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Aspen’s stomach tightened at the sudden boom of fifty cannons going off, and it seemed to drop entirely when the crow’s nest shook. Roth pulled his head away and swore while he practically crushed Aspen to his body as if trying to protect him from something.
The crow’s nest was tipping, and shouts came from below. At that moment, multiple cannons from other ships fired, and panicked yells rang out. In the next second, Aspen was strangely weightless despite Roth’s grip. For a moment, he knew nothing as pure terror and panic blanketed his mind.
Freezing cold water snapped him back when he hit it. Roth was gone, something slammed his back, and a sharp pain ran along the lower part. He couldn’t tell if he was upside down or not. Dark, murky water surrounded him, and he tasted nothing but salt as he kicked. Where the fuck was Roth?
Vaguely, he realized the mast must have been directly hit, and the cannons hadn’t all been aimed at the hull with the intent to only sink the ship as fast as possible.
Something brushed his arms, and he grabbed at it in desperation.
It had to be one of Roth’s arms. Aspen was sure he saw light above him, and he kicked as he tried to go up. Roth’s body dragged on his, and he used one arm to paddle while he clutched with his other. His sodden cloak was a weight, and he fumbled at the clasp for a moment. Luckily, it loosened and fell away with little effort.
He kicked and struggled for the surface as he dragged Roth unwilling to let him go even though he was sure he wouldn’t make it. His lungs felt ready to burst, and his muscles burned. The cold water would drag him down with Roth where the ocean would hide them forever.
His head broke the surface, and he gasped as he kicked and tried to haul Roth’s limp body up too. A piece of wood floated nearby. Surely, Elira had nudged it that way, knowing he’d need it. He grabbed ahold of it and tried to adjust his grip on Roth as his arms trembled. More cannons boomed, and the smell of black powder was already thick as screams and shouts pierced the night.
To his right, Elira’s Grace was a mess. The mainmast and mizzenmast had collapsed, the rigging was in tatters, and the sails flapped and twisted uselessly in the wind like enormous, ghostly figures. The galley must have been hit, and that’s why a fire had caught. In the moonlight, he was sure the cabins where the royalty slept were a splintered memory.
Roth’s head lolled against his shoulder as Aspen struggled to get an arm hooked on the wood enough so he could lean Roth against it.
“Roth! Wake up!”
What if he was dead? A piece of wood must have hit him, but Aspen couldn’t tell if he was bleeding or seriously hurt. His muscles burned as he tried to heave Roth’s upper body more onto the wood, and he clung on the best he could while supporting the other fairy. The wood wasn’t big enough for them both to climb on, and he felt for Roth’s neck.
He still had a steady pulse, but they were trapped in the dark waters while the entire fleet fought around them.
The hundred-gun ship had been reloading while Aspen worried about getting himself and Roth situated. They were probably dots in the water and unnoticeable as the current dragged and tugged on them. A hundred cannonballs went over ahead and crashed into Elira’s Grace.
They were mostly aimed for the hull that time to sink it. Aspen tried to cover Roth’s head, and he turned his own. If a chunk flew their way…Screams were drowned out, and Aspen had never known the sound of cannonballs crashing into a hull could be so loud.
He dared to look. The hull was so battered now, the whole ship was listing, and it was lower in the water. In minutes, it would be gone. The men on it must have surely been abandoning ship and trying to get lifeboats down. Oriel, Kalen, and Rhys were on the Raindrop which was about forty yards away on the starboard side of Elira’s Grace. It would be an open target with Elira’s Grace sinking.
All around them, the neat formation they’d been in earlier was falling apart from what Aspen could tell. Behind Elira’s Grace, Ymir’s Love started to move up. Aspen wasn’t sure if he should try to kick and pick a direction to go, not that he’d get anywhere fast. Maybe staying still was better for now.
Roth shifted slightly and grunted. Aspen tightened his arm. “Don’t move yet.”
The portside guns on Ymir’s Love fired as it continued forward. Elira’s Grace was a lost cause, and Ymir’s Love rammed into the wreckage to push it out of the way so it could use itself as a shield for the Raindrop. The one that had attacked was fired from another ship that Aspen couldn’t see. