“Don’t fire unless you must!”Caleb snapped, his voice hard as a cutlass.“Shove them back!”Taking Desi’s hand, he moved her behind the quarterdeck bulk, where the shadows might hide her.
Heads and torches bobbed above the rail.Alden, Liam and the rest met them with butts of muskets and backs of cutlasses.Screams ripped across the quay as some of the townsmen tumbled, striking the dock with wet, hateful sounds.
“Enough!”Caleb held up his hand.The jewel in the Ring caught the torchlight and answered with a pale inner shimmer—no flame, but a cold steady glow that seemed to drink the night.For a moment, the world narrowed to a quick cadence of breath.
Alden pushed through the press, his face a storm of anger and warning.
“Strong wind, come!”Caleb called before his quartermaster could stop him.
Men still scrambled up the rope ladder like ants driven by a scent.One by one, his men shoved them back.Yet still more came.Soon they’d be overrun.
But then a breath, fine as a whisper, stirred Caleb’s hair and cooled the sweat on his brow.He glanced up.A slender breeze ruffled the canvas; the foretopsail fluttered, then filled, and the rigging began to sing.
Caleb smiled.“Lay aloft and loose all sails!”he roared, his voice snapping commands into the night.Men leapt into the shrouds and along the yardarms, their hands and boots finding purchase as the canvas billowed above them.
Liam’s look—surprise, half belief—met Caleb’s for a blink, then both men shouted further orders as theSentinelstrained at her moorings.
“By the lines!”Caleb barked.“Cast off!”Men scrambled to release the lines from the dock.
And still the mob came.
The lowered sails snapped like drumheads as the wind took them.The hull eased from the quay, her planks and timbers creaking like an old man standing after a long sleep.
Torches still flew.One found its mark.The others fell into the bay.
Grabbing a bucket, Liam launched its contents onto the flame.Steamy vapor rose.
Caleb dashed for the railing.Inky black sea stretched between ship and dock.Four men still clung to the rope ladder, climbing with knives between their gritted teeth.Freeing his blade, Caleb slammed the pommel down on the first man’s skull.Howling, he pitched backward into the dark sea.
Another torch arced through the night sky.It snagged the shrouds and spit flame up the ratlines.Ripping off his doublet, Caleb leapt into the ratlines and scrambled above.Should the lines be set ablaze, the canvas was next.
A heavy gust filled both fore and mainsails, and theSentinelheeled to larboard, blocks shrieking and yards groaning as men fought the running rigging.Caleb clung to the hemp with fingers stung by salt and smoke, smothering the flame with his coat until it died with a choking sigh.
A pistol cracked—a single sharp report that set his nerves ringing.Sliding down the backstay to the deck, Caleb sought the source.Brandt swung his cane like a cudgel and flattened a man who climbed over the bulwarks, smoking pistol in hand.The fellow tumbled and vanished into the bay as the doctor continued his assault on the few remaining enemies.
Alden stood amidships, face ashen in the lantern light.Surely, he wasn’t still angry Caleb had used the Ring.His eyes rolled briefly toward Caleb—a mixture of accusation, fear, and something like awe—and then he blinked, stumbled once as though the sea had knocked his knees, and crumpled toward the deck.
Time narrowed to the single, dreadful drop.Brandt and Liam still fought as torches spat and the wind keened in the rigging…
But Alden’s fall was a bell-clang in Caleb’s chest.
He lunged for him, catching him as he slumped, the world tilting with his weight.Alden’s breaths were shallow, like a man half-awakened with a feverish dream.
The jewel on the Ring pulsed against his finger.Ice tugged at the base of Caleb’s throat as if something unseen had taken measure and left a cost in the ledger.He buried the thought under the clamor of battle and the thunder of canvas, but it sat there, a small, undeniable ache.
Desi dropped to her knees, skirts tangling about her, and pressed trembling hands against Alden’s waistcoat.Crimson spread beneath her fingers, warm and wet, the color stark in the lamplight.
“He’s been shot!”Her voice split the air, sharp with terror.
Blood raced from Caleb’s heart.Nay!“Doc!”He dropped beside him, helpless rage choking his voice.
Alden turned his head, lips curling in a ghost of a grin.“Did I not tell you that Ring is cursed?”The words rasped like wind through a broken shutter.
“Out of my way!Out of my way!”Brandt shoved forward, cane clattering as he knelt.He pushed Desi’s hands aside, felt for a pulse, and then pulled back the blood-soaked waistcoat, cursing under his breath.
Desi staggered to her feet, tears glistening as she met Caleb’s eyes.
He closed his hand over the Ring—hot, fiendish, dangerous.The night hummed with the scent of tar and the sting of blood, and somewhere in the mayhem, in the madness, a whisper of payment demanded and perhaps, just perhaps…paid.
