by Jamie Davis
She shook her head as she entered the passage back to her cabin at the stern beneath the quarterdeck. A little competition was good but, sooner or later, those two were going to go too far. Cari knew the two of them vied for her attention. She doubted they understood what kind of attention they got.
She didn’t know what they expected. This was no time for a romantic encounter, at least not a lasting one and she wasn’t the type to engage in a one-night stand, especially when it would cause bad blood between herself and the one she chose, not to mention the tension it would generate between two elements of her crew.
It wasn’t like she didn’t think they were both attractive. They both had their good points, and they were definitely easy on the eyes, especially in their dashing new raider garb. Stefan, in addition to a smart navy-blue coat with a double row of brass buttons, had taken to wearing a matching wide-brimmed hat with both sides pinned up to the crown. He had also put a long, colorful feather in it that drew the eye whenever he passed by.
Stefan usually stripped to the waist when helping to man the guns during an engagement. With his uniform coat and shirt off, he blended in with the other tanned bodies, male and female, doing the hot work of gunnery in this tropical climate. The feather in his hat made it easier for her to pick him out of the crowd when she needed to shout an order down to him or send Percy after him with a message during combat.
Rodrigo had adopted gear matching his duties as the leader of the Vengeance’s boarding parties. He’d tried a hat much like Stefan’s at first, along with a matching navy-blue uniform coat, but the hat blew off his head the first time he leaped across to attack a neighboring vessel. Since then, he’d taken to wearing a rolled red kerchief tied tight around his brow as a headband to keep the sweat from his eyes in a fight.
Cari let out a laugh as she thought about the two men and their constant competition for her affections. Her friend Stella wouldn’t believe a word of this if Cari could somehow send her a chat message with a picture of the two of them in their pirate garb.
Stella had always thought Cari did too much to scare boys away and thought she should just pick one already and have some fun. Someday she’d go back home and leave Fantasma. Eventually, she’d share her adventures with her friends. Maybe they’d even believe her.
She sat down at the desk in her cabin and pulled the ship’s log over to make the day’s entry of their position and add a note on the pending engagement with the raider ship. Cari found it suited her best to keep herself busy with routine work leading up to a fight. It kept her mind off the faces of all those she’d faced in combat before.
Cari paused as she thought of her previous battles. She no longer got nauseous in the aftermath of a fight, which was good. Part of her wondered, though, if that was a good thing or not.
Shrugging off the worry, Cari went back to her log entry and waited for Percy to come and fetch her for the coming battle.
Chapter 2
“Fire two shots, Mr. Claridge. Aim to cross their bow. Let’s see if they wish to surrender or not.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Stefan said. He’d stripped off his coat and shirt for the coming fight and he ran forward to see to the two longer cannon that were their bow chasers facing forward.
Quest accepted — secure the surrender of the raider ship
“I still don’t see why you offer them the option, Cap’n?” Percy asked from beside her.
“Because they are pawns in this fight for the future of the Empire, Mr. McShea. The Duke of Charon, in his quest for control of the Crystal Throne, has blackmailed these captains into working for him. Those that surrender deserve the right to return to honest shipping. That’s why, when they do surrender, we spike their guns and dump them along with all their weapons overboard. Then I give them their ships back and their lives, too, under the condition that if I catch them at raiding again, they die.”
“Not many surrender, ma’am. Only three that I can remember.”
“I hope that as the word spreads of what I offer them, more will take me up on it. Until then, we’ll fight the ones who want a fight, take the surrender of the few who don’t, and free as many captives as we can.”
A double boom sounded forward as a blast of smoke and fire propelled the two cannon balls in an arc passing just in front of the raider ship. They splashed down into the waves and Cari waited for the other captain’s response. Her warning shot had been clear.
She saw the belch of dark gray smoke from the rear of the raider before she heard the sound of the cannons. The two shots fell well short of their bow. Cari’s innovation of rifling the barrels of her cannon gave them a distinct range and accuracy advantage over their opponents.
It was foolish of the other captain to show his hand with a futile shot at the out of range Vengeance. Now Cari could target the other ship with her more accurate guns first and get a few broadsides off before she heaved to and brought the two vessels close enough to send the boarding parties to rescue the captives.
Cari motioned for the helmsman to turn a bit to starboard and bring the port broadside to bear on the other ship. Stefan raced back from the bow to oversee his gunnery crews as they prepared for the imminent broadside.
She raised her voice over the whistle of the wind and crash of the waves. “Fire as your guns bear, Mr. Claridge.”
Stefan turned and lifted both hands in a thumbs-up gesture accompanied by a huge, toothy grin. It was strange to see him or anyone in Fantasma use the gesture. He’d learned it from her at some point in the last eight months together. Now he did it all the time. It was catching on with the crew, too.
It could have been worse. At least she hadn’t taught the people here how to do the wave at spectator events.
