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“Listen here now, lads,” I boom. Sam stopped rolling her eyes at being called a lad a long time ago. “A bit of a different approach for tonight. That pretty ship there, she’s up for grabs and she’s a Danish navy ship at that. If the lady here is correct, there’s a prince and a princess on board.”
“Ooooh,” the crew says with a laugh.
“And I’ve taken a notion to them being worth more alive than dead. Sure, we’ll take their loot if they got ’em, and we’ll do our best with some of their crew, but when we take the royal couple aboard, I don’t want a hair on their heads touched. Well. Unless the prince is wearing one of them periwigs. Then feel free to toss it overboard.” I look down at Sterling McCoy. “You best get the cell ready for them.”
He nods from the quarterdeck, jangling the jailer keys at his side.
“Still and patient, lads,” I tell the crew, keeping my hands steady on the wheel. “We should be able to take this ship with our eyes closed.” I glance up at the Greek on the mizzenmast above me, hanging like a monkey. “Drakos, bring in the mizzen. Soon as we’re close I want you and Lothar swinging aboard. Take out their mast and rigging. They won’t even see you coming in the dark.”
Drakos grins at me and nods. He’s always such a happy-go-lucky lad, but nights like this light him up like the fireworks we saw over Malacca.
“Deck to be cleared fore and aft!” Thane yells as he storms down the middle of the deck, hands behind his back. “Hammocks up and chests down!”
“Bring small arms up to the quarterdeck and every man to his post,” I add, making sure my voice is louder than my brother’s. Though he’s the quartermaster, I am the captain, and he often seems to confuse the two. Doesn’t help that the crew tends to listen to him more than they listen to me. “And snuff the lights. It’s time we go dark!”
A small cry of enthusiasm goes up, followed by the silence we need by going dark. Henry and Lucas, two of our page boys, run around snuffing out all the lights on theNightwinduntil I know that we’re invisible to the other ship. But the other ship isn’t invisible to us.
“Hoist the colors?” Cruz, my first mate asks me.
“Aye. They won’t see them in the dark but I like the formality.”
“Hoist the colors!” Cruz yells as Sam starts hoisting the red flag affixed with a white skull up the mast.
Thane comes up beside me. “You verily sure this is a good idea,Captain?” As always he exaggerates the word captain.
“This might be one of the last ships we see before we hit Los Pintados. We need supplies for us and for Lucas and the boys, and we need money.”
“We have enough money.”
I scoff. “Money for today, but what about tomorrow?”
“And you reckon holding a prince and princess hostage for months will result in anything? Might take that long before the king hears of this, and then what?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead, brother, but like you said, we have plenty of time for thinking. We’ll just make sure we keep one crew member alive long enough to kick them overboard. They’ll swim to shore and spread the word just as we leave the islands. Maybe we’ll leave a few survivors here as well. Be merciful for once.”
Thane’s golden eyes narrow thoughtfully. “It’s a gamble. By the time we get to Acapulco, they might be old news.”
“Then we kill them. No harm, no foul.”
“There is something to be said for keeping things simple. First you wanted to go hunting, which will lead us on a daft chase around the ocean, now you want to add people to our crew.”
“We’re not press-ganging them,” I remind him. “Now, if you please, I’d like my quartermaster to pick up the slack.”
His jaw tightens as it always does when I order him about. Something to do with him being born first and expecting his brother to cower at his feet.
I turn my attention back to the royal ship. Judging by the yelling from onboard, they’ve spotted us despite the cover of night, which means they’ll be going on the defensive any moment now. It takes a lot of round shots at close-range to damage theNightwind—any good ship can take a real beating from the guns and come out fine—but even so I’d rather she come out unscathed.
“Set fighting sail!” I yell. “Prayers and rums up!”
The pages run around giving everyone a shot of rum while Drakos, our only religious fella, recites his prayer in a furious blast of Greek.
“Steady gunners! Get the chain shots in there! Bowsprit to boarding!”
The mariners take in the sails enough so that the bow of the ship is now going to collide with the lowest part of their ship and I give the wheel enough of a push to set it on the right course.
“Bosun take the helm,” I say, stepping away from the wheel to give it to Crazy Eyes. “Let me be the first one off.” I run down the stairs and sprint to the bow. “Gunners, fire round shot, then chain it!”
I hear an “aye, aye,” from down below and then one cannon goes off, sending the ball flying into the wooden side of the navy ship. It doesn’t blast clean through, but I know that was enough to maim anyone standing nearby.
