by Jamie Davis
Something wet sprayed across Cari’s face and chest and she wiped her hand across her eyes to clear her vision. Her hand came away covered in blood.
Beside her, a headless Katie Beckett slumped to the deck in front of the wheel.
Ignoring the horror of what just happened, Cari grabbed the spokes of the wheel which had already started spinning as the ship lost control for a few seconds. She pulled the ship back into line to continue on course while she tried to assess if there was more damage.
Unfortunately, there was, more than she ever wanted to see.
The entire starboard side was blown open and exposed. Cari could see two of the lower decks through the jagged fifteen-foot-wide hole in the main deck and hull.
Bodies, downed lines and rigging, and splinters as big as her arm lay littered across the deck.
Up above, the top of the mainmast had snapped off two-thirds of the way up the shaft. Sails and cross spars hung precariously over the deck, threatening to break free at any moment and crush the desperate crew working to help their injured comrades below.
The Vengeance had slowed a little but still had enough headway to make the next turn and cross over the path of the fourth and final ship in the line.
She still had half of her port broadside intact. It would have to be enough to fight off the fourth ship as they slid by.
In her heart, if she allowed herself to dwell on it, Cari knew they weren’t going to make it, but she refused to give up or surrender.
Giving up meant that little girl hiding in the captain’s cabin down below would die at the hands of evil men who hated her only because of who her parents were.
Helen climbed up to the quarterdeck, which was harder than usual given her broken arm and the fact that both the starboard and port stairs had been blasted to bits by one of the cannon balls.
“Cari, we’re about done. I don’t think we have another one in us.”
“We have to. Get the people back on the port side guns. There are still half of them loaded and ready to fire.”
“What’s the point?”
Helen’s anguished plea broke Cari’s heart. She had to press forward, though.
“The point is it’s always darkest before the dawn. Get back down there and man those guns, Helen. If we don’t cripple this fourth ship, we don’t stand any chance at all. Giving up is not an option. Fight on.”
Helen stared at Cari, meeting her gaze for a few long seconds before she nodded and dug deep to find the strength to carry on.
“Good woman. Don’t worry, we’ll see this through, one way or the other, together.”
Chapter 38
Cari pulled the wheel around and started back to starboard, heading across the bow of the last Sultanate ship in the line. If they could somehow make it past this one, they still had a chance.
Helen had managed to pull together a small skeleton crew to man the final working cannons on the whole ship.
The half broadside would have to be enough to do the job.
Cari craned her neck to see past the helm at what was happening on deck.
“Let me take the wheel, Cap’n. You’ve got more important things to do.”
Cari looked to her right and saw Percy, a bloody bandage across his head, a cutlass shoved in his belt, and a grim smile on his face.
“You look like quite the little raider,” she told her cabin boy.
“I have to be. I work for the Dread Raider Cari. Let me take the wheel. I can do it.”
Cari gestured at the helm. “I leave the task to you, sir. Once we clear the bow of the other ship, turn hard to port and get us as close to them as you can.”
“I’ll get it done, Cap’n.”
“Good man.”
The two of them were alone on the quarterdeck now. Percy would have to be good enough. It wasn’t like she had anyone else to hand off the task to after Katie and the rest of the quarterdeck crew were killed.
Cari gave him a pat on the back and turned to watch their progress and the work taking place on the deck below to get the guns ready to fire.
Francesca came out from the hatchway in the center of the main deck. She looked around and saw Cari on the quarterdeck. The young woman ran over until she was close enough to be heard.
“The carpenter’s mate sent me.”
“Where’s the carpenter?” Cari feared she already knew the answer.
“He’s dead, ma’am. Killed in the last broadside. His mate sent me to tell you that last blast staved in the hull in two places. He’s managed to brace one enough to stop the flow of water but the other is a temporary patch that is leaking like a sieve. He doesn’t have the manpower left to do any better. We’re taking on water and he doesn’t think the remaining undamaged pumps will be enough to clear it.”
“Head back down and keep helping him as best you can. Tell him to keep at it. I know he won’t let this ship sink while he’s around to do anything about it.”
“Aye, ma’am, I’ll pass along the message.” Francesca started to turn away and then turned back to Cari. “Cap’n?”
“Yes, Francesca?”
“It’s been a wonderful ride serving with you, ma’am.”
“I’ve enjoyed having you along as well, Francesca.”
The other young woman nodded and ran back to the open hatch and climbed down to the lower decks.
Cari hoped they both lived to talk together again.
The deck shifted under her feet and the ship turned back to port, coming down the side of the last Sultanate ship.
“Here we go,” she heard Percy yell behind her.
She laughed in spite of the severity of the situation. It was as good a thing to say at any.
“Fire as you bear, Miss Doolan. God be with us!”
A few seconds later, Helen’s hoarse cry sounded. “Fire!”
The remaining guns of the Vengeance fired as one. The blast was followed by the full broadside of the enemy ship.
The whole ship shuddered under the pounding blows from the other ship’s cannonballs slamming into her. Cari felt rather than heard a massive crack and she looked forward to see the foremast collapse to the deck as a two-foot section of it was blasted out by a cannonball.
