"Eric Van Lustbader - Sunset Warrior 5 - Dragons on the Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lustbader Eric van)

Then he felt the bosom of the sea buck and judder beneath their tortured keel as if a gigantic hand from
the depths had risen and grasped it. The ship, as if possessed, shot forward, as the howling winds filled
the mainsail to bursting. The Tsubasa's high bow lifted upward to meet the creaming crest of the
wavefront now beginning to tumble over them with an ominous tearing sound. Moichi and the Bujun
almost had their arms torn out of their sockets as the helm tried to pull this way and that. But the two men
held the Tsubasa fast to its course, and with an astonishing burst of speed, the Bujun craft continued to
slice through the whirling maelstrom before them.

Moichi felt rather than heard the Bujun praying as the clipper, trembling, dipped precipitously into the
trough of terrifying depth. For long breathless moments their world was stark green and obsidian black,
the curve of the vast wavebody filled their ears, their heads and bodies with an alien din.

Gargantuan shapes slid through the depths on either side of them, far from the surface high above, moving
and twisting in a silent display none had ever seen before or could even have imagined.

How long they plowed through the aqueous gorge was impossible to judge, and at last, directly ahead of
them, the first patch of deep blue appeared, so small at first that many took it to be a part of the roaring
sea. Gradually, it widened, seeming to bring them out of their watery tomb, and at length they felt the ship
rising to meet it, as if in concert with the changing tide below them.

Grinning hugely, Moichi spared an instant to clap the Bujun on the back. Then he swiftly returned both
hands to the helm as the Tsubasa wavered a bit in the still treacherous cross-currents, the aftermath of
the ferocious typhoon.

'Softly, now,' Moichi whispered in the Bujun's ear,'the tsunami's behind us but this gale can still do us in.'
Between them they kept a tight rein on the ship's course. 'Listen to the wind in the sheets and take care to
read the pattern of its changes. If we get broadside to it with the mains'l filled, we'll go down like a stone.'

The Bujun's grip on the helm remained firm, his knuckles white with the pressure. He concentrated on the
job given him, tracking the gusty wind expertly, making incremental course corrections as needed. In no
time at all, he was nearly anticipating the gale.

Seeing this, Moichi nodded to himself. That Bujun had more guts in the crunch than all of the scurvy crew
combined. Glancing upward, he noticed that the blue sky was gone. In its place, thick glowering
thunderheads, dark with rain, rippled across the clogged sky, dipping down to meet the gray-green
ocean. Lightning forked and licked, yellow-pink, blinding him momentarily.

With that the downpour began anew. Moichi glanced around. The Tsubasa was already lying low in the
water, her scuppers blocked with twisted masses of sea grape and wrack.

'What do you think,' he asked the Bujun, 'if I ask for all sail to be set will this ship take it?'
The Bujun looked into his face and nodded. 'She'll take anything you put her to, Captain. Of that you can
be assured.'

Moichi nodded and, turning toward the crew on the deck below, called for all sail to be set. They needed
all speed now in order not to ship more water and risk a high wave pulling them under.

One of the mates, a glum-faced giant with an oily drooping mustache and some years' sea experience,
mounted the companionway.