“Stormveil to starboard!” cried Smoke, hauling the sunswheel with all his strength. “Starboard guns fire!”
“Fire!”
“Fire!”
The order echoed below decks, and our long guns thundered again, but they were firing blind. There was nothing save flashes as our shots struck home, but I could hear bells and shouting and the creak of very large timbers. I peered up from the deck. Gunsmoke curled over the water, and I was sure I saw a shape glinting in the darkness.
This was bad. Where the hels was the captain?
Suddenly, there was a flash of white. A winter hawk soared between our damaged rigging, dipping low as cannon fire erupted just beyond our starboard mizzen. The stormveiled ship was right on our tail.
Fahr grabbed me by the collar and hauled me to my feet.
“Your protection spell,” he barked. “Build it wide and send it my way. We need to cover the hawk!”
The great bird sailed overhead, dodging airborne debris as he arced toward the enemy ship.
I gaped at Fahr. Men rushed across the main, affixing cables and loading cannons with heavy, short-ranged shot. Some climbed through the shrouds, mending and binding to keep the spars and spreaders working. Others sat in their own blood, pierced by shards of splintered wood.
“Blue! The hawk!”
“Your men are bleeding, and you want to protect a bloody bird?”
“Fog you, Blue!Doitnow!”
I obeyed, the patterns forming first in my palms, then leaping from the tips of my fingers into co-circling runes. I clapped my hands together, then flung them apart, and the web grew large between them. I hurled the shield toward the mate, who caught it, spun it, and flung it across the choppy sea. It fell across the hawk, and immediately, the bird banked upward and aft, glittering with rune. With every beat of his wings, the bones of a ship emerged out of the darkness.
My heart stopped in my chest.
It was theEndorathil, large and lethal and crackling with chimeric.
“Fire!” barked Fahr, his command echoed by the gunners below decks, and theTouchstonethundered once again. Heavy shot shattered the gleamingRhi’Ahrhull, while the long guns tore up her masts, gaffs, and sails like powder.
“Fire!”
Another round, and then another, and I marveled at theTouchstone’s battery. Most Navy ships could fire two rounds in as many minutes, but this ship had just emptied her fifth. I wondered how much was magik and how much was just fine seamanship.
Lightning flashed across the sky now, and thunder announced the onset of rain.
TheEndorathilbanked hard, bringing her chase guns to bear. She barked heavy shot abroadside, the roar of cannons deafening and the howl like a siren in my ears. I saw a rush of white as the winter hawk swept over theRhi’Ahrgunner’s pale head. The shield had long dissipated, and the bird was vulnerable, but he raked the gunner’s face with deadly talons, buying theTouchstone’s crew time to reload. A savage volley shattered theEndorathil’s aftdeck, and several of her chase guns plunged into the sea. With a dip of his wing, the great hawkturned and veered into the gap between the ships.
Suddenly, a shot racketed from theEndorathil’s battered deck. It was cannister round, grainy and sharp, and it blasted the hawk’s wing, showering feathers across the waves. The bird itself followed, plummeting into the dark waters in a burst of sea spray.
“Kit!” shouted Fahr. Tangled with the rigging, the harpy looked down. “The hawk!”
With a cry, she sprang from her post, streaking down between the ships, her leathery wings riding the winds like a spinnaker. I saw her dive into the water, only to reemerge, gasping but empty. She took a deep breath and dove again, and this time, she was gone so long I thought her lost. The sea swelled, the rain pelted, and all was black save the lightning, but then she was free, climbing the wind with the hawk in her talons. Beat, beat, beat went her wings, and she arced over the shattered rail to drop him onto the deck.
The hawk flailed, but Fahr caught him, gathering the great bird up in his arms before passing him to a rain-drenched, bloodied Neale.
“Take him to the surgeon’s pit, Mr. Neale,” he said. “And ask the doctor to join us on deck.”
The midshipmage nodded and disappeared into the hatch.
The rain was cold, and the ship pitched rough in the high waves. TheEndorathilwas plainly visible now. Whatever the winter hawk had done to pierce the ship’s stormveil incant was working still, but she’d slipped out of range and I knew it wouldn’t hold long. I could see the lights of theMarelethan, banking off our starboard bow, and the many lights of the Dreadship rocking hard across the waters toward us. We were effectively outfought, outgunned, and soon, out of time.
Fahr stepped to the main.
“Smoke, the wheel is yours, and prepare to tack sharp,” hecalled out over the winds. “Buck, Kit, Nix, Griffen. Fall in and be quick.”