The ripple of fire poured out from the Vengeance’s broadside as each gun fired in rapid succession. At this range, Stefan’s crews had loaded standard cannon balls and she tracked their flight as they sailed through the air at their target.
She brought up her spyglass at the last instant to see the damage to the distant vessel. Four of the ten cannonballs from the broadside struck home in the stern of the other ship. As she watched the splinters of wood fly from the impacts of her shots, the other ship’s rudder swung suddenly to one side. Cari whooped out loud.
“Excellent work, Mr. Claridge. You disabled her rudder. Without steering, they’ll be dead in the water soon unless they can repair it.”
A cheer went up from the port side gun crews. Several reached their hands high and gave each other high-fives, another gesture the crew had learned from their captain. Stefan had already moved to the starboard side and stood by the line of guns watching Cari.
She nodded and turned to the man at the ship’s wheel. There was nothing wrong with the Vengeance’s rudder.
“Helmsman, bring us around to port. Let’s send them a second broadside to make sure the repair party keeps their heads down and away from that rudder. Fire as your guns bear, Mr. Claridge.”
Her order was met with another double thumbs-up, and he moved to the first gun in the line and leaned over to sight down the barrel. All along the starboard side, the gunners bent down and did the same, the burning matches held ready to light the gunpowder charge in the touch hole of each cannon.
Again, the rolling thunder sounded from each individual gun firing in rapid succession. They were a little closer this time. The raider ship had started to turn in their direction as the wind and currents pushed the rudderless ship around.
All ten cannonballs struck home along the other ship’s broadside sending more wood and metal crashing into the men crouched behind the ship’s rails for cover.
This time, there was a return broadside from the other ship as the gun ports of the lower deck were opened to let the second row of cannons fire and join the guns of the main deck.
Mr. Bowcott’s earlier estimate had been correct. Cari counted eighteen guns in the larger ship’s broadside. Most of the raider guns fired early and the cannon balls missed w
ide across the bow.
Six of the shots managed to hit, though, and Cari saw two of her cannons blown backward as the other ship’s cannonballs struck home on the Vengeance and blew two gaps in her starboard rail.
Cari winced as men and women were knocked backward from their positions at the guns. Members of the waiting boarding parties leaped into action under Rodrigo’s orders to carry the wounded below accompanied by Helen and her surgeons.
That woman was the closest thing they had to a real healing priest or mage. Her herbal cures were good for most common ailments and she could stitch up wounds as well as anyone.
She also kept stock of the ship’s healing potions and would parcel them out to the most severely wounded. The woman had a remarkable track record and they rarely lost more than one or two members of the crew once they reached her care below decks.
Of course, too many died before they ever got there. Cari counted three bodies that would never rise again. She steeled herself against the feeling swirling beneath the surface. It was her commands that brought these people into harm’s way, after all.
Stefan already worked with his remaining gunners to right the two guns that had been knocked over in the blast. They managed to load them and roll them back into position in time to join the other eight guns in a single massed broadside at much closer range this time. Cari nodded in approval as the guns went off in a single blast to starboard.
Stefan drilled his crews over and over again between engagements until they could load faster than any other ship’s crew out there. That allowed them to pour more cannon fire into the other ships than they could return.
This time, some of the guns had loaded chain shot, twin cannon balls joined together by a chain that was aimed high to tear through rigging and bring down sails and masts.
The broadside’s fire must have severed several vital stays and damaged the mainmast. With a splintering crash, the central mast on the raider ship twisted and slammed down across the deck until the top of the mast rested in the sea over one side of the rail.
The mast and the attach sails dragged in the water like an anchor, and the raider ship came to a complete stop, twisting to one side against the pull of the mast in the waves.
“Excellent shot, Mr. Claridge. My compliments to the gun crews. Mr. Dumont, you’re up. Ready the boarding parties. I’m bringing her alongside.”
“Aye, ma’am,” Rodrigo answered. He raised his dagger in the air and waved it over his head, rallying his boarding party.
“Helmsman, bring us over to her port side. Let’s avoid that mast laying to starboard.”
“Aye, Cap'n.”
Cari waited as the Vengeance turned in the wind and came about to approach the raider from the other side.
As soon as they slid close enough, Rodrigo shouted, “Grapnels away!”
The metal grappling hooks flew across and dug into the raider’s rail as the boarding parties pulled them taught, hauling the two ships together with a crash.
Rodrigo barely waited for the ships to meet before he bounded to the rail and launched himself in a flying leap over the rail and onto the deck of the other ship. His boarding party flowed over the side after him in a wave of battle cries.
“Vengeance is mine!”
Between the damage of their double broadside and the downed mast, the other ship’s main deck’s crew was disorganized and uncoordinated. Rodrigo and his men and women carved their way through the raiders with relative ease, angling back towards the ship’s quarterdeck and the captain and his officers.
It looked as if they’d won the day until the central cargo hatch burst open and two huge, horned figures climbed up onto the deck. Armed with massive double-headed battle axes, the two creatures had the bodies of giant men with the heads of horned bulls.
