“There!” She points to a small hole at the back of the cannon then grabs a set of rocks in another cage set overhead.
I put the quill in, shoving it until it stops.
“Back up! The recoil could kill you.” Cecco gets knocked back by a wave that sends seawater pooling around my feet.
I stand to the side. Shiner motions me to move away even more, so I do. Then she strikes the flint. One, two, three strikes, and on the fourth, the quill ignites.
The shot is fast and loud, the cannon recoiling just like Cecco warned about.
A screeching sound slices through the air, and I gasp. Through the port hole, an enormous, slitted, yellow eye appears, though it has a purple spot spreading on one side of it. Its mouth opens, and the screech it lets out again seems to shatter my eardrums.
“Nailed it in the eyeball. Have ter see it ter believe it.” Cookson cackles as he stares out the busted hole in the hull.
Shiner grins. “Again!”
I get back on my hands and knees to find another cannonball.
“Hold fast!” Hook’s bellow reaches all the way to us below decks.
“Grab on ter something!” Cookson runs to me, wraps an arm around my waist, then hauls me to a beam.
Shiner and Cecco grab on, too, and we all look upward, wondering what Hook is up to. That’s when Long Tom fires again, the entire ship rocking violently with its recoil.
The kraken screams again, and I can hear the sound of tentacles whipping the surface of the water.
“What’s happening?” I yell.
“I do believe the captain nailed that scallywag in the face much like you just done.” Cookson grins.
“I hope so.” Shiner bends over and peers out the gun port. “I … I don’t see it anymore.”
The whipping sounds quiet. No more booms from any quarter. No screeching or screaming. Only quiet and the water sloshing around my feet.
“Is it dead? Maybe it’s dead.” I lean over and look out. I don’t see the creature. Just black water and Anne’s ship in the distance floating in two pieces. “It’s gone.” I let out a breath of relief. Right when I do, a thick tentacle shoots up from the depths and slams against the side of the ship so hard we go flying, the hull fractures, and dark water pours in all around us.
ChapterTen
Cookson swims even better than he cooks. I learn this as he pulls me to the surface and drags me onto the upper deck.
Hook is already there to grab my hand and pull me the rest of the way up, as if he was about to come get me, and knowing him—he definitely was. “Are you hurt?” He swipes the water from my face. His shirt has blotches of purple blood on it, and there’s angry red marks at his throat with an imprint of small circles.
“No. But I shot a cannon.” I grin.
“I told you to stay put.” He gives me a rough kiss, then turns and yells, “Smee, beach her! Straight ahead, but steady as she goes.”
“Are we careening, Captain?” Smee calls, his voice a fearful warble.
“It’s either that or sink!” Hook sits beside me and pulls me into his lap. “Are you certain you weren’t hurt?” He inspects my cheek.
Cookson tosses Shiner onto the deck beside me, then disappears into the dark water again. She coughs and takes a deep breath.
“Lass, eyes on me.” Hook keeps searching me for injuries and focuses on my cheek.
“I’m fine. It’s just a scratch from when a cannonball went sailing past my face. Did you say we’re ‘careening’? Does that mean something in sailor-talk?”
“Aye, lass. Luckily, it’s high tide. We can beach the Jolly Roger, fix her up with some scrap timber that will soon be available—” He glances at Anne’s destroyed ship. “Once we’ve got it patched and pitched, we can set sail.”
“How long will that take?”
