Page 146 of The Sea Witch
“We can fight ’em off,” someone yelled. “More of us than those bloody prigs.”
“They have a kraken,” Stasia bellowed.
The entire town went silent. Then, chaos.
People ran in every direction. Pirates poured out of taverns and brothels, some of them barely dressed, and tumbled in terrified confusion toward the wharf. Alys, Stasia, and theSea Witch’s crew joined in the exodus, jostling their way through the crowd to reach their ship.
Alys waited at the foot of the gangplank, making certain that none of her company was left behind, shouting as she waved each member of the crew onto the ship. Once she was certain that everyone was aboard, she finally slammed up the gangplank. The rope securing theSea Witchwas untied and the gangplank was drawn back.
“Get us the fuck out of here, Hua,” Alys yelled up to the woman at the helm. “Witches, we need that wind, and no dallying. Everyone with magic, topside,now.”
Stasia repeated the order at an even greater volume. The members of the crew that possessed magic gathered on the deck and formed a circle as they concentrated on gathering every wind and breeze available to push their ship out to sea. Different ships were attempting to do the same, but they had the power of only one mage per vessel.
TheSea Witchshot away from the wharf, slipping through the clogged traffic, while the remaining vessels struggled to sail to safety. As her ship raced into open water, Alys stood on the quarterdeck, using her spyglass to look back toward the harbor of Saint Bernadine. The naval ship wheeled around the island toward the vessels still attempting to flee. Beside the Royal Navy vessel swam the kraken, its eyes dulled by the spell that bound it to a naval mage.
She pitied the creature, but the fact that it acted against its will did nothing to dampen the destruction it was forced to cause.
Finally, Saint Bernadine disappeared over the horizon.
“Rest now, witches,” Alys ordered. “You’ve done your part.”
The women collapsed to the deck, exhausted from using their magic for such an extended period of time.
“See that they’re balanced immediately,” Alys said to Stasia.
The second-in-command strode about the deck, gathering up crew members to provide the touch necessary to restore the witches’ strength. Spiced rum cakes which had been purchased ashore were handed out, and mugs of lime-spiked ale. The ship soon glowed with the energy of two dozen witches being balanced.
Anxiety clung to theSea Witch, heavy as a fever.
“They’ll come for us, too, won’t they, Cap’n?” Dayanna asked uneasily.
“We’ll stop them before that happens.” Alys hoped her voice sounded confident, because inside, she was a mass of kelp, knotted and stranded upon a beach, left to rot in the sun.
She cast her gaze ahead, toward the beckoning horizon. Somewhere out there, Ben was doing his part to ensure they were successful, and they could find the means to sever the Royal Navy’s command over sea creatures. If he didn’t achieve his goal, she prayed the stars were merciful.
Ben was now a candle flame glimpsed through thick and cloudy glass. There was no way of knowing his thoughts, his heart. Whether he was safe or not. If she could help him.
She stood to lose everything that mattered to her: her crew, her ship, and Ben.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The sea was metallic and blinding. The last time Ben had been alone on a vessel, he had yet to join the navy, and had been a boy sailing his family’s sloop in and around the waters surrounding Port Royal. He’d loved the freedom of it then, the notion that he could go anywhere and learn new truths about the sea. He wasn’t a naval captain’s dutiful son, forced to become someone he didn’t want to be.
Instead, he’d become Bloody Ben—the very same name he’d used when playing pirate as a child. But as a grown man, Bloody Ben’s life was filled with adventure, and a woman unlike anyone he’d ever known.
A sense of duty had always made him return home. To the codes and conventions that tried to shape him into the man he was supposed to become.
Now, he was alone again at sea.
Yet instead of the soaring joy of liberty, his heart remained aboard theSea Witch. With Alys. She hadn’t given him the words he longed to hear, yet the anguish in her eyes as she watched him go, her hair streaming like crimson silk in the wind... those memories he clung to. In the middle of the Caribbean Sea, they were all he had.
He’d gripped the filaments of her emotions inside him, once a curse, now his sole means of holding tight to the person who’dcome to mean everything to him. They were still intertwined, yet distance made the connection grow faint. Even so, that it even continued was his sole source of salvation over these past days.
He’d been sailing in the cutter since yesterday, and spent the night on his own. The day was still bright, but night was only a few hours away.
He followed the course he’d set, his gut churning with apprehension. That apprehension turned icy when the dark shape of theJupiterappeared ahead of him. He recognized every line and mast, could name each of the crewmen gathering at the gunwale as his cutter approached. He discreetly threw all his provisions overboard, in case anyone questioned how an escapee managed to grab food and water before fleeing for his life.
The kraken and leviathan swam beside the ship, both of them eyeing him pass as unease tightened his limbs. His cutter was a toy compared to the creatures, fragile and easily broken. His muscles tensed as he sailed closer. The ship’s mage controlled the beasts, yet it was always possible that Warne nursed a vendetta against him. The bastard had been with Strickland when Ben’s father was killed. He could turn the creatures into weapons with a wave of his hand.
