Chapter Eight #2
Still, she didn’t have much choice. She’d insisted on coming on this mission, and if they did encounter pirates, she was currently in no fit state to do anything useful.
So, taking a deep breath, she relaxed her muscles and arranged herself into a cross-legged position with her back straight.
She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing.
In out, in out, as her mother had taught her.
Slowly, she opened herself up to her power.
It was there inside her, a golden ball of light spinning madly in the center of her being.
As always when she accessed it, her power tried to grab her, pull her in, take control.
But Elise was prepared for this. She let through only a tiny scrap of power, channeled it out into the rest of her body, into her roiling stomach and aching head, and then sighed in relief as both the headache and the sickness evaporated.
She looked around. Miraculously, the sea seemed to have calmed, and the deck was no longer pitching and bucking under her.
Gripping the railing in both hands, she clambered to her feet and gazed out to sea, this time welcoming the bracing wind that scoured her cheeks and sent her hair streaming out behind her.
All around them stretched endless gray-green waters.
Off their port side a flock of kittiwakes were bobbing on the water, watching the ship slide by.
She could just make out the coast of Islay in the distance to the south, while a line of rocky islets was appearing out of the hazy horizon to the north.
Jamie was standing by the aft rail with the captain. She picked her way carefully over to him and he raised an eyebrow as she approached.
“Elise. Ye are looking…better.”
A sudden shout went up from the stern. “Ship ahoy!”
Jamie spun, a hand going to the hilt of his sword. Elise’s pulse ratcheted up a notch. A ship? Had the pirates found them?
But none of the crew seemed concerned. They were staring at something in the distance and as Elise followed their gaze, she made out a darker shape against the waves. As they moved closer, the shape resolved itself into a ship.
Jamie let forth a string of curses in Gaelic.
What they were looking at was the remains of a large, three-masted ship.
It was listing badly and how it was still afloat was anyone’s guess.
One side was blackened with fire, and the main mast had burned and then snapped off, leaving a jagged point sticking up from the center of the ship like an accusing finger.
There was no sign of life on the ship’s canted decking. No faces at the rail, no calls for aid.
Elise shivered, suddenly cold. Beside her, Jamie tensed, his grip on the rail going white. His nostrils flared in sudden fury and Elise saw a tiny vein throbbing in his temple.
“The Sea Star,” he breathed. “I had hoped against hope that the reports were exaggerated.”
It was clear that whoever had attacked this ship had been brutal and efficient. Elise didn’t even want to imagine what had happened to the crew.
Albie came to stand next to Jamie. The big man’s face was pale with anger and shock beneath his beard. “By God, they’ll pay for this,” he breathed.
Jamie nodded. “Aye,” he growled, his voice low and dangerous, throbbing with the promise of dire retribution against the perpetrators.
“They will. Send out the launch and a search party of twenty men. Scour that ship. If any of our men survived, I want them found. And if you find any raiders aboard well, ye know what to do.”
Albie nodded tightly. “Aye, my laird.”
“There’s no point!” Elise blurted. “You’ll be risking people for nothing. There are no survivors aboard that ship.”
“How can ye be sure? We owe it to our people to discover—”
“I just know!” she snapped. She suddenly didn’t want to be here. Something tingled against her senses, some premonition of danger. This felt like a trap, like jaws were about to snap closed around her neck. “There is nothing here but misery. We need to get out of here—”
She trailed off as something else suddenly intruded on her senses.
Something different to what she felt coming from the ship.
Something…alive. She closed her eyes and tried to shut out everything around her: the low voices of the crew, the drumming of feet on the deck, the sound of Jamie and Albie’s breathing.
There was…something. It brushed against her MacFinnan senses. Something that felt like…
She spun and pointed at a tiny, rocky islet on the horizon. “There!”
Jamie’s frown deepened into a scowl. “What are ye talking about, lass? There’s naught there but a few rocks.”
“We have to go there right now!”
“Why?”
She turned to face him. How could she explain? She didn’t understand it herself. All she knew was that her senses were thrumming and an implacable urgency filled her veins. They didn’t have much time…
“Just trust me! We have to get over there this instant!”
