Page 41 of Daughter of the Dark Sea

Which one of you is Captain?”

Kora held her breath as she crouched behind the door to her quarters. The pirate lords and mercenaries from Galen had boarded Hell’s Serpent, cornering her crew on deck. As much as she’d liked to cannon fire them all to Umbra, a Galen warship altered the game. Their artillery had been formidable in the Galenite War, and she couldn’t risk Theron. Not a chance.

But instead of allowing her to withstand the boarding, Blake had shoved her into her quarters, demanding she hide. She didn’t have time to drag Theron in here with her before the thundering of boots stomped across the gangplanks.

“What’s happening?”

Bree’s whisper floated from beneath the four-poster bed. She had squished her tall frame, with a knife clasped to her chest for protection, behind the cream covers draping over the side of the bed.

“I am,”

Blake’s voice echoed through the wood. Gods, he’d make a fine captain.

“Who is it?”

Bree whispered again.

“Round them up!”

a voice barked.

“I want them in a line!”

Kora bit her lip as her crew yelled, and her heart hammered violently as she tried to push away the mental images of them blood-eagled on the dead misty shores of Galen. This was all her fault. She should’ve been careful sailing the Mist, or they should’ve taken a different route.

“Kora!”

Bree hissed, poking her head through the covers.

“Shh!”

Kora waved her back under the bed.

“Tell me what’s happening! Is Blake okay?”

Kora rolled her eyes as she pressed her ear to the door. She should be out there, defending her crew. Killing the Galenite scum. Not here, babysitting Bree.

“Stay hidden.”

Blake’s order drifted through her mind.

“If we are captured, you need to get a message out to the empire. One of us needs to survive.”

The Galen warship had shaken them all to their core. Never, did anyone think Galen would return—could return. Typical it had to be when they were escorting Theron to Talmon.

“Look-y what we have here,”

a female voice drawled.

“Royal scum.”

Kora closed her eyes for moment, praying for Theron’s safety.

“Leave this ship, now,”

Theron’s commanding presence vibrated through the door.

“Take me and spare the others.”

A growl followed, presumably from Ivar.

The yells and cries of Kora’s crew crested, and she instinctively reached for her sabre daggers. She’d go down swinging to save them, and Theron.

“We only want the captain,”

she replied, followed by the sound of metal on leather. The sound of an incoming execution.

“Touch him and you die,”

Theron threatened.

The female laughed, and it unleashed something within Kora. Her water beast awoke at the sound, and her body sizzled with energy, as though she were soaring. Within a beat, she crashed through the door onto the glistening wet deck, the stormy wind and rain whipping her black longcoat.

She unhooked her throwing knives from her belt and, with razor precision, flung them at the first armoured mercenaries she saw. They collapsed to the ebony deck, blood spilling from their throats, mixing with the rain and ocean spray. The crushing guilt from the exile attack raged, roaring at what she’d just done. But they were Galenites, and this time, it was warranted.

Blake was hunched over on his knees, hands shackled behind his back. His black hair was plastered to his head, and his green eyes flared with dread as Kora charged across the deck. A female with long, braided silver hair towered over his knelt body, an estoc sword poised above his heart. Panic consumed his face.

“No,”

he mouthed repeatedly over, his voice lost to the storm.

The Galenite female’s dark, deer-like eyes widened in shock, her jaw slack at Kora’s presence and she commanded her mercenaries in Devanian to attack. Kora echoed the order to her crew, and they descended upon the Galenites, led by Samuel, Aryn and Ivar. She approached the mystery female, her daggers gripped in both hands.

“Don’t lay a filthy finger on him,”

Kora snapped.

“You . . .”

the female gaped and stumbled back.

“How . . .”

She looked towards Blake, who returned her stare with raging silence.

“What are ye waitin’ for?”

a male to her right seethed. He wore a striped brown and red longcoat.

“Kill him, Skylar!”

The female—Skylar—shook her head, strands of silver hair falling from her braid and lining her light-brown-skinned slender face. The presence of her unnerved Kora, and she flicked her wet hair out of her eyes. Skylar’s gaze snared on her scar, and she paled. Blake tensed as two of the pirate lords converged, enclosing around them. Well, shit.

“I’ll do it meself,”

the captain of Fallen Angel—judging by his red attire—hissed, as he raised his falchion sword. Deep heavy-set wrinkles lined his weather-beaten skin.

Kora instinctively responded, twirling her daggers.

“Come and get him then.”

She bared her teeth.

The pirate lord lunged with a battle cry.

“No! Wait Hector—”

Skylar shouted, pulling away from Blake.

This close to her, Kora’s whole body screamed, her head pounding with relentless pain. As she battled Hector, the ocean undulated, each wave growing bigger until Hell’s Serpent violently roiled on the surface.

