provide the ship with good speed, even for large waves. The food reserves were taken on board so much that it was possible to go on a round – the – world trip, although according to the prince’s calculations, the island was no more than a week’s journey with a favorable wind.

The sun slowly emerged at dawn from behind the horizon, painting the edge of the sea and a strip of sky in crimson color, the waves briskly rushed to the high side of the ship from the lagoon, a light breeze played and sang among the rai with undisguised sails. The last preparations for sailing came to an end when Prince Mark gave the command to build the whole team on the upper deck of the ship.

– The sailors, “said the prince to the team,” I will not hide that today we are going on a very dangerous and long journey. We must save our people from the evil spirits living on a distant island. Already many people are obsessed with greed and enrichment died or fallen into madness, etc. Opava under the influence of a demon living in a cursed island, many perished in the depths of the waves. Today, when I address you, I ask you to tell me honestly: whoever is not confident in himself, who wants to go with me is not a firm conviction, but for the sake of self – interest and profit – a step forward: they should stay at home.

The building did not move, no sailor thought that he was not ready to withstand the temptation of enrichment and profit, everyone sincerely believed that he was going on a long journey to save the king and the fatherland, and he was ready to swear in this before God and his conscience.

– Raise the sails, lift the anchor, give the ends, all in places, “the prince commanded. The sailors quickly fled the ship in accordance with the staff schedule. The anchor chain creaked, the mooring ends securely fixed, and the ship slowly turned its nose to the exit from the lagoon, the prince stood at the helm, silently giving commands to the assistant, who dubbed them through a huge cone-shaped horn. Moving away from the pier five hundred meters, the prince ordered:

– Expand all sails.

Boatswain’s whistle reached the ears of people standing on the ship’s berth and Odie Mr. moment the ship, like a white bird with spread your wings I mi, jumped up and raced quickly through the waves, cutting like a knife, the sea surface. Breeze flying from the East, blew a sail of cotton, leaving no wrinkles on them. Coastal guns were saluted from the shore. King Christian, wiping his tear – stained tear, three times christened the white-winged corvette departing after him.

The first day the ship did not go, but flew along the waves of the great Blue Sea, the smooth surface of which stretched endlessly. An hour after leaving the birthplace, around, as far as the eye could see, there was one water, surprisingly bright azure color, and only near the wave it was painted in aquamarine, shimmering from the west with all the colors of the palette. Graceful seagulls escorted the ship and for a long time, until sunset, screamed and circled over it. The sun hung on the horizon and slowly from the dazzling bright red was, began to fall faster and faster right into the depths of the sea, and died away in the depths of his somewhere, very – very far. The sky was painted in a bright fire color, gradually fading and becoming red, soon the decline was extinguished, and bright stars and whole constellations were shining one by one to replace it. The young man was greeted by a modest smile with a ship and sailors running to the unknown, who were left on the night watch.

The second and third days passed calmly too, the wind was winding steadily, and the ship confidently followed the course, only the seagulls and albatrosses were no longer visible. This indicated that the corvette had gone far into the open sea, and for hundreds of miles there was neither land, nor an island. Sometimes, as if competing in running with the ship, along the right or left, there appeared flocks of playful white – throated dolphins that jumped above the foaming waves, showing all their appearance that they are much faster and more agile than the corvette in this endless water element. Their long gray muzzles smiled, and intelligent eyes radiated joy from communicating with a man.

The morning of the fourth day was gloomy and gray, the sun’s rays could not break through the thickness of the clouds, and only the lilac – orange strip in the sky indicated that the sun rises there, vainly trying to illuminate the new day with its bright light. The wind was weakening by the minute, and the course of the ship began to noticeably weaken, the sails began to sag until midday, a complete calm began, and the ship’s movement ceased. It was hard to breathe, the team mood was gloomy and dull.

The prince understood that this was a calm before the storm, the pressure on the barometer was steadily falling, in the west the clouds thickened and the sky darkened. It was necessary to prepare for a strong storm, which was not uncommon at this time of year in these latitudes. The captain ordered to roll all sails, and fix them as tightly as possible, check the fastening of all lifeboats and cargo on the deck and in the hold. Towards evening, when all preparations for the storm were carried out, the wind began to increase sharply and soon the waves began to rock the ship with force, to hit the sides and the salt spray flew to the deck. The sky whirred and throbbed, the wind whistled with rays to sail, night came and the black darkness swallowed the ship. Visibility was minimal, it was impossible to light a ship with lanterns in such a storm. Prince Mark himself rose to the helm and put the ship’s nose in a wave, the ship successfully cope with pitching, jumping from one ridge to another. All through the night the ship shook like a walnut shell, but thanks to the measures taken and mastery of the captain, a good ship withstood the struggle with the elements with dignity.

In the morning the storm noticeably subsided and, at last, the long-awaited command sounded:

– Raise the sails. The pitching was still going on, but the sailors boldly climbed the Rivers and, on command, raised a part of the sails and the ship immediately began to pick up with a fairly strong wind. There was one problem – to determine its exact location, it was clear that during the drift and the storm, the vessel was heavily demolished from the intended course. The difficulty was that behind a thick layer of dark clouds it was absolutely impossible to determine the point of the sun’s standing, because the astrolabe was absolutely useless.

The captain led the ship along the compass to the north-west, guided more by his experience and intuition, he realized that, given the wind during the storm and the current, the ship was carried to the south of the course per night for about a hundred miles, no more. Therefore, they walked a small course on small sails, so as not to go far from the paved route. It was necessary to wait for the good weather and determine where the sun or wait for the appearance of stars in the sky. Close to midnight in the heights here and there began to appear for an instant star, but then disappeared behind the clouds, and did not allow time to carry out precise calculations location on the map. Only when the morning was approaching and the dawn was about to dawn did the prince manage to find out his location on the map and plot a new course, and in the morning, when the sun ascended to clarify it. This made it possible to raise all the sails, and the ship again confidently went forward at full speed. The mood of the team improved, the sailors cheerfully joked and joked among themselves, telling funny sea bikes.

Lonely clouds, clustered in the sky, formed entertaining figures, rushed, driven by the sea wind with great speed towards, going under all sails to the ship. Soon the gulls appeared in the sky, announcing with their shrill cries that somewhere ahead of them was already the earth. Doubts from the prince was not that it could only be the same island to which they were sailing. Confidence in this added to the fact that the maps that were previously available on the ship, in these latitudes, there was not indicated any islet for hundreds of miles around.

– Yes, it was the most mysterious ominous island, about which legends – Prince was sure.

Earth! – at last, there was a loudly joyful voice of the man looking ahead from the mast forward of the watchman. The prince brought his telescope to his eyes and saw on the horizon a thin green strip of land. He was not mistaken, and, despite the previous storm, he was able to establish the correct course and found this island. The excitement of the team increased, all could not wait to see with their own eyes that unknown and inexplicable, something they knew only from the legend. A strange excitement engulfed everyone from the premonition of the impending meeting with this magical mystery.

Slowly green strip turned into a visible land thickly covered with greenery, through which sites were rocky sharp spurs, a distance similar to the towers of the fortress on the island all the signs seemed uninhabited team.

When signs of presence on it of people did not have neither ships near or small boats can not be seen on even close, only a flock of gulls roaming on the beach, feeling absolute masters of this unknown people a piece of land in the vast blue sea.