“Step back,” I said, tugging Jerren until we toed the edge of the wall.
“If we jump, we’ll hit the rocks,” shouted Dennis.
“Or get shot here.”
Dennis looked at his mother and then at me. Finally, as the guards lunged for their guns, he pulled me away from Jerren. I was too tired to resist. “Give me your element,” he said, voice low.
I stared blankly ahead. “Can’t—”
“Give it to me!”
Energy trickled through me as Dennis stared at the sky. In what felt like a full strike but must have been only a moment, he turned the wind directly on the approaching guards. Hit by a wall of air and horizontal rain, they collapsed as one.
Before they could get up, Dennis yelled, “Turn around.”
Alice was maybe thirty yards away. She was sailing close to the rocks—too close really—and moving fast. I fought to stay awake, stay conscious.
“Now!” yelled Dennis.
He flicked his wrist again, turning the wind onto us. It hit me from behind with the force of a blast, toppling us all and sending us out into space. I was laid out horizontally as I landed with a crash.
CHAPTER 39
I hit water but smashed onto the rocks that lay just below the surface. The pain shocked me awake again. I couldn’t tell if I’d broken a rib, or sliced up my stomach—I just knew that I was in agony. Heat radiated from the wound, burning me up from the inside.
I surfaced after the others. Alice was only a few yards away. She’d let out the sail to slow the boat, but I couldn’t reach the rope she tossed out to us. If I missed that rope, it was all over. She’d never be able to turn around before the guards regrouped.
Dennis and his mother lunged for the rope and caught it. Jerren did too. But the boat was drifting past me. I wasn’t going to reach it.
Jerren loosened his grip so that his left hand slid along the rope. He clasped the very end and swung his right arm out toward me, catching a flap of my tunic. I shut out the pain in my chest and raised my right hand so that I was holding his arm too.
Something whipped into the water beside me. I wasn’t sure what it was until someone fired the gun again. Bullets dashed against the surface of the water.
So much for not wasting ammunition.
Alice pulled on the mainsheet, but the boat responded sluggishly. The catamaran was a light craft, not made for five people, and I was acting like an anchor. Jerren eyed the side of the boat. It was so close, but without the use of his right arm, he was stuck. Bullets rained down.
“Jibe,” I said as loudly as I could.
“Don’t be crazy,” shouted Alice.
“Do it!”
As water crashed against me, Alice yanked the tiller toward her. The boat began to turn, the rope drew closer to the side, and I was able to grab the back. I released Jerren’s arm and he pulled himself to the boat and on board. “Abort the jibe,” I croaked.
Spurred on by the sound of a bullet cracking against the hull, Alice did exactly as I said for once. We’d lost almost all our momentum, but now the catamaran responded to her movements. Jerren slid to the back and helped me aboard too. I was almost onto the canvas deck when he cried out.
“What is it?” cried Alice.
I slithered beside him as he clasped his left forearm. “What happened?” I asked him.
He spat onto the deck. “My arm.”
Blood was trickling out, but it was impossible to know exactly where he’d been hit or how severe the wound was. “We’ll get you to the ship. Look at it there.”
Jerren nodded. He knew there was nothing else we could do for him.
Alice tried to maintain balance and keep the sails full. The ship was a few hundred yards away, nothing but a shadowy outline in the darkness. It was so much farther away than the last time we’d seen it.
“Are we going to make it?” asked Dennis.
Alice didn’t answer.
He tilted his head toward me. “Is Griffin alive? I saw that room. The rats. I wanted to tell you—”
“He’s alive,” I said. I didn’t add: for now.
I stole a glance behind us. Sumter was already fading into the darkness. The black reminded me of rats. Would the colonists get them under control again? For the children’s sake, I hoped so.
I ran a finger across my chest wound and felt a loose flap of skin. The pain was excruciating, but I was almost relieved. A broken bone would take longer to heal.
Alice kept her eyes fixed on the ship. She didn’t take the direct line, but moved quickly over the ship’s wake and onto the calmer water it was leaving behind. Good thing too, because we’d be leaving the harbor soon and heading out onto the ocean, where the waves were bigger. By contrast, our water was smooth.
Little by little, we drew closer. When we were a hundred yards away, Alice began to veer right.
“Rope ladder’s on the other side,” I wheezed.
“Forget the rope ladder. If we sail to port side, we’ll be in the ship’s wind shadow. We’ll lose control of the sails. Stop dead in the water.”
Someone on board must have realized the same thing. As we crossed their wake and entered turbulent water again, the ladder was unfurled on our side. It touched the water and was dragged backward.
The waves must have been at least three feet high, too much for the catamaran. The ship’s bow carved a channel through the ocean, creating wake that threatened to overturn us. Only Alice remained seated now. Even Dennis and his mother were lying down, gripping the frame tightly.
Alice eased us alongside the ship, but she was struggling to maintain control.
“Dennis, go!” she yelled.
Kneeling on the canvas, one hand around the metal frame, Dennis reached out and grabbed the ladder. Once he had a good grip, he looked back to check that Marin was following. Only then did he place his other hand on the ladder and begin to climb.
Marin went next. We’d saved her life, but she wouldn’t even look at us. When she was halfway up, Jerren grunted. “We risked our lives for her?”
“Not for her,” I told him. “For Dennis.”
He peered at his injured arm and winced. “Your turn now.”
“Uh-uh. Not before you.”
I wrapped an arm around him and pushed him across the slick canvas. Once he had a grip on the ladder, I helped him get his footing. He climbed slowly, his left arm only good for draping over the rungs.
“Go, Thom,” Alice shouted.
I was about to reach for the rung, but stopped myself. “Wait. You can’t reach the ladder and hold the boat steady.”
“Don’t worry about me. Just go.”
My mind flashed back to Eleanor lying broken on the deck. I still didn’t understand why she’d chosen to die, but there was no way I was going to let Alice follow her.
Once Jerren had boarded the ship, I pulled the rope ladder toward us. I grabbed the highest rung I could reach and shouted for Alice to place a hand on the lowest.
She transferred the mainsheet to her left hand. It was a risky move—now she was unable to control the tiller and sail independently—but it freed up her right to take the ladder. With a single defiant nod, she drove the tiller away. The catamaran whipped to the right and the wet canvas deck slid from right under us. I was left dangling as Alice plummeted into the water.
Her body banged against the side of the ship. She still had hold of the rung, but the fast-moving water dragged her under.
I coiled my right arm around a rung and reached down with my free hand. I couldn’t get to her, so I grabbed one of the lower rungs and heaved that upward instead. Alice resurfaced. Gasping for breath, she slapped at the next rung. Then the next. A moment later, she swung a leg up and got a foothold.
Just as well, because I lost my grip on the lower rung. Alice crashed back into the ocean.