The ship listed to port as well, telling Cari they were taking on water on that side. She hoped the carpenter’s mate and his small remaining crew managed to stop the water from pouring in.
The Vengeance continued past the other ship but slowed and would soon be adrift with no working sails aloft.
“Percy, go get the princess from my cabin. We have to prepare to get her to safety.
“Aye, ma’am,” Percy said, groaning.
Cari turned and saw the boy was holding his hand against his side. Blood seeped around his fingers and stained his shirt.
She started to move towards him but he waved her off.
“I’m well enough, ma’am. I caught a bit of the splintered quarterdeck rail in that last broadside. I’m alright. I’ll fetch her and be back before you know it.”
Cari didn’t trust her voice. She just nodded in reply as he limped away.
As the cabin boy climbed carefully down from the quarterdeck on one side, Cari walked to the edge and jumped down to the main deck and started searching through the wreckage looking for survivors.
Helen picked her way through from the bow.
Neither of them found any survivors other than themselves by the time they met amidships.
“Any ideas, Helen? I’m open to suggestions.”
The question brought a smile to the first mate’s lips amidst the grime and blood from the ravaged ship and crew.
“The small boat mounted on the forecastle is still intact, though everything else around it is crushed to splinters, if you can believe that.”
“So, I guess we row from here.”
Helen shrugged. “You asked.”
Cari glanced at the sky. The sun was lower in the west than she expected.
“It’s getting on towards night.
It’s gonna take those last two ships at least an hour to turn and come back to finish us. Maybe if we take the boat and row directly into the sun, it’ll hide us behind the Vengeance long enough for it to get dark. Then we can rig a small sail and try and get away in the night.”
“I love how you never say die, ma’am. I’ll go and get the boat ready to be lowered over the side. I think there’s enough loose wood and ripped sail canvas up there to put aboard so we can try to rig a sail.”
“Great, while you do that,” Cari said, “I’ll see if I can round up any more survivors below. Keep an eye out for Percy. He went to fetch the princess.”
Cari walked over to the hatch. Her heart sank when she saw water flowing by below. The ship’s lower decks had filled with water. A woman’s body floated by, the lifeless eyes looking up at her captain. Cari just stared until the body drifted out of sight.
Shaking herself, Cari called out into the rapidly filling void below.
“Abandon ship! If you can hear me, rally to the main deck. Abandon ship!”
A shout answered her, and a few seconds later Francesca walked through the waist-deep water pulling the carpenter’s mate behind her on a makeshift raft made from a broken cabin door. Another crewman walked behind supporting the other end.
“Have you seen anyone else?” Cari asked.
Francesca shook her head. “There isn’t anyone else. We’re it.”
Cari had difficulty believing her crew of nearly eighty souls were all dead or dying below decks. Shaking herself, she reached down into the hatchway.
“Here, bring him over here and I’ll help you pull him up.”
Francesca and the other crewman lifted the carpenter’s mate up until Cari was able to grab the man under his arms. Luckily, he was a small fellow. Cari leaned back and hauled him up onto the main deck.
Francesca and the other man, Cari thought his name was Tanner, climbed up in turn and lay staring up at the blue sky for a few seconds, catching their breath.
“Come on,” Cari said. “Bring him forward. Miss Doolan is readying a boat for us.”
“We’re gonna row away, ma’am?”
“No, Francesca, we’re gonna sneak off into the sunset. We’ll be gone by the time they manage to turn around and come back to search the ship.”
The other woman smiled. “I like it. It might just work.”
“Of course it will work. Now get this man up to the boat and get him situated. Help the First Mate get the boat ready. I’ll do one last search for survivors and be right behind you.”
Percy was just coming out of the main passageway to her cabin when Cari went to search for him. He led the young princess by the hand. She’d been crying and was shaking with fright.
“Good man, Percy. I knew you could do it. Come on, both of you. We are getting off this tub.”
“We are?” Percy seemed confused.
“Yes, we are. She’s done all she can for us. Hopefully, she’ll last a little longer and hide us while we escape, but she’s done her duty and brought us this far. Come on.”
Together the three of them headed to the forecastle. Helen had already lowered the boat over the side with Tanner and Francesca’s help. Tanner was down in the boat and helped lower the carpenter’s mate down to lie propped up in the boat’s bow.
Francesca climbed down next and then helped the princess down, followed by Helen who had trouble due to her broken arm. Percy followed and left Cari alone on the deck of her ravaged ship.
The Vengeance, her home for the last year on Fantasma, had served her and the crew well until this final fight. This time, though, it was just too much. They’d taken fire from six other ships. She crippled four of them and damaged the last two. There was no shame in going down after a fight like that.
Cari nodded a final goodbye to her ship and climbed over the side where she took her place between two of the three pairs of oars. Francesca and Tanner sat with the other two pairs since the three of them were the only people in the boat in any shape to row.
Helen sat at the tiller and steered them due west aiming directly into the setting sun. Hopefully, anyone looking their way would be blinded by the bright glow and not see the tiny boat bobbing between the sea and the light.
