Page 81 of Wicked Tides
And then I tugged.
My arms fell limply in front of me, what blood I had left rushing to my fingers with painful speed. I stifled any noise I might make behind my gag, glancing at the blade still pinned through my palms. I needed to get it out, but I was limited. The rest of my body was still tightly secured to the mast with thick ropes.
Looking up, the other ship was visibly closer. I stared as the moonlight kissed its sails. Even from that distance, the tinge of crimson was unmistakable.
So, Vidar had come for David. Or perhaps Sakari. He certainly would never come for me, but it did not matter. I did not need saving.
I watched the Rose suddenly come about, turning so the length of it was visible to me rather than the front. Suddenly it occurred to me what he was doing.
Just as two men were coming up from below deck, a flash of orange revealed exactly where the Rose was to them. Their heads whipped to the side just when the low pop reached their ears, but by then it was too late.
The canon ball hit the side of the ship just at the water line. They were a bit out of range, but they were moving fast. The ship quaked at the impact and suddenly the crew was once more awake and discombobulated. Their alarm bell was being rung, the brass sound of it sharp against my ears. Men were shouting, but before long, another canon fired. That time it hit high enough to send splinters of wood flying into the air around me.
Quickly, I started to maneuver my hands, prying the blade out of my palms and biting through the pain. I was regaining feeling, but notmuch. I had to accept that my vengeance would not be nearly as sweet in my weakened state.
Finally, the knife pulled free. I gripped its blood-slickened hilt and began sawing through the ropes. As soon I broke the coils, my restraints were gone. They fell at my feet and I stepped out of them as another canon ball hit the mast above my head. I ducked out of the way as the giant pillar cracked and bent, rocking the ship violently. Men were scurrying about, but Collin’s ship was full of harpoons and ropes. He was a hunter and his ship was built for hunting, not fighting other ships.
The Rose was akiller.
~ 29 ~
Vidar
Broken are the seekers of light
For light can never be captured
~ The Sun King
“Fire!” I hollered, standing at the railing.
Smalls expertly positioned the Rose, coming parallel to the Widow’s Smile. When the first canon fired, it nearly missed. I knew the range of my ship. Perhaps I was a bit overeager, but Collin and his men were not equipped for a battle at sea. That much I knew. We were privateers, but his ship had been designed to hunt sirens. To trap them. It was small and outfitted with nets and harpoons. The Rose had once belonged to pirates before I liberated her. She was designed to maim other vessels and for the first time since I acquired her, I was using her to do just that.
Collin had been an idiot to challenge me. On the sea, where no one was watching, I would tear him apart and leave the whispers of his demise to the fish as they ate his remains.
“Fire!” I shouted again.
Each hit dealt more damage than the last and the closer we came, the better I could see the deck where Collin’s men were scurrying about like chickens without heads.
The plan was simple. Dangerous, as usual, but simple. All Smalls had to do was get the ship close and I knew he understood how to do that. I’d taught him, after all. And before me, his father captained a similar ship in the Navy.
As we sailed closer, I could see someone on the deck. Someone out of place. Under the moonlight, it wasn’t hard to see that it was Dahlia. She was shimmying out of loosened ropes on the mast just as a canon ball tore it down above her head. She darted to the side, a small dagger in hand, and began cutting through men, appearing behind them like a shadow only to slice them open.
A dozen of my men stood behind me, ducked low as Collin’s crew began firing blindly at us with muskets. The idiots.
“Hooks ready!” I ordered.
Four men stood and rushed to join me at the railing, tossing grappling hooks across the water and onto the rigging as Smalls drifted parallel to the Widow’s Smile. With Dahlia distracting them from behind, my men began to swing across. Once the hulls of the ships were nearly brushing, I leapt onto the railing and bounded across to the Widow. I landed on top of a man as he scampered in confusion. Drawing my cutlass, I ran him through. As soon as another charged me, my pistol was drawn. One squeeze and the metal slug was between his eyes.
My vision skimmed the chaos for David and instead found Dahlia, blood dripping down her chin and soiling the front of her chemise. Her eyes were black as obsidian and feral. She met my gaze for a split second before she turned and sprinted down toward the lower level. I intended to follow, but the battle distracted me. Eighty men converged on that deck, painting the Widow’s Smile red.
I damned the laws and rules the moment Collin threatened me. The moment he took David with him. The moment he stole the girl.
When he took Dahlia…
I cut through men with a fury I had been keeping tethered inside me. One after another, Collin’s crew fell. They were tired. Poorly fed. They were unmotivated and uncivilized. Collin had created a crew from street rats and criminals and in battle, it showed.
The Widow’s Smile was beginning to drift off tilt. She was taking on water. Soon, she’d be another sacrifice to the hungry ocean. A relic on the bottom of the sea. Forgotten.
