Jack pulled the rope out of the water. The end of itwas still tied in a loop.
"What happened?" asked Annie.
"We're heading out to sea," said Jack. "I guess allthe pulling lifted the rope off the rock."Annie sat up and looked at the misty whiteness.
"I can't see the island," she said. "I can't seeanything," said Jack. Annie looked at Jack.
"Do you think this is our darkest hour?" she asked.
"I don't know," said Jack. "Maybe the book willhelp."He pulled out their research book. He found apicture of a Viking ship. He read the caption aloud:
Viking warships were the best ships of their times.
When there was no wind, the crew would take downthe sails and row with oars. The smallest ships hadfour rowers, and the largest had as many as thirty-two. Rowers sat on boxes that stored their belongings.
"Great," said Annie, jumping up. "This isn't ourdarkest hour!""Why do you say that?" asked Jack.
"There's still hope," said Annie. "We can row to theother side of island and find tree house.""Are you nuts?" said Jack.
"Please, Jack," said Annie. "Can we just try?"She grabbed one of the oars. She could barely lift it.
"Forget it, Annie," said Jack. "It takes four bigViking guys to row this thing. You're too little. I'm toolittle.""Come on, Jack. Just try," said Annie. "You get anoar, too. We'll sit on boxes across from each other.""Oh, brother," said Jack.
Annie dragged her long oar over to a storage box.
"I'm not doing this alone," she said.
Jack groaned. Then he dragged an oar to the boxacross from Annie.
"Cool!" said Annie. She peered into a storage box.
"Look, one for each of us!"She lifted out two small Viking helmets.
"Maybe these were made for Viking kids whosometimes ride in this ship," said Annie.
"Maybe," said Jack.
He hadn't thought of Vikings as real people before-people with families and little kids.
Annie pulled off her scarf and put a helmet on herhead.
"Now I feel like a Viking, too," she said. "I bet it willhelp me row."She handed Jack a helmet. He put it on. It made himfeel a little different.
"I don't know about this," he said. The helmetwasn't as heavy as the one he had worn in the time ofcastles. But it was still pretty heavy.
"Well, I'm braver with mine on," said Annie.
Jack smiled. He didn't know how Annie could bebraver than she already was.
"Ready to row?" she asked.
"Yup," said Jack. He was feeling braver himself.
The wind picked up as Jack lifted his heavy oarover the side of the ship.
He lowered it into the water. But the cur-rent wasso strong that the oar was ripped from his hands.
Jack fell over backward as his oar slipped into thesea.
"I lost my oar!" Annie yelled.
Jack looked up as rain started to fall. The sky wasblack. A gush of seawater poured over the side of theship!
"Brrr!" said Annie as she tried to stand.
The black sky shook with thunder and flashed withlightning.
Jack crawled to the side of the ship and pulledhimself up.
Another huge wave was coming right toward them!
"It's our darkest hour now!" cried Annie. "GetBrother Michael's book!"Jack reached into his leather bag. He pulled out thejeweled book and held it up.
"Save us, story!" he cried.
He looked at the sea again. What he saw made himscream.
Rising from the oncoming wave was a giant seaserpent!
