Wake of the Bloody Angel (26 page)

A roar that might’ve disturbed the exhausted sea monster rose, along with fists and brandished weapons.

Clift smiled. “Aye, lads, that’s the spirit. Now let’s get the
Cow
ready for her date, eh?”

Another cheer rose from the men. Clift came down and walked among them, thanking and encouraging them individually. He knew how to command, that’s for sure. At last he reached me, put a hand on my shoulder, and said, “I’d like to speak to you a moment.”

“Sure.”

He pulled me aside but stayed within view, if not earshot, of the men. “I left Skurnick with Jane. Her fever’s gone, and she’s sleeping normally. It looks good for her.”

“And Suhonen?”

“We don’t know yet.” He paused. “When the moment comes, when the carrion crabs come around to see what they’ve caught, I’d like you to lead the attack.”

“Me? I’m just a passenger.”

“False modesty is still a falsehood, Mr. LaCrosse. You’re also the man who got away from that sea monster with barely a scratch, as well as rescuing both our best fighter and my former captain. I know how good
they
are. You seem to be better.”

“Just luckier.”

He leaned close. “I’m serious. The men know what you did. If you don’t lead them, they’ll assume it’s because you think we can’t win, and then I’ve lost them. I need you.”

I glanced past him at the crew. All of them watched with varying degrees of discretion. I’d fought on ships before, so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it, but at the same time, I barely knew these men and, except for Suhonen, I’d seen little to impress me. If we spent our days cowering belowdecks, we’d have no chance to practice and drill so I could get to know them better, either. We were all on this ship together, though, and that meant I had a vested interest in how the battle came out. “Okay,” I said. “But I want a third of my money back.”

He nodded. “A man deserves a fair pay for a job. But only if we win.”

I grinned, the kind of sideways grimace that has nothing to do with humor. “If we don’t, Captain Clift, poverty will be the least of my problems.”

chapter TWENTY-ONE

One
way to tell the true strength of any fighting force is by how well it waits. By this measure, the
Red Cow
’s forces were pretty good. Of course, it helped that we had to wait only three days.

Before we started hiding and waiting, though, we again disguised the
Cow
as the
Crimson Heifer,
just another derelict whose crew now filled the belly of the nearby beast. A spare sail was draped over the bow as if it had tumbled from the foremast, along with enough rope to mimic its rigging. Lines were dropped over the side, their ends ragged as if they’d broken loose from the monster ship. The deck was cleared of anything that could signal recent occupancy.

Jane continued to recover, although she remained too weak to move. Suhonen wasn’t dead, but neither had he opened his eyes; he simply slept, like some animal in winter hibernation. Bandages swathed his broad chest, with three small red spots where blood soaked through. The men gave his hammock a wide berth, except for Skurnick, who checked on him regularly. He lay in the dark, swaying with the ship’s movement, like a statue that might come to life at any moment.

When I approached him, one sailor grabbed my arm and said, “I’d use caution.”

“Why?”

“I’ve heard stories about Suhonen. They say that if he’s hurt in a fight, he wakes up and thinks he’s back in the middle of it. I saw him knocked out once, and when he awoke, his arm was still in mid-punch. Like to near flattened Mr. Greaves, who was standing just beside him.”

“I’ll be careful.”

The sailor shrugged. “Your skull, sir, not mine.”

I waited until I had some semblance of privacy, then leaned down and spoke into Suhonen’s ear. “If you can hear me, I just wanted you to know Clift put me in charge of whatever fight we end up having. I know you won’t be up to actually joining us, but you know these guys better than I do and I could use your advice.”

There was no response.

ON
our first day hiding in the hold, three fights broke out. Clift settled two of them quickly, but a third looked to keep brewing even after the men were separated. I understood completely: it was so hot, humid, and crowded that my own temper was on edge. I could’ve retreated to my cabin, but I wanted the men to see I was in it with them, not lording it over them. I had them move Suhonen to my bunk, where his huge bare feet hung off the end. Jane was sitting up now, scandalously undressed in the heat.

I had to avert my eyes whenever I went to check on her. This amused her to no end. “It’s a pair of boobies, LaCrosse, they won’t kill you.”

“I’ve run into plenty that were quite lethal, thank you very much.”

“How goes the preparations?”

“We’re prepared. Now we just need for the bad guys to show up before we all skewer each other.”

“How are you going to run it?”

“We’re going to let as many of them board us as we can before we give ourselves away. They’ll likely tie onto us, but they’ll cut those lines right away if they start to lose the fight. We’ll use the ballistae belowdecks to fire grapples up through the ports. Hopefully, since we’ll be shooting up at their rail, by the time they figure out where
our
ropes are, we’ll have taken their ship.”

She nodded. “Smart.”

“I also had the carpenter install another hatch aft of the main one. It’s flush with the deck, so you can’t see it unless you’re right on it. When the bad guys come down the main hatch, we’ll have a team ready to go out that one. That way we won’t get bottled in.”

She shook her head and smiled. “You’re a clever SOB.”

“I just want this fight to be quick and one-sided. If I’m right, they won’t be expecting any resistance.”

“And you’ll take Marteen alive, right?”

“Yes. I’ve made that completely clear. Clift said any man who kills Marteen forfeits his shares for this whole voyage.”

“That should do it. You don’t mess with a pirate’s money.”

“Ex-pirate,” I corrected with a grin.

“Oh, yeah,” she agreed ironically. “Completely ex.”

AS
soon as darkness fell, we rushed on deck, grateful for the space and air. The monster ship was barely visible on the horizon, and we saw no other vessels. Men pulled buckets of water from the ocean and doused themselves with it to cut through the day’s accumulated sweat. I took some rum to Jane, checked on the still-immobile Suhonen, and touched base with Clift.

