Page 6 of The Sea Witch
Alys gazed at the twelve of them, her sailors. “Therearethirteen of us. A true coven.” After the women nodded grimly, she said, “Susannah, loosen the rope from the bollard, and get back aboard quick as you can, before we pull out too far from the dock.”
“Aye, captain,” Susannah said.
Alys started. “I’m no captain. Any one of us could answer to that title.”
“There’s no leader in all this but you,” Polly pointed out. “Teaching us to sail. Provingour magic was nothing to hide or fear. Those in favor of Alys as captain, show of hands.”
Twelve hands went into the air.
Alys took a deep breath. All she could do was her best—but would it be enough?
“Now,” she said, humility and duty pulsing through her, “we shove off.”
A whispered chorus of “Aye” followed. The rope tying them to the quay was undone.
With the foresails now billowing with the wind, ripe with promise, the ship moved away from the dock. Away from the village, and the only life Alys had ever known. A confining life, one that clipped her and the other women’s wings. She choked, remembering every sneer, every critical glare, every suspicious glance.
And Ellen, beautiful, dreamy Ellen, who refused to hide the fact that she could speak with birds and whispered incantations to the forest. Taken from Alys, stolen from the world.
The horizon paled with the approach of dawn. Faintly, the sound of men’s angry voices rose up and grew louder. At the farend of the quay, a line of torches appeared. Faces twisted with fury glowed in the firelight. These were the true faces of the men of Norham, incensed and righteous and fearful.
Men clambered into their boats in pursuit. They carried muskets and sharp loading hooks.
“It’s death if they reach us,” Alys said tightly.
Jane looked toward one of the guns mounted at the gunwale.
“No time to learn its ways,” Alys answered. “We use the very thing they want to destroy.”
Swallowing down her uncertainty, Alys raised her hands. She’d no idea where to begin, but recalled the punishing hurricanes that slammed into the village late in the summer. Sea magic swirled around her fingers, alive and surging with strength.
Wordlessly, the women with magic collected at the gunwale, their own power gathering. Summoning the energy of the seething sea.
“Now or never, witches,” Alys commanded. “The sea serves as our warrior.”
The women pushed their hands toward the water. Alys held her breath and then—
Waves exploded with force. They rose upward into a wall that towered twenty feet high before rushing toward the pier.
The water slammed through the largest boat, smashing into the quay itself. Sounds of splintering wood and men’s screams filled the early morning as waves crashed against the harbor.
Alys’s crew stood in mute shock as they saw what they’d done. The dock was badly damaged, listing and staggering like a drunkard, while the vessels had become heaps of driftwood bobbing on the churning waves. Those men that had tried to sail after them were being dragged back onto dry land by other villagers.
Norham’s wharf was left in ruins.
The only boat undamaged was Samuel’s vessel. Instinct had Alys reach for the line fastening it to the remainder of the pier.A streak of lightning shot from her hand, severing the rope. The line burned and frayed, and the boat bobbed away from the dock, until it sailed on its own, without a crew, off to seek an unknown horizon.
She stared down at her hand. Never before had she been able to harness lightning. She curled her fingers into her palm, cradling this new power.
The pier grew smaller with the tide in their favor, and the brigantine sailed out to sea, putting the harbor and all it held behind them. Alys’s legs shook beneath her, and it appeared that her friends with magical ability were just as drained after they’d summoned the water.
There were limits, it seemed, to their powers.
A few of the women gave unsteady smiles, while the witches sagged against the gunwale, drained.
“I ask one more thing of you, my lasses, and that’s to rally,” Alys said, as much for herself as her crew. “We’ve much open sea ahead of us.”
Even as she spoke, the women were already in action, well-taught by their previous instruction.
