“Lilith. Dear, we have to go,” he struggled out.
“Chibs, James, we can’t…” Lilith started to object.
“We have to leave him girl. I’m sorry, but the fire is spreading too fast. We have to leave him.” He pleaded.
Lilith ran to Chibs and pushed her shoulder up under his good arm to help him over the rail. All around them sailors and pirates alike scrambled in retreat of the growing fury of fire on deck. Splashes broke the dark waters where those retreating could only find solace overboard. Chibs grunted and strained with each step down the rope webbing and Lilith could see in the glare of orange that his entire side from armpit to ankle was soaked in dark blood. Just a few steps above the Maiden’s rail Lilith heard a sudden gasping groan and looked down to see Chibs struggling to hold the rope web with a single hand as his feet dangled free. His grip slipped and the big pirate fell, slamming on his back across the rail. Lilith screamed, “Chibs!” and pushed herself off the web jumping across to the deck of the Maiden. The landing impact shot up through her shins and into her knees and her hands took painful gouges from the deck timbers as she caught her upper half from hitting but the pain barely registered while she scrambled to Chibs’ side.
“Chibs!” she cried feeling the world spin around her as he groaned with a labored breath, “Chibs what do I do? What can I do?”
“Get Lemeux and get us under sail dear. Let him tend to me, you get us out of here.” He rasped as blood began to show at the corners of his mouth.
Her eyes became a fogged blur of tears while Chibs pushed at her shoulder, urging her to lead the Maiden away from peril. Lilith stood, pausing for a moment to take in the blurry figure of Chibs laying on the deck, blood pooling around his wounded side. “Doctor!” she screamed whirling around to see what few crew they had beginning to huddle around. “Get that damned French doctor! And get sheets set on the main, we’re making sail!” Her shouts were met by a moment of hesitation, surprised looks and unbelieving eyes and then as if their realization came all at once the deck went into a flurry of activity. Sail sheets were tightened, and the mainsail filled with a crisp pop, Lilith went to the helm and pulled at the wheel for a starboard turn. Slowly, grudgingly, the Drowned Maiden pulled free of contact from the dying warship. Like a crescendo of destruction, building toward her ultimate fiery fate, the blaze spread while the Maiden crept by her bow stem. The fire had danced its way across her deck, consuming them until chunks and pieces had fallen through. Her foremast was by now a pillar of flame, creeping its way out the yards to feast on its sails in bright flashes of fury.
Lilith feared, as Chibs did, that the magazine would catch before the Maiden would be out of range from the catastrophic explosion that would result. Their progress away from the floating firestorm gained momentum when the crew set topsail and began to work on the foresails. After a moment, the line ship was astern of them and Lilith grabbed Omibwe as he hobbled by on his way to the stern.
“Take the helm Omi, hold us on this course,” her order sounded as if it came from somewhere else, even surprising herself a little.
“I don’t know how...” Omibwe was hesitant and a little intimidated.
“I’ll show you how Omi, it’s easy enough. But for now, just hold the wheel steady,” she said while placing his hands on the helm holds. “Hold steady pressure, you’ll feel it resist a little but keep it right around here. I’ll come help if we need to make a turn.” He seemed willing but ill at comfort. “I need you to do this now Omi.”
“Ok. I’ll try,” he managed.
Lilith went to where LeMeux was looking after Chibs on deck. The big pirate was grimacing with every breath and pale as a ghost, wheezing curses while the French worked on his wounds. The pool of oozing blood at his side had grown and Lilith felt a chill as their eyes connected briefly when Chibs opened his eyes from the squinting grimace.
“I’ll mend miss, the Doctor has it well in hand.” Chibs rasped. Looking up at Lilith, LeMeux didn’t seem so sure.
“He has lost a lot of blood and this wound on his side is deep. I don’t know,” he began to lament, but stopped when he saw the girl pirate’s expression take an icy change.
“Your fate is tied to his Doctor. If he bleeds out and dies on this deck, so will you. Understand?” her eyes narrowed and locked with his.
“Y, Yes. Yes, I will do everything I can,” the doctor replied and snapped back to working on the wound.
“Lilith, let him be, get me a totter of rum miss, I’ll be good as new by sunrise,” he said with a chuckle and then stopping with a pained expression. Lilith fought off tears, looking at the dark red circle on the wooden deck as it soaked into wood grains.
“Longboat off larboard rail!” the cry came down from a hand working the top gallant.
Lilith snapped out of her dread and looked over the rail, remembering the familiar face she’d spotted through the flames. The outline of a longboat stood off the Maiden’s larboard side no further than a cable length. She couldn’t make out faces, but one figure stood up and waved arms in a frenzy to be seen and even through the darkness Lilith knew who it was.
“Get a line out!” Lilith yelled, “It’s Trina! She’s out there and it looks like she’s not
