“You don’t want to swim with the sharks?” I asked. “Truly?”
“No,” he growled, shooting me a hard look. “And you can’t swim—you proved that after the Sea Dragon—so you don’t want to either.”
“Aye.” I drew myself up as Chan Sha reached us. “When you’re right, you’re right.” I licked the salt from my lips and raised my voice. “Are you set on seeing us torn limb from limb, or do you want to put an end to this Ghost Captain once and final?” I’d like to say my words were steady and even, but there was a tremor. Put there by the uneven plank I stood upon, of course. Nothing to do with the sharks.
“Nothing’s changed since we last spoke,” Chan Sha said.
“The captain’s done with you lot,” the quartermaster added.
I almost told her that I’d go over the side willingly if she would too, but the woman might have obliged me just to please Chan Sha. Instead I gave Eld what he’d been asking for.
“I can turn the Kanados Trading Company’s full might on the Ghost Captain,” I said. “And I can do it without raising suspicions. So the world is still afraid of pirates and you aren’t running from every red sail that crests the horizon.”
The crew behind Chan Sha buzzed at that, but Gem shouted them down. Chan Sha said nothing, her hard gaze swinging back and forth between Eld and me. “And why would they do that? Because they pity pirates?” The buzz turned to laughter.
“Why would the Company want others to know the truth?” I asked. “It would hurt their trade even further. They didn’t want others to know the truth when they thought it was you; why would this be different?” Chan Sha’s eyebrows rose at that and even the quartermaster looked taken aback. “They just need someone to up the scale of their response and point them toward the right target. That someone is me. And Eld,” I added.
“Thanks for remembering me,” he muttered.
“Don’t mention it,” I said out of the corner of my mouth.
“Tempting,” Chan Sha mused. “But—”
“But nothing. Fly another flag for now. Bring us close enough to a Company ship that I can hail them and I’ll give them everything they need to know.” I held up my shackled wrists. “If they don’t listen to me, you can still kill us. What do you have to lose? A few days wagered on the chance to end your cat-and-mouse game?”
“The lass makes a good point,” Gem said.
Chan Sha glanced at him, rolled her eyes, then threw her arms out so her dark cloak revealed the burgundy shirt she wore tucked into pants that hugged her curves. It was the first time I’d seen her real figure, and even wobbling on a thin plank over shark-infested waters, I have to admit my mouth went dry. There’s something about beauty, true beauty, that catches you and holds you fast, whether you will it or no. And the bitch had beauty, I had to give her that. I saw Eld’s shoulders stiffen in front of me, and the man almost went over the edge before he remembered to bend his knees again.
“Very well,” she said. She brought her arms back down, silencing the crew. “Very well. Bring them in and strike their chains. We’ll see what Buc’s file of a tongue can do when directed at the Kanados Trading Company. We’ll see if they want to save us the trouble of sending the undead to the bottom.”
The crew let out a throaty, raucous cheer. Gem moved to the rail and offered us his hands.
“Go on.” I nudged Eld. “Or did Chan Sha give you a hard-on?”
“It’s too cold for that,” Eld whispered. Still, he walked more carefully than even a man suspended over a pack of sharks would.
“Lucky for you,” I said with a laugh. “I told you I had a plan,” I added as Gem reached up to help me down as well. “You shouldn’t have doubted.”
“I didn’t,” Eld said. Gem unshackled him and he rubbed his wrists as he grinned at me. “I’d never doubt you, Buc. Should know that by now. Smooth sailing from here, yeah?”
“Aye,” I agreed, holding up my wrists for Gem.
“Sail ho!” The lookout’s piercing wail interrupted my reply. “Three points off larboard. Heading right for us. Red sails! Gods save us, red sails!”
I looked back over my shoulder as Gem loosed the manacles, and saw a faint crimson smudge on the horizon, visible only because the rising sun had caught it like a drop of blood.
“Gods save us.” Gem’s voice shook. That, more than his words, sent a shiver down my spine. The sharks were still there. And there was blood in the water.