“Minotaurs,” Mr. Dawkins called back from the Vengeance’s rail where he stood with the boarding party’s reserves. “Ma’am, they’ve got —"
“I see them,” Cari called down to the bosun. “We didn’t hear anything about them from the people along the coast.”
The seven-foot-tall creatures charged into the rear of Rodrigo’s boarding party, their axes cutting broad swaths through Cari’s crew.
“Damn,” Cari muttered. She was going to have to get over there fast if she wanted to salvage a win from this fight.
“Mr. Bowcott, I’m heading over. Alert Helen to expect more wounded than usual.”
Cari didn’t wait for a reply, instead leaping over the forward rail of the quarterdeck down to the main deck’s planking. Running over to where Mr. Dawkins waited with the reserve, Cari drew her rapier and dagger.
“Let’s go!”
Quest accepted — rescue the boarding party
Taking the rail in a single bound, Cari pushed off and launched herself over the gap between the ships and landed with a rolling tumble on the other side. The move brought her up behind one of the minotaurs.
She swiped at the back of the creature’s leg, aiming to sever the hamstring and cause it to tumble to the deck. Instead of hitting behind the knees, the strike hit lower along the armored greaves wrapped around the lower legs.
Cari managed to draw a little blood, but not much else and the monstrous man-bull turned and fixed its red, bloodshot eyes on her.
She dove to one side, putting her acrobatic dodge ability to good use and jumped back to her feet lunging to plunge her dagger into the minotaur’s unarmored side. The long blade slid over the beast’s ribs, again, causing only superficial damage.
Cari barely managed to roll backward, away from the huge axe’s backswing.
She landed hard on the deck and felt a spike of pain lance up through her left leg.
A foot-long splinter of wood stuck up from the deck and she’d fallen on it, cutting open a gash in the side of her leg.
Health damage — health -12
Cari couldn’t afford to worry about the injury because the minotaur’s pal had joined him in facing her.
She rolled to the side, avoiding the axe crashing into the deck where she’d been laying a split-second before.
Wincing against the pain in her leg, Cari pushed to her feet and pressed her attack against the two creatures.
There was no one around to help. The raider crew had rallied and managed to push her crew back away from their captain.
A tingling feeling on her left side told her another attack was coming as her prescience skill activated. Cari opted to dive forward this time, racing to get inside the arc of the longer battle axe sweeping around at her.
She almost made it, but the lower edge of the axe blade scored a line of fire across her back.
Health damage — health -8
The move brought her close enough to land both her follow-up attacks, though.
The power-up bar on the right side of Cari’s vision filled to half-way. If she could fill it up, she could activate her burst of speed. That would probably be enough to win the battle.
Probably.
Since she was already inside the first minotaur’s guard, Cari jumped to the side and thrust her dagger into the exposed belly in front of her.
She pulled the blade free and danced around to the creature’s rear, avoiding another strike by the wicked axe blade.
Lunging forward, Cari managed a deep piercing blow to the back just about where one of the kidneys should be. She was rewarded when the minotaur bellowed in agony and arched its back before falling over backward.
Cari stepped out of the way, watching the status bar fill almost all the way.
One more hit should do it.
She leaned forward to stab down with her rapier into the minotaur’s neck and finish it off.
The attack never landed.
A tingling sensation from behind warned Cari of her mistake just a little too late.
The other minotaur had lowered its head and charged at her from behind knocking her flying across the deck as one of the sharp horns pierced her back.
Health damage
— health -18
She landed hard and rolled up against the rail on the far side of the main deck. This time, she was no longer able to bounce back to her feet.
When Cari climbed back up to stand and face the two minotaurs, a sharp pain in her back announced some severe damage there. The blood dripped down the small of her back to pool where her belt held her breeches up over her hips.
That’s gonna leave a scar.
The second minotaur helped the first back to its feet and pointed in her direction.
Both lowered their heads and charged at her, opting to use their horns to finish her rather than their axes. If they hit, they’d knock her back over the rail and into the shark-infested waters below.
Cari saw one chance.
Reaching up with one hand, she grabbed a taut rope tied off at the rail. With a sweeping slash of her blade, she severed the line and held on tight.
The wrenching yank nearly pulled her shoulder out of her socket as she shot upward, pulling up her knees so the charging minotaurs just missed her.
Across the deck, her escape had a secondary effect. A spar from the aft mast crashed down, killing several raiders instantly and scattering many others. It gave her crew a chance to regroup and counter-attack.
Cari let go of the rope and dropped back to the deck to land behind the two bull-headed beasts, confused by her sudden disappearance.
Lunging, her rapier flicked out, once, then twice, in rapid succession. Each hit scored a piercing attack in the muscled backs of her foes.
They yowled in pain and spun around to face her. Rage filled their bloodshot eyes.
It was too late for them.
The second lunging attack filled her status bar. The power-up status flashed an iridescent green on the right side of her vision.