by H. N. Klett
On the starboard side, another ship appeared, this one much larger and flying the standard of the Queen. There must not have been anyone important on the first ship to warrant such a shot at such close quarters.
Below decks, Master Gunner Malik and his crew readied the cannons.
“Sir, we can’t get the port side gun ports to open, the ship is too close!” said one of the gunners mates.
“Then fire through them! Alternate fire!” shouted Malik.
Every other cannon in the line roared as the wooden doors and a good deal of the hull vaporized. There were giant holes exposing the gunning decks on both ships now. The other ship had holes blown through and through, the bodies of their gun crews scattered over the deck.
Now they had a clearer view of what they were shooting at. One set of gunnery crews raced to reload the spent cannons as Malik barked orders to the others who stood at the ready.
“Second volley, pitch down twenty degrees!” Malik intended to hit them below their water line and sink them.
His order to fire was nearly drowned out by the battle cries of red-coated marines pouring onto the ship. They looked like ants spilling from a broken anthill as they ran through the gunners, hacking and shooting as they advanced.
Every other cannon fired, vaporizing the rest of the gunport covers, their shots striking home below the waterline.
The marines who had made it over from the other ship forced them away from the cannons. The gun crews were no match for trained soldiers, and Malik knew it. He gathered as many survivors as he could and shouted for them to get above decks. Those that could still stand raced past him as he slashed open casks of gunpowder. When he reached the stairs he turned to them, grinned a devilish grin, and threw a match.
“Big boom!”
Malik was thrown up the stairs and onto the deck as the entire ship shuddered from the force of the blast. Malik was singed but alive, his wild beard and hair mostly burned off. The surviving gunners gathered on either side of him and helped carry him to the bridge.
As they went up the stairs, the ship began to pitch. Looking back, they saw that their shots had been true and the ship grappled to their side was sinking and was starting to pull them down. Pirate and marine both abandoned their fights to slide down the sloping decks and cut the mooring lines of the rapidly sinking ship. All of them chopped at the lines until finally the last line was cut and the ship bobbed back in the other direction. The ship pitched back and forth so violently that most found it difficult to stand. Once the rocking had stopped, they resumed their fight.
“Stay close to me!” Hadyn shouted over the din to Hailey.
She could barely see the others down on the main deck through the mist and the sea of fighting people. The other ship was pulling closely along their starboard side. More troops from the taller ship dropped onto the deck like a great downpour.
The captain stood at the rails, pulling one pistol from his bandoleer and firing a round into the sea of marines before grabbing another one and repeating. One of the marines got off a lucky musket shot through the captain’s thigh, causing him to falter. Dr. Vinkler raced to help him as the captain fell to the deck and reached for another flintlock to fire.
Olau and Kyra were pushed back up each side of the two staircases by the marines’ advance. Covered in blood and sweat, their tired arms swung and sliced away at the invaders. For each one that fell it seemed like two more would take their place.
Hadyn got in front of Hailey and held his sword at the ready, his two crossed pistols strapped on his back, as the troops advanced onto the bridge. The swarm of marines pressed them back to the rear of the boat. The doctor was dragging the wounded captain back with the help of Malik, and Kyra and Olau were taking defensive positions. They would not die without a fight. Hailey looked at the wall of muskets and rapiers pointed at them, slowly advancing, and knew the situation was hopeless.
Her blood boiled. This was not to be the end. All her life she was told to stand back, to let the men take care of everything. That women had no place commanding anything; it was their job to accept and obey.
She could hear her Grandmother Rose telling her, Surrender! Give them what they want. Your job is to serve the Crown. To serve, not defy the Queen and all her nobles. It will never change. Just accept things as they should be…
“No, no, no!” Hailey shouted as she grabbed one of Hadyn’s pistols from behind his back. She went around him and faced the wall of troops before her.
“Stop!” she shouted as she placed the pistol under her chin, preparing to shoot herself.
The troops stopped their slow press forward and stared at her blankly. They had been ordered to take her. Alive.
“You need me, otherwise the book is useless to you! I am the Navigator! Let me speak to the one in charge.” She looked over the stunned marines, searching for someone with authority.
As they stood there quietly looking at each other, Hailey’s heart and mind raced. She knew there would be a cost for her standing up and confronting them. But it was a price she was willing to pay. Too many people—her father, her grandmother, the pirates, and even her entire hometown—had been paying the price all her life. They were all in danger because of her. She couldn’t stand by and do nothing. The Queen needed her alive. It was the only bargaining chip she had. She had to take the chance.
A slow clap broke the silence.
From behind the marines to her right, a familiar voice gave its reply.
“Bravo, young lady! Wouldn’t your grandmother be proud, using your position to control the situation? Looks like someone really was reading her primer.”
Then the parting soldiers stepped aside to reveal the smiling face of Bishop Jacob Graver.
“Graver!” she growled.
He stopped clapping, stepped through the row of troops, and raised his arm. The marines lowered their swords and muskets, but only slightly. Graver moved towards her slowly but she raised the pistol under her chin slightly higher, staring at him, wide eyed. Graver took the hint and kept his distance.
