Chapter 16
I jumped to my feet and looked around like a bewildered squirrel, while Torvus’ steady eye darted to the door. “That doesn’t sound good. Go see what that’s about.”
“You want me to tell you what’s wrong?” I guessed
He grinned. “I’ll know enough just by listening, but this’ll be a good time for you to see what this ship and crew can do. Now go on.”
I reluctantly moved to the door and peeked out. Crew members raced to and fro, while Fidel barked orders from the wheel deck above my head.
“Hoist the sails! Turn eighty degrees starboard side!”
“Aye, aye!” came the shouts as the men climbed the ropes and ladders up to where the sails were trimmed.
I looked over my shoulder at the pale figure on the bed. The candlelight did nothing to help his complexion. “They won’t give you an invitation,” he teased me. “Now get on out there.”
I took a deep breath and slipped out, though I kept close to the wall. My foot hit something soft, and I clapped my hand over my mouth to stifle my scream.
“Do you have something against my tail?!” Ramaro growled as he cradled his appendage in his front claws. Another kink had been added to the mess. “First, you sacrifice it to that creature and now this.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I looked around.
His tongue flicked out. “And why are you whispering?”
I pointed at the work in front of us. “I don’t want to distract them.”
He scoffed. “Distract these sailors? You’re pretty, as far as human females go, but you’re not that pretty. Besides, that’s an Admiralty ship out there. That means trouble.”
That word sounded familiar. “The Admiralty? The ones who put you in a cage?”
Ramaro rolled his eyes. “Who else? They’re only the most powerful fleet on all the seas. Even if you got together all the mercenaries, they’d still be dwarfed by all the ships the Admiralty controls.”
My pulse skipped a beat. “Can we outrun them without the captain’s magic?”
Ramaro grinned and winked at me. “The captain didn’t pick these men for nothing. Now just follow me and stay low.”
The agama scurried rightward toward the stairs. I ducked and followed, and together we climbed the steps. Ramaro stopped at the top and used his hand to indicate I needed to duck. I stayed low, but I still had a perfect view of the wheel platform along with the lower deck.
Fidel stood just behind the pilot with a telescope in his hands. He swung it in a full circle and then some before he stopped. “Ninety degrees further starboard!”
“Aye, aye! Ninety degrees starboard!” the pilot shouted back as he spun the wheel. The ship turned sharply, helped by the hoisting of the sails. The thick sheets flapped a short while before the wind filled them, pulling us along at a good clip.
One of the men on the deck stepped up to face the wheel platform. “What now, sir?”
Fidel lowered his sight glass and grinned at them. “We’re having reef fun today, men! Ready the anchor!”
The man nodded and turned to the others. “Reef readiness! Get to the wheel!”
The ‘wheel’ was the mechanism used to lower and raise the anchor. It was a wheel with two dozen spokes sticking out of it at regular intervals.
I leaned forward and caught Ramaro’s attention. “Reefs?”
“Just hold on when I tell you.”
Our location meant I had a good view of the stern and the seas behind us.
A large ship pursued us. Its boards were painted the purest white with gold trim, and its sails were of the cleanest white.
The sails were also etched with gold threads, and a figurehead protruded from the bow.
The wooden figure was hewn into the shape of an eagle with claws outstretched and wings drawn behind its body so they covered the boards of the bow.
Men in uniforms that matched the white and gold colors of the ship scurried up and down the ropes, hoisting and trimming the sails at the direction of a man who stood to the left of the helm.
The leader was a tall man with an equally tall hat.
Feathers bristled out of the bowl-shaped center and silhouetted his head like a halo.
He wore a breast coat and uncreased pants, with high black boots.
I couldn’t see any details of his person, but he had his hands clasped behind him and stood as erect as a statue.
Something about him made me shudder. Maybe it was because he looked as cold as the ship that sailed toward us.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away, but I managed to whisper to my companion. “Who’s the captain of that ship?”
Ramaro squinted at the vessel. “It looks like the Dempewolf. The ship’s captain is the infamous Wilhelm Jaeger.”
My face drooped. “Why is he infamous?”
