“Cap.” Elaina didn’t have to turn to know it was the bosun, Mitsurgory. He was the only one on the ship with an accent from the Dragon Empire.
“What is it, Surge?” Elaina shouted as another wave of spray hit her in the face. She laughed away the salty water and turned. “Can we get another knot out of her?”
The bosun flinched. “Actually, Cap, I was hoping we could slow her down. She’s straining at the mizzen. Wind is up and she’s catching it fine, but… too much is dangerous.”
Elaina felt her mood darken a little, and another wave of spray hit the back of her head; this time it did little to lift her spirits. “She’ll hold, Surge. She’ll fucking hold. We have precious little time left to make this catch, and we are going to make it. Keep the canvas up, and make certain my ship doesn’t falter. Good?”
“Aye, Cap.” The bosun sounded anything but in agreement.
“Sail!” Four-Eyed Pollick’s cry came from the nest. “Port side.”
Elaina turned back to the sea just as another sheet of spray whipped up. She fought to wipe the ocean from her eyes as she scanned the port horizon, looking for the tell-tale signs of a ship. She saw nothing.
Shrugging off another sheet of froth, she took a deep breath and shouted up to the nest as loudly as she could. “I don’t see it.”
There was a moment of palpable hesitation before Pollick replied. “The sail is blue, Cap.”
Elaina let out a groan and found herself swallowing a mouthful of seawater – one more thing she’d blame her brother for when she saw him. Tanner’s eldest living son, and a permanent thorn in Elaina’s side, Blu Black was the only man alive self-obsessed enough to sport blue sails on his ship, the Ocean Deep. He claimed they masked the boat’s existence at a distance, allowing him to close on potential prey long before they knew he was coming. In reality, the man was obsessed with himself and with his own name. He even went so far as to dye his beard a horrid shade of blue.
Elaina pulled out her monoscope and scanned the port horizon, moving away from the bow of the ship to avoid the spray. Now she knew what she was looking for, it didn’t take her long to spot the sky-coloured sails.
“Cap?” Rovel the Weird was so named because he preferred the company of other men, and made no attempts to hide it. It had caused a few problems with some of the crew when Elaina had made him first mate, but the man was big enough and tough enough to crack the skulls of those who expressed those concerns.
“He’s onto the same prize we are,” Elaina said without lowering the monoscope. “And he has a better line on her.”
“Ocean Deep ain’t near as fast as Starry Dawn,” Rovel said confidently.
It was true, and then some. Blu’s ship was a juggernaut, heavy and slow, but with a crew compliment like no other pirate vessel sailing the waters of the isles. Blu liked to claim he’d stolen the ship right out of Land’s End while the local Five Kingdoms navy men slept. Elaina knew the truth though; he’d commissioned the ship out of his own pocket and had never so much as set foot in the Five Kingdoms.
“He has a better line on her,” Elaina repeated. “If the wind keeps up like it is, Ocean Deep will catch that ship long before we’re in hailing range. We need her to turn.”
Elaina snapped her monoscope shut and tossed it to Rovel. She leapt down onto the main deck and sprinted across to Ed the Navigator, at the wheel. The man had a wild grin on his face as he watched his captain approach, which only made his abnormally large chin appear even bigger.
“Fifteen points to port, Ed,” Elaina said.
“Aye, Cap.”
“That’ll put us on a course to intercept your brother,” Rovel said, coming up behind her. “Can’t say I know what ya planning, Cap, but that don’t seem wise. The Deep has to have at least twice our crew – no way we can take her. And besides, ya brother…”
“Don’t be simple, Rovel.” Elaina sneered. “We ain’t taking on Blu, just trying to get the fluyt to change course. A few more points starboard and we can get as good a line on her as my useless fucking brother, and then the bitch is ours. We’ll be in and picking the carcass clean before he even knows we’re there.”
“What if he decides to treat us like the prey? A lot more folk on that ship of his.”
“He won’t.” Elaina was confident. “Blu’s got no stones. Hates a real fight, too much chance of losing, and that’s exactly what we’d give him, outnumbered or no. He’ll do what he always does – tuck his mangy tail between his maggoty white legs and tell our da I stole his toys.” Nothing would give Elaina greater pleasure than Tanner Black’s favourite son running home to his father to whine about how his younger sister had stolen a prize from him.
It didn’t take long for the merchant ship to take the bait. Within ten minutes the cry came from above that the fluyt was changing course, swinging further to the starboard side, and Elaina ordered Ed to put Starry Dawn between the fluyt and Blu’s ship. Thirty minutes later, Elaina’s ship was cutting through the waves parallel to Ocean Deep. Squinting though her monoscope, Elaina could just about imagine Blu making obscene gestures her from the deck.
They were moving much faster than Ocean Deep now, and Elaina wagered they would catch the merchant fluyt in a few hours, long before Blu’s ship caught up with them.
When Starry Dawn was just a few hundred feet away, almost within hailing distance, the fluyt gave up its impotent flight and its sails were brought in. No doubt the captain would order his men to stand down and allow the pirates to loot the ship unmolested. It was quite often that way at sea; piracy was more about the chase than the battle.
“Ocean Deep will be on us in no time, Cap,” Rovel said, joining Elaina at the railing as they sailed alongside their prize.
“Best stake a claim quickly then. Get aboard, find anything worth having, and take it quickly.”
“Aye, Cap.” Elaina could now see down onto the smaller ship’s deck, and as predicted the captain had ordered his crew up on the main deck, where they were huddled together, unarmed and at the mercy of the pirates who had just caught them. She allowed herself a savage grin.
“Pull her close and get some planks across,” she ordered.
As always, Elaina was one of the first to board the captured vessel, and with her came half of her crew. Pirates swarmed onto the fluyt, some of the men immediately heading below decks to see what was worth stealing while others took to harassing the surrendered crew, shouting challenges and waving sharpened swords at them. In a real fight it would be embarrassing, but this was anything but, and right now intimidation and fear would serve the pirates well.
She found the captain of the fluyt hunkered down with his men on the main deck. The man’s two front teeth could rival a goat’s, and his eyes seemed to bulge out of his face. It was clear that he was in charge from the worried glances his crew kept sending his way. That, and the ostentatiously large hat he wore. Elaina abhorred hats, for the way they obscured her vision; she much preferred to wear a bandana to keep her hair in line. Aware that she had limited time to do what needed to be done, Elaina decided the direct route was better than the cat and mouse game she usually liked to play.
“You.” She pointed at the man. “You’re the captain?” He took a step forwards, his eyes still bulging in a way that made him look more than a little hostile. One of Elaina’s crew moved closer and waved his sword at him. Elaina laughed and gestured for the pirate to stand aside.