“Yes, well, Her Highness sent me to work things out, since we have met before.”
He motioned with his cane to the deck of the larger ship, where Hailey could see the Queen looking down at her wearing a flowing black dress, and though her eyes were veiled, Hailey could feel her cold eyes staring at her. Through her. Hailey felt a chill.
Every member of the crew looked up at the Queen, stunned to see her. It was rare for her to be out of the capital, but to be on a ship of war was pretty incredible. Zordebran tried to figure the odds of getting a shot off that would take her down, but it was no use. The Queen was just out of pistol range and if anyone tried to raise a musket, they would be dead before the rifle touched their shoulder. No one dared make a move with that many muskets pointed at them.
“Met? Is that what you mean when you kidnap someone?” Hailey growled at him.
“Well, we needed you and the book. I just took it upon myself to… expedite the process a bit.”
Hailey frowned at him.
“Well, it seems that you have caused quite a stir since we last met. Towns rebelling, sinking Crown ships, even employing…” —he eyed the pirates with distaste and wrinkled his nose as he pointed at the pirates behind her with his walking stick— “this…”
“Hey!” Olau shouted at him, and raised his hooked arm in protest. “We’re right here, you know.”
The marines instantly brought their muskets to bear. The situation hung silently for a few tense moments.
“This doesn’t look good. You have a plan?” Hadyn whispered behind her. She could feel his hand on her sash. Should trouble start, she was sure he would either pull her behind him or toss her over the railing to avoid the hail of bullets that would follow.
“I’m working on it,” she murmured back to him, her eyes never leaving the bishop.
“Greeeeat.” She didn’t have to turn to see the sarcastic smirk that was no doubt on Hadyn’s face.
Graver raised his hand and the marines relaxed once again. All eyes focused on Graver and Hailey.
“I tell you what, there’s an easy way out of this, you know.” Jacob casually brought out an apple from his dark blue coat and began to polish it on his sleeve.
Kyra’s stomach audibly rumbled as she watched Bishop Graver take a bite.
Graver bit into the apple with a crunch and savored it as he contemplated the bite on the skin. He seemed lost in the moment, forgetting the large squad of marines behind him or the girl with a pistol to her chin standing in front of him, or the Veiled Queen, who looked down upon them all.
Remembering himself, he grunted and continued. “You agree to come with us and give us the book and key. In return, we will let your friends go.”
He grinned at her and looked quite pleased with himself as he took another bite of his apple.
“What about Daden?” Hailey looked at him doubtfully.
“Well, all right, them, too.”
“And the plague?”
Graver’s eyes widened in surprise, then his face fell back into his contented grin. “My, you certainly have been studying… very well. Come with us and the plague goes away.”
“This is way too easy,” Hadyn whispered behind her.
There was a long silence.
“The way I look at it, we could either wound you and shoot your friends or you can come with us and we will let everyone go on their way.” He shrugged.
Hailey couldn’t see any other alternative. She didn’t want the Queen to get her hands on the treasure or the book, but she didn’t want to see her family and loved ones die.
“All right.” She lowered the pistol.
“Excellent!” He crossed closer to her. “Now, do you have the book and key on you?”
She still held the pistol in her hand and turned the heavy barrel back to herself. “I’ll give them to you when we are on board and my friends are safe.”
He put his hands up and leaned back a little. “Fair enough.” He held his hand out towards the port stairs and the marines parted to allow them through. “After you.”
Hailey turned back to Hadyn and gave him and the crew one last look before she passed through the crowd of red-coated marines to the gangway that had been extended between the two ships.
Jacob leaned in to one of the marines and whispered something to him, which made the marine smirk. The marine then smartly saluted him, and Graver made his way through the men to join Hailey on the ramp.
“They’re gonna shoot us as soon as they get out of sight,” Zordebran said through gritted teeth. The deck was heavily stained with his blood, and the doctor, for all of his work, was still having a difficult time staunching the bleeding.
“Well, at least we know she’s safe for now,” said Hadyn as he watched her ascend the gangway.
Kyra turned and murmured to them, “I, for one, am not planning to go without a fight.”
“Nor I,” said the towering Olau.
Now that the standoff was over, the crew noticed the mists had thickened significantly and were creeping up the sides of the ship. It began to act like a wall blotting out the world around the two ships.
Kyra took note of this and looked around. “Anyone see Chloe?”
Hadyn noticed an odd taste in his mouth and turned quickly to his crewmates and told them, “Get your masks on!”
The crew looked around at each other and then to the marines trapped in a moment of confusion. The marines looked back at them anxiously, ready to silence them and be done with it all.
Hailey had just reached the main deck of the Queen’s ship when she heard a crunching and the grinding sound of wood on wood. She turned quickly and saw that a long ship had cut through the fog like a spear and ground into the starboard side of the Dark Star. People jumped the decks from the ship and began engaging the marines. She recognized them instantly as merchants from her home port. One figure in particular stood out in her vision above the rest. It was a figure of a large mountain of a man who jumped from the decks of the Arrow, axe in hand, calling for his daughter.
