Wounded and dead sailors were strewn across the deck. My heart fell. How many men had died tonight? They’d weathered the storm, but not this… this was cold-blooded murder….
An aching sense of dread tugged at me, reminding me I was responsible for their deaths. This was my crew. These were my men.
“Thatcher!” I yelled as I fought off the assassin. “Get us on course!”
And my navigator ran to the helm.
“Get the captain!” said another assassin.
The first blade came for my throat.
I ducked, twisted, and drove my shoulder into the attacker’s gut, hearing the grunt of surprise as he staggered back. Two more closed in fast.
Black-clad, faces masked, eyes like glass. Assassins. Five of them.
My sword was already in hand. I slashed one across the thigh and elbowed another in the jaw hard enough to hear the crack. The fight turned savage, fast. One moved like a shadow behind me.
I pivoted just in time, parrying his curved blade with a clang that rattled my bones.
Too slow.
Pain flared white-hot at my side. The leader had slipped past my defenses and slashed me deep. The sting was ice and fire all at once, my ribs screaming with it.
I staggered but didn’t fall.
Blood soaked my shirt, warm and steady. I roared, lashed out, and knocked him back with the hilt of my blade.
Another lunged.
I spun, kicked him in the chest, and sent him sprawling. My vision blurred, but I kept fighting. I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t stop.
Another attacker, down.
Another, gone.
Only one remained, the tall desperate leader, circling like a wolf.
But I bled too fast. My breath came out ragged, my strength slipping like water through cracked fingers. I raised my blade one last time.
He didn’t strike again. He looked at me, nodded once like I’d earned it, then vanished into the night.
I fell to one knee, clutching my side. The scent of iron filled my lungs.
I’d been stabbed before. Cut. Beaten.
But this… this felt final.
A bell rang in the distance. Lights shone on the water.
And then Thatcher rang our bell.
A distress call.
I glanced at the lights. Corallure Kingdom. They rang out their bell, calling to us.
We were close. So,soclose.
Is it safe to port there though?If they were trying to attack us, then why were they offering help?
