Page 57 of Vengeance of the Pirate Queen

She wipes unshed tears from her eyes as she lines up her next shot. “Aye-aye.”

The next few blasts aim higher, and one finally clips a mast, slowing the approaching vessel.

“Keep firing!” I order, and then I help the girls below. We bring up food, cooking supplies, tents, blankets, tarps, and anything else that might be necessary to survive on land. Meanwhile, the ship shatters and splinters around us. When I’m back up top, I can see our yano bird in the distance, fleeing the destruction. Someone had the sense to let it free. It’ll return to Alosa without a note.

“Everyone into the boats! Now!” My crew scrambles to the side of the ship, everyone squeezing onto the rowboats. Some girls even sit on each other’s laps to make room. Roslyn lands on the deck after climbing down the mainmast.

“There’s some movement on land, Captain,” she says, “but they’re too far away for me to make out anything.”

“Do you think you can steer us away from them once we reach shore?”

She nods.

“Good work. Get in.”

Philoria gets off one final shot, andVengeancelists to one side, the water finally overcoming her.

“Let’s go!” I shout to her.

She races for the boats, the last of the crew, and nigh jumps into the waiting boat below. Only then do I sit myself and order the rowers to take us ashore.

More and more cannons fire uponVengeanceas we flee. When the enemy ship is close enough to take notice of the little rowboats in the water, it turns, lining those fore cannons up with us.

But the shots go wide. We’re too small of targets, and the fore cannons don’t have as much range of motion. Our boats hit the frozen shore, and we pull them onto land. Everyone grabs something to carry from the supplies we managed to bring with us, and we run.

I’ve got one hand clasped around Roslyn’s, the other around a pack of food. The terrain is rough, full of rocks and slick snow. It’s far too easy to slip, and many of us go down as we hurry. Roslyn takes me down once as she falls, but we quickly right ourselves and continue. A cannon shot sends a patch of snow flying into the air and then raining down upon us.

“Blast all this snow!” Dimella says as she rights herself after a fall.

Roslyn points to the right, indicating a patch of woods. “The movement came from there. We should go another way.”

I veer the crew to the left, and we run and run and run until we can’t run anymore. Until the cannon fire is just a small thrumming in the distance. Until the wreckage ofVengeanceis entirely out of sight.

Until there is no visible reminder of my failure.

Just the pain and shame I carry within my chest.

Chapter 11

WHENI’VERESTEDLONGenough to catch my breath, I climb the nearest snow-covered tree. It’s an evergreen with long daggerlike needles. Some sort of vermin scurries out of my path when I’m halfway up, my hands near frozen through from the cold bark. I had to remove my gloves so they wouldn’t get covered in sap.

From above, I can see the galleon in the distance, circling the shore, looking for stragglers. Rowboats meander to the remains of our ship, likely looking to see what they can scavenge.

Our new friends on land are not too far off. They’re just about to enter our section of woods to search for us.

I return to the ground and order everyone to keep moving.

Dimella monitors a compass regularly to keep track of where we’re going and how we can return to the water if need be. We don’t head in one direction but continue to make turns to confuse our pursuers. We hug the thicker trees, where the snow isn’t as soft, to hide our tracks.

“Is it safe yet?” Little Roslyn asks after another hour of movement.

“Not yet,” I tell her, “but don’t you worry. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“I’m not scared.”

I believe her.

It isn’t until dusk is threatening the skies that we finally stop for the night. Radita was smart enough to bring waterproof canvas intended for the sails, and we lay it down below our tents and let the trees cover us from above. Dimella stations lookouts around the camp, and I order Jadine to under no circumstances build a fire. For I can see smoke far in the distance, where the enemy must be camping. We’ll not let them know our location so easily.

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