Page 253 of Scorched Earth
He disappeared and another Maarin replaced him, his thick arms reaching down for the cask that Yedda held up.
But they needed to be faster.
The battle still raged above, and Teriana knew that her crew was falling to Cel blades, the soldiers on this ship too well trained to go down easily.
Teriana passed another cask to waiting arms. Then another. She was raising another still when Bait’s face appeared.
“You were supposed to stay put!” she shouted at him, but he gasped out, “The ship’s on fire! Get out!”
“Oh, gods!” Catching hold of her aunt’s waist, she lifted Yedda to Bait. “Unlash the ships! Go! Go!”
She jumped, Bait catching her wrist and heaving her up.
The deck was thick with bodies and blood, black smoke choking the air, the flames climbing the rigging. And spread across the deck was black powder from a smashed cask. The woman who’d been carrying it lay in its midst, a knife in her back.
And the flames were racing closer.
“Run!” Teriana screamed. “The ship’s going to explode!”
The lines holding theQuincensewere cut, her crew using oars to separate the ships. But it wasn’t fast enough. Wasn’t far enough.
“Magnius!” She sprinted toward the rail, Bait’s hand clutched in hers. “Help them!”
Maarin sailors leapt off the side of the Cel ship into the water, and as Teriana climbed onto the rail, she saw Magnius below, head braced against theQuincense,pushing her away.
“Jump!” Bait shouted, and then she was flying, water racing up to meet her as a flash of light burst from behind.
Boom.
Water closed over Teriana’s head, but the noise still rattled her skull as Bait dragged her deeper.
Because the worst was yet to come.
The force of the casks in the hold exploding was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It ripped her from Bait’s grip and sent her tumbling through the water, driving the air from her lungs.
Everything was white, bubbles and froth blinding her, and Teriana could not see which way was up.
Then an arm wrapped around her waist and heaved. She kicked her feet, desperate to breathe, but as her head broke the surface, part of Teriana wished she’d stayed under.
Burning debris surrounded her and Bait, what remained of the Cel ship sinking beneath the waves. But it was the sinking ship beyond that gutted her, because the burning sails were blue.
TheFuriagroaned, mainmast toppling slowly sideways and taking everything still vertical with it. Injured Maarin leapt off the sinking ship into the water, and though the three other ships in her fleet were moving to aid, far too many would be lost.
Slowly, Teriana turned in the water, bittersweet relief filling her as she saw theQuincense. Her crew raced to put out small fires, but her ship was mostly unscathed.
Please let this have been worth it,Teriana silently prayed, taking in the still forms floating among the debris.Please don’t let their deaths be for nothing.
“Help who you can,” she said to Bait. “The Cel will have seen the explosion from shore, which means we need to hurry.”
Teriana swam to theQuincense, then climbed the ladder that had been dropped. Her guts churned with fear over who from her crew had been lost. Who she’d have to add to the list of names she already grieved.
Hands caught hold of Teriana’s wrists and pulled her over the rail. She landed with a thump, then looked up into her aunt’s eyes. Yedda was bleeding from a cut on her brow but otherwise seemed unscathed. “Polin?” Teriana whispered, afraid of the answer.
“He’s all right.”
She wanted to ask how many they’d lost.Whothey’d lost, but Teriana forced herself to ask the more critical question. “How many casks?”
“One.”
