Gideon stood there perfectly balanced upon it.
He performed a system of fighting maneuvers with an imagined sparring opponent. As Ethan watched him, he noticed also that Gideon had blindfolded himself. The bowsprit bobbed up and down with the rhythm of the sea, yet Gideon never faltered as he sparred with the wind.
Ethan thought for a moment he might call out to his friend, but the thought of startling the priest, and him losing his balance, falling into the water, and being instantly crushed by the speeding bow of the ship, stopped him.
“You’d better get dressed,” Bonifast said. “And get something to eat from Cook. We’ll attack the harbor at Emmanuel within three hours time.
A question popped into Ethan’s mind. It was an odd question to ask an ex-pirate and a captain under the command of a king, but Ethan asked it anyway. “Are you afraid?”
Captain Bonifast gave him a thoughtful look, then looked out over the fleet sailing beside and behind the Maelstrom. “You see this armada, Ethan? This fighting force is only as capable as Shaddai makes it. I learned many years ago that it’s not what I can do in battle, but what he will do in the battle. And because I’m not trusting in my ability, but Shaddai’s, I have no need to fear. Even if we meet death in a few hours, I can leave the world, knowing that I did my best to serve him. There’s a peace in that knowledge, Ethan-a peace that passes all understanding.”
Bonifast’s words of faith encouraged Ethan’s heart, causing him to like the man even more. Even though Levi Bonifast was not as old as Ethan’s father had been, there were still like qualities between them.
Ethan did as the captain told him. He went to get dressed and find something to eat. He was going to need his strength for the coming battle. If he had his guess, this battle might require the special talents that Shaddai had bestowed upon him.
Before Captain Bonifast had given the order to let every scrap of sail fly to the wind, and before the mouth of the harbor had come into sight, Ethan saw them-a cloud of demons so dense it looked like a thunderstorm brewing over the bay. “They know we’re coming, Captain!” Ethan yelled over the wind.
“Aye that may be, lad, but we’re going in fighting anyway,” he called back. Levi Bonifast had that wild look in his eyes again, the same Ethan remembered upon first meeting the man in Tilley Town’s jail. It was the same look the captain had worn while pulling off the escape from the gallows, simultaneously blowing up Mordred’s ammunition depot. If there was a look Ethan hoped to see, going into this battle, it was that look!
Gideon was dressed in his priestly robes with two cutlasses held in the crimson sash around his waist. He had managed to find a bow and quiver jam-packed with arrows from the ship’s armory. Ethan knew Gideon could do some serious damage with whatever weapon happened to find its way into his capable hands, but the bow would give him deadly distance.
He had a pot of black pitch burning next to him. He stuck arrows into the deck around him, building a deadly nest in preparation for the battle. Images of a fiery hail of arrows careening through the air into the sails of Mordred’s ships danced in Ethan’s mind, bringing a smile to his face.
Ethan looked back to the sky where the vortex of spirits churned above Emmanuel Bay. This battle is going to get very ugly, he thought. Then a brilliant light, like the sun breaking through clouds, shone down upon Ethan.
When he looked up, Ethan saw an entire legion of angelic beings like the one he had seen the night before. They flew in formation high above King Stephen’s fleet. Each one of the heavenly warriors held a large broadsword in their right hand. Wings of purest white carried them through the spiritual ether.
No one onboard the ships saw the heavenly host, except Ethan. He looked back at the cloud of demons swirling in the sky over the bay. “Perhaps not so black a day as I supposed,” he said, smiling.
The naval piers came into view, stretching out into the water. Dozens of tall sailing ships sat moored there. Others started to come away from the piers where they had been docked. King Stephen’s fleet had definitely been spotted now. High above the bay, perched upon the white granite cliffs, stood the palace of the king and the city of Emmanuel. This would be their final target.
Captain Bonifast had prepared especially for this initial run at the harbor. The Maelstrom and the other ships started into the bay with the beach, piers, and Mordred’s ships to their starboard side. Bonifast had as many of his guns as possible lined up on the starboard side so he could shoot at the enemy ships like fish in a barrel.
The stage was set. Angels soared in the ether above, ready to attack the demons swarming over the harbor. The ships of King Stephen’s fleet ran full speed to get within firing range. And some of Mordred’s ships were leaving dock in a scrambled attempt to take on the rebel armada while others remained moored to the piers.
The Maelstrom charged ahead of the other ships. Bonifast beamed as he surveyed his quarry-birds caught sleeping in their nests. “FIRE!” he screamed. This word was one of the last Ethan heard during the firefight that ensued.
BETRAYAL
The Maelstrom shook as though it were caught in the midst of a thundercloud. The boards beneath Ethan’s feet vibrated almost continuously as shot after shot of cannon fire leaped away from the starboard side of the ship. Multiplied arcs of smoke trailed from the Maelstrom toward its targets.
Captain Bonifast watched with intense satisfaction as his gunnery crews fired, reloaded, and fired again. Years of experience in sea warfare allowed them to perform the tasks with keen precision-a well-oiled machine. Ethan watched them, awe inspired, as they worked ceaselessly at their task like ants bringing in their food stores for winter.
The Maelstrom kept up her speed as Captain Bonifast stayed their strafing run through the harbor. The ship trailed a cloud of smoke behind her, adding to it with every destructive volley. Bonifast watched his targets.
Wood burst into splinters upon the decks of the enemy ships. Bodies tumbled through the air. Masts burst asunder and fell like cut timber into the sea. Bonifast’s special guns blasted through the hulls of enemy vessels, causing them to take on water and list to one side. The crimson sails, bearing the black standard of Mordred, shredded under fire and fell from their rigging, the picture of defeat.
The plan appeared to be working. The Maelstrom led what at first appeared to be a successful surprise attack on Mordred’s navy. Then Ethan heard screaming. He turned to find Gideon with his bow in hand at the portside rail. He pointed frantically toward the rest of the armada, which had been following the Maelstrom on her strafing run of the harbor.
Ethan ran to the portside rail and saw why Gideon was screaming. Behind them, the attack was not going well at all. In fact, the mercenary ships, which Ethan had noted the day before as having demonic activity onboard, now turned their cannons on the other ships in King Stephen’s army.
The armada ships loyal to King Stephen shuddered in the crossfire between Mordred’s vessels and the mercenary ships they supposed had been fighting with them. Within minutes, the traitors pounded them into submission.
Ethan managed to gain Captain Bonifast’s attention and motioned for him to hurry over. Trying to yell anything over the barrage of cannon fire was impossible. When Bonifast ran to the portside next to Ethan and saw what had happened, his wild look turned to fury. “We are betrayed!” he bellowed. The captain ran for the alarm bell, sounding it repeatedly. Only its piercing ring could capture the attention of the busy crew in the midst of all the cannon blasts.
The crew responded with an immediate cease-fire, awaiting the captain’s orders. “The mercenary ships have betrayed us, lads! Spill the wind from our sails and bring us to a halt. Helmsman, hard to starboard! Gunnery crews, make ready!”
Some of the mercenary ships had taken up a hot pursuit of the lone Maelstrom, now that the other ships loyal to Stephen were sinking or too damaged to fight. But contrary to what might have been expected, Bonifast would not run. Ethan watched the captain as the wild fire returned to his eyes.
Captain Bonifast’s order brought the Maelstrom to a near halt, sending her careening sideways, her
