tible shift in the Tempest's course, but it was just enough to miss the projectile thrusting beneath the surface. There was a crash and a quick grind as it skimmed the edge of the keel, and a split second later the Tempest lurched over at an alarming angle. Everyone on deck was thrown off their feet. Catching Carpenter's sleeve, Will prevented him from going over the rail, but others were forced to clutch on for dear life.
As the wake passed, the Tempest righted itself with a crash that sent seawater washing across the deck.
'What is that?' Carpenter raged.
From the drawn expression on Courtenay's face, Will realised he knew the answer. As Will raced towards the captain, the truth revealed itself before his eyes. The projectile continued in a direct line from the Tempest towards another English ship that Will couldn't identify. Rooted by the impending collision, he watched agape as the projectile arced out of the water and over the vessel. It smashed through the foremast and dragged it into the sea on the other side. Seamen scrambled across the boards to hack at the rigging with axes before the ship could be hauled down to the depths.
'What is ... that?' Carpenter gasped a second time.
The projectile was long, black, and sinuous, glistening like an eel, but a man's height across and as long as two galleons. When Will caught sight of the head and the needle-teeth arranged around the circular mouth, he knew it was the thing he had seen in the barrel in the cabin on the grey-sailed ship, now grown unbelievably large.
'Sea serpent.' Courtenay had joined them. His gaze never left the white wake tearing into the thick smoke. 'I have encountered their kind before, out in the stormy Atlantic returning from the New World. The damnable beast almost took me, and the entire ship, down to the bottom. Nothing can stop them. They tear ships into matchwood and consume every good man as they swim through the drink.'
'This is the Enemy's weapon,' Will said, 'stalking silently beneath the waves to destroy the fleet.'
From deep in the smoke, they heard another crash of splintering wood, followed by cries that rose above the thunderous guns.
'Engrossed in the noise and fury of battle, no one will know it is there until too late,' Carpenter said. 'This will turn the tide of the battle.'
'Then we must stop it,' Will said.
'How?' Carpenter said. 'What weapons have we that could strike dead a thing like that? Even if we could catch it. Musket and arquebus fire is too small. The big guns would never land a shot 'pon it at the speed it moves.'
Will quickly turned over the options and then said, 'I have a notion. Leave that to me.' To Courtenay he said, 'Your job is to get us close enough to attack the beast.'
'Close enough is too close,' Courtenay replied. 'But no man ever gained glory with faint heart. Ambition and risk go hand in hand.'
Will searched the sea for the grey-sailed ship, but it had already disappeared into the smoke. Launceston read his mind. 'If we lose the Enemy ship, misery may lie ahead. They still have the Silver Skull.'
'If the serpent destroys our fleet, the Spanish will regroup, collect Parma's army, and England will fall. Come, we have our course. Let's to it.'
As the Tempest sailed through the smoke, they encountered the remnants of a galleon slowly taking on water. The hull was torn in two, shattered masts trailing in the water like oars. Seamen clung to the wreckage. Several were dead, chunks of them torn away.
Amid the boom of gunfire, the sound of cracking wood emerged from the smoke to reveal the location of the sea serpent. It had settled on the fringes of the Armada's southeasterly wing where several English ships attacked. More wreckage, another damaged ship that had lost its rudder and drifted directionlessly.
Finally they emerged from the smoke. The serpent's wake was clear on the swell, a large V flecked with foam near the point. As it prepared to attack another ship, its head broke the water. The circular mouth flexed. Yards from the ship it submerged and then erupted from the sea in a cascade of white foam, crashing through the ship's rigging and bringing down the mainmast as the terrified crew fled the deck. Splashing into the swell on the far side, the wake continued forwards before beginning a wide turn for another attack.
'Is it ... growing larger?' Carpenter asked. 'Soon it will be able to ensnare an entire ship in its coils.'
'Draw its attention!' Will shouted to Courtenay. 'We must deflect its attack!'
Courtenay ordered the helmsman to continue the course that would put the Tempest between the serpent and the damaged ship. The northwesterly filled the sails and sped them on.
'You are sure this is the correct course?' Launceston asked in a blithe manner that hid the doubt he obviously felt. The same emotion was clear in the faces of the seamen who flashed unsettled glances Will's way.
'I thought you would thank me for easing the boredom of a sea journey,' Will replied.
The preparations he had ordered were hastily brought together and delivered to the deck, but were not yet ready for use.
'Brace yourselves!' Courtenay barked.
Gripping the rail and the rigging, the crew steadied themselves as the Tempest plunged into the serpent's path. At the last, it submerged, but the wake threw the ship's prow towards the sky, the stern almost plunging beneath the waves.
Muscles straining, Will held tight. A sailor with a pox-marked face lost his hold on the rail and flew backwards with a cry. He missed Will by an inch and slammed into the cabin door with bone-breaking force.
For a second, it felt as if the ship was going over. Silence gripped all those who clung on, eyes screwed shut as they waited for the momentum to continue. But then the ship crashed back, swamping them with water.
'This is the sturdiest ship in the fleet, but we cannot maintain this punishment,' Courtenay yelled.
'Then pray we do not have to,' Will replied. He eyed the seamen working on the preparation and received a curt nod in return. 'Get us near to the beast. We must draw it out of the water to attack us.'
'Now we are all to be sacrificed to your mad scheme?' Carpenter asked.
'All schemes are mad until they succeed, John. Think of the stories you will be able to tell once we are back in Bankside.'
Carpenter's derisive snort followed him as he ran for the rail. With Courtenay's bellowed directions from the forecastle, the helmsman's maneuvers kept the serpent within view. Predicting its movements in relation to the most vulnerable ships on the fringe of the attack, they tracked the beast. Each time they tried to divert it, the encounter brought them close to sinking. Will could see the crew growing increasingly rebellious.
Finally, the wake turned towards them. 'There, we have it,' Will muttered. He ordered his team to ready themselves.
Expressions fixed and grim, the eyes of everyone on board turned towards the furrow in the water driving towards them. No one moved, not a word was uttered. Seconds before the serpent broke the surface, Will yelled, 'Now!'
A flint was struck and the barrel of pitch and brimstone ignited. As the beast erupted from the water, his men flung the burning barrel directly into the creature's mouth. An explosion of flame showered the serpent with the sticky, blazing liquid, driving it into wild convulsions. The lashing tail slammed against the Tempest's hull, but somehow no serious damage was done. The ship tipped one way, crashed back down, continued on, the crew rooted by the fear of what would transpire next.
But as they all moved to the rail, they saw the creature's thrashing begin to slow, and eventually it grew still and hung dead in the water amid a smell like burned leather. The crew cheered, but Will quickly silenced them.
'Celebrate our victory, by all means, but this is no time to rest. We must return to the hunt for the grey-sailed ship!'
Emboldened by the serpent's death, the crew returned to their posts with gusto. The helmsman guided the Tempest back towards the fray, but they could all see that as the evening drew on, the worst was over.
The Spanish continued to fight, even though the English assault had whittled away their capabilities, their ships, and their men. Even with their guns silenced, some sailed bravely to try to aid their fellows that were in more immediate danger. All around them the water was no longer visible amid the wreckage, the bodies, and the frothing crimson blood.
Even the weather began to support the English. The northwesterly drove their ships on and pinned the Spanish back. Their defensive formation had collapsed, their ammunition mostly spent with only arquebus and
