Chapter 11 Kaspar #3
Toothless Jimmy’s cannon fired, and I jumped and ducked out of habit before shaking myself off, shaking off all my damn emotions, and hurrying over to Bones.
Jimmy was cleaning out his cannon, but I figured I’d need to bring another cannonball over quickly.
So I rammed the cannonball in Bones’ barrel, then rushed to do it all over again.
Cannons fired, and I did my best to ignore the instinct to duck or curl up in a ball in the corner and pretend this wasn’t happening.
I filled three more cannons before the enemy fleet finally returned fire. They’d probably held off because they wanted us—me—alive.
“Incoming!” someone yelled, and this time, I did duck in on myself as something came crashing through the wood of our ship only a few feet in front of me.
Before I could even figure out what was happening, another cannon came through the hull, and someone screamed in pain. Oh holy phoenix tails, someone was hurt.
More and more cannons barreled through. More and more screams of horror and pain came from all over the ship, coming from many of my fellow crew members. My heart lurched at the thought of one of my friends or… or Max being hurt.
But I couldn’t think about that right now, or I’d freeze and be unable to help.
Max was fine. Ariella was fine. Hawk-Eyes was fine. Willy was running around right there and was fine.
Max would be okay. He would.
They’ll all be okay.
“Ghost! Hurry!” Jimmy yelled at me, so I pushed thoughts of my friends away. I ignored the way my heart was racing and trying to escape my chest and rushed over to his cannon, rammed the damn cannonball, and ran away as fast as I could to get another.
I needed to be faster than this. We needed to hit them with everything we had.
I didn’t like being so close to the side of the ship where the Sunada fleet was attacking with their own cannonballs, but what choice did I have? I wasn’t about to abandon my crew. I needed—wanted—to help them.
Someone screamed with renewed agony, and I blocked them out. There was nothing I could do for them. I just had to help with the cannonballs. That was the best thing I could do right now.
Another hit rocked the entire ship, and I fell into the wall as we listed sideways.
For a moment, I feared the whole ship was about to go down, but it righted itself after a few seconds.
Viper was likely steering, and he might’ve been the worst human to ever human, but he definitely knew his stuff when it came to this ship.
The captain’s voice rang loud and clear as he yelled, “Shield up!”
Shield? We had a freaking shield? How? Where? And why hadn’t we used it yet?
Mad Murray came dashing down the ladder and didn’t stop, rushing down another ladder and into the hold.
Since I didn’t know what else to do, I picked up another cannonball and rushed to Bones.
As I was ramming it into the barrel, a strange buzz tickled over my skin, and for a moment, it felt like the floor dropped from under my feet, like I was falling and there was nothing under me to catch my fall.
I was weightless, flying, for a few seconds.
And then my ass slammed onto the floor, a sharp pain shooting up my spine, my head spinning. A moan escaped as I grabbed my head, trying to catch the breath that’d been knocked out of me.
What the hell was that? What happened?
I glanced around, expecting to find myself in the hold, having fallen through the floor. But I was sitting right next to the cannons, ass on the lower deck, right where I’d started.
What in hellfire?
Bones knelt in front of me, grabbed my arms, and hauled me to my feet, asking, “What the hell was that?”
I blinked at him, then furrowed my brow as I glanced around. I had no words because I had no fucking clue what that was, either.
He shook me a bit. “Hey! Hey, Ghost?”
I met his eyes.
“You good?”
I gave a nod even though I was most definitely not good.
“Get another cannonball, lad.”
Not having a response to that, I turned on my heel and headed for the crates. My chest ached, and my body felt like it’d lost all its energy when I’d fallen on my butt. Shaking my head out, I picked up another cannonball, the weight of it feeling ten times heavier than it had a few minutes ago.
As I placed it in Jimmy’s cannon, I tried to figure out what was wrong with me.
Something smacked loudly, heavily, right behind me, and I flinched, turning quickly, peeking through the hole. I thought I’d see a cannonball flying at my face, but instead I saw a cannonball stopped mid-air.
I blinked.
No, not mid-air.
The air around the ship sort of shimmered, reflecting the light whenever the clouds moved out of the way.
Holy phoenix tails! There was an energy shield surrounding our ship. The cannonball bounced harmlessly off the shield, falling into the sea far below us.
With that realization came the understanding of what I was feeling.
I wasn’t the one with low energy.
It was the engine fluxstones in the hold.
The amount of energy it took to erect a shield like this, hold it up, and block out all of the enemy fire we were taking was so enormous that the poor fluxstones were practically screaming for my help.
They were draining at an alarming rate.
If we didn’t outrun or outgun these Sunada ships soon, we were going to be dead in the air.
Now that I knew what was happening, I could more easily brush the sensations away as I sent a silent apology to the fluxstones.
I’m sorry, I can’t help you. I can’t reveal what I am. I’m sorry.
Obviously, the fluxstones didn’t reply. They weren’t sentient, but I still felt bad that I couldn’t help the poor things.
“Ghost! Move it!” Jimmy yelled.
I shook off all other thoughts and concentrated on my job. With another cannonball in hand, I rushed over to Jimmy and rammed the darn thing into the barrel.
Then I grimaced and asked, “How are you gonna shoot that? It’ll hit the shield and bounce back.”
He shot me his toothless grin, then smacked a button on the cannon. I felt the buzz of another fluxstone’s power slowly draining. He’d turned something on.
Jimmy pushed the cannon forward, and I watched in fascination as the smaller fluxstone created its own shield around the perimeter of the cannon, allowing it to pass through the ship’s energy shield.
Huh. Well, I guess they know what they’re doing.
Overhead, Viper yelled, “Kill ‘em all! Take ‘em down! Now, you scurvy dogs!”
The crew yelled in response, amping up their attack, and I rushed to help even as I grimaced on the inside. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but it seemed that out here in the air above the sea, it was us or them.
I had friends among the crew. They may’ve been pirates, but they weren’t all bad. In fact, many of them were good people who’d been put in a bad spot.
Just like me.
Like Max.
And so… I picked us.