Cari pulled at the oars as hard as she could, setting the cadence for all three of them with a steady voice. Her back to the sun, she could see the last two Sultanate ships turning about and trimming their sails to come back to where the Vengeance drifted at the mercy of the current.
They’d rowed for nearly a half hour before Percy spotted the first of the new fleet of ships to the west.
“Ma’am, there are more ships coming up ahead of us. They’re flying the Duke’s colors.”
Cari craned her neck around to try and see what Percy was talking about. A desperate lump rose up in her throat as she saw the approaching vessels. There had to be four or more ships in the flotilla coming their way.
“The Duke certainly covered all his bases. He assumed we might slip past his double line and situated a third fleet to the west. I’d call it overkill for just us but what’s the point?”
Francesca raised her arm her finger extended behind them as the first Sultanate ship caught up to the Vengeance. They didn’t stop and grapple alongside as Cari had hoped they’d do.
It was apparent they’d spotted the small boat despite Cari’s hopes.
Here they sat, midway between both enemies and Cari for once was at a loss for what to do. Her shoulders slumped as she stared at the bottom of the boat and the water sloshing around there.
Her dad had always told her there was no such thing as a hopeless situation. He’d raised her to know the legend of the Kobayashi Maru scenario. Captain Kirk cheated on the test because he refused to believe in failure. There was always a way out.
Cari snarled deep in her throat, angry she was going to die out here in the middle of the ocean and fail at her mission to save the little girl. She’d never get to grow up in this wonderful and fantastical place, denied the opportunity just like Cari.
Growling Cari lowered her oars back into the water and started rowing again, continuing west.
“Cari,” Helen said. “It’s over. You can stop now. You did your best.”
“No. This is the Kobayashi Maru. We can never give up. It’s a fake test.” Cari pulled harder on the oars. The other two soon joined their captain.
“Kobee-what?” Helen asked.
“Never mind, just keep us pointed west and pray. There’s got to be a way out. Some way, somehow, there’s got to be a way.”
Helen shook her head, not understanding but continuing to steer the longboat westward. Cari didn’t blame her. She didn’t understand either. She just refused to believe this was the end.
From either side, the two enemies closed on her tiny boat and still, Cari rowed on towards the setting sun.
The lead ship of the western flotilla turned ahead of them, blocking their path and still, Cari didn’t give a damn. She wouldn’t give up.
The crash of the ship’s cannons firing a broadside at them was the final blow that crushed Cari’s soul. She waited for the cannon balls to impact her tiny boat, to destroy all she’d strived to achieve here in Fantasma.
Instead, the projectiles whistled by overhead, missing her and the remainder of her crew. They smashed into the leading Sultanate ship coming up behind them. The cannonballs splintered multiple holes in the hull and took out the foremast as well. The mast and its triangular sails toppled into the sea.
Cari turned, her mouth open in shock and she saw the green and gold banner of the Duke of Charon get pulled down and a familiar red and black checkered flag run back up to fly at the top of the mizzenmast.
The other three raider ships turned as one and fired at the already crippled Sultanate ship and its companion. The lead ship almost crumpled under the blow as more massive holes blasted open in the hull. The one behind didn’t fare any better.
Cari sat there, her mouth still hanging open,
and watched the two Sultanate ships sink before her eyes. Then it was too much for her and the tears flowed as a glowing alert appeared in front of her.
Quest completed — break through the fleet
18,000 experience
Chapter 39
Hal strode down the gangplank, Mona right behind him. He stepped onto the pier and looked around the town of Morton Creek.
In many ways it looked exactly the same as when he left here, fleeing the mage hunters with Theran the Bold many years before. The baron’s castle sat overlooking the harbor at the top of the hill on which the seaside town was built.
Stefan had told him the place had devolved into little more than a large fishing village with the harbor hardly used by any significant shipping anymore.
That expectation confused Hal as he scanned the other tall ships tied up at the other piers around them.
“I thought you said this place wasn’t very busy? It looks plenty busy to me.”
Stefan walked down the gangplank to stand beside the pair on the dock.
“I don’t understand it either. Something has changed and not for the better. Look over there. Those men at the food vendor’s stall are wearing the green and gold livery of the Duke of Charon. These must be his ships.”
“If they are, they’ve seen action recently,” Mona noticed. “Check out the recent hasty patches on the hull over there and the missing sections of rail or the wooden splints holding the mast together on that other one.”
“They weren’t here when I left,” Stefan explained.
“I don’t see Cari’s ship here either,” Hal exclaimed. He clenched his fists. “Damn, this means we missed her again, all because of the Duke and his infernal plans. I think I’m going to have to have a private conversation with his Grace when I return to the Crystal City.”
“Stop going down that path,” Mona said. “If you get all tied up on your self-righteous horse we’ll end up going off on some epic quest. We’re here to get Cari back and go home. That’s it.”
“Agreed,” Hal sighed. “Stefan, you mentioned Cari had friends in town. Perhaps they know something about where she might be?”