Immortal War

They didn’t even stir as Connor and Moonshine stepped inside. The pirates exchanged a glance, then reached simultaneously for their silver swords, which had been dipped in Master Yin’s toxic aconite potion.

No words or sounds were exchanged. With a nod, both drew their weapons at the same time and plunged them straight into the hearts of their sleeping victims. It was the strangest attack in which Connor had ever participated. Their victims did not cry or scream. They did not put up a fight. They didn’t even open their eyes. Instead, their flesh began to splinter and crumble to dust. As they did so, Moonshine’s face contorted. Of course! Connor was regrettably familiar with the stench as the flesh of many centuries was at last destroyed, but this was new territory entirely for Moonshine. Reaching for his companion’s shoulder, Connor pulled him out into the corridor.

Across the hall, Cheng Li stepped out of the opposite cabin. She and Connor exchanged the briefest of glances. It was, nonetheless, loaded with meaning. Cheng Li disappeared into the next cabin along, a member of her crew on either side. Connor checked that Moonshine was with him, then, nodding, opened the next door on their side of the corridor.

Four Vampirates lay sprawled on their bunks in this cabin. Connor leaned out of the doorway to summon two more of his crew. They moved swiftly and, on Connor’s silent command, drew their weapons. The four swords plunged into four fresh victims. No cries. No fight back. Just the horrible sight and odor of dying flesh. It was, Connor reflected, somehow too easy. As he moved along the hallway, Connor felt less like a pirate than like a silent assassin. He knew that war had a knack for rewriting the rules of engagement, but, even so, this battle seemed unequal.

At the end of the corridor was a long communal cabin, which had a particular history for Connor. This was where he had bunked on his first nights aboard The Diablo. This was where, on that very first night, Bart had given up his bunk for him. As he opened the door, beckoning his team to follow, Connor’s eyes swept the room. Like the previous cabins, it was full of Vampirates, deep in sleep on their bunks or suspended in hammocks.

Connor could see the simple bunk that Bart had ceded to him on that first night. It had been the first generous act in a friendship marked by many more. Suddenly, Connor’s thoughts came into focus. This morning’s raid was no more unjust than Lola’s ruthless murder of Bart. The Vampirates slumped across these bunks and hammocks wouldn’t have a moment’s pause if the tables were turned. Connor ushered his comrades forward, waiting until Cheng Li and the rest joined them. This was a job for all eighteen of the first attack. It took only seconds for them to be in position, then Connor deferred to Cheng Li.

This time, she gave the signal as the pirates raised aloft their silver swords and rammed them through the hearts of their dormant prey. Withdrawing his sword, Connor wiped it clean in preparation for his next kill. His eyes skimmed his old bunk as he left the room. War, he reflected, was no place for fairness. Cate and Lorcan had left the attack squad in no doubt as to what they had to do. You need to move as quickly as you can. In their weakened state, there’s a much higher ratio of kill to regeneration. It hadn’t taken long for the team of pirates to rid the upper deck of The Diablo of its erstwhile Vampirate crew. The recapture of Molucco’s legendary ship was well under way.

Cheng Li’s almond eyes met Connor’s. He nodded. Everything was going according to plan, so now he would take the attack down to the next stretch of cabins while she journeyed on toward the captain’s cabin and an encounter with Johnny Desperado; captain to captain. She didn’t go alone, of course—that would have been foolhardy, even allowing for the pirates’ advantage. She proceeded with grim determination and two trusted escorts.

Meanwhile Connor and Moonshine descended the stairs, side by side. Connor could sense that Moonshine was unsettled by what he’d experienced so far. He knew that as much as Wrathe junior wanted to take possession of his uncle’s ship, he hadn’t completely comprehended what it would involve. It wasn’t simply a matter of naivete. Nothing could inure you to the smell of a Vampirate hurtling toward oblivion.

Connor strode along the lower deck, thinking how strange it was to be walking along these familiar corridors and finding strangers behind every door. It was rather like returning to your past and discovering that every trace of you had been eradicated—as if you had never been there in the first place.

At his side, Moonshine pushed open the first cabin door on this level. Connor turned to follow suit but, hearing Moonshine curse, hesitated. There was a sudden deafening tolling of bells from the very belly of the ship. Moonshine had missed the trip wire strung across the officers’ cabin, and now the Vampirates’ alarm system had been activated. The pirates had been lulled into a false sense of victory and lured deeper into the ship by the sword-fodder above. Connor could see the raw horror in Moonshine’s eyes. Anyone could have made such a mistake, but Connor found himself wishing that it had been he, not his comrade, who had tripped the wire.

In each of the open cabins, the crew was waking. And you could bet that the same was happening in each and every remaining cabin. Once again, Lorcan’s words sounded in Connor’s head. When you rouse them, they’ll be as weak as snakes who’ve just shed their skin. The pirates still had the advantage, but it would no longer be quite so clear-cut. From this point on, the battle would be more evenly balanced. And, no question, a hell of a lot nastier.

17

DEADLY EMBRACE

Cheng Li ran toward the captain’s cabin, her escorts at her side, as the deafening alarm reverberated around them. As she pushed open the cabin door, she saw that darkness lay beyond. It was broken only by a flash of white, which Cheng Li realized was Johnny’s naked torso as he leaped out of bed. Talk about sleeping on the job!

“Wakey, wakey!” Cheng Li cried, striding into the familiar cabin. “We’ve come to take back our ship.”

Johnny barely had the chance to leap into his pants as Cheng Li and her two escorts entered the cabin. Cheng Li kicked the door shut behind them, her eyes now adjusting to the dim as she made out the silhouette of the Cowboy.

“This is my ship now!” he asserted huskily.

“Only if you believe in squatter’s rights,” said Cheng Li. Drawing her twin katanas, she strode purposefully toward the blackout blinds. “Time to let back in some light!”

“No!” Johnny wailed as Cheng Li’s escorts closed in on either side to restrain him.

Vampirates streamed out of their cabins. Some were disoriented at having been woken too soon from their sleep. These were swiftly dispatched by the silver swords brandished by Connor, Moonshine, and the rest of the pirate vanguard. The corridor soon became a minefield of putrid Vampirate dust—a hazard in more ways than one. And now other Vampirates entered the corridor, still sluggish but bearing weapons and able to fight. The battle had shifted. Finding himself in greater danger but on more familiar turf, Connor gripped his sword and hurled himself into the fray.

As ever, Connor found the focus required for one-on-one conflict a relief. He was able to achieve zanshin—the legendary higher consciousness of the Samurai warrior, which Commodore Kuo had once lectured about. In this heightened state of awareness, he could fend off direct attacks while maintaining strong peripheral vision. This enabled him not only to protect himself from secondary assaults but also to look out for his comrades. Even as his sword clashed with his own adversary, he was aware of Moonshine, fighting with genuine flair and professionalism and claiming a fresh victory.

The corridor became still more crowded as Vampirates from the lower decks, roused by the bell and the