“Bracey’s balls!” said Smoke as he scrambled to the helm. “What the hels is she doing in a gap?”
Behind us, theEndorathil’s long guns boomed. She was still too far behind to be a threat, but we were soundly pinned. The captain cast his eyes across the seas and growled again.
“This does not fly, Devanhan. There is a devilish bargain to be found here somewhere,” said Thanavar.
“The soul aboard?”
“I will find him, and I will keelhaul him,” he hissed. “Mark my words.”
“Consider them marked, sir.”
“Mr. Buck, target theTemplemore!” the captain bellowed. “Prepare to fire!”
“Wait!” I cried. “No!”
He whirled, his eyes flashing like lightning in stormy skies.
Oh fog, what was I doing?
“These cannonballs are laced,” I shouted over the howling winds. “We can’t loose them on a Navy ship!”
“We can,” he snarled. “And we will.”
“No!” My heart had leaped to my throat, hammering to the point of choking so that it was almost impossible to speak. “I laced them myself! I can’t be responsible!”
He strode across the deck, and my legs trembled at his approach.
“They aim to sink us, Ensign,” he seethed. “Without hesitation. Without mercy.”
I could feel the eyes of the crew on me. Oh suns, help me. Please, Forge. Ember, please.
I flung up my runescarred hands.
“I was on the receiving end of chimeric-laced shot,” I barked.“It was not a fair fight, not even close.”
I struggled for breath but met his eyes. Forge, he was terrifying, a stormshear wrapped in fury and vengeance and the sea.
“I’m still Navy,” I said. “I can’t do that to them. I won’t.”
The crack of cannon fire echoed across the waters—from theTemplemoreor theEndorathil, I couldn’t say. The hull splintered and railings snapped and splinters sprayed wide across the deck, but he and I stood face to face, frozen in time, locked in a battle all our own.
“Orders, Captain?” cried Fahr from the mizzen.
“One day, we will not be able to run,” he said, his voice low and ominous. “And that day, it will be on you.”
I felt sick. Everything inside me said flee, hide, back to your crab shell and weather out this storm. My muscles were trembling, my legs wire tight, but I lifted my chin and pushed the hair from my eyes.
“I understand.”
He snarled and swung back.
“Stormveil and take us into the Sheets!”
“What?” Fahr glanced between the two of us, appalled and accusing.
“You heard me. Stormveil and take us into the Sheets!”
Swiftly, Fahr swung to the quarterdeck.
