In which the line breaks
As the Redemption, formerly the Dark Empress, backed out of the chaotic line of vessels, making for somewhere with enough room to turn, Ghassan and Samir stood at the rail with Saja and Culin, trying to make sense of what was happening. Almost every ship in the line was now moving, though with an unplanned, chaotic and desperate edge to the action.
The left flank of the line was one of the main areas of trouble, though Samir had felt sure that Faerus could handle whatever the morning threw at him. The ships to either side of him were in trouble, one thoroughly ablaze and already starting to lean badly, the other…
Samir laughed as he watched his friend’s ship in the distance hit the enemy vessel amidships, tearing through the hull as though it were parchment and passing through, cutting the pirate ship in half in the process. How he’d managed that without more damage to his own ship, Samir couldn’t fathom, but he’d certainly be asking him if they got out of this well.
So at least one of their allies was safe, he thought as he watched Faerus tear through the last of the ship and out to open sea where he could turn and manoeuvre. And in the process he seemed to have crippled or destroyed two of the remaining eight enemy vessels.
The two remaining ships on that side of the rail were now heavily locked in close combat, captain Sho-Han of the Sea Witch having, not surprisingly, declared for his old commander who now stood side by side with Samir on the command deck. Those two vessels were an even match and far too close for effective use of anything other than small shot artillery. It would come down to man-to-man fighting on deck, which would be nasty for both sides but, whatever the outcome, that meant the entire line to the left of Samir was involved or dealt with.
The Imperial fleet had finished its bombardment, but that was expected. The agreement had called for only one volley since, by the time a reload had been effected, the pirate fleet would be moving and likely mixing among one another, making targeting almost impossible for a crew at such distance. Still, from the roiling smoke that filled the bright morning air and the steady roar of flaming timber, their single volley had been devastating enough to turn the fight immediately Samir’s way.
To the other side…
Samir rocked back on his heels as he turned and the far end of the fleet suddenly exploded in a fireball the like of which Samir had never even imagined. The expanding mushroom of red and orange boiling flame engulfed several vessels at the far end and Samir blinked in shock. Second and third subsidiary explosions marked the detonation of spare ammunition among the vessels involved in the conflagration.
It took a moment for Samir’s reeling mind to pull itself together in the wake of the mind-numbing blast. With a deep sadness of the soul, he realised, from the direction of the blast, that Orin’s ship was somewhere in that fireball. Precious little hope of anyone surviving that… if there were any survivors at that flank it would be those who had the foresight to jump from the rails and were underwater when the blast occurred. Samir shook his head and turned to his friends to realise that they were all standing, staring, as shocked as he.
“Orin knew the risks. We need to concentrate on what’s still to do.”
As if shaken from sleep, the three other commanders on the deck blinked and nodded. As Ghassan ran to the rail to yell orders at the men and Culin put a rare and expensive spyglass to his eye, Saja fumed at the Hart’s Heart, already completing its turn and heading for the reef ahead.
“We’ll have go some to catch them” he barked.
Samir turned away to examine the line once more. The fireball had contracted once more and left three ships in a state of almost complete destruction, hardly anything standing above deck. Fragments of wood and other more unthinkable things rained down from the sky, trailing little flames like falling stars, while chunks of timber and bodies floated in the water around them. Oh it was too far away for Samir to actually see what it was that darkened the waves around the ships, but he’d been in enough brutal engagements these past two decades to know what caused that stain.
Trying not to think how many of those tiny dots that speckled the water had shared a drink with him in the bar on Lassos, Samir forced his gaze away from them and to the remaining two enemy vessels on that side. Along with the Hart’s Heart they were the only remaining enemy ships that were not engaged. The question was: what would they do? Faerus’ ship, the Retribution, was at the very other end of the line and too far away to engage, Orin’s vessel was a burning shell and the Sea-Witch, their surprise ally, was already engaged with another ship in vicious hand-to-hand.
Samir shifted round the rail to keep watch on them as the Redemption turned as fast as Ghassan could manage, trying to catch the Hart’s Heart in open water.
There was clearly chaos on board both enemy vessels, though that was hardly a surprise, given the sudden turns of events in the past few minutes.
As he watched, sliding his hands along the rail while the deck turned, he frowned. The nearest of the two vessels was beginning to wheel around. Given that they now had plenty of room to manoeuvre and no close enemies and could simply pull forward out of the line, turning meant only one thing: they were planning to head the same way as Samir and his prey, though whether in order to engage the Redemption or merely to try and hook up with the Hart’s Heart and try to return to Lassos remained to be seen. Either way, in a few minutes Samir and his crew would be trapped between the ship they were pursuing and this new one following them in. The situation could turn unpleasant then.
His lip curled into a slight smile as he realised that the remaining unengaged ship had struck out at full speed for open sea, past the three burning wrecks. More fool him… the Governor could spare up to half a dozen ships to chase him down and apprehend him, but the likelihood was that, now they had all had a chance to reload their artillery, the running fool would be used as target practice. He wouldn’t get a half mile away from here before he touched the sea bed. Still, that was one ship that he didn’t have to worry about.
He turned back to the two pirate councillors standing at the rail.
“How far are they from the reefs?”
Saja, his bright eyes flashing anxiously in that dark face, turned to Samir.
“Not far enough. They’ll be among the rocks before we can touch them. They’ve got away.”
Culin, next to him, nodded unenthusiastically.
“He’s right, Samir. With the best will in the world, I know your crew are good, but unless you happen to have a God in your pocket, there’s no way we can catch them. Lassos is theirs and it’ll be hell trying to lever them out then.”
Samir shook his head.
“That would be no use anyway. My deal with the governor stipulated all the folk of lassos and their ships. We let Gharic get back to the island and we’ve broken our side of the deal. While I can’t guarantee that the governor would renege on his side, I’m not about to take that chance.”
He smiled wickedly.
“I have a plan. We don’t have to catch them.”
As Saja and Culin narrowed their eyes suspiciously, Samir turned to his brother.
“Ghassan? Give us every bit of speed you have, but count to fifty and then bring us to starboard at a narrow angle, as though we’re trying to come alongside from behind.”
Ghassan frowned for a moment and then shrugged, turning to the crew and muttering something unheard under his breath before bellowing out the orders once more.
Samir smiled and brushed his fingers along the edge of the object in his pocket.
So, Gharic wanted to run back to the island, did he?
Captain Faerus heaved a sigh of relief as the Retribution pulled free of the mass of the stricken pirate ship. It had been, he had to admit, a dangerously lunatic idea. The whole idea of the ram was to puncture the enemy and then pull out and flee while they sank. Nobody, to his knowledge, had ever attempted this and, despite the awesome weight and strength of the Retribution’s ram, it was still idiotic. But then the fiery mass that was the other ship behind them was listing in this direction and any attempt to reverse after impact would be to present themselves to a whole new burning danger.
