James helped lift the barrel of blood and guts, then it was flying into the water, spraying the gore across the white froth of the sea. Instantaneously, the sharks rose, the sea swirling in a chaos of crimson foam, and Ahnna watched the soldiers and sailors take notice. Felt their fear as much as saw it, because that was what waited for them if they landed in the water.
One crew mutinied, throwing the captain to the deck, the vessel turning and sailing back through the lines.
But Ahnna felt no satisfaction. More fire bloomed overhead.
James caught her arm and dragged her sideways, the rest of the crew racing for cover, and the shipbreaker exploded. The last remaining machine managed three more shots, then it succumbed.
And one of the boarding ships struck the cliff.
Ahnna swore the whole island shuddered from the impact, great pieces of the cliff falling into the sea or onto the deck below, judging from the screams and crunches.
“Archers!” Ahnna shouted. “Volley!”
Arrows soared in a dark cloud, coming down on the ship below. Screams filled the air, but so did pings of metal against metal, and Ahnna suspected most had been blocked by shields. “Again!”
In the distance, she saw several explosions, Ithicanian vessels risking archers to veer close enough to throw bombs up onto the decks, and the air above the fleet was black with smoke. Ithicanians burst through the trees to flank her, Jor sliding to a stop at her right. “They’re focusing on the south and west quadrants,” he said through gasps of breath. “Aren and Lara are moving to the west to reinforce. You got us.”
“Volley!” Ahnna screamed, wishing she had a bow. Instead, she drew her sword. “I’ll take this ship. You take the one coming in.”
Jor motioned for his soldiers to follow up the edge of the cliff while her soldiers readied behind her.
“Ready!” she shouted.
Everyone hefted their weapons, the archers now shooting at the soldiers climbing the towers.
Another ship hit the island with a shudder. James had found a bow and was shooting arrows dipped in burning tree sap into the rigging. Onto the decks. Great clouds of smoke wafted upward, but chains rattled.
“They’re coming!” James shouted, slinging his bow over his shoulder and drawing his sword. An arrow flew up from below, but he sidestepped it. Then he pointed to another ship coming up fast. “Ten with me!” and he raced to meet the threat.
“Steady!” Ahnna shouted, and then the drawbridges affixed to the towers dropped. For a heartbeat, the soldiers waiting in the tower just stared at them; then they screamed in fury and exploded across the drawbridge, which bucked and swayed with the motion of the sea.
“For Ithicana,” Ahnna screamed. “Make them bleed!”
The two forces collided with a clash of weapons and words, and Ahnna lost herself to the fight. There was nothing but the opponent before her, the blade in her hand, and a burning need to save everyone who depended on her on this island.
The ground beneath her feet turned soupy with mud and gore, bodies tangling up and getting kicked off the cliff, but soldiers kept coming. Kept climbing up through the tower, and both left and right, Ahnna knew it was the same with all the ships that were pressed against the island.
She had to do something.
“With me!” she screamed, then shoved her sword into its sheath and took a running leap at the tower. For a heartbeat, she thoughtshe’d miss and fall to her death, but then her hands caught hold of wooden beams.
She scrambled downward, toward the deck, doing her best to keep out of sight of those still aboard. Above her, more of her people followed, easily climbing after her.
“Get the sails up,” she whispered beneath the noise of the Harendellians shouting triumph as they met no resistance getting off the drawbridge. “Kill anyone who gets in your way.”
Together, they gathered in the gap between the tower and the rail, the drawbridge overhead and bits of rock raining down, then Ahnna hissed, “I’ll distract them, then you go.”
Drawing her blade, she exploded out from their cover, running toward the quarterdeck. Shouts of alarm rose from the crew, but she sidestepped and dodged, heading toward the helm with murderous intent.
Soldiers got in her path with blades high, and she met them head-on, parrying and slicing. Then her feet found the stairs and she was flying up them. With ruthless efficiency, she cut down the sailors standing with the captain, then embedded her sword in the helmsman. He staggered sideways, and she caught hold of the wheel and twisted.
Beneath the ship, the rudder turned, the force of the sea slamming into it again and again. The ship shuddered where it was hung up on the rocks, the stern moving toward the cliff with painful slowness. But it was enough to pull free the drawbridge from where it rested across the clifftops, and it came crashing down. The tower moaned, then fell sideways, and above her, a sail unfurled.
The crew on deck were in a panic, but Ahnna’s people knew ships and they knew them well. They worked together to get the sails up while fighting off interference, and with a mighty groan, the ship pulled entirely free from the cliff face beneath the sea.
The waves caught hold of the vessel as it turned perpendicular to the cliffs, and the ship groaned as it raked along the rocks. Then thewind caught the sails more fully, pushing them away from the cliff face.
Ahnna clenched her teeth and guided the heavy vessel straight into the ship that James was battling. The armored bow punched through the starboard side, and the siege tower lifted clear off the deck as the ship was shoved sideways. It fell apart with a splash, soldiers spilling into the water.
