Chapter 28
As the storm raged on, Rosetta walked up the steps of the quarterdeck with Mr Smith hot on her heels.
They both went to the helm and grabbed the wheel together. They steadied it, allowing Naeem to fall away.
“Go rest,” she told him. “We’ll take over.”
He nodded, untying the rope from his waist to put it around hers. Then, he worked on getting a second rope around Mr Smith, securing him to the support of the wheel as well. Together, they had the strength to hold the wheel and steer it.
For nearly an entire day, this was how they had been navigating a storm she could see wasn’t going to calm any time soon. Mr Smith and she would take the helm while Naeem took the time to sleep – just so he could come back and be at it again.
They couldn’t be trusted alone; neither one had the strength by themselves.
Nobody seemed to have noticed she hadn’t rested much herself, and she’d much prefer to keep it that way.
Rosetta was tired, but she hadn’t been able to think about anything other than making sure her ship and crew were fine. She was worried. She didn’t think she’d sailed through a storm this difficult before.
She knew they were encroaching on the second night when Naeem came back to take it again. The sky was black, and she couldn’t see a wave coming unless a strike of lightning forked its light across the sky.
“Go sleep, John.” She needed him off the deck.
She only allowed him to leave his cabin when she needed his help at the helm. The rest of the time, she commanded him to stay inside.
He nodded, leaving them.
“We can’t see where we’re going,” Rosetta said to Naeem, standing beside him while he steered. “Do you know where we are?”
She looked down at the compass that said they were heading in the right direction before placing it around his neck for him. He checked it as well.
“No. Hopefully, we find it soon.” He turned his head to her for a moment. “Did you see the Howling Death at all?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s gone.”
Naeem was staring at her as a flash of lightning lit up her face. He inched closer, like it would help him see her better.
“Bloody hell, Rosetta. When was the last time you slept?”
Shit. Just when she thought she’d been getting away with it. “I slept earlier.”
“When? Because you didn’t sleep when I was last at the helm, and you couldn’t have with John.” The fact that he hadn’t called him Johnny boy meant he was serious.
“I’ll sleep soon. Let me check everyone’s lifelines first.”
Her legs were tired, as though they were filled with lead, and her arms ached, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep with so many men who could potentially have an unsecured rope. She didn’t want them spiralling off the ship and out to sea.
Rosetta ran down the steps and started grabbing the ends of ropes, making sure they were tight around securing metal bulbs jutting out from where they were connected.
Just as she checked the last one and was about to let go, a sudden big wave crashed into the side of the hull.
Falling, she tried to hold onto the rope, but it was too wet. It slipped from her fingers, somehow managing to burn her palms in the process, despite its soaked texture. Rosetta went flying backwards, heading towards the railing as the ship gave a heavy dip like it might tip.
Water came rushing over through the other side, pushing her faster and further than normal.
I don’t have a lifeline!
“No!” she heard someone yell. “Save her!”
As she flipped backwards and was about to roll over the railing, she managed to grab the edge of it.
Holding on for dear life, she gasped and panted as her body dangled on the wrong side of the railing.
She could feel her hands slipping and she knew she was digging her fingertips in so hard they’d be turning white.
Coldness from the storm made them ache terribly with her fearful grip.
She kicked her boots against the outer hull, trying to find purchase so she could climb over.
A gurgling, roaring, near-sucking sound came from behind, one that sent fear and terror through her and chilled her all the way down to her bones. She thought her heart might have stopped in her chest.
She looked to the side to see a wave coming right for her. Her eyes went stark as she realised she was about to be washed away.
Oh gods! Oh no! Shit! She kicked harder, desperately trying to get some purchase before it was too late. I need to get over!
There was nothing else in the world that could make her realise how insignificant she was other than seeing a towering wave almost the size of her ship coming towards her, curling with froth like the mouth of a rabid, disease-ridden dog.
A set of hands grabbed one of her wrists and she looked up at one of her crewmen just as the wave hit.
Rosetta was flung to the side, but the person holding her managed to use the momentum to swing her back onto the ship. They held onto her with her between their legs as they both went sliding around the deck. She tried to snuff the scream that was clawing its way up her throat.
“Are you alright, Captain?” the man who had saved her asked once they settled. She looked up at someone she didn’t know well, one of the prisoners she’d released.
“Yes,” she said as he helped her to her feet after he got to his own. “Thank you.”
She told him to go back to his position in the sails before she bolted for the quarterdeck.
Her eyes fell on Naeem, who looked ashen with fright, as he watched her climb to the top of the stairs. His eyes were near bulging out of his skull; she was almost certain he’d been the one to call out.
With a nod to him, Rosetta entered her cabin. Closing the door, she fell to her knees.
I almost died.
