He was alive in the fight—decisive, unshakable—every word a lifeline in the chaos.The men obeyed without question, and she realized she was holding her breath, not from fear of the ghost ship, but from watching him master the storm as if he’d been made for it.
“Fire as she bears!”
TheSentinel’s cannons spoke as one, fire blooming against the night, the recoil shuddering through the deck.The enemy’s sails lit up in the flash—a ghost ship no longer—before the darkness swallowed them both again.
Still the rats came, a wave of chomping, screeching, death and destruction.They raced toward Desi again and she leapt onto the rail, opting to risk falling into the sea rather than being eaten alive.
A glance across the deck told her the rats were overwhelming the crew, skittering up the ratlines into the tops, where no matter how many the men kicked back to the deck, more took their place.They swamped the gun crews, crawled up onto the whipstaff, and climbed onto the sailor’s arms and shoulders.
The captain continued shouting orders even while tossing the beasts from his arms.
Boom!Desi spun to see another flare spurt into the night sky from the phantom ship.
“All hands down!”Caleb shouted, but no way she was hitting the deck.Not with it filled with rats.She’d rather be blown to bits.
Strong hands pulled her from her perch, dragged her through a sea of rodents, and shoved her behind the binnacle, covering her with his body.Caleb.
Rats thronged over them.Sharp claws stung.Tiny teeth nibbled.The stench of sulfur and rot stung her nose.One climbed onto her head.She screamed.Caleb punched it away and covered her with his body, absorbing the brunt of the creatures’ assault.A cannonball struck the ship’s hull with a mighty crunch.Screams of pain filled the air.
Releasing his hold on her, Caleb pulled the Ring from his jerkin pocket and slipped it on his finger.His breath came hard and fast.His eyes briefly met hers, frustration, fear, and angst raging with them.
After a moment’s hesitation he said, “Be gone, vile vermin.”
It was not a shout.More of a whisper, really, but one that held the authority of a judge.
The rats halted, frozen in place around them.Then one by one they disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
Just like that.
Desi’s heart refused to stop thrashing.What just happened?She looked at Caleb.At first bewilderment traveled over his face—the same bewilderment she felt inside—but then a smile curved one side of his lips and a gleam of confidence returned to his eyes.
Shouts of both surprise and glee rang over the deck before one sailor yelled, “Hole in the hull!”
Leaping to his feet, Caleb extended his hand and pulled her up beside him.Then releasing her, he marched across the deck, barking a string of commands.
So shocked, she couldn’t breathe, Desi retreated to the railing, wondering what planet she’d been transported to.A planet with magical Rings and ferocious rats that disappeared like a mist upon the sea.No way this was Earth.No way.
♥
“Damage report!”Caleb shouted, raising the scope to his eye and scanning the black seas for their phantom enemy, but she’d retreated into the darkness again.
“Larboard bulwark smashed, foresail torn,” Liam shouted.“And a hole large enough for a dolphin to swim through below the waterline on our starboard side.”
Curses fired from those of his crew who weren’t still staring in shock at the places where rats had disappeared.
“Rot and Ruin!”Caleb added his own curse, anger stiffening his jaw.“Back to work, men!Get below and shove sailcloth into the hole!And Shorty, two points to larboard,” he ordered the helmsman.“Alden, prepare to tack aweather!”
Flying down the quarterdeck ladder, Caleb leaned over the railing.The scent of gunpowder and charred wood flooded him.He couldn’t see the rent in the hull, but he could hear the sea sloshing into the hold with every dip of the ship.
His crew finally snapped out of their daze and pounded across the deck, topmen racing up the ratlines to adjust sail that remained intact.
In this condition, they’d be unable to fight should the ghost ship reappear.
A burst of light snapped his gaze off the starboard quarter.Ah, there she was.And in that brief glimmer, he saw that her main gaff dangled loose from the peak halyards, and her broad sail crumpled.The vision lasted a mere second, but it proved that Caleb’s broadside had done enough damage to keep them from pursuing theSentinel.
He could also determine from the angle of the flare that their shot would miss its mark.
And so it did, splashing impotently off their starboard beam, more a parting gesture of enmity than anything.