Calypso spare her. Her power couldn’t manifest now. But something about Skylar triggered it, Kora’s water beast scratching at the walls, begging to be released.

Before Kora could spear Hector through his hollow chest, a horn blared through the howling tempest and she whipped her head. Several Talmon Empire warships approached, and at the front was The Burning Dragon.

Erick’s ship.

“Retreat!”

the pirate lords commanded their sailors.

With ropes attached to masts, the crew of The Burning Dragon swung through the stormy rain, landing onto Hell’s Serpent with menace and causing shudders through Kora.

“No! Hold them off!”

Skylar glowered at Erick landing onto the deck.

Fiery rage blasted from him as he fought his way to Kora, his dark armour winking out pale silver Galenite mercenaries like stars fading into the night.

“Cassidy, get her!”

Skylar ordered in Devanian, pointing at Kora.

Cassidy?

The use of the old language shook Kora to her bones, and she stumbled before Golden Harpy’s pirate lord, wreathed in patchwork yellow clothing, and long, brown boots laced up to her thighs. She beamed at Kora, exposing sharp teeth lined with red lips. Coils of brown ringlets were bound by a dark bandana, hidden beneath a tricorne hat.

Kora froze. A female pirate lord.

Hector, and the mysterious grey pirate lord, fled the ship, their eyes bulging in fear at Erick’s presence.

“Kora!”

Blake cried out as a rope snared around her. She slipped on the ocean water coating the deck, falling to the floor as the thick rope tightened around her chest, pinning her arms to the side. Her head smacked against the wood, salted water washing over her face and body, and her vision blurred as pain sang down her neck into her back.

Throngs of red and grey pirates swung and leapt from Hell’s Serpent, abandoning the Galenite mercenaries. They held their ground, fighting the oncoming wave of empire sailors, but Kora’s crew had been forced to the forecastle, fighting off lingering Golden Harpy pirates.

Cassidy pulled on her lasso rope, dragging Kora across the deck to the edge of her ship, kicking and screaming. No, no, no!

“Hurry!”

Skylar snapped, her doe-like eyes warily watching Erick battle through the remaining mass of mercenaries.

“We need to get her away from him!”

Who? She was surrounded by males.

Iridescent clothing—the colour of labradorite—hugged Skylar’s tall athletic frame. She leapt from the edge of Hell’s Serpent like a bird, extending her arms to reveal a hidden fabric connecting them to her body. She soared across the ocean expanse, floating on the tempest winds, before landing onto Golden Harpy.

Kora’s skin burned against the wet wood as the thick rope crushed her chest. Cassidy raced across a gangplank, hauling Kora to the very edge of her ship. Her fingers clawed at the wood, nails breaking and bleeding, her precious daggers discarded by Blake’s knees. He wrestled on the deck, trying to break free of his shackles.

“Kora!”

Erick plunged his sword into the gut of a mercenary.

“I’m coming!”

A series of mercenaries fell as he sprinted for her.

“Captain!”

Samuel’s voice followed. He leapt from the forecastle, tumbling over the balustrade. Ivar and Theron remained, each working in tandem with a group of sailors, forcing pirates back over the gangplanks.

Kora screamed in pain as her back bashed against the railing of her ship. Golden Harpy flanked Hell’s Serpent, and Cassidy and Skylar stood on the yellow-sailed ship, pulling the lasso until Kora couldn’t breathe anymore. Gangplanks fell as the remaining pirates rushed onto their ship, and mercenaries jumped overboard as empire sailors barraged across the deck.

Erick, Samuel, and the sailors were all running for her. But they wouldn’t make it.

Her legs pushed against the railing, hopelessly trying to hold on to her home in time for her family, her friends, to reach her. Several mercenaries grabbed hold of the lasso, heaving with their might, and the rope bit into her skin, cutting through her jerkin as she resisted with a wrenching scream.

An arrow ricocheted through the air, spearing into the dark brown wood of Golden Harpy. Aryn sped down the length of Hell’s Serpent—his longbow raised. Every arrow fired embedded into Golden Harpy’s railing—narrowly missing Skylar’s fingers as she gripped the edge, desperately trying to haul Kora onboard.

Why was he missing?

Her vision tunnelled as half her body hung over the side of Hell’s Serpent. She could barely see for shit. Maybe he hadn’t missed? Stormy seas crashed against the ship, seemingly reaching for her. Hello, sweet ocean.

At the sight of Aryn, Skylar faltered, losing her grip on the lasso, and it curled and trailed down the side of the ship like a snake.

“What are you doing!”

Cassidy screamed into the storm.

“You’re letting her go!”

Kora collapsed backwards, and Erick caught her before she hit the deck.