Page 73 of Scourge of the Shores
Her grip tightened on the rope until her knuckles drained of color. She exhaled sharply, steadying herself. The time for hesitation was over. This was the moment everything had been leading up to. No turning back.
“Cain’ll die today,” she whispered before facing the crew. “Cain will die today!” she roared, daring the deep to prove her wrong.
Her yell echoed over the wooden planks, and the hum of “Aye, Captain” lifted with a heavy determination.
Their faces were raw, and their knuckles, white. They had all come too far, lost and sacrificed too much to retreat. Danna hoped the years-long war with the sea dragon would end by nightfall. Jagged rock protruded from the waters hidden by the churn.
“Easy does it!” she yelled back at Ethan.
A glint in the black waves caught her eye, but as soon as she saw it, it disappeared.
“He knows we’re here,” she muttered. The sea began to roil, and the ships rocked violently back and forth, sending Danna slinging on tiptoe along the gunwale.
“Load the guns!” Robert’s shout transversed the waves as a faint command. “Rocky water.”
Danna’s eyes scanned the obsidian rocks that seemingly erupted from the black depths.
“Ready the cannons!” she yelled to her own crew. “Eyes alert!”
Cannonfire erupted from Blackwood’s ship, and pieces of rock fell on Danna’s deck. “Watch it!” she yelled.
“Beware, friendly fire!” Robert yelled late.
Blackwood lifted his hand over his head in the form of apology. To his credit, the looming cave rock did look like a dragon’s snout. But part of her wondered if that was a warning, a threat, of what would come.
“Steer clear!” she yelled in vain. The ship veered from the rock, the others following in quick succession.
Another glint caught her attention. It moved in a serpentine pattern, vanishing beneath the waves before reappearing—a predator testing its prey.
The sea hissed, a roiling pulse beneath the surface as if holding its breath before the strike. She pointed and yelled, “Ready the chase guns. Unfurl the sails!”
Jim and Scotty were pulling double duty on deck due to the crew lost in Cain’s last attack. Danna ran to help another crewman unfurl the sails while Jim and Scotty ran to the chase guns at the ship’s bow.
The glint came again, serpentining through the dark waves.
“Fire the chase guns!” Danna bellowed.
The ship lurched in the roiling waters as the cannons fired, splitting the air with twin explosions. The deafening boom rattled the deck beneath her feet. Water erupted in violent plumes, like spilled ink. A slick of black blood tinged the crest of one wave before it vanished into the deep.
A hit.
Damien and Garrick turned their ships broadside, unleashing a rolling barrage of cannon fire. Storm Rider fired its chase guns, followed swiftly by Rosa and Blackwood. Smoke curled into the sky like siren fingers calling men to come hither.
But Danna lost the glint of Cain’s scales.
Cain’s roar reverberated beneath them until the waters stilled. If her ancestor’s ship had as many gun decks as large and as powerful as the modern pirate ships, maybe the war with Cain would have been over a long time ago. Her ship only had five cannons on each side and two in the front. There were at least thirty on Damien’s ship and maybe fifty or a hundred on Robert’s.
Cheer stirred in the air, but Danna quieted it, wary that victory had come too soon, too easily.
“Hold!” she bellowed, gripping the rigging as her gaze dropped overboard.
The black water had gone unnaturally still. No ripples. No waves. Just an eerie, glasslike surface reflecting her own face back at her. Siren waters were rumored to be the same. Sea dragons, sirens, krakens—all cousins. At least there was a chance of winning against a sea dragon.
She glanced up at Storm Rider.
Robert met her gaze until his massive ship shook. Her fingernails dug into the wooden gunwale as she braced her knees. Her gaze fell to the still water. A ripple formed—deep, circular, and racing outward like the silent toll of a warning bell. Her stomach turned to stone as it surged straight toward Storm Rider. The ripple widened—silent, unstoppable. Something vast stirred below.
CHAPTER 18
