Page 18 of The Sea Witch (Salt & Sorcery #1)
found the ship, a sleek schooner flying a black flag adorned with a skeleton in a tricorn, the ship’s crew moving quickly
around the vessel as it pursued the Sea Witch . A mage had positioned himself in the foredeck, his hands outspread as he summoned winds to push the ship forward, his black
sash flapping in the breeze.
The captain of the tailing ship stood on the quarterdeck, clad in a skirted green coat with wide cuffs, the jade plume of
his hat dancing in the wind. Alys’s spyglass was so powerful she could make out the emerald adorning the captain’s ear.
“Jacob Van der Meer,” Alys muttered.
“Craftiest pirate this side of Santo Domingo,” Stasia added grimly.
“He was at the Wig and Merkin, when Little George’s letters were read. I kept well away from him.”
“Old lovers can be such irritations.”
“And he knows about the fail-safe. But not where to find it. Reckon he believes we know. Which,” Alys went on, “we do. But
we’re keeping that to ourselves.”
“Orders, Captain?” Stasia asked.
“Get Luna up here,” Alys said to Dorothea. “We need her guidance. Go with haste,” she added, though the crewwoman was already
hurrying to fetch their navigator.
Luna arrived moments later, a chart tucked under her arm.
“We can try to outrun Van der Meer and the Edelsteen ,” Alys said without preamble. “But it solves nothing. A persistent bastard. He’ll dog us from one end of the Caribbean to
the other, burning valuable time.”
“A fight?” Eagerness gleamed in Stasia’s eyes. She curved her palm over the pommel of her blade.
Alys covered Stasia’s hand. “Our aims can be met without a single drop of blood staining anyone’s decks. Cheer up,” she added
when Stasia looked downcast, “if all our strategies fall short, I give you permission to be the first in the fray. Spells
or steel—it’ll be up to you.”
Stasia looked slightly cheered. “Give us your strategies, then.”
A quick consult with Luna followed, and Alys outlined her plan. As she spoke, her quartermaster and navigator nodded. When
everything had been determined, Stasia strode about the ship, issuing orders to the company. Three of their witches were assigned
to summon winds to give them speed, but others possessing magic were instructed not to use their power until Alys gave the
command. Limited as their untrained magic was, they needed to hold some back in reserve, or the plan wouldn’t come to fruition.
Tension grew as the Edelsteen kept a close pursuit, the distance between their ships holding steady, but it was only a matter of time until the larger
vessel caught up.
What Van der Meer had planned for them remained unknown, but hard lessons had taught Alys that buccaneers remained ever capricious.
Early in her career as a pirate, other captains had offered her alliances, only to have them decide after raids that they wanted all of the plunder for themselves. Murder or harmony—either were possible.
It didn’t change matters that she’d spent a few weeks in Mérida sharing a bed with Van der Meer. If anything, their time together
made him even more unreliable.
“How long until we reach our destination?” she asked Hua at the wheel.
“Quarter of an hour,” the helmswoman answered, absently brushing at strands of straight black hair that had pulled free from
her two thick braids. She adjusted the brim of her round cap. “You see it there, just off the port bow.”
A thin finger of land emerged on the horizon, one of countless tiny islands that were scattered all across the Caribbean.
Hua expertly steered the Sea Witch toward the island as the sky overhead deepened to sapphire with the coming night.
Alys stood on the quarterdeck, anxiety and excitement mingling in her belly like a potion. Life up north had been a constant
series of identical days, with chance moments of fear from storms that battered the coast—and the constant threat of having
her magic discovered. Her only glimpses of a life beyond that airless existence came after Samuel’s death.
But even then, life had always come slamming down like the top of a pillory, locking her into place, whenever she’d had to
sail Samuel’s boat back home and resume her workaday life. It was only after they stole their ship and escaped Norham for
good that Alys gave herself and the women who followed her the freedom she’d always hungered for.
For all the uncertainty and treachery and risk of sailing the Caribbean as a buccaneer, there was an untamed, reckless joy in it. Alys would rather meet death at the end of Van der Meer’s cutlass than return to the drudgery of a fisherman’s wife.
