Page 48 of Voice of the Ocean

Crack!The deck beneath them shook, sending both crews tumbling. Splintered wood flew through the air like ocean spray. Celeste looked across at theRed Revengeto see Torben standing behind a smoking cannon. How had he gotten over there?

Shouts of panic rose as the cargo crew recognized the ship was taking on water. In the chaos, Celeste threw her head back, her skull colliding with Captain Clarke’s nose. He grunted, the sword at her neck dropping a couple of inches. This was her chance. She grabbed the hand holding the sword with hers and yanked down. The movement was easy and familiar, her body following the familiar motions that had been drilled into her. In one fluid motion, Celeste twirled, twisting his hand up behind his back. The grip on her sword loosened, and she pulled it free while keeping his hand secured.

“Men, to your stations!” cried Clarke as he struggled against her hold. “Prepare the cannons! Don’t let them get away!”

Celeste sheathed her sword and chanced a look around. The battle had reignited. But upon hearing their captain’s orders, the cargo crew attempted to disengage and run downstairs. Celeste’s stomach dropped. They were going to try to sink theRed Revenge. Three of the members of the cargo crew managed to reach the door to the lower decks. One reached to pull it open. His body was sent flying backward. The two others turned to find Nasir, baring his teeth. Celeste nearly laughed. She had never seen Nasir try to look scary before, and it was somehow endearing.

“Good work, hero,” said Raiden as he joined her. He nodded toward Clarke, who she still had in a hold. “And here I thought I was rescuing you.”

Celeste smiled, quite pleased with herself.

“All right,” he said, eyes darkening as he looked at Clarke, “I’ll take this from here.”

CHAPTERTWENTY

The cargo ship shook as another cannonball sank into its side. Celeste raised her arm to shield her eyes as splintered wood rained down. It gave another lurch, and she scrambled to keep her legs beneath her.

“Stop blowing holes in the ship while we’re on it!” Raiden roared, but it was unlikely Torben could hear him. With a sigh, he turned back to Captain Clarke and raised his sword high above the captain’s head, prepared to swing.

Clarke stood still beneath the blade. Defeated. The few surviving members of his crew had abandoned ship in the rowboat. The rest were strewn across the floor. There was no one belowdecks to return fire.

Was Raiden really going to kill this man in front of her? She hated him, but she didn’t want to watch Raiden cut his throat. This realization was like salt water in a wound. She already feared she was unfit for her task. If she couldn’t bear watching someone else end a man who wanted to hurt them, how could she kill Raiden when the time came?But that was different, right? Raiden had invaded this man’s ship. Raiden had killed his crew. Raiden was the villain here.

Raiden looked up, as if to check that Celeste had a good hold on Clarke. As usual, he managed to see everything she was thinking plain on her face.

“Lucky for you, Captain, I’m feeling generous,” the pirate said. “We’ll see how you fare with the sharks.” He brought the pommel down into Captain Clarke’s skull.

The man fell limp, a puppet with his strings cut, sinking into a heap on the floor. Raiden crouched beside Clarke’s unconscious body and relieved him of a small purse. He held it up and shook it, smiling when he heard the chatter of coins. A stray bottle rolled past their feet toward the bow of the ship. Raiden and Celeste watched it. Their eyes grew wide, and they looked up at each other, realization dawning.

The floor wasn’t level anymore. The ship was sinking.

“Grab what you can and get off the ship!” Raiden commanded his crew.

Bastian and Kiyami, both nearby, called back in reply and disappeared belowdecks to grab what they could and inform the others. Motioning for Celeste to follow, Raiden ran to the captain’s quarters.

“Grab anything that looks valuable and put it in here,” he ordered, rushing over to the bed to strip the top two blankets. He tied the corners to make a sort of bag—one he slung over his shoulders and the other he tossed to Celeste. She caught it easily and looped it over her head. There was no going back now. Not if she pillaged this ship with him. She’d be a pirate. But since the ship was going down anyway, and she had grown up scavenging ships, Celeste’s pesky moral compass didn’t stop her for long. Heart hammering and cheeks flushed, she joined the search, heading first for the desk in the back. Pickings were slim underwater. Most things in a shipwreck were damaged.

Scavenging this room was a dream of hers made real.

Celeste tried her best to hurry, but she couldn’t help but become consumed by each object she encountered. On the desk, she found a glass bottle, thin at the top with a wide base and filled with golden liquid. Two matching glasses sat beside it. Something like this was normally broken on shipwrecks. She held it up toward Raiden to see if it was valuable, and he groaned.

“Not anything glass! Look for gold things! Coins or jewels!”

She dropped it back onto the table and picked up a heavy silver object. This one had an ornate base, with three arms. Two elegantly stuck out at the sides, turning their heads upward, while the middle stayed straight and resolute. Each arm held a white candle. This she decided to place in the sack, as she’d heard candles were fairly precious upon the ship. A golden compass was next, which she inspected for a long moment, watching as the hands inside moved as she turned it. She reached for the next item on the desk. An open piece of parchment. It probably wasn’t valuable, but she hadn’t seen a human letter before, and Celeste wanted to take a closer look at the glistening gold wax seal at the top.

Crack!A cannonball blew through the far wall of the captain’s quarters at an angle, ripping a hole as it sunk into the floor beneath. The ship tilted again, and a wave crashed against the side of the ship, spilling water into the room.

“All right, time to go,” Raiden said.

He walked toward the door, bag at his hip jangling, paused, and returned for a couple of half-full liquor bottles. With nimble fingers, Celeste folded up the parchment, tucking it into the front of her dress. She hadn’t taken nearly as much as she could have. But there was no time to rectify this. The floor was now under a couple of inches of water, and each second it rose higher. Together they ran for the door. Raiden ripped it open and found, looming in the doorframe with his sword raised, Captain Clarke.

Raiden shut the door in his face.

“Perhaps there’s another way out?”

There wasn’t. The two looked around the room. The only other exit was through the hole the cannon had made in the wall. Celeste doubted either of them could avoid losing some of the treasure in the water if they chose to swim. A loud hammering shook the door on its hinges.

Raiden groaned and opened the door again. “Clarke! Good to see you’re up. We were just leaving.”

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