“Return fire!”
And theTouchstone’s cannons shook the entire ship. There was a roar of light and blowback of heat, and theMarelethan’s mizzenmast shattered into a hundred beautiful pieces.
A second volley took out the enemy’s bowsprit and smashed the elven face from her figurehead. Gold-painted wood burst inward along her hull, and I knew some of the shots had struck powder as explosions rocked her from within. The gunners had delivered a wicked broadside, and I cheered inwardly despite them not being my crew.
We swept past, and the aft cannons boomed now, raking her clean and shivering one of her timbers in two. It tipped but caught in the rigging, and I saw chimeric crackle to keep it skyward. The runes that danced across enemy sails danced along my arms as well, and I had to bite my tongue hard to prevent a cry of pain. The taste of my own blood worked wonders in that regard.
“Hard to port, Mr. Fahr!” called the captain. “The Dreadship’s coming at us afore!”
“Hard to port, aye!”
I peered through the darkness. Sure enough, the distant lights that had been the Dreadship were growing larger as they rolled toward us across the waves. Fahr sprang from the pup as theTouchstonebanked, her gold-shot canvas catching the wind and leaping through the water. But theMarelethanbanked as well, her to starboard, and her sails were broader. A flash from her aft cannons, and the balls whipped across our decks, blasting holes through the gunwales and leaving a trail of sizzling chimeric.
I watched the seamage named Neale augment spells thrown at him, and my heart thudded in my chest. I had done that aboard theDawn Watch.I could do it again. But my hands…
“Stop them,” said a voice, and I whirled to find the captain standing behind me, looming like a stormshear on a thundering sea. “Stop the shots.”
“How? My hands don’t work!”
“Your hands work in spite of you, wretched woman. We have a cruiser engaged, a Dreadship on approach, and a veiled cruiser to starboard. Swallow your pride and stop the shots.”
He gripped my shoulders and spun me around. I could see theMarelethan’s aft gunports, dark like open mouths. Chimeric danced in the pits—the same chimeric that danced across my hands. I pulled off my gloves and let them drop, flexing fingers still stiff from the splinters of theDawn Watch. But I had made theCarmen Lumiere. I had chased three enemy ships across an ocean, and I had done it despite my wounded hands.
Or had I done it because of them?
One, two, three flashes of light, followed by three corresponding booms, and the balls whipped toward us, trailing chimeric like smoke. I flung up my hands in a classic protection spell—it was my default, thanks to life in the Spits. I had barely time to whisper the incantation before the balls hit, sliding me backward across the deck. Patterns crackled behind my eyes like lightning.
Heat, force, water, snow.
Frost, power, Dreadwall, tree.
Kirianae.
Three huge cannonballs hovered before me, caught in a spinning, crackling web of chimeric cast from my fingertips.
I had stopped them.
One, two, three, they splashed into the sea like stones.
I turned to look over my shoulder. Thanavar was gone.
“Earned an extra tot tonight, Blue!” called Fahr. “Catch!”
Runes sprang to life in his palms, and he flung the shield my way. Eight months on theDawn Watchhad prepared me, though, and I caught his simple magik spell without hesitation, feeling the chimeric, now somehow a part of my very being, leap behind my eyes, searing me raw, burning me whole. With a cry, I flung the now chimeric-laced spell at theMarelethan, and a gunport exploded as the shot was blocked.
“Good!” Fahr shouted. “Go!”
I raced to the rail and cast another protection spell. The dark sky flashed with powder and chimeric, and I flung the spell across theTouchstone’s hull, praying I’d stop at least a few. It was only a few, and I cursed as theTouchstoneshuddered from the impacts as ball after ball tore into her ebon-stained hull. My chimeric shield netted four, sending me sliding backward with each strike, and runes flared between the ships.
I glanced around to see if Thanavar had been watching, if I’d done enough, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Thunder again, and this time it was theTouchstone, her cannons booming in succession and sending Forgefire across the waters. Good hits, all, and theMarelethanbanked leeward, turning to flee. Our chase guns struck her transom hard, and it was sheer fortune that I saw her name shatter into a thousand golden pieces across the waves.
Suddenly, Fahr’s voice broke across the main.
“Down! All hands, down!”
I plunged to the deck as the balls whipped over my head, smashing the bulwark and shredding the rail. Splinters sprayed across the main, and loosed cables whipped overhead. The shots had come from the other direction.
