Page 81 of Escaping Pirates
Korth had arrived.
Search lanterns bobbed from the decks of the incoming ships. Long-handled, flame-fed torches mounted on rigs cast wide circles of flickering gold across the water. Oiled reflectors behind the flames amplified their reach, casting ghost light across the wreckage, searching, searching for survivors.
“Over here!” I shouted, my voice raw. I was likely too far away for them to hear me, but I couldn’t resist. We were about to be rescued. I waved one arm in the air. “Here!”
Harlan lifted his head and called too, though his voice cracked with the effort. We were small, a handful of half-drowned souls in a vast, fiery ocean, but someone heard. A horn blared, sharp and clear. Then the creak and splash of rescue boats lowering. They sliced through the waves, rowing toward us with urgent strokes. Armored guards were silhouetted at the helm; it was Haven Harbor’s royal armada. One of them shouted and pointed.
“There!”
Harlan’s arms tightened around me, just for a second. Not in fear, but in relief, blessed, long-awaited relief.
“We made it,” he whispered.
A rope dropped into the water beside me. Two guards leaned over the boat’s edge, arms outstretched. “We've got you, miss! We’ve got you!”
I reached for the proffered hands and let them pull me into the boat. The moment I was inside, I collapsed. Harlan followed a minute later and crumpled at my side, arm acrossmy waist and breathing heavily against my neck. I clung to him.
We were alive.
We were safe.
We had escaped.
CHAPTER 30
Voices shouted around me, but they blurred together under the hot, pulsing pain attacking every inch of my soaked body all at once. Harlan slumped beside me. Blood mingled with seawater to pool beneath us, but I was so exhausted that I didn’t even know if it was Harlan or me who was bleeding. It was most likely both.
“Easy now,” a medic said, kneeling at my side. A woman in a crisp navy uniform cut away fabric with practiced efficiency. “You’re both lucky to be alive.”
I let out a short cry of pain as alcohol hit my wound and Harlan flinched as he received the same treatment. His hand found mine and gave a gentle squeeze.
“Are you all right?” he muttered.
I swallowed to try to force my throat to work again. I was a long way from all right, but chuckled, “I’m actually having a rather terrible day. My manor house just burned down, you see.”
Harlan let out a laugh. “Mine did, too, and it was the most glorious day of my entire life. Every flame was a gift.”
The ship rocked sharply to port. Nearby, Prince Korth shouted, “Surrender now or you’ll regret it!”
“We don’t kneel to silver-spooned princelings!” one pirate shouted to a roar of approval.
“Aye! We’ll gut you before we surrender!” another added.
“Hold!” Tyrone warned them. “Wait for my signal!”
I strained to get up, but the medic put a firm hand onto my shoulder. “Stay down,” she ordered. “We’ll be fine.”
“The pirates will fight to the death,” Harlan warned her. “They have two crews on that ship.”
The medic dabbed an acrid-smelling liquid onto Harlan’s exposed and bloodied shoulder. “Don’t you worry. They’ll surrender. The prince’s cousin equipped our ships with enough weapons to take on a fleet of pirates.”
I rolled my head around. Through the railings, I could see Tyrone’s ship drifting and unable to catch wind. The last remnants of Harsh’s burned ship slowly sank out of sight, lost to the ocean’s hungry jaws.
Gil, her task done, was swimming toward our ship. One of the sailors threw a rope down to her, which she wrapped around her wrist and gave a shout. Moments later, she was hoisted up onto the deck, sopping wet and panting for breath but alive and well.
From the prow of the ship, Prince Korth stood tall and proud, even with soot smudged across his jaw. He lifted a hand. Next to him, two men loaded heavy bolts into a contraption that looked like a lethal, oversized crossbow mounted to the ship.
“Last chance,” Korth warned.
