When awareness returned, Miro rose slowly back to his feet, still gasping with pain. There were several men in the passageway, and behind him Miro sensed the huge broken-nosed sailor, eager for any opportunity to avenge his fallen comrades.
Carver stood behind Amber with one arm holding her close and the other holding a shining knife at her neck. Beside him Miro recognised Beck, the wiry second mate, also standing with cutlass bared.
"I'm sorry, Miro," Miro heard, and there was Captain Meredith, a dagger also at his throat. The plump quartermaster, Ulrich, held the knife, its point pressed up against Meredith's jugular.
"Shut it," Ulrich said, pressing the knife harder against Meredith's throat. A thin trickle of red ran down the captain's pasty skin.
Standing beside Ulrich, the helmsman, Werner, also held a cutlass. All the officers were here, excepting the ship's surgeon. Miro wondered if the entire crew was in on the mutiny.
Miro turned back to Carver. "Don't hurt her." His eyes met his wife's. "Don't worry, Amber, we'll get through this."
"Ros, here," Beck said. The wiry man tossed the broken-nosed sailor behind Miro some twine, and Miro's wrists were pulled behind his back. He felt the huge sailor expertly tie them together, the cord painfully biting into the skin.
There was nothing Miro could do.
"Stop," Amber said.
All eyes were suddenly on her.
"I'm warning you," she said. "Let us go."
"You're warning us," Carver said. He snorted. "You're warning us? How about I give you a warning?"
The rat-faced first mate nodded at Ulrich. Without a word, the fat quartermaster drew his knife along Captain Meredith's throat, slicing it neatly from one ear to the other. Meredith's head fell back so that the gaping wound was displayed for all to see, and then with a gurgling sound blood gushed out.
"No!" Miro cried. He watched as the life left Meredith's eyes.
Ulrich released the captain, and let the man's body crumple to the floor.
"Looks like I'm the captain now," Carver said.
"Stop!" Amber screamed again.
Miro tried to smash his head backwards, but the big sailor behind him easily avoided the blow. Another blow to Miro's kidney made him gasp with pain, but he fought with all his strength to remain standing.
"Be still, woman," Carver said. He nodded past Miro's shoulder. "Kill him."
Amber raised a hand, and Miro saw a ring on her finger.
"Stop," Amber said, her eyes flicking to the ring. Even standing in her nightdress, with a dagger at her throat, there was strength in her voice to make her captors pause. "Don't make the slightest move. I have an explosive device in the hold, in one of the store boxes."
Miro's eyes widened and he wondered if she was bluffing, but he remembered how wary she'd been of the sailors. She had her tools with her, and some essence. It was possible.
"If I speak the activation sequence, the device will explode," Amber said, in a voice of steel. "Let us go, or I'll do it."
"I don't believe you," Carver said.
"You should," said Miro. "She's an Academy-trained enchantress."
"We need to be quiet," Beck said, "the men are going to hear."
"Let's get this over with," Carver said.
He nodded again to the huge sailor behind Miro. Miro sensed the cutlass come up at his side. He struggled desperately as he saw Carver's knife cut into Amber's throat.
Amber gasped an activation sequence. "Lithia-tassine."
The ring lit up in a flash of red. A great thudding boom sounded below their feet, and the ship trembled like a wounded animal.
For a long instant no one made a move. Suddenly the screams of men sounded outside. The other officers looked uncertainly at Carver, who gaped while his mind worked.
Then the companionway door crashed open, a sailor's head poking in. "Captain! Anyone! We're taking water!"
The sailor drew back in shock when he saw the bloody body of the captain.
Carver swore. He turned to Beck and Ulrich. "The plan's changed. Tie them and gag them while we figure out what to do. We need to save the ship."
"You," he said to the helmsman, "come with me."
Another sailor looked in and saw the captain's body, his face draining of colour.
Miro heard the cries of panicked men. He and Amber were thrown roughly to the floor and gags were put into their mouths. They were bound hand and foot.
If the ship sank, they couldn't even try to swim.
9
ROGAN Jarvish returned to a city of seething tensions.