If that prisoner hadn’t grabbed her, she would have been washed out to sea. She would have been pushed so far underwater, she doubted she would’ve been able to reach the surface before she drowned.
She felt weak as she shakily got up and stumbled to her sleeping cabin connected to the navigation room. Getting into her hammock was a struggle with her exhaustion and the intense rocking, but she eventually managed.
Her sleep was restless as she swayed around, but she did get a few hours in. Mr Smith was the one to wake her, realising she hadn’t come to him for far too long. The worry that lanced her chest caused her to almost fall out of her hammock.
“How long was I asleep?!”
“Eight hours.”
Poor Naeem! They ran outside to find the storm just as dangerous and unrelenting as when she’d left it. It seemed never-ending, like it would continue for the rest of eternity.
She put her hand on his shoulder and he turned his head to her.
“Finally! I can’t feel my fucking arms anymore.” He let go so they could take over. He patted John on the shoulder as he said, “Watch her – she almost went into the sea.”
The look Mr Smith gave her behind his rain-dotted glasses was enough to make her cringe. They both had to steady the wheel when it tried to turn.
“It’s fine. I–”
A bright flash of light blinded them.
A horrible, heart-wrenching, cracking and fizzing noise sounded alongside an ear-splitting boom.
No! No! Nooooo! Rosetta bounced on the spot, biting her bottom lip with her brows crinkled tightly together as she stomped her foot.
The mainmast of the Laughing Siren was hit with a powerful lightning strike.
Once the eye-piercing, sight-blinding light vanished, fire gave them enough light to watch the mast slowly break in half and topple against the deck. Men dived out of the way from below, while those who had been in the air were tossed from it.
Thankfully, their lifelines stopped them from falling into the water, but she was sure one or two of her men had either died from the impact or had been electrocuted.
The odds of this happening were so rare. Rosetta felt her heart drop to her stomach as her eyes bowed heavily in anguish for her poor ship.
We can’t sail without it. The storm was now going to take them on an adventure she wouldn’t be able to control.
All of their jaws hung open, their eyes wide at what they’d just witnessed. Nobody could believe their terrible luck.
“There’s nothing you can do, Naeem,” she told him, seeing he was stuck where he stood. “Go sleep.”
There was nothing any of them could do.
She and Mr Smith would have to hold the wheel, since they still needed to stop the ship from toppling over. If they let go, they would spin in circles until they tilted or a wave pushed their ship under.
Unfortunately, holding it would do little to help where they were taken. The rest of the sails would help direct them, but without a fully working mainmast, the waves would be stronger and would heave them around.
“Rosetta...” Mr Smith said once Naeem was gone.
“She won’t sink, John,” she reassured. She had too much faith in the Laughing Siren for it to do that to her. “We have to keep pointing east.”
Rosetta flipped open her navigation compass to see they were pointing the wrong way. Mr Smith helped her to turn the wheel.
“If your will could be ridden, girl, we could make it anywhere.” He gave her a grin so wide his teeth, with the occasional missing one, showed. It was something he rarely did. “If you say we’ll make it through the storm, then we will.”
She didn’t know if he said it to lift his own spirits, or hers. She appreciated the gesture regardless. “You’ve never doubted me, have you?”
“No.” He shook his head, pushing up on the handles as they tried to ride through a flat part of the sea between two waves. “I hope my daughter turns out as strong as you at your age.”
“I’ve told you that we’re going to go back to Port Douglas once we’ve checked this next map’s location.”
Mr Smith came from the mainland islands of the western countries, and that’s where Rosetta had found him in her first year of being a captain. They were heading in that general direction because of Alister.
“No. If the guards see me, they will take me in.”
As much as her heart was broken for her ship, Rosetta gave a bellowing laugh. She needed to keep herself focused; she couldn’t wallow in sadness just yet. There was still too much to do. If she showed her crew uncertainty and fear when they needed her to be strong, what kind of captain was she?
“I’d like to see them try.” They turned the wheel once more, but it did little to help as they rode across the base of a wave rather than beside it. “I told you I’d take you back to your daughter once I had this ship. I’ve got her now, and I always deliver on my promises.”
The look he gave her was the same one as when she’d first made this promise to him. It seemed his eyes were filling with hopeful tears.
Rosetta knew this man before her was a great father. He’d taken her under his wing, sheltered her, protected her, cared for her more than he’d needed to. He was not bound to her by blood, and yet he cherished her like she was his own child.
She could only imagine how much he loved his daughter. How much he had tended to her, provided for her, by giving Rosetta just a partial amount of the tenderness he must have for his own blood-related child.
He deserved to have her in his arms once more.
She may even come with us. Rosetta would allow his daughter onto her ship so they could be together once more.
“First, though, let’s make it through this.”
“Aye, Captain!” he cheered with a gruff voice, making her smile.