Toward the Sun

By John Everest

Lieutenant Robert Young and the crew of the Icarus are sailing to the mysterious islands of East Indies. Together they must face the dangers and adventure found on the far side of the world, while trouble brews closer to home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450250207

John Everest

John Everest grew up in Michigan. Some of his favorite authors include J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Bernard Cornwall, Alexander Kent, and Dudely Pope. He also enjoys swimming, basketball, and boating.

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TOWARD THE SUN

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John Everest

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Bloomington

Toward the Sun

Copyright © 2010 John Everest

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4502-5019-1 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-5020-7 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 8/6/2010

For my best friend, who inspired me to write

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Contents

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

Epilogue

I

The sun cast beautiful shades of red, pink, purple, and orange on the clouds floating above the deep blue of the Indian Ocean. Occasionally the rolling waves were crested with foaming white caps. A school of fish swam and shimmered a few feet away, over the side of the thirty two gun frigate the HMS Icarus. Lieutenant the Honorable Robert Young was idly perched on a twelve pounder, knocking his boots against the black metal and wondering if once they reached the islands of the East Indies there would be dolphins, like he had seen playing with each other near the reefs of Australia. Suddenly there was a splash as one of the fish jumped up out of the sea and seemed to glide through the air with its fins outstretched like wings. After a few seconds it slipped back into the blue and joined the school of silver streaks darting through the water. The restless ocean together with the cries of birds soaring in the air painted a picture that would have taken away the breath of the elegant and cultured aristocracy of England. They deemed themselves sophisticated enough to decide what qualifies as beauty in this world, yet they rarely took it upon themselves to journey away from the hustle and bustle of London. Not many of them would have braved the 12,000 mile trip from Gibraltar to Australia to deliver dispatches, not even with the comforts of an East Indiaman much less in a frigate of the Royal Navy.

Young was glad his brother William was the one to inherit their father’s title and become the next Viscount Young, allowing him to escape the responsibilities of a peerage. Serving in His Majesty’s Marines did cause Young to dearly miss his sisters, Victoria and Katherine. He loved both his sisters but he missed Victoria the most. Katherine was a haughty person, who felt she was special and deserved privileged treatment. Throughout their childhood Robert had done his best to discourage that belief by pulling pranks on her whenever he could. Victoria was different; she was thoughtful and caring. Just like his mother she had the knack for being able to make what ever problem that faced him go away. The two of them used to spend long nights just talking, and those nights were some of the fondest memories Robert had of England. But Robert was the dreamer of the family and much too free spirited to be able to stand stuffy London society for more than a short while. Instead he thanked God everyday that being the second son had allowed him to gain a commission from the Admiralty as a marine officer and sail around the world. Even the invitation to dinner at the Governor’s residence in Sydney while the ship was fixing the foremast, which had cracked in a storm a few hundred miles of the coast, had been a bore to Robert. The food had been a relief from the fare the purser usually pried open from casks in the hold, but even talking to was Governor’s pretty daughter was a chore. She cared nothing about the strange exotic island she lived on, only caring about the latest fashions and gossip for the last time he was in London. During the whole dinner Young had found himself counting down the seconds till he would be rowed back aboard the Icarus, and able to escape from such inconceivable boredom.

The tap of a musket on deck returned Young from his musings and brought him back on board where he