“I’ll go with you,” Kearan offers immediately.
“And me,” Enwen says.
We all stare at him.
“Kearan mentioned gold. Perhaps I could keep an eye out for it while we’re out and about.” He shrugs.
I think it over, weighing all my options, and ask myself for the hundredth time what Alosa would do.
“I’ll take half the crew ashore,” I decide. “Should anything happen to us, you’ll still have enough sailors to make the trip back home.”
“I’ll guard the ship with my life,” Dimella says.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say. “A ship is only a thing. You protect the rest of the crew.”
She grins. “Well, I’d at least try to save the ship. The crew was a given, Captain. Who will you take ashore?”
“These two,” I say, gesturing to the men beside me. “Taydyn, Philoria, Bayla, and Visylla.” I list a handful more names.
“What about me?” The small voice comes from somewhere nearby, yet it isn’t until Roslyn’s head pokes over the companionway that I realize she was spying.
Sneaky little thing, indeed.
“You’re the ship’s lookout,” I say. “You need to be on the ship to keep a lookout. That’s the most important job right now.”
She scrunches up her face, as though trying to decide if I’m being sincere or just tricking her into staying. The answer is both, but she seems placated for now.
“I’ll have the boats lowered,” Dimella says, and she sees to it.
I make a stop at my quarters, grabbing as many weapons as will fit into my clothing. Knives in both boots. Knives inside my coat. Knives at my waist. I lose count somewhere after twelve. I take extra pistols, slinging them through a holster over one shoulder. Normally I prefer quiet weapons, but if we’re ambushed, stealth will cease to matter.
I grab my old rapier and bring it out on deck with me. When I spot Roslyn at the port side staring off at the island, I approach her.
She turns, and her eyes go straight to what I’m carrying. I hold it out to her.
She takes the rapier and unsheathes it, holding it up to the sky.
“We’ll work on form and stance later, but for now, you should have a weapon with a longer reach in case anything bad happens.”
“You’re giving me your old sword?”
I nod. “You’ll have to ask Dimella if she has a spare belt for you. You’ll likely have to cinch it high so the sheath doesn’t drag.”
I can’t tell if she hears me or not. She’s swinging the rapier in unpracticed arcs, lunging at invisible foes.
“I’ll take it away if you injure yourself or anyone in the crew with it,” I say.
She turns a glower on me. “I would never. I haven’t done so with my dagger, and I’m not about to with my new sword. Thank you, Sorinda!”
She tries to run at me with the sword. Then remembers to turn the blade downward before grabbing me in a hug.
“Keep a sharp lookout,” I tell her.
“I always do.”
She’s staring at the weapon when I turn from her, approaching the party that’s gathered near the lowered rowboats.
Enwen squints out at the land. “I don’t see any sort of settlement. No one could survive in this temperature long without shelter.”
“Someone sank all these ships,” Kearan responds. “Maybe they’re hiding in the woods.”
“What if what lives out here isn’t human?”
“We’ll soon find out.”
Enwen tucks his beads into his coat.
I don’t say a word as I climb down into the nearest rowboat. Those chosen to go ashore follow quickly. We fit snugly into three boats and start the trip for shore.
Kearan rows in my boat, and I watch the land grow closer from over the top of his head. I get an eerie feeling as we drift farther from Vengeance and the rest of the crew, but I can’t quite place it. I’m not afraid. I don’t think anything is going to jump out at us the second we reach shore. Besides, we’ll be able to take cover in the trees shortly after docking.
Yet I feel as though I’m forgetting something. Or as if my subconscious is recognizing some danger that my brain can’t quite place. But it has nothing to do with the land we’re approaching.
I turn in my seat to look over my shoulder. Vengeance is anchored far enough out that she’ll have plenty of warning if an attack comes from the shore. Then I look to my right and left, taking special notice of the shapes jutting out of the water. Now that we’re close to shore, I can see them all the more clearly. From the ocean, the land appears to curve with hills of snow and cliffs of ice. But from this angle, I can see that the solid block of ice to our left is hollow. The water within only had the appearance of solid ice. It’s actually an enormous water cave. Some trick of the light?
Whatever the case, I feel my heart sink toward the icy depths beneath me as I peer into that dark crevice. My eyes focus on the darkness, trying to make out any movement within.
And then I see it: a line of shadow more potent than the others. The shape of a bowsprit.
“Turn the boats around!” I shout. “Now!”
The order is followed immediately, despite Kearan facing the ship and having no reason to listen.
“What is it?” Enwen asks from the next boat over.
“Row faster,” I order.
And then we hear shouting. Roslyn yells something from atop the crow’s nest. Dimella barks out orders in return. Bodies scramble atop the deck of Vengeance.
I return my eyes to the left, and sure enough, a ship unlike any I’ve ever seen emerges from the ice.
The hull is pale white, the sails dark gray. Many of them are ripped and tattered, streaming uselessly in the sparse breeze. It doesn’t matter, because the mainsail is enormous and intact, and the sweeps carry it plenty fast. It approaches the bow of Vengeance, out of our cannon sights, which are only located at the starboard and port sides.
It is easily twice the size of our own ship, with two extra decks, and a massive forecastle.
A galleon big enough to do some serious damage.
The bows of the two ships face each other. One anchored, the other closing in fast.
As we try to race the new vessel to the ship, I force my tense shoulders to relax. The enemy ship will need time to get within range. Then they’ll need to turn and line up their cannons just so. They have more control with those sweeps, but we might have chance to reach Vengeance in time.
And then I hear a cannon fire. Confusion settles within me until I see smoke billowing just below the bowsprit of the enemy ship.
Fore cannons.
Shit.
The first shot misses, but the second lodges into the hull of Vengeance. I hear the anchor of my ship slowly cranking, as Dimella must be trying to get the crew to weigh fast enough to turn the ship so we can face it with our own cannons.
“Come on, come on, come on!” Philoria shouts beside me. Her fingers twitch, and I’m sure she’s just aching to get behind a cannon and return fire.
We’ve still a ways to go.
“Scoot to the left,” I order Kearan. He moves over, allowing me to take the right oar and help him row. He was doing just fine on his own, but I need to do something before I go mad with anticipation.