I replaced Conner’s book in my shoulder bag and hurried up to the quarterdeck where he was. The ship he had observed was a caravel with a total of four mainsails; two large sails above the deck rose as high as the crow’s nest, which was flanked by two smaller topsails. The crow’s nest itself was accessed by a rope ladder. Above the topsail a flag hung from a mast. It was neither Avenian nor pirate, but instead a simple green flag with white trim. I did not recognize it.
A bowsprit jutted out from the front of the ship with a raised forecastle deck that would give the ship’s crew an advantage in fighting. It was wide enough for two rooms to fit below the quarterdeck, wherein we had only one, the captain’s quarters. Erick and I had debated multiple times about whether he or I should have that room. I had won, on the condition that I let my thirteen-year-old adopted brother, Fink, bunk there too, so he would keep fewer crewmen awake with his talking each night.
The ship angled to match our exact change in course, and this time, a shiver crawled up my spine.
“What’s the firepower on our ship?” I asked Erick.
“The usual number of cannons, but they’ve shown us no aggression.”
I disagreed. “The cannons on their deck are already manned. Can we outrun them?”
Erick shook his head and turned the wheel again to steer us away. He whistled at another pirate to take the helm, leaving him with instructions that sent my heart pounding. “Take us in any direction away from that ship. Whatever else happens, don’t let it get broadside of us.”
Because if it did, its cannon fire would sink us.
Erick and I raced down the stairs, with Erick shouting orders to every pirate we passed along the way. He called back to me, “I’ll get our cannons loaded as well, but they’re a bigger ship. Unless we get a lucky hit first, if they intend to harm us, they can do it. You’d better get your people to safety.”
I nodded at him and ran into the wardroom on the main deck where Imogen, Fink, and Mott were playing cards. “There’s trouble,” I said. “We’ve got to hide as many people as we can.”
Without a word, Mott stood and went belowdecks, calling for all Carthyans on board to meet him near the bunks.
Imogen looked at Fink. “Go into the galley and get as much food together as you can carry. Then report directly to Mott.”
She followed me back onto the deck where it was evident the other ship was closing in. A captain stood at the forecastle with a sword aimed directly at us.
“Is this another pirate ship?” she asked. “Are we being raided?”
I shook my head. “Erick assured me this part of the Eranbole Sea belongs to the Avenian pirates. I don’t think this is a raid.”
“Then it’s targeting us?” Her brows pressed together. “Why?”
I gave Imogen my shoulder bag and took her by the hand belowdecks where Mott was in the middle of assigning everyone a task.
“There are a few false walls in the storage areas. Take your places and the rest of us will seal you in. Stay as long as you can stand it, or until one of us pulls you out.” He looked around the group. “Fink, Amarinda, Imogen —”
“No!” she said. “Mott, I want to help fight!”
I turned to her. “There will be no fight when they attack. We cannot match their strength. You must hide.”
“As must you,” Mott said. “Jaron, there are four spaces. The fourth is for you.”
“Absolutely not!” I said. “Where’s my sword?”
Roden, the captain of my guard, touched my arm. “You’re the king. More than anyone else, you need to hide.”
I shook my head at him, ready with a response, but there was no time for even that before someone called from up on the main deck, “Jaron, you need to see this.”
I gave Imogen’s hand a squeeze and said to Mott, “Begin hiding the others. I’ll be back. Can someone find my sword?” Then I raced up the steps back onto the main deck.
The invaders had raised a new flag, one with painted black letters that had begun to drip with the spray of water, leaving long streaks beneath the writing itself. It read one word only: jaron.
My heart was nearly beating out of my chest as I called down to Mott. “No one comes onto this main deck until this is resolved. Those are my orders.”
“Why?” Imogen replied. “What is happening up there?”
“Get everyone into hiding! Every one of you.”
“What about you?” Amarinda cried. “Jaron, come down here with us!”
“Mott?” I called. “Do you have my orders?”
A long silence followed before he answered, “The king has spoken. You all know what to do.”
Erick pounded up the stairs, giving me a quick glare. “I’ll go anywhere I want on my ship, and I will give the order of when to fire and when to attack.” Then his eye turned to the sail with my name written on it. “Oh.”
“We’re not going to fire on them,” I said. “We’ve got to defeat them.”
“How?”
I walked to the side of the ship as it turned broadside of us, revealing the ship’s name: Shadow Tide. On a single whistle I heard from where I stood, its gun ports opened to reveal a dozen cannons all aimed our way.
I looked over at Erick and sighed. “Well, that’s the part I haven’t figured out. But it seems defeating them is the only choice we have left.”
Now that we were closer, I got my first real look at the captain, a tall woman of strong stature, with a square face and eyes that seemed to penetrate the distance between our ships. Her short-cropped hair was black and mostly pulled to one side, enough that I wondered if her head naturally tilted sideways to rest. She wore a long, black leather coat with a green blouse barely visible beneath it, trousers, and tall boots.
The captain called out, “In the name of our monarch, I call on you to surrender, or you will all die.”
I shouted back, “All three of us? It hardly seems worth the trouble of you arming all those cannons.”
“You are not a crew of three.”
I looked around to be sure. “Three is all I count. In fact, if you have any spare crewmen, we could use a few extra. Unless you still intend to fire on us, in which case you’d only be drowning your own crew.”
The captain had moved from the forecastle of her deck to the side of her ship directly across from me, allowing me to have a better look at her. She’d given no orders to have her crewmen fire on us yet, so I assumed she wanted to figure me out as much as I needed to understand her.
She called out again, this time adding a new threat. “Surrender your ship, or we’ll sink it!”
I called back, “Go ahead and sink it. We’re all very capable swimmers here.”
There was a short pause as the captain looked at her other crewmen on deck. Then she shouted, “I meant that if we attack, you all will die.”
“No, I don’t think we will,” I replied. “But if you’re so concerned, you could lower your cannons and we can talk. What is it you want?”
“We want Jaron.”
Her tone was icy enough to send a chill through me. I glanced over at Erick, who was staring at the Shadow Tide with brows furrowed tight together. One hand was on his knife, but it was still sheathed. I said to him, “How difficult would it be for them to board this ship?”