Chapter 42
Carolina lay quietly facing Ophelia on her bed, as she’d been doing for quite some time. They’d been chasing the Sovereign ships to Trayward for almost two days, and while Ophelia had been able to switch places with Peter to put wind in Omen’s sails, she’d hardly had time to rest. Between continuing to care for injured crew and observing the Sovereign ships to come up with plans, last night was the first time she’d been able to get a full night’s sleep, and Carolina didn’t dare wake her. She didn’t dare move either, no matter how badly she wanted to hug Ophelia closer.
Instead, she simply watched. She cherished the fluttering of Ophelia’s eyelids as she dreamed. She treasured the warmth against the arm she had draped over Ophelia’s waist. She counted every slow, shallow breath Ophelia took. After the state she’d left her in at Trayward, it was all she could do. It was all she wanted to do for the rest of her life, and she couldn’t help it that her eyes grew moist amidst the conflict of guilt and relief.
She regretted sniffling the moment she did, because the sound caused Ophelia to draw in a long, deep breath and blink her eyes open. Ophelia smiled warmly and scooted closer, but as the sleep faded from her eyes and she focused on Carolina’s face, her lips turned down.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Carolina said, removing her arm from Ophelia’s waist just long enough to wipe her eyes. She pulled Ophelia closer, until the top of Ophelia’s head was tucked beneath her chin.
“Then why are you crying?” Ophelia asked.
“I wasn’t crying ,” she said, “I was just teary-eyed. ”
Ophelia poked her in the ribs. “ Why? ”
She huffed a laugh at the threat of another poke. “Because I love you,” she answered, and pressed a kiss to the top of Ophelia’s head, “and there was a part of me that feared I’d never see you again when I left you in Trayward.”
“For a minute,” Ophelia said into her neck, “I wasn’t so sure either.”
She tightened her arm even more. “I’m sorry for leaving.”
“Don’t,” Ophelia told her, pulling back to look her in the eyes. “Don’t blame yourself.”
“I swore to you.”
“And here we are,” Ophelia said. “And you haven’t left me, have you? You thought Rue needed you and there was nothing you could have done for me there.”
“But if you’d died…” she said as her eyes moistened again.
“Then I would’ve died fighting for something I believed in, with no regrets about where I’d left things with you and satisfied that I’d been here, and that I got to experience having a home again.” Ophelia reached up to cup her face and pressed one tender kiss to her lips. “Whatever happens when we get back to Trayward, I don’t want either of us living with regret about any of the choices we’ve had to make.”
“Even if you’ll have a lot longer to grieve those choices than I will?”
Ophelia inhaled a long breath, and then released it in a heavy sigh as one corner of her mouth pulled into a smile. “A lifetime with you will fill my heart with enough joy to last the rest of my existence. There won’t be room for regret.”
Carolina gave a soft smile and leaned her forehead against Ophelia’s. “Then we finish this together,” she said, “so I can spend the rest of my life making sure your heart is overflowing.”
“Together,” Ophelia agreed, and gave her another long, soft kiss as they tangled further into each other.
They stayed like that for several minutes, enjoying the longest stretch of intimacy they’d had since the first night they were together, before a knock sounded on the door.
Carolina immediately pulled the blanket up over their heads, and Berkeley’s voice called, “Carolina? You awake?” as he knocked again.
“If we ignore him,” she whispered, “maybe he’ll go away.”
“I can make us invisible so they’ll never find us,” Ophelia suggested.
She snickered at that, but Berkeley knocked once more and said, “You’re going to want to see this. ”
She sighed, “I imagine we’re close to Trayward now,” and Ophelia nodded her agreement. “Coming!” she called to Berkeley.
She gave Ophelia one last kiss and then slipped out of bed, and they both pulled on the rest of their clothing and boots. Carolina made sure to also strap her extra bullet pouch to her weapon belt and then headed for the door.
They joined the rest of the crew outside as everyone gathered near the bulwark to stare into the distance. The Sovereign ships were still some distance ahead of them, but Trayward was finally in view, and their situation didn’t look nearly as bleak as Carolina had thought as they’d left Glasoro. Because the rest of Izaak’s ships had almost arrived too — there were seven of them approaching from the opposite side of Trayward.
“They made it!” Berkeley announced, gesturing excitedly.
“I see,” Carolina laughed.
Even with those seven ships and Omen, they were still outnumbered by one whole crew, but it was far better odds than she’d hoped.
“Hey, look,” Ophelia said, pointing.
A rider on drakenback was taking a wide turn around the Sovereign fleet, and appeared to be heading for Omen. Several of Omen’s crew drew their weapons as the rider got closer, but eventually they recognized that it was Carter and Kip, and the two thudded down on Omen’s deck.
“Gang’s all here then,” Carter said with a smile as he dismounted. His face lit up when he noticed Peter, and he hurried forward and pulled him into a hug. “I’ll be damned.”
“Couldn’t let you two have all the fun,” Peter told him.