The sky darkened further, long streaks of gold piercing through the indigo, as the Sea Witch approached the tiny island.
Summoning the soft murmur of a late spring breeze, Alys whispered into her hands. The spell made sure that her words would
be heard by her whole crew, but no one beyond the decks of the Sea Witch would hear even a sigh.
“We know what to do, my friends,” she quietly informed the company. “Wait until I give the signal, and then we give them a
display to rival any man-o’-war.”
“Aye, Cap’n,” came the whispered replies.
At the helm, Hua guided the Sea Witch into the inlet. It formed a cup, lined with tall rocky cliffs, and a narrow white sand beach meeting the water at the farthest
end of the cove. Beyond the beach stood a fringe of mangrove trees, turning black as the night progressed.
Hua positioned the ship close to the base of one of the cliffs at the mouth of the cove. It was tricky work, ensuring that
the vessel didn’t get caught and founder on any of the rocks that lurked beneath the water, and that the masts didn’t smash
against the face of the cliff. Hua was one of the best at the helm, hailing from the East China Sea, where she had piloted
her uncle’s cargo ship, and now here, in the Caribbean.
Once the Sea Witch was in position, Alys whispered to her crew, “Witches, gather on quiet feet at the mainmast.”
Those of the crew that possessed magic collected at the base of the mainmast, Alys and Stasia included. Eris perched on the
yard, keeping close to her mistress, but she kept her usual trills to herself when, at Alys’s nod, the witches held hands.
Everyone exchanged concerned looks. Twice had they attempted something similar, and only one of those efforts had been successful.
When they had failed, they’d barely escaped with their lives.
“Stone and rock and sea and surf,” Alys murmured, “veil us, hide us from those we don’t trust.”
Everyone softly but urgently repeated her words.
“Think of the cliffs, my girls,” Alys urged, “and the water below. Let them form a cloak to hide us.”
Intense concentration filled each of the crew’s faces as they summoned a glamour to shroud the ship. At the center of their
circle, a mist collected, faintly at first, then with growing thickness. It smelled of rain pattering onto rock. The mist
deepened and condensed, collecting around the deck and then rising up the masts and spilling over the sides.
“That’s it, beauties,” Alys pressed. “They say women are tricky and hide their true selves. If that’s what they believe, we’ll
give it to them. And reap the benefits.”
The haze continued to grow, enveloping the ship. As it did, Alys kept wary attention to the mouth of the inlet, waiting for
Van der Meer’s ship to take the bait. Hopefully, her crew’s magical ruse would work.
Moments later, Van der Meer’s vessel appeared at the entrance to the cove. Everyone aboard the Sea Witch went silent, collectively holding their breath, as they watched the pirate schooner sail into the inlet.
Alys’s heart climbed into her throat. If it came to a fight, she and her crew would give Van der Meer and his company a brawl.
But, stars above, she prayed to avoid it.
The prow of the Edelsteen turned into the quay, the rest of the ship following. It sailed farther into the inlet, its progress marked by the lamps and
torches gleaming on its top deck and glowing from the portholes.
Alys put one hand on the handle of her cutlass, the other on the butt of her pistol. She balanced on the balls of her feet,
ready in case she might be called into action, a cry of command to attack already forming on her lips.
And then...
Van der Meer’s ship sailed right past the Sea Witch . The captain himself stood on the forecastle, gaze aimed straight ahead, looking for his target. The Edelsteen cruised forward.
Alys bit back a cry of exultation. It had worked. Neither Van der Meer nor anyone aboard his ship had spotted Alys’s vessel,
hidden as it was by the glamour conjured by the Sea Witch ’s company.
“Now, Captain?” Stasia whispered eagerly.
“Not yet.”
The Edelsteen sailed farther into the inlet.
“Now?” Stasia pressed.
“Hold a moment longer... only a breath...”
The Edelsteen sailed forward in slow degrees.
“Now,” Alys said.
At Alys’s command, her crew leapt into action. The company armed their cannon as Hua steered the ship away from the cliff.