27
“Mortars,” Chan Sha spat the word. The telescope twisted in her hand, gear work moving the end of the piece in and out. “A pair of them, and larger than I’ve seen before. Not Sin Eaters’ work, thank the Gods, but we’ll still be in their range well before they’re in ours. Damn them.” She lowered the telescope and glanced at me with green eyes. “Unless you have a twin on board yonder ship? To keep the mortars silent?”
She laughed at her own joke and clapped Gem on the shoulder. “Then we fight. Give these two back their weapons and arm the others. We’re going to double back on ourselves and let the wind drive us right at them; with any luck it will spoil their aim and we’ll be in cannon range before they realize it.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Gem said with a fist to his chest.
“C’mon, old friend, it’s time to put the crew through their paces,” she said. The two of them marched off together and a moment later a crew member ran up with her arms full of knives, pistoles, my slingshot, and Eld’s sword.
“Just drop them and get back to it,” I said, finishing tying the laces of my dress, which Gem had returned after freeing me. The woman shot me a look, but did as I said before sprinting to where the crew was readying their cannon. Eld didn’t have to deal with so many damn laces and so he had his sword sheathed and was fixing his pistoles in his belt before she was a dozen paces away. It took me considerably longer, but hiding a dozen knives on your person isn’t easy when you’re already dressed. After a day and a night spent in nothing but a threadbare shift, it felt good to be clothed again, dress or no, so I made do. As Chan Sha began to spin her ship around, I picked up my slingshot and nodded to Eld. “Where do you want to make our stand?”
“Not up here,” he said. “If they have any muskets, they’ll pick us off.”
I pointed down toward the barrels of fruit that were secured against one of the smaller masts. “We’ll be able to use those for cover.” Eld nodded and we set off for the barrels. As we passed another pirate laden with shot and powder horns draped across his sunburned neck, I helped myself to a large pouch of lead balls, two score at least. Meant for muskets, they would do just fine in my slingshot.
“Gods, this is happening faster than I thought it would,” he said when we reached our goal.
It was difficult to see the ghost ship as we were pointed right for it, but Chan Sha had begun to change course enough that we would pass within cannon range, so the prow was just barely visible. And Eld was right: it was happening fast. The Sea Dragon’s battle had taken several hours to develop and even after the first clash, it’d been close to half a bell before the explosion. Somehow the other ship was moving at an unworldly pace. It would be mere minutes before we closed. We might be in mortar range already.
“Here we go,” I muttered. At my words a shrieking, piercing wail filled the air and Eld pulled me down beside him.
“Incoming!” A breath later the sea exploded a score of paces off the starboard bow. Another explosion rained metal and debris down upon the deck rail. Eld cursed. “They’re using exploding rounds with a fuse and timer. That second one nearly hit us.” He glanced at me and shook his blond hair. “They won’t sink us without a direct hit, but if one of those goes off over the ship, it’ll scythe through the crew like a blade through wheat.”
My reply was lost in a second set of explosions, behind the Widowmaker. A roar went up from the crew and I felt myself grinning along with them. “She was right.” Eld arched an eyebrow. “We’re moving in too fast. Did you see the windage and elevatio
n on the Sea Dragon’s mortar?”
“No, but I’ve seen a mortar before,” he said.
His words wiped the smile from my face. In all that had happened I’d managed to forget his admission to the Harbormaster. That he’d spent time in the army. That he was familiar with mages and their magic. That he had a past that was hidden from me. I pushed my unease off. There would be time enough for that, but later.
“Well, assuming all mortar systems are similar,” I explained, “it’s much easier to adjust to aim farther out than it is to do the reverse. The captain showed me how Sin Eaters made modifications to speed up that process, but on a normal mortar, it’s not so simple.”
He nodded. “They can’t pull their aim down fast enough to get rounds on us now.”
“Chan Sha is going to have her cannon fight. And if she’s as savvy as I think she is, then she might do our work for us.” Gods, we could be heading for Servenza by the morrow. The thought was too tempting to give voice to.
