Into the Wilderness: Blood of the Lamb (Book Two) by Mandy Hager Read Free Book Online Page B

“I've got blisters from the ropes.” She held out her hands to reveal raw strips where the ropes had run through her fingers and chaffed her skin.
    â€œLet me go on the ropes then,” Maryam offered. “You work the tiller, Joseph, and Ruth can be our lookout now that we're close to land.”
    â€œWhat about you?” Joseph said. “You have to preserve your strength—it's still only a short time since I took your blood.” He sniffed loudly, wiping his runny nose with the back of his hand.
    â€œI'm in better shape than you,” Maryam countered. “You look as if you've caught a chill.”
    â€œIt's nothing, while you—”
    â€œListen to you two! It's not a competition as to who is feeling worse!” Ruth laughed.
    Maryam felt herself blushing. Ruth was right in a way. It was as if she and Joseph were circling around, worrying about the other at their own expense. The difference, though, was that she knew her strength was rebuilding, while Joseph's seemed to ebb away. And this mattered to her—mattered more than she could ever put into words. But she also knew that the only way Joseph would get the rest he needed was if they made it to land.
    â€œThank you, Mother Ruth!” she said, trying desperately to lift the mood. “Now could I humbly suggest we have a snack and then put all our effort into reaching the island?”

    The sun was losing its heat when they finally approached the reef that protected Marawa Island from the open sea. They could see the waves break across its back in a seemingly continuous ring that divided the dark blue of the ocean from the luminous mottled turquoise of the shallow water inside the reef.
    The island was clearly visible now. Lush impenetrable-looking jungle spilled down from the cone-like peak right to the edges of the glistening coral sand. Overhead, dozens of birds competed for the updrafts, their cries clearly audible above the boil of the surf. If there were people on the island, there was no sign—it looked as pristine and uninhabited as when the Lord first formed it.
    They slackened off the sails, allowing the boat to wallow on the swell as all four made their way up to the prow and studied the way the waves broke on the thick ring of reef.
    â€œI can't see any opening,” Joseph said. He pointed to the plateau at the southern end. “I think we'd better circle round and see what's on the other side.”
    â€œI agree,” Maryam said, trying to put from her mind any reason why the place should look so deserted. “Surely there's a passageway if your father said they traded with Onewēre in the past.”
    Together they worked to haul in the sails, leaving only a small storm jib that was much easier to control. Lazarus took command of the tiller; the other three stood up at the bow to scan for rocks or coral shelves that might hole the boat. Progress though the sloppy swell was slow. Many times Lazarus was forced to manoeuvre the craft around abruptly as one of the others warned him away from a threatening dark mass beneath the water. It was not worth the risk.
    Then, as they rounded the headland at the south end of the island, a whole new vista opened up to them. The plateau folded in on itself, forming a perfect crescent-shaped bay. At its centre, strange conical parapets just peeked out from the tangled mass of jungle, weathered to a streaky grey.
    â€œDo you see that?” Maryam shouted. Her cry carried to the birds, which picked up the duel between excitement and trepidation in her voice and relayed it in raucous echoes out across the bay.
    â€œThere! Look!” Ruth's voice, too, flew high as she pointed to a smooth channel of water amidst the waves churning against the reef. “There's a break!”
    â€œYou're right!” Joseph turned to Lazarus. “Do you see it?”
    Lazarus nodded. “What do you think?”
    â€œLet's approach it slowly and see if it's wide