Chapter 80: The Island (Part 1)

Gunnar watched the approach of the contrasting colors ahead: white sand, turquoise water, and brilliant green jungle foliage.

And above the jungle, murky, gray smoke.

Seated around Gunnar in the dinghy were Ahlund, Justin, Lycon, Adonica, Borris, and Pool, who worked the oars with long, steady strokes to propel the tiny boat toward the beach. The seawater was so clear Gunnar could see a full twenty feet straight down, to the very bottom of the shallows.

The island was small, probably less than two miles from end to end. Gunnar's maps didn't have a name for it. Tribes of islanders called places like this home. The Gryphon II would have passed it by, but the amount of smoke pouring into the sky from its center-more smoke than any number of cooking fires would have produced-had made Gunnar suspicious. He could smell the smoke from here. Esthean was still a day away, but it merited an investigation.