Chapter 11 Kaspar #2
Greybeard was pointing at the starboard side, so I squinted my eyes, trying to see whatever was out there.
Viper saw it first, if his, “Son of a bitch!” was anything to go by. “It’s a damn Sunada Imperial Fleet.”
My heart thumped loudly, and I sought out Max.
Max was still using his telescopic, so he didn’t see the look of terror on my face, but after only a few more seconds, he agreed with Viper.
“They’re flying the Sunada seal now, but it’s definitely the same fleet we saw at Duskwater.
Three sentinels heading right for us. They had to have followed us. ”
“Fuck. I knew it! Get Ariella up here. Now!” Viper yelled.
Willy flinched, but bravely said, “She can’t work magic for two days, sir. Doc’s orders.”
Viper stared at him, his jaw clenched, teeth grinding, and for a long moment, I thought he was going to take his anger out on the poor boy. But then Max stepped in front of Viper, blocking his view of Willy, and said, “There’s only three sentinels. We can take them.”
While Max dealt with Viper, I grabbed Willy and pushed him behind me, further blocking him from the captain. Then I pushed him again, forcing him to move as far from the scary man as possible.
Once we reached the far side of the ship, Willy bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. “Shit, I thought I was done for.”
I patted his back. “So did I.”
I’d found a telescopic in the weapons closet and claimed it as my own, so I pulled it out now, wanting to see the Sunada fleet for myself.
As soon as I spotted them, I decided it was a mistake to look.
The ships were smaller than ours, but that only made them faster, and they were armed to the teeth.
How in hellfire were we supposed to win a fight against them? Just one of those ships outgunned ours.
We were screwed. Totally, utterly screwed.
Through the telescopic, I saw a man standing on the bow of the front ship with a megaphone in his hand and a large hat that could rival Viper’s tricorn.
We were far from them, but when I concentrated, I could sense the fluxstone inside the megaphone.
So I had no doubt we’d be able to hear him, even from this distance.
But what in the world was he going to say to a pirate ship? Did he really think the pirates would simply stop flying and hand themselves over?
What an idiot.
I shifted my telescopic to look at the soldiers behind the man and sucked in a deep breath. I recognized that man. It was Vulture, one of the crew who’d supposedly joined another pirate ship on the island. What in the hellfire was he doing on that ship?
“Willy?” I grabbed him and yanked him closer to me, passing the telescopic over. “Look. Tell me it isn’t him.”
He peeked through. “Tell you who isn’t—holy shit, that traitorous scum!” He pushed the telescopic back into my hand, grabbed my wrist, and hauled me back toward the quarterdeck. “Reaper!”
“What?” Max’s face peeked over the railing, looking angry and frustrated.
Willy nudged me. “Tell him, Ghost.”
Huh? I blinked at my friend before my eyes widened. Right. “Vulture’s on that ship.”
Max stared at me for half a beat before pulling out his own telescopic.
Willy said, “Middle ship. The one in the lead. He’s standing behind their captain.”
Max let out a loud, “Fuck! That no-good, egg-smelling, bilge-sucking dog scoundrel. Traitorous, rotten piece of griffin shit!”
My eyes widened at the name-calling. I’d never heard him so angry before.
He turned from us and headed toward Viper, saying, “Captain, we have a problem.”
Willy pulled me back over to the side and grabbed my telescopic again. “I can’t believe that bilge rat gave us up. He’s—”
A loud voice called out across the sky, cutting Willy off. “Stop your vessel. We have a warrant for the search and seizure of The Black Wraith. You’re harboring wanted criminals. Stop your vessel and prepare to be boarded.”
My veins turned to ice.
Wanted criminals?
I swallowed.
What if… what if I was one of the wanted criminals?
My eyes scanned the rest of the ship as my heart beat frantically in my chest. There were a lot of wanted criminals in our crew, I supposed, but what if I was on that list? What if they’d found out where I was?
Viper yelled, “To the cannons! Get ready for a fight, you scallywags! Let our enemies meet the sea, so we can pillage their ship and take to the air!”
That must’ve been a call to arms or something because the crew yelled back, excitement and anxiety building as everyone took to their stations. I had no idea where to go, and my eyes sought out Max without meaning to.
He must’ve been doing the same thing because our eyes met across the deck, pirates running to and fro between us, and he gave me a firm nod. Even though he didn’t say it, I knew he was telling me to be careful, so I did the same thing back before turning away.