Carter clapped him on the back and let him go, gave Wyatt a soft punch to the shoulder, and then looked at Ophelia with another smile. “I’m glad you’re alright, Miss Parker.”
“Thanks, Carter,” Ophelia told him.
He nodded, and then turned his attention on Carolina. “Izaak’s been healed. He sent me for a report. He says we’ll defer to your lead.”
Carolina looked over at Berkeley and Ophelia, and at Rue and Wyatt and Peter, and then at the bounty hunters and Ophelia’s parents, and every one of them nodded.
“Come,” Carolina said, gesturing as she headed for the bow of the ship. Carter followed her there. “You see that ship there? The one with the steel hull that opens from the bottom.” Carter hummed. “We believe that’s the ship Simon is on, and we believe that’s the one that’s full of laibralt explosives.”
His eyes widened. “Laibralt explosives?”
“That’s right,” she answered, and motioned to Wyatt and instructed, “Tell him.”
“You know Sovereign’s stores of over twenty class five explosives and hundreds of smaller ones?” Wyatt asked, and Carter gave a grimacing nod. “Every one of them is on that ship.”
“Simon intends to kill the heart so no one else can Ascend,” Carolina added. “You tell Izaak that we need to keep that ship away from the courtyard at all costs.” Carter nodded. “What about our munitions? Did Izaak tell you what Freedom in Shadows has?”
“Cannons, bullets,” Carter said, “and a tiny bit of laibralt.”
“From the Iron Sands?” Ophelia asked.
“I believe so,” he answered. “But when Izaak mentioned the laibralt, he mumbled something about not being able to process it all.”
“How many shells do we have?” Ophelia asked. “And what class?”
“Only two,” he answered. “Class one.”
“That’s hardly a few powder kegs worth,” Rue complained.
Carter shrugged.
“Save them,” Carolina told him. “And tell Izaak that we’re going after that ship, and we need his fleet to hurry and keep the rest of Simon’s preoccupied.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“We’re going to try and blow it up before it gets to the courtyard,” she answered.
“Aye, aye, Captain,” he grinned. “Izaak also wanted me to tell you that Lia is altering wind on one of those ships, but as soon as they get close enough, she’s going to try and reach the courtyard before Simon can intercept her.”
Carolina’s brow furrowed, but Ophelia murmured, “She’s going to Ascend.”
“They said two of you would be better than one,” he replied.
“Yes,” Ophelia said with a relieved smile, “it will. Have a fire alter send up a signal when Izaak is ready. That’ll be our cue to move in. We need his fleet to do the same.”
“Good luck,” Carter said.
“You too,” Carolina told him .
Carter nodded at Wyatt and Peter, and then climbed back into Kip’s saddle and took off into the air, making a wide path around the Sovereign ships back toward Trayward.
Carolina turned to the rest of her crew as they all watched in anticipation, staring back at her and waiting for instruction. Or encouragement.
“This is it, crew,” she told them. “If you didn’t get off on Glasoro, I’m afraid you missed your chance.”
A couple of them laughed, but when Queenie shouted, “ We fight !” the rest cheered their approval.
“Most of you became pirates to chase a better life than Sovereign ever wanted you to have,” she said. “Or, like me, you wanted a better life for the loved ones stuck at home.” Rue nodded resolutely at her. “So today is about more than just us,” she continued. She paced from one side of her gathered crew to the other. “Today is for the family and friends we left behind. For the ones who never made it out, and the ones who were lost.” She met the eyes of Cook and Sly, two of her crew who were hit hardest by that loss, and they nodded at her too. “This is for everyone who’s still a slave to Sovereign’s whim, or to an employer’s whim, or at the mercy of a mining company. Today we put an end to their terror.” She grinned at Queenie. “And we’ll do more than fight for freedom, because today, we win it!”
She raised her fist in the air, and as the rest of her crew followed suit, shouting and bellowing their battle cries, a flame went up from the courtyard and burst in the air.
“That’s our signal!” she hollered. “To your stations! Man the cannons! This is all or nothing!”
Everyone sprinted around as they rushed to the bulwark or descended the stairs below to get to the cannons, and Otis ushered Ophelia’s parents to safety below deck. Carolina dashed up to quarterdeck with Ophelia at her side and took place next to Ryland.
She grabbed the voice pipe and shouted into it, “In position?”
Berkeley’s voice echoed back, “Aye!” from the bow of the ship, and several more from the gundeck and the heartroom followed.
She nodded at Ophelia and said, “Full sails.”
Ophelia blasted the sails with wind, jolting them forward as they picked up speed to begin catching up to the Sovereign ships, but no sooner than they began closing the distance did the ship at the center of Simon’s fleet begin to break away from the rest .
“Sovereign center ship pulling forward!” Berkeley’s voice confirmed through the pipe.
“Get Peter!” Carolina shouted, and her call was echoed from crew to crew until it reached him, and seconds later he appeared at her side. She pointed at the sails. “Give us more.”