It was her father, Orin.
Hailey looked back to the surprised face of Jacob Graver and attempted to run down the gangway to join her father. Graver reached out and grabbed her by her satchel bag to stop her.
Hailey turned, pistol still in hand, and pulled the trigger. Graver leaned back at the last second and the bullet grazed his sharp cheek. Still he held on to the satchel, keeping her there in place. Hailey quickly slid out of the satchel that held her book and ran down the gangway, free from Graver but leaving the book behind.
Graver turned and held his hand over the running blood on his cheek as he carried the satchel up the deck to the bridge, where the Queen waited.
Hailey plunged into the mass of heaving combatants, trying to weave her way to her father. She had to get to him, to see him once again. She had to know if everyone in town was safe.
She recognized several of the merchants as she wove in between the fighting combatants. They were members of her father’s guild. Wading further through the crowd, she could see that several other guilds throughout the islands had joined the fray as well.
At the head of them, fighting their way up the port stairs to the bridge, her father swung his broad axe into a wall of red-coated marines, his long hair flying behind him as he hacked away at them.
Hailey cried out to him, but he couldn’t hear her over the gunfire and the grunting and screams of those dying around her.
On the bridge of the Dark Star, the pirates were all wearing their masks, red eyes glowing as they fought back. She stopped and looked at them and then turned to notice that the mists were rising all around them. There was an odd taste in her mouth, much like the one she’d tasted the last night on the Halifax. Chloe must still be in engineering.
Hailey raced to open one of the many weapons lockers and threw it open to reveal several masks. She put one on and breathed the fresh air that came through it. She then raced over to a group of merchants, telling them all to put them on quickly.
The earpieces were alive and crackling full of the sounds of those busy fighting or dying, it was hard to tell. She raced back to the locker to grab the remainder of the masks and made her way to her father on the bridge.
Graver looked down at the battle on the ship below while holding a handkerchief to his still bleeding cheek.
“Things do not go well,” he noted out loud. He stepped back and turned to the marine who was standing there and said, “Send another detachment down there. Get the girl.”
The marine saluted and hustled down the stairs to a large group of soldiers that stood waiting for him on the main deck of the enormous ship.
Hailey reached the bridge in time to see her father and the remaining pirates forcing the crown’s marines into a retreat.
Hailey ran up to her father, shouting for him. Orin stopped at once and turned to her, lowering his axe. She immediately embraced him.
“Hailey! I thought I had lost you!” He hugged her back.
“They have the book, Dad.”
“Then we will get it back.” He smiled at her.
At that moment there was a great shout as another wave of marines ran down the gangplank from the Queen’s ship and began another push up the stairs.
“Stay behind me,” Orin told her and ran forward with a shout. Those who could stand charged forward with Orin to repel the new wave of invaders.
They fought their way down to the main bridge, its decks slick with blood and oil and crowded with the bodies of marines, merchants, pirates, and the skeleton crew. Those fighting in the mess found it difficult to keep their footing. At one point, Hailey grabbed her father’s belt to steady herself and wound up being dragged along behind him, her feet slicking along the decks.
“Graver’s got the book!” Hailey shouted over the din.
Then the troops changed their tactics. Instead of attacking everyone outright, they concentrate
d their efforts in grabbing Hailey. Orin and the others caught on quickly and formed a defensive ring around her as they slowly made their way to the gangplank.
“You and your dad get up there! Get the book! We’ll hold them!” Hadyn shouted at Hailey when they reached the gangplank. The mists had fully risen about the ship and were starting to affect the maskless marines, making them slow and clumsy, but still they pressed forward to try and reach Hailey.
Orin and Hailey raced up the gangplank. The mists had not reached that high, so they stripped off their masks to see clearly and not be distracted by all the voices of their crewmates broadcasting through the masks. As Orin led the way, Hailey had the uncanny sense that they could do it. They could get the book back. There was nothing in their way. All the marines were too busy fighting on board the Dark Star. No one stood in their way.
No one except Jacob Graver.
Graver stood at the top of the gangplank, holding his ground as they closed.
“You go no further,” he stated plainly and drew a pistol from inside his coat and pointed it at Orin.
Orin stopped. He was just out of striking range, and he wasn’t sure he could close the gap in enough time before Graver got his shot off.
“A fine way to treat us after throwing you a party.” Orin gave a sarcastic grin and looked Jacob Graver square in the eye. Had he been closer, he would have taken the man’s head.
Graver tried to smile back at him, but the pain in his cheek forced him to wince instead. “Yes, thank you for that. It was quite lovely, but the whole burning the colonial mansion and running us out of town kind of spoiled it.”
“Well, those things tend to happen when you kidnap someone’s daughter,” Orin said, unable to keep his tone civil. He tried to edge forward, but Graver was too swift and had the advantage of distance and reach.
Hailey peeked around her father, who stood there like a shield, and she held on to the ropes on either side of the gangway to keep her balance.
“I thought you said you would let us go,” said Hailey with all the sarcasm she could muster.