“Run ’em out!” Gem’s voice carried easily over the deck. He had a bullhorn up against his mouth, with Chan Sha at his shoulder, the pair flanking the helmsman. “Larboard guns, ready. Waterline and deck, you know where to send them. Hold!” Gem didn’t turn to watch the approaching ship; he kept his eyes on the crew, the horn pressed to his lips. Chan Sha was focused on the ghost ship, which suddenly came into view on the port side.
Bloodred sails, twice as many as flew above our decks, and another row of cannons made it look like a monster passing in our wake. I could see crew moving around, but if they were undead, it was hard to tell.
“Fire!” Gem cried. The Widowmaker shook with a deafening roar and smoke obliterated my vision. “Change over!”
“Switch!” the crew hollered back, and even with the ringing in my ears I could hear the gears and springs whizzing as the cannons flipped over in their carriages, the over-under barrels meaning they could fire a second volley before reloading.
“Fire!”
The ship shook again, but a moment later flames appeared in the haze and a roar louder than either salvo beat the air with fists of lead. Something screamed in the air, clutching at us as it whipped past, and the deck lurched awkwardly. I would have fallen, save that the fruit barrel brought me up short and Eld steadied me with a hand. Another belching line of flames missed us completely and the crew began cheering and pumping their fists in the air until Gem shouted them down.
“Hard over! Hard over and prepare starboard guns. We’ll put a round right up their bloody arsehole!” The ship swung around and now a pall fell over the crew as they strained to maneuver the ship, load the guns, and get a bearing on the ghost ship before it turned into firing position. Smoke hung like fog, obscuring the enemy’s decks, but their crimson sails were high enough to clear the smoke and point the way.
“Round and grape. Ready. Aim. Fire!” Gem’s words were lost in another cacophony of cannon fire. “Change over! That was a good one, me hearties,” he said, although how he could see anything through the smoke was beyond me. “Angle up for the distance. Ready. Fire!” Another blast shook the deck. In the silence after, Chan Sha began sending runners to various parts of the ship so their plans weren’t heard by her foes.
“Damned efficient,” Eld said, turning in a slow circle. The smoke was so thick now that it was as if the world had shrunk to the size and shape of the deck and everything beyond was mere fog and flame. “She might sink them yet.”
“Aye,” I said. I could feel the thrill in me, but my brain couldn’t stop running and I dug a cigarillo stuffed with kan out of my pocket, but not before several sums occurred to me. Chan Sha was no fool: If the odds were truly in her favor, she would have sailed against the ghost ship weeks ago, or if chance was too close, gathered a coalition of like-minded pirates and attacked en masse. She hadn’t done that.
Which meant she didn’t think the odds were in her favor. We’d struck first, true, and while we’d taken a blast from the other ship, everything felt fine on deck, not at all like when the Sea Dragon was hulled. But. Chan Sha wasn’t acting like things were anywhere near assured, even if the rest of her crew was.
Gem stood like a silent, hulking shadow beside her, his actions belying his words of encouragement. I struck a match and puffed the cigarillo into life and my thoughts slowed enough that I could begin to distill them into potential actions. I sighed, smoke burning my nostrils. Everything ended with Eld and me in the water.
“They’re coming around!” The lookout’s cry cut through the thick air. “Fresh cannon right at us.”
Chan Sha grabbed the wheel from the helmsman and threw it hard over, swinging the ship so our rear would face their broadside, but ships take time to turn and a few breaths later flame lit the fog and the Widowmaker shuddered before the roar of cannon. The ship still moved, but there was a new heaviness to it, not as bad as the Sea Dragon’s last moment, but not good.
Eld cursed and I followed his stare to where Chan Sha stood with a wheel that spun freely in her hands. She mouthed something to Gem, then took the bullhorn from him and addressed the crew.
“We’ve given as good as we got, but that last broadside did something to the rudder,” she said, speaking quietly so her voice didn’t carry beyond the deck. “I want maintenance over the side with ropes to assess the damage. Until then, we have to assume they’re going to board us; that’s what they’ve done with all the other ships.” She set the bullhorn down on a railing and pulled matches from her cloak and struck them. The match cords intertwined with her braids began to hiss and spit as they caught.