Jamie stared at her for one, two, three heartbeats. The muscles in his jaw flexed and she could see her was debating whether to put his faith in her untested abilities. Then he whirled to the helmsman.
“Take us towards that islet!”
The helmsman knuckled his forehead. “Aye, my laird.”
The captain came stomping over, looking none too pleased at Jamie issuing orders on his ship. “What in God’s name, man? You know how treacherous the waters around those rocks are. It isn’t called the Devil’s Cut for nothing! Have you lost your senses?”
Jamie glanced at Elise then back at the captain. “Aye, Roger, I know how dangerous that straight can be, but I also know I have the best captain in the Isles to see us safely through. Ye have yer orders. I suggest ye see to them.”
The captain’s expression darkened, his chin jutting with annoyance. But he didn’t argue further and began bellowing orders to the crew.
Slowly, the ship began to come about and move towards the Devil’s Cut.
They moved excruciatingly slowly and it wasn’t long before Elise realized why.
The water was shallower here and she saw great gaping rocks just below the surface, razor-sharp teeth ready to rip out the hull of any ship stupid enough to get too close.
She swallowed, suddenly understanding the captain’s reluctance. Yet, she did not tell them to turn back. Her senses still thrummed, pointing towards the largest of the islets, a black piece of jagged rock that rose up from the waves like the very top of some broken underwater mountain.
As they moved slowly closer, weaving through the narrow channels between rocks, a sudden murmur went through the crew, and then enthusiastic shouts broke out.
“By God Almighty,” Jamie breathed. “Is that…?”
Elise squinted against the glare off the water and the drenching spray.
There was something on the islet. Three dots of color decorated the rocky side, and as they moved closer, those dots of color resolved themselves into shapes.
Three men, clustered on a narrow ledge on the islet’s jagged flanks, waving desperately. Shrill cries carried over the waves.
“Help! Help us!”
“Survivors,” she breathed.
Things seemed to happen quickly after that.
The captain snapped orders and the steersman took the ship as close to the islet as he dared.
The waters around the islet were too perilous to get close so the ship’s launch was lowered, a much smaller rowing boat that would be able to navigate the treacherous shallows more easily.
But even this couldn’t get close enough to the islet to land.
So, while two of the oarsmen held the boat as steady as possible, two others threw lines out to the three stranded men.
One by one, they lashed the line around their waists and then jumped into the water, swimming for all they were worth until they were able to be pulled aboard the launch by the sailors.
Elise joined the rest of the crew at the ship’s starboard rail as they watched the launch’s return and the rescued men being hauled aboard.
All three collapsed to the deck, puffing and blowing, looking exhausted, battered, but very much alive.
Elise joined Jamie as he pushed through the ring of sailors that had surrounded the men and crouched in front of them.
“Well met, lads,” he said gruffly, in a voice full of strangled emotion. “Well met.”
All three were young, Elise noticed, youths in their late teens, too young to be subjected to such an ordeal. What had they seen during the pirate attack? What had they been forced to endure?
“My…my lord,” stammered one of the lads, a youth with his chestnut hair tied into a tail at the back of his head. “Ye…ye found us.”
Jamie shook his head. “It wasnae me that found ye, but our spellweaver.” He nodded at Elise.
The youth’s eyes shifted to Elise and widened. “Our…thanks, my lady,” he stammered. His voice shook a little and he seemed on the verge of tears. He blinked, trying to fight them back. “We thought that was it, that we would drown out here or…or…”
“Easy, lad,” Jamie said, placing his hand on the youth’s shoulder. “Can ye tell us what happened?”
The youth glanced at his companions and then swallowed thickly.
“The voyage from the mainland went well. The weather was good and we saw no sign of other vessels, either friend or foe. The captain kept changing course, to keep any pirates off our trail and confuse them. It seemed to work. That is until we got here. They were waiting for us, my lord. They knew where we were going to be all along.”
Jamie’s expression tightened and his nostrils flared in a flash of anger. “What were their demands?”
“None, my lord. They surrounded us and the captain flew the flag of surrender just like he’d been ordered to. It made no difference. They began firing at us anyway. Then they boarded us, took the cargo, and captured the crew. Anyone that resisted was killed.”
“But ye got away.”