The helmswoman positioned the Sea Witch between Van der Meer’s vessel and the mouth of the cove, blocking the Edelsteen ’s only means of flight, and trapping it in place where its crew’s only option was to abandon ship and flee onto the island.
Once they were in position, Alys ordered, “Drop the veil, beauties!”
As if burned away by a blazing sun, the mist surrounding the Sea Witch immediately disappeared. Alys raised her pistol into the air and fired. The sound echoed off the cliffs and into the depths
of the dark blue night.
The crew aboard the Edelsteen rushed to rails and collected on the aft deck. They gaped as the Sea Witch appeared seemingly from nowhere.
Alys smirked at Van der Meer, who stared along with his crew.
Beside him, his mage was just as immobilized by shock.
The two men stood at the rail of the quarterdeck, gawking like greenhorns on market day, not seasoned buccaneers.
The pirate captain collected himself enough to scowl, and with his reputation for cleverness, it was no wonder.
Falling victim to a ship full of witches’ glamour wouldn’t enhance his standing.
“Impolite,” Alys called across the expanse of water that separated the Sea Witch from the Edelsteen . “Paying a call without properly announcing yourself. It makes a woman wonder at your motivations. Surely, they can’t be
nefarious, can they, Jacob?”
Van der Meer’s features creased as he made himself smile widely. “So many guns pointed in this direction,” he shouted. “Such
displays of aggression are unbecoming in old friends.”
“ Are we friends, Van der Meer?” Alys wondered. “My memory recalls you attempting to swindle me out of my share of the gold in
?le-à-Vache.”
“That was a misunderstanding only, liefje.”
“It’s Captain Tanner. I’m not your sweetheart.” Not anymore. “Explain what you mean by chasing after my ship, with no friendly flag flying.”
“I—”
Alys held up a hand. “We parley on the beach. Then you’re going to give me a thorough report of your actions and plans. If, for any reason, I don’t like your explanation, over a dozen
witches aboard my ship will use their collective powers to summon a hundred whirlpools to sink your ship. There won’t be anything
left, not even a length of cordage floating on the water, to show that you or the Edelsteen ever existed.”
“Can we do that?” Stasia hissed in Alys’s ear.
Alys answered lowly, “Van der Meer doesn’t know what we are and aren’t capable of. Let him believe we can mobilize all the
fiery beasts of hell, if it means we keep him in fear. Answer quick, Jacob,” she called to the other captain, “or things may
start to spin for you.”
To punctuate this, Alys made a swirling motion with her fingers.
Van der Meer nervously held up his hands. “We shall meet you on the beach at once.” He turned to speak to a man who was likely his second-in-command.
Alys was already striding toward the jolly boat. “Stasia, you’re with me. I want Jane, Susannah, Dayanna, and Inés. Polly,”
she said to the woman as she strode forward, “you have command of the ship until we return. And if anything looks dubious, if any one of his crew so much as farts suspiciously, open up every gun and summon lightning to strike his
ship.”
Though Polly had only actually accomplished the purposeful summoning of lightning a handful of times, she saluted. “Aye, Cap’n.”
The jolly boat was lowered, and the requested crew climbed down the rope ladder to take up their positions in the small vessel.
Alys moved to climb down, as well, but before she took a step, Polly asked, “What about the navy man?”
Alys paused for a moment. It had been almost a relief, having Van der Meer chase the Sea Witch , giving her a much-desired distraction from sensing Ben’s presence both aboard the ship and within Alys’s own mind. Yet merely
hearing his name brought her perception of the sailing master back to the forefront of her awareness. Unrest drummed through
the invisible fibers weaving between him and her, adding to her own unease. Something greatly troubled him.
She made herself shrug.
“This is pirate business, and as he’s made clear, he wants no part of pirate business. He stays locked in my quarters.” Alys
continued descending the ladder to the jolly boat, forcing away thoughts of Ben. All her focus was needed for this parley
with Van der Meer, and determining just what, exactly, the other pirate captain intended.
Whatever Van der Meer planned, she had to be ready for it.