Page 58 of The Sky Pirate's Stowaway
There was a wall on either side of the ship that kept the cannons separate from our living quarters, and that was where Willy took me now. It was a space I’d purposefully ignored, not enjoying looking at things that were capable of so much damage.
“Help me load the cannons. It’ll go faster with two of us,” he said, leading me to the crates full of cannonballs, my heart pounding harder and harder with every step.
Touching one of them wasn’t my idea of a fun time, but I did my best to help. This was my crew, my ship, and I’d be damned if I didn’t help my friends fight to save it.
I paused, for only a moment as that thought hit home.
This was my ship. My crew.
When in the world had I started thinking of them as mine?
Didn’t matter. Theyweremine.
Sunada was known for their strength, so battling their ships was a terrible idea. Their ships were the highest quality, run by the toughest of aeronauts. They were the best in all the lands, feared among the other kingdoms, and rulers of the sky.
Or at least, that was what we were told. But that was probably propaganda. For all I knew, Sunada ships were pieces of dragon poo.
Although, if they were able to track us and catch up to us with how fast Ariella had been pushing our ship,andViper had wanted to outrun them, well… they were obviously a true threat.
As quickly—and carefully—as I could, I picked up a cannonball, cradling it gently in my hands, and ran to the farthest cannon down the lane.
Toothless Jimmy was pulling a pole out of the cannon, and he gestured for me to insert the cannonball into the long barrel before he passed me the pole.
“What?” I had no clue what to do with this.
He sighed and gestured with his hands to show me what to do. “Ram the cannonball down, for fuck’s sake.”
Using the pole, I pushed the cannonball down as far as it would go. “Like this?”
“Yeah. Now move your ass and help Bones.”
“Fire at will!” Viper’s voice screamed over the noise of a hundred pirates getting ready for a fight.
Jimmy continued to load the cannon, so I turned to Bones, but he waved me off because Willy had already helped him. So I rushed back over to the crates as other cannons unleashed their fury. I jumped with each shot fired, unused to being so close toviolence. My heart was pounding so heavily in my chest, it was loud in my ears.
“I’m ready!” Four Fingers yelled toward me as I rushed by.
Good goddesses, how did Willy keep up with all of these cannons by himself?
I heard the guy on the loudspeaker speaking again, but I couldn’t understand him, not over my own anxiety and all the noise shooting cannons and screaming pirates made.
Willy was already at the crate when I caught up, and he shot me a grin.
Willy asked, “You okay?”
I nodded even though I was terrified and definitely, absolutely,notokay.
“You’ve got this, Ghost.” He smacked my arm lightly before he rushed away with another cannonball in tow.
The loudspeaker guy on the Sunada ship got impossibly louder, somehow, and I caught on that he was listing names. Wanted names, apparently.“Mira Howells and Betty Howells, ten acts of piracy, two acts of murder, multiple thefts—”
I didn’t recognize any of these names because I only knew my fellow crew members by their nicknames.
“The pirate known as the Reaper, for a total count of one hundred and five acts of murder, twelve counts of grand larceny, eighty-nine acts of piracy—”
A loud cannon rang in my ears, cutting off the rest of Max’s crimes, but hearing that many was enough to make my eyes widen.
“Fredrick Murray, five acts of piracy, ten acts of murder, three acts of armed robbery.”The list went on, and I cringed at all the crimes the guy listed.“Kaspar Ward—”
