Away! It carried them away! With all Sylviana's help, he could draw
no closer to the Island. The SEA lay beyond, nothing but the sea! Dear
God, it was slow, certain death that awaited them! In the final measure
he had failed, miserably and utterly. He tore down the Judas sail and
fell forward and surrendered to despair.
They were lost.
Chapter 36
But in his despair and hopeless fear of it, Kalus had forgotten (or
never knew) that the Sea could also be benevolent. The Sea, which has
ways and currents of its own, and to whom the incoming waters were
hardly a ripple of sand in the Sahara. The fresh water currents
subsided, and the waves of the Atlantic took over. Subtler, more
profound, at worst they would have cast them back upon the mainland.
But by a distance no greater than the trunk of a fallen tree, he had set
their craft far enough east to be held by the confines of a far greater
stream. Sweeping northward along the whole coast of America, washing
even the pebbles of Nova Scotia before turning eastward toward Britain
and the European main: the subtly altered, and miraculous Gulf Stream.
For a long time it seemed the boat moved not at all. And lost in sorrow
and dark reverie, none of its passengers stirred. Only the cub seemed
alive, whimpering in the wet bottom of the shell until the woman untied
her.
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