He better be careful because I wasn’t done with him yet.
Viper continued yelling out directions about sails and guns, and who knew what else, but I had no clue what any of it meant.
I did understand the call for cannons, though, and my chest went tight with anxiety. I really didn’t want to find out what it was like to be in a ship battle, but I supposed it was happening whether I wanted it to or not.
Willy grabbed my hand and dragged me down to the lower deck. I let him, content with having him lead.
There was a wall on either side of the ship that kept the cannons separate from our living quarters, and that was where Willy took me now. It was a space I’d purposefully ignored, not enjoying looking at things that were capable of so much damage.
“Help me load the cannons. It’ll go faster with two of us,” he said, leading me to the crates full of cannonballs, my heart pounding harder and harder with every step.
Touching one of them wasn’t my idea of a fun time, but I did my best to help. This was my crew, my ship, and I’d be damned if I didn’t help my friends fight to save it.
I paused, for only a moment as that thought hit home.
This was my ship. My crew.
When in the world had I started thinking of them as mine?
Didn’t matter. They were mine.
Sunada was known for their strength, so battling their ships was a terrible idea. Their ships were the highest quality, run by the toughest of aeronauts. They were the best in all the lands, feared among the other kingdoms, and rulers of the sky.
Or at least, that was what we were told. But that was probably propaganda. For all I knew, Sunada ships were pieces of dragon poo.
Although, if they were able to track us and catch up to us with how fast Ariella had been pushing our ship, and Viper had wanted to outrun them, well… they were obviously a true threat.
As quickly—and carefully—as I could, I picked up a cannonball, cradling it gently in my hands, and ran to the farthest cannon down the lane.
Toothless Jimmy was pulling a pole out of the cannon, and he gestured for me to insert the cannonball into the long barrel before he passed me the pole.
“What?” I had no clue what to do with this.
He sighed and gestured with his hands to show me what to do. “Ram the cannonball down, for fuck’s sake.”
Using the pole, I pushed the cannonball down as far as it would go. “Like this?”
“Yeah. Now move your ass and help Bones.”
“Fire at will!” Viper’s voice screamed over the noise of a hundred pirates getting ready for a fight.
Jimmy continued to load the cannon, so I turned to Bones, but he waved me off because Willy had already helped him.
So I rushed back over to the crates as other cannons unleashed their fury.
I jumped with each shot fired, unused to being so close to violence.
My heart was pounding so heavily in my chest, it was loud in my ears.
“I’m ready!” Four Fingers yelled toward me as I rushed by.
Good goddesses, how did Willy keep up with all of these cannons by himself?
I heard the guy on the loudspeaker speaking again, but I couldn’t understand him, not over my own anxiety and all the noise shooting cannons and screaming pirates made.
Willy was already at the crate when I caught up, and he shot me a grin.
Willy asked, “You okay?”
I nodded even though I was terrified and definitely, absolutely, not okay.
“You’ve got this, Ghost.” He smacked my arm lightly before he rushed away with another cannonball in tow.
The loudspeaker guy on the Sunada ship got impossibly louder, somehow, and I caught on that he was listing names. Wanted names, apparently. “Mira Howells and Betty Howells, ten acts of piracy, two acts of murder, multiple thefts—”
I didn’t recognize any of these names because I only knew my fellow crew members by their nicknames.
“The pirate known as the Reaper, for a total count of one hundred and five acts of murder, twelve counts of grand larceny, eighty-nine acts of piracy—”
A loud cannon rang in my ears, cutting off the rest of Max’s crimes, but hearing that many was enough to make my eyes widen.
“Fredrick Murray, five acts of piracy, ten acts of murder, three acts of armed robbery.” The list went on, and I cringed at all the crimes the guy listed. “Kaspar Ward—”
I sucked in a breath. Here it was. They were about to expose me. They were about to tell an entire ship full of pirates that I was a fluxweaver. I’d no longer be safe on this ship. I’d be hunted, not only by my kingdom, but by the very people I was befriending.
Just as the man said, “One count,” Viper screamed, “Shut that bastard up!”
Nearly everyone shot at the front ship at the same time, drowning out the man’s voice, drowning out my listed crimes. Glancing out the hole where the cannon went, I saw the front of the ship damaged and smoking. If that guy had still been standing there, he was surely dead.
I let out a shuddered breath, the close call almost too much for my brain—and my heart.
I wanted to cover my ears and my eyes and just… be for a moment.