Fidel lowered his sight glass and grinned at them. “We’re having reef fun today, men! Ready the anchor!”
The man nodded and turned to the others. “Reef readiness! Get to the wheel!”
The ‘wheel’ was the mechanism used to lower and raise the anchor. It was a wheel with two dozen spokes sticking out of it at regular intervals.
I leaned forward and caught Ramaro’s attention. “Reefs?”
“Just hold on when I tell you.”
Our location meant I had a good view of the stern and the seas behind us. A large ship pursued us. Its boards were painted the purest white with gold trim, and its sails were of the cleanest white. The sails were also etched with gold threads, and a figurehead protruded from the bow. The wooden figure was hewn into the shape of an eagle with claws outstretched and wings drawn behind its body so they covered the boards of the bow. Men in uniforms that matched the white and gold colors of the ship scurried up and down the ropes, hoisting and trimming the sails at the direction of a man who stood to the left of the helm.
The leader was a tall man with an equally tall hat. Feathers bristled out of the bowl-shaped center and silhouetted his head like a halo. He wore a breast coat and uncreased pants, with high black boots. I couldn’t see any details of his person, but he had his hands clasped behind him and stood as erect as a statue.
Something about him made me shudder. Maybe it was because he looked as cold as the ship that sailed toward us.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away, but I managed to whisper to my companion. “Who’s the captain of that ship?”
Ramaro squinted at the vessel. “It looks like the Dempewolf. The ship’s captain is the infamous Wilhelm Jaeger.”
My face drooped. “Why is he infamous?”
“Because he doesn’t take prisoners from pirate ships.”
My blood ran cold. “Never?”
“Never.”
One of the sailors atop our ship shouted down. “Island at a half mile! Reefs at half that distance!”
Fidel moved to the railing at the front of the wheel deck and grasped the wood. “Steady the course! Prepare for the drag!”
My eyes lit up. “Are we going to use the reefs to swing the ship with the anchor?”
Ramaro scoffed. “Use reefs to swing a ship? Those things wouldn’t be able to hold the weight.”
“Then what’s Fidel planning?”
“You’ll see. Just keep a tight grip on the stairs and don’t look over the edge, especially when things start crashing.”
I watched the ship at our back. Its huge sails allowed it to gulp down more wind, and the gap between us shrank by the minute. The commander of the vessel remained at his stiff post, and I swore I felt his eyes on me as they came closer and closer.
A terrific boom broke the tense silence, and something shot past across the port side. The object was black as pitch, and a dark mist followed in its wake. The fog cast the deck in shadow for a moment before the thing landed in the water near our bow. The whole ship rocked from the waves and nearly threw us off course.
“Don’t breathe it in!” Ramaro warned me.
Too late. I inhaled a bit of the fog, and my head seemed to fill with the stuff. Then it filled with something worse.
Phantoms. The shadows under the stairs seemed to stretch and reach for me. I yelped and jerked back, but a clean slap on the cheek by Ramaro’s tail brought me back.
“Breathe in and out! Fast!” he commanded me.
I was already doing a good job, and each breath of clean air made the shadows retreat back to their proper place.
I stared wide-eyed at him. “What was that? Some sort of cannonball?”
Ramaro wrinkled his snout. “Of course not! He’s firing off grimspall. They’re filled with nightmare fog to drive people crazy with fear. Some people even throw themselves overboard, so don’t breathe it in again!”
Another projectile whizzed past, this time on our other side, and crashed into the water, sending us tumbling. I grabbed the steps as the ship violently rocked to and fro, and made sure I didn’t breathe in the stuff again. More than one sailor tied a handkerchief over their face to protect themselves.