“Not good,” the captain said. “We’re drifting. If we move too far from that other ship, they might not find us.”

“They found the others.”

“Aye, but I imagine they tied up to the monster’s vessel before boarding. Then their ship stayed put.”

“I suppose we could tie up to it,” I mused.

“Unless you swear to me that creature’s dead, I’m not risking becoming a ghost ship for real.”

If I’d done permanent damage to its mouth, then it would eventually starve to death. But for all I knew, it had been catching fish outside and stuffing them through the portholes all night. Or perhaps it could simply wait a long time between meals. “I left it hurt, but that’s all I can say.”

“Then we’ll just have to row in closer and hope Marteen doesn’t spot us while we’re moving.”

So we did, using a launch to tow the
Cow
back to where she’d started. The next day was another scorcher, and again everyone was on edge. But this time, knowing that nightfall would eventually come and we would escape, they were able to contain it. When we did emerge, Clift had to remind the men to speak in whispers; sound carried far over the water.

And then, on the third day, we sighted another ship.

SHE
bore three masts, a flush deck, and no flag visible at this distance. She headed straight for us, taking advantage of the wind that slowly pushed us away from the monster ship. Clift and Seaton peered out the porthole, careful not to let the sunlight illuminate their faces. I stood with the crowd behind them, waiting for their word.

“That’s the one,” Clift said at last.

“How do you know?” I asked, fighting the urge to whisper, as if a ship miles away could hear us.

“A feeling,” he said. I wondered if perhaps he was wrong, that this was just some passing merchant or naval vessel wondering if we needed help. But the closer it got, the more I shared Clift’s intangible sense that this new vessel was dangerous. It was a sense that I, like the captain, had long since learned to trust.

I turned to the crew. The men stood ready, arms unsheathed, making last-minute adjustments to their leather armor and weapons. They all looked expectantly at me. It had been a long time since I’d been watched with that kind of eager, almost childlike reliance. I felt a surprising rush of what I can only describe as excitement.

“If I’m right, the ship will pull alongside and board us. I don’t know how close they’ll look us over; I hope that by now they’re overconfident about their monster. But they may be on their guard because we’re drifting and not tied to the other ship. We have to let as many of them get on board as we can, even coming down here without giving ourselves away. They’ll be sunblind in the hold, so it’ll take time for their eyes to adjust. Let them give the alarm: when they shout, everyone left above will have their eyes on the main hatch, and we’ll come busting out the new one.”

They all nodded excitedly. Again, like eager children.

“I’m going to split you into two squads. One of them will concentrate on defending this ship; the other will board theirs. I’ll be leading that one. The ones staying behind, you’ll answer to Captain Clift.” I hadn’t cleared this with him first, but he nodded agreement. “The danger is that the other ship might break away from us. If they do, the men with me will be trapped in the enemy’s lap.”

“Not for long,” Clift said. “She can’t outrun us.”

I’d seen nothing to indicate the
Red Cow
had that sort of speed, but it seemed the wrong time to make an issue of it. I continued, “It may mean being taken prisoner, at least for a while. It may, of course, mean dying. So I want real volunteers, not people picked out by the first mate.” I glanced at Seaton. “No offense.”

“None taken,” he said. “And I’ll be the first to sign up.”

“Me, too,” said Duncan Tew.

In short order I had my team, twenty men ready to join me in boarding the other ship. I stressed two things: Watch your fellow soldiers’ backs, and take the captain alive.

I went to see Jane. Her leg was noticeably better, and she was bright-eyed and rested. “Hey, boss,” she said when I came in. I put a sword beside her. “What’s this?”

“Not as big as you’re used to,” I said, “but big enough. We’ve spotted another ship closing in.”

She tried to stand. “I’m not waiting in here—”

“Yes, you are. I’m leading the boarding party, and Clift’s commanding the troops here. He claims this heap can outrun anything, so if they get away, you’ll have to make sure he chases us down.”

“He will. But I can still fight. Just give me a crutch and—”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed. “You can’t even put your pants on, Jane. Just stay in here until the fight’s over.”

She glared at me. “Could you?”

“I could if you told me to.”

She started to snap back, but I added, “I’ll get the carpenter to knock together a crutch for you. But it’s only for emergencies. And I won’t be here to watch your back.”

She grabbed the collar of her tunic with both hands and ripped it open almost to her navel. “And they’ll be too busy staring at my front. Go do your job, LaCrosse. I’ll be fine.”

Now the waiting had a purpose, so the men were silent and still. Clift and I risked peering through the porthole to watch the ship as it neared.

“Look,” Clift said. “The banner.”

It was black, tapered, and trailed like one of the monster’s tentacles. Stitched in white was an image I’d seen before, on the letter Angelina had kept all these years: an angel holding a sword over a skull. And then, beneath it, the double
X
.

“And the name,” Clift added.

Painted on the bow in large black letters were the words
BLOODY ANGEL
.

A thrill I’d never expected to feel again went through me. I was about to lead men into battle, and damn it, at some level, I
loved
it.

“Ready, lads,” the captain said as loud as he dared. “We’ve hired the band, now it’s time to name the tune.”

chapter TWENTY-TWO

The
Bloody Angel
’s crew scurried into their sails like monkeys, gathering the canvas and slowing the big vessel as it neared. They were slower than the
Cow
’s crew, but then again, they were self-employed. She was a third larger than the
Cow,
and consequently her crew outnumbered us. I wasn’t worried about that nearly so much as I was about having no real place to retreat. If my trap failed and they bottled us up on the
Cow,
all they had to do was set fire to us and watch us burn.