When she was finished, her dark hair writhed with smoke and flame that framed her figure like a demon from when the Gods still strode the world. “The undead want to come against us, we’ll send them back where they belong! Prepare to repel boarders!”
The crew howled with her and suddenly pistoles, muskets, blunderbusses, cutlasses, rapiers, hatchets, and dozens of other implements of war shone in the sunlight that managed to pierce the veil around the ship. As they hurled invectives, Eld drew two pistoles and inspected their clockwork mechanisms. With a slight frown, he tightened the one in his left fist. His eyes were dark, the pupils huge, and I suspected mine looked much the same.
The other ship was larger than ours and if they really had no need for food or water, they could cram as many bodies into the thing as possible, saving room only for powder and ammunition. It’s what I would have done if I had an army of undead. It was certainly what the Ghost Captain had done as well. Now I understood why Chan Sha hadn’t attacked before. It was suicide.
“Aye,” I said. Eld arched an eyebrow. “I have a plan. Several of them.” And none of them good. “Let’s see how this plays out.”
“Good enough for me,” he muttered, sighting down the barrel of a pistole. “You ever fought a Shambles before?”
“No. You?”
“No, but I heard some who claimed to.… Not many get on the wrong side of the dead and live to tell about it.” His voice shook, then steadied. “You have to take them in the head. Depending on their level of decay, you can knock limbs off, but they won’t stop until you sever the link between their head and body.”
“Brain stem,” I said.
Eld nodded and scrubbed at the stubble on his cheeks with the back of his hand. “So use your slingshot; don’t rely on knives. If you run out, stay behind me.”
“If I run out, then the plan has been royally fucked,” I said.
“Just keep your back to mine,” he replied, but I saw him mouthing my words and a smile tugged at his mouth. Give Eld half a reason and he’ll smile, but there’s something unique every time, like how no two sunsets are ever quite exactly alike.
“Larboard, here they come!” the lookout yelled. Grapeshot raked the decks and the barrel Eld had pulled me behind quivered. The lookout screamed for real as the mast broke with a sickening crack and fell across the deck. She kept screaming till she tumbled out of the crow’s nest and disappeared into th
e waves.
“All hands to larboard! Maintenance with axes, cut the cloth free or the winds will trip us all up!” Chan Sha hadn’t relinquished the bullhorn and her voice was surprisingly calm. “Touch off the cannon and every hand fall to. With a will, me beauties. With a motherfucking will!”
28
The Dead came over the side in a rush of cloth and bone and steel, all the more eerie, for there was no sound. Until there was.
“Fire!” Gem’s voice was lost in a volley of gunfire that tore holes in the ragged line of undead. Smoke blossomed like a fist and hid the railing from view, but before it could clear, more bodies appeared. Some moved almost as smoothly as the pirates while others hobbled on yellowed bones covered here and there with some remnant of flesh or tendon or the odd scrap of clothing.
Even the slow ones bore a weapon in each hand.
“Fire!” Gem threw up his musket and fired with the rest of the crew. His blunderbuss hissed as the gears rotated another barrel into place. He fired twice more before the next line of dead came over the railing.
Chan Sha’s crew moaned as a hundred more followed. A few of the dead that had tongues moaned back.
“Fire if you have aught left!” Gem strode forward and bent his blunderbuss over the skull of one of the faster Shambles, knocking its neck back at an awkward angle. He swept its legs with a boot and stomped on its neck until the head came free, spraying black ichor across the deck. Hurling away the ruined musket, Gem drew the ax at his side. “Keep ’em on the rails!”
The crew followed suit, but as fast as they were, Chan Sha was faster. One moment she was behind the crew, the next she was at the railing, smoke curling around her with pistoles bucking in each fist as she fired, dropped that pair of guns, found a new pair hanging from the tethers of her cloak, fired again, then dropped them as well. Each time she fired, a headless torso fell back into the ranks of the Shambles or else pitched into the ocean. Gem reached her as she let another brace of pistoles fall.
The Sin in the Steel Page 18