The feeling startled him and even angered him. He thrust it away and told himself to stop daydreaming. Given a fight between his mother and a demon, he would back his mother. She could take care of herself. She’d managed well enough thus far. Besides, he had the feeling-call it the instinct of a soldier-that Dag was wrong. The attack on Westfirth had been isolated.
“I think it was an experiment,” Stephano said. “A test. To see if their weapon worked.”
“Then they must have gone back to Hell happy,” Dag said bitterly.
“Or maybe,” said Miri, “they were after Papa Jake.”
“All right, enough about demons,” said Stephano curtly, not liking the reminder the fiends were out there, hiding in the Breath, perhaps watching, listening. Undoubtedly waiting… “Our problem is how to free Rigo and rescue Alcazar.”
While the Cloud Hopper had been fending off demons, the Silver Raven had managed to rig her boarding nets. Stephano’s idea of boarding the ship while sailing the Breath was not going to work.
“It was crazy anyway,” was Miri’s pronouncement.
“Once the Raven lands, we’ll-” Stephano stopped. He had no idea what they were going to do.
“We’ve still got the same problem,” Dag pointed out. “Wallace is holding Rigo hostage. We fire at Wallace. He’ll kill Rigo.”
“You’re a crack shot, Dag. Could you shoot Wallace before he shoots Rigo?” Stephano asked.
“Maybe if I had one of those new rifled guns, sir…” said Dag, hinting broadly. “Otherwise…” He shrugged and shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to chance it.”
“We could aim our cannons at them and tell them we’re going to kill everyone on board unless they surrender and hand over Rigo and Alcazar,” said Miri.
“There are little ones on that ship!” said Dag, shocked.
They had all seen the children playing on the deck. Judging by the fact that they often clustered around Alcazar, they assumed they were part of his family, perhaps the children of his brother, the sailor.
“You know I wouldn’t do such a thing,” said Stephano.
“I know that. But the crew and the captain don’t know you,” said Miri. “You could be a bloodthirsty monster. They’ll be scared out of their wits.”
“Wallace won’t let the captain surrender.”
Miri snorted. “There are forty of them and one of Wallace! He’ll do what they say.”
“He could just shoot Rigo,” said Dag.
“He won’t,” Miri argued. “Wallace knows that if Rigo dies, he’s a dead man. You would burn that ship.”
“I don’t like it. We’re taking a risk with Rigo’s life,” said Stephano, shaking his head.
“Begging your pardon, sir, but what else we can do?” Dag asked. “The Raven has a crew of forty. There’s just the two of us.”
“Not bad odds,” said Stephano with a half-smile.
“True, sir,” said Dag coolly. “But if the two of us launched an attack, Wallace might kill Rigo out of desperation. This way, at least we have a chance.”
“The Raven being crippled is a gift from God,” Miri said persuasively. “She’s a fast ship and we’re a slow one, and if she hadn’t been hit, she’d be halfway to Freya by now and we’d have no chance of catching her.”
“And you realize, sir, that if they get away from us, Wallace will have no more need of Rigo. He’ll toss him overboard,” said Dag.
“Much as many of us have wanted to do on occasion,” said Miri.
Their conversation was interrupted by the Doctor, who jumped onto Dag’s knee and from there to the table where he made himself the center of attention by sprawling out full length on top of the map. Stephano reached out to pet the cat, his mind on his trouble.
Gythe came over to stand beside Miri at the helm and made signs to her sister, who translated.
“Gythe says it’s a good plan. Rodrigo will do something to help us.”
“Good God! That’s just all we need,” Dag exclaimed, alarmed.
They looked expectantly at Stephano. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
“It’s not much of a plan-”
“As if our well-laid plans have worked out so very well this trip,” Miri said crisply.
Stephano gave in. “All right. We’ll make ourselves look bloodthirsty and menacing, as if we slaughter small children every day just for the fun of it.”
“We can do that, sir,” said Dag.
He picked up the Doctor and placed the cat on his shoulder and gently rubbed him under the chin.
Wispy tendrils of mist swirled around the Cloud Hopper as they followed the Silver Raven in her slow descent. The mist was not thick enough to block their view of the ship, and they kept up with her as her captain sailed over the coastline, trying to find a clearing in which to land his crippled ship.
Scientific minds theorized that the floating islands known as the String of Pearls had been formed by silt-laden water runoff from the continents interacting violently with the magic of the Breath and exploding, resulting in the formation of these floating landmasses.
This particular island was about twenty miles across, with a single mountain near the center. A massive upheaval centuries upon centuries ago had caused horizontal layers of the rock to shift so violently that they now jutted vertically into the air. The rocky sides of the mountains were devoid of all vegetation except a few scrub pine trees. The rest of the island was thickly forested. The trees were so dense that Stephano had no idea where the captain was going to find a safe place to land.
Fortunately for the sinking ship, a broad stretch of reddish-brown beach came into view. The Silver Raven made a rapid descent. The Cloud Hopper was close behind. Stephano could see Rodrigo, whose lavender coat was a colorful spot against the brown background of the ship’s timber. The merchant ship was traveling light this trip, and Stephano guessed that the only cargo she was carrying was Sir Henry Wallace and the journeyman who knew how to enhance metal with magic.
The Raven made a rough landing. They were forced to throw out their anchoring grapnels and slam her airscrews into full speed reverse to slow down, and the ship hit the ground hard in what must have been a bone-jarring, teeth-rattling landing. Miri touched the helm and the Cloud Hopper ran out her cannons. Stephano and Dag stood beside her swivel guns, smoke rising from the matches they were holding over the guns, ready to fire. The armaments transformed an otherwise small and inoffensive Trundler houseboat into a gunboat, capable of blasting the helpless merchant vessel into fragments of splintered wood.
Stephano had his spyglass trained on Sir Henry Wallace, who had his spyglass and was looking coolly back at Stephano.
Stephano felt his skin crawl. He had expected Wallace to look angry, thwarted, defeated. Instead, Sir Henry Wallace grinned. Stephano lowered the spyglass and picked up the speaking trumpet.
“Captain of the Silver Raven. You will immediately release two passengers, Monsieur de Villeneuve and Monsieur Alcazar. If you do not, we will blow your ship apart.”
The captain made a gesture that needed no translation, telling Stephano exactly what he could do with his demand.
“Dag,” said Stephano, grim-faced and tight-lipped, “show them we’re serious.”
“By being careful not to hit anything,” Dag muttered.
He was lowering the match to the fuse in the gunport when Sir Henry Wallace raised his hand and pointed toward the mountain.
“As if I’m going to fall for that old trick,” said Stephano. “Fire-”
“Stephano!” Miri cried, gulping. “It’s not a trick.”
The man-of-war sailed out from behind the mountain where the ship had been hiding. Her cannons were run out, her men standing beside them with smoldering matches over the guns’ touch holes. The man-of-war mounted thirty-two cannons to the Cloud Hopper’s two. Named the Resolute, the warship flew the Freyan flag.
Sir Henry Wallace removed his hat and made a bow. “A pleasure knowing you, Captain!”