“Aye.” She disappears casually through the hatch.
I make a show of thinking over Father’s offer, but all I can think is that I never really knew this man. I thought I did. I thought I knew just how fierce and cruel he was, thought I was all right with it, since that cruelty was mostly directed at our enemies. But now that it’s directed at my crew, it is something I cannot forgive.
“Let me tell you what I think of your offer,” I say.
That’s when the first cannons fire.
The Ava-lee rocks from the blasts. Wood rips open in the opposite ship. I have only four cannons below. Two were aimed at the deck of the opposing ship, one blowing apart a group of men huddled together while the other nicked the mizzenmast. The other two cannons tear holes through the starboard side, one lodging into the wood while the other cuts clean through.
Father turns and bellows orders to Tylon’s men. I smile at the little weasel’s put-out face as my father takes control of his men, and dole out orders to my own crew.
“Fire the muskets!” I shout. “Aim for the gun ports. Take out the men at the cannons!”
Tylon’s ship has more than double the cannon fire of mine. If we don’t focus fire on the men operating the cannons, they’ll obliterate us in no time.
Niridia appears back at my side. “Musket,” I say, holding out my hand, and she places the gun in it. I sight one of the gun ports, narrow my gaze on the man loading the ball into the cannon, and fire. He goes down, and Niridia trades me a loaded musket for an empty one.
Riden veers around me to take his own shot, aiming for the gun ports as ordered. His mark goes down.
“Very nice,” I tell him.
He grins before trading muskets.
Gunfire ripples through the air on both sides. My girls are well protected behind their barrels, crates, rowboats, and other hiding places, but the men on Tylon’s ship fall like hail from the sky, some tumbling off the edges of their ship, hitting the water.
I only get out one more shot before the first cannon fire reaches us. The ship lurches back from the force of it, but there’s no time to assess the damage.
Instead I reach out with my voice. I know that if Father is hurtling out orders, his men must not have their ears covered.
I find three men at a cannon, pull them under my spell. It’s not hard to project a new image into their minds, make them think the bottom of their own ship is actually mine. They start to pull the cannon away from the gun port, aim it at the base of their own ship.
But then I lose one. He was killed by his own men once they noticed what he was up to. I grab another man, have him help with the task. One finally manages to clean out the carriage, another reaches for a cannonball, but I lose all three of them. Someone is putting up a good fight over there. Luckily, though, it’s pulling the rest of the gunmen away from their own cannons as they try to stop their fellow men from blowing holes in their ship. I keep them busy, seeking out live men when the previous ones die, just like I did at Vordan’s inn.
Sorinda races toward me, ducking behind the barrier we’ve fashioned. With four of us, we’re all pressed shoulder to shoulder.
“Acura eels have surfaced,” she says.
I smile. “How many?”
“At least two. One is enormous.”
“Perfect.”
I switch tactics, singing to the men on the top deck, enchanting them to jump into the water. As soon as they leap, I release them, searching for men still aboard the ship with my voice.
“Keep firing,” I tell Riden and Niridia. I grab another loaded musket and an extra pistol, then race with Sorinda over to her previous position, blocked from attack by barrels storing freshwater.
I peer into the sea.
Men shriek as the eels circle them. The eels like to toy with their food first. It’s when they dive below the surface that one needs to worry. That’s when they’re readying to charge. They’re deadly carnivores that spend most of their time on the sea bottom, sensing for disturbances in the water.
Their nostrils stand out prominently, giving them an even fiercer look. They’re navy blue on the top half, white on the bottom: the perfect camouflage, not that they need it.
Acura eels are far worse than sharks. Sharks only kill when they’re hungry. But eels—they don’t leave anything alive, whether hungry or not.
One of the eels currently in the water must be at least twelve feet, teeth twice the length of a finger. Tylon’s men swim desperately for the ship, clinging to its sides—before they’re dragged under.
I can’t sing and fire at the same time, and the men at the gun ports are back to loading the cannons. I reach for them with my song once more, and I finally enchant one of the men to light the fuse at the cannon pointed downward.
I hear the blast seconds later, and it brings a smile to my face. That’ll keep the gunmen busy as they try to stopper the hole.
My father is visible from this vantage point. His voice bellows over the sounds of my ship’s cannons firing again.
I spot one of Tylon’s men right next to him. With my song, I promise him riches lie in the water if he’ll only jump. My father watches as the man tosses himself overboard.
An eel circles him, spinning the current around him, before diving. Seconds later it drags his scream under the water.
Kalligan searches my ship. When his eyes land on me, they narrow.
I wish I could take Father out, but he’s too skilled of a fighter. He’d only be momentarily distracted if I sent men to fight him. And it would take all of my focus just to keep him busy.
A breeze ripples across my forehead as I utter one last note, sending three more men overboard, and my song officially runs out.
But my father doesn’t know that yet, and I hear one word rise out of the chaos.
“Retreat!”
He’s done playing with us. Now we’ll face the fleet as soon as he and Tylon’s ship are out of the way.
I wipe the sweat from my forehead, shoot my musket at another man through a gun port, just as another comforting breeze wafts over my heated skin.
The breeze …
“Riggers! Get those sails down!” I shout.
The girls leave their safe places to race for the masts. Riden hurries to join them.
“Not you, Riden! Keep shooting!” I tell him.
We’re taking as many of those bastards down as we can.
“Aye-aye!” He dives back behind the companionway with Niridia. Sorinda fires her own musket from beside me, and I raise a newly loaded gun.
Something launches over the distance between our two ships, striking my deck, ripping up the wood, before catching against the railing. Another soon joins it. Then another and another.
The harpoons.
Father must have changed his mind as soon as the breeze picked up. He knows we can outdistance him now.
“Cut those lines!” I shout to the crew. Niridia, Teniri, Athella, Sorinda, and Deshel rush to the railing and lean precariously off the deck to reach the ropes tied to the harpoons. Cutlasses hack and saw at the taut lines. Two go down, but another three harpoons quickly replace them.