“Because he doesn’t take prisoners from pirate ships.”
My blood ran cold. “Never?”
“Never.”
One of the sailors atop our ship shouted down. “Island at a half mile! Reefs at half that distance!”
Fidel moved to the railing at the front of the wheel deck and grasped the wood. “Steady the course! Prepare for the drag!”
My eyes lit up. “Are we going to use the reefs to swing the ship with the anchor?”
Ramaro scoffed. “Use reefs to swing a ship? Those things wouldn’t be able to hold the weight.”
“Then what’s Fidel planning?”
“You’ll see. Just keep a tight grip on the stairs and don’t look over the edge, especially when things start crashing.”
I watched the ship at our back. Its huge sails allowed it to gulp down more wind, and the gap between us shrank by the minute. The commander of the vessel remained at his stiff post, and I swore I felt his eyes on me as they came closer and closer.
A terrific boom broke the tense silence, and something shot past across the port side.
The object was black as pitch, and a dark mist followed in its wake.
The fog cast the deck in shadow for a moment before the thing landed in the water near our bow.
The whole ship rocked from the waves and nearly threw us off course.
“Don’t breathe it in!” Ramaro warned me.
Too late. I inhaled a bit of the fog, and my head seemed to fill with the stuff. Then it filled with something worse.
Phantoms. The shadows under the stairs seemed to stretch and reach for me. I yelped and jerked back, but a clean slap on the cheek by Ramaro’s tail brought me back.
“Breathe in and out! Fast!” he commanded me.
I was already doing a good job, and each breath of clean air made the shadows retreat back to their proper place.
I stared wide-eyed at him. “What was that? Some sort of cannonball?”
Ramaro wrinkled his snout. “Of course not! He’s firing off grimspall. They’re filled with nightmare fog to drive people crazy with fear. Some people even throw themselves overboard, so don’t breathe it in again!”
Another projectile whizzed past, this time on our other side, and crashed into the water, sending us tumbling.
I grabbed the steps as the ship violently rocked to and fro, and made sure I didn’t breathe in the stuff again.
More than one sailor tied a handkerchief over their face to protect themselves.
The reef came closer and closer as well. Fidel used his scope to examine the shallow waters. “Men to the anchor! Twenty degrees port side!”
“Twenty degrees port side!” the helmsman shouted before he obeyed the orders.
The ship turned and made for the reefs on the right side of the island. I heard a faint sound from deep below the vessel. It sounded like something pinging against the bottom. “What’s that?”
“That’s the coral hitting the hull,” Ramaro told me as he winced at every knick. “The men are going to have a fun time with those repairs.”
“Ready the anchor!” Fidel yelled above the heightening scratching of the coral.
The reefs were slowing our pace. Our pursuers closed the distance, and their prow came within fifty yards of our stern. The vessel was larger than ours, and that sank their hull deeper in the water. The Hunter struck the reef sooner than ours, but it also slipped into our destructive wake.
Fidel raised one arm and watched our pursuers for a long, tense moment. He waited until the vessel traveled completely in our wake before he sliced his arm down. “Drop the anchor!”
“Hold on now!” Ramaro shouted at me as he curled his tail around one of the inner banisters and pressed his claws into every loose fiber in the wood. “Things are about to get fun!” I likewise squished myself against the stairs.
The sailors gritted their teeth and pushed with all their might.
The wheel turned, and the chain dropped the anchor into the sea with a terrific splash.
The heavy metal dragged through the reef, ripping and breaking the hard corals from their roots.
The uprooted remains were dragged in our wake and piled up behind us, creating a minefield of trouble.
The Hunter found that trouble. The corals slammed into the large and fast ship, grinding their sharp corners on the wood. The beautiful paint was torn apart, revealing the ugly plain wood. The debris and the shallow depth also slowed their pursuit.
“Raise the anchor!” Fidel shouted.
The anchor was raised, and our speed increased.
We were able to pull away and swing around the far side of the island.
The trees on the shore blocked us from their view, and in a few minutes, the danger had passed.
The ship didn’t make it around the corner of the island before we disappeared into the sunset.
I hoped they had a lot of paint and fresh boards.