He joined Ophelia to nearly double their speed, bringing them within a hundred yards of the last ship within seconds, and Berkeley’s voice warned, “Rear ship stopped! Broadsiding for canon fire!”
“Let’s show them what Omen’s made of,” she murmured, and then stuck her mouth to the pipe again. “Descend sixty feet in five!” she shouted to the handlers below. And as soon as she received a response, she bellowed across deck, “Down-brace in five! Four! Three!”
Her countdown echoed across every deck as she and the rest of the crew raced to get their feet into the toe braces along the bulwark and at their stations, and then she reached ‘one’ and shouted into the pipe, “Down!”
Addie and Fowler were ready. They flooded Omen’s heating pipes with molten rock and sent the ship into a near freefall. Several of her crew shouted their joy at the drop as the sound of cannon fire thundered through the air, and a handful of cannonballs whistled by as they soared overhead and missed Omen’s sails.
The ship lurched out of freefall, and the moment she was steady on her feet, Carolina yelled, “Grab the barb-spears! Drag ‘em under! Fire on my command!”
Eight of her crew ascended to quarterdeck with spear guns, taking aim at the hull of the Sovereign ship that had fired on them as they reached twenty yards.
“Aim!” she shouted, and as Omen flew by underneath the ship, she yelled, “Fire!”
Barbed hooks whizzed through the air and pierced the wooden hull of the ship just under the bulwark, latching far too deep to be removed. Her crew took the ropes attached to those hooks straight to the stern end of Omen and looped them several times around the large deck fitting built at the rear, and as they passed over to the other side of that Sovereign ship, the ropes pulled taut.
“Rear-brace!” Carolina yelled.
She bent her own knees and leaned back as the weight of the Sovereign ship pulled against them, stealing some of Omen’s speed and sending them all lurching forward. But Ophelia and Peter doubled down, straining to put more wind in their sails as they continued to push on, dragging the hull of the Sovereign ship with them. And as they pulled on the opposite hull of the ship from underneath, it began to tip. It tilted more and more, panicked yells sounding from its crew as they began to slide across the deck. One of the ropes snapped as the crew began to find them, holding on for dear life as they stretched for the lines, trying to cut them before their ship completely capsized.
Two of their crew screamed as they toppled overboard and plummeted toward the surface, and several others were shouting for help as they hung off the bulwark. The ship was sideways. Four more ropes snapped all at once.
“We’re losing ground on Simon!” Berkeley alerted through the pipe.
Two more ropes snapped, and Carolina shouted, “Cut the lines! Forward-brace!”
They all braced against the instant increase in speed as her crew cut the remaining lines on the Sovereign ship, leaving it more than halfway overturned to resume their full-sail chase after Simon. They kept their low altitude as they passed by the rest of the Sovereign fleet, but one of the forward ships dropped to their level just as they reached it.
“Brace for cannon fire!” Carolina screamed.
It was almost too late. The pounding booms of firing cannons vibrated the air less than a second before impact shook the ground beneath their feet. One tremor after another rocked their posture as nine of the twelve fired cannonballs crashed into the metal-infused wood of Omen’s hull, shaking them so violently that Carolina stumbled forward to catch herself against the quarterdeck railing.
“Gundeck took a hit!” a voice hollered from the pipe. “Do we return fire?”
“No!” Carolina yelled as she staggered back to the pipe. Though the attacking ship was surely loading more cannonballs, Omen was nearly past it, and they were only twenty yards from the one Simon was on. “Handlers, take us up sixty feet! Now!”
Omen’s heart flooded with cool water, pitching them upward until they were level again with the rest of the fleet. And as they reached that level, their bow was almost even with the stern of Simon’s ship.
“Prepare to board!” she yelled to the rest of her crew.
They gained on Simon’s ship inch by inch, and were only halfway even with it when more cannonballs launched point blank at Omen’s hull. Carolina grabbed at the nearest structure, bracing herself against the voice pipe to keep from being thrown off her feet.
“Cannons!” she yelled into the pipe. “Take aim at where their hull opens! Try to drop their munitions!”
Ophelia and Peter stopped driving Omen forward as they aligned with Simon’s ship, and she finally spotted him on deck as their own round of cannon fire trembled at their feet. It rocked Simon’s crew off balance, and she didn’t wait for them to recover and make the first move.
“Grapples!” she yelled as she drew her daggers. “Pull us in!”
Omen crew threw their roped grapples over as Simon shouted at his crew to let it happen and prepare to fight, and the moment Omen’s bulwark brushed theirs, they rushed onto the ship, taking the fight straight to the Sovereign crew. Carolina followed with Ophelia at her side, bulldozing her way through the first soldier as they tried to get to Simon on quarterdeck. She used the crossguard of her dagger to adjust the trajectory of his swing, deflecting herself around him to plunge her other dagger into his back while Ophelia blasted a line of oncoming soldiers with such a powerful gust of wind it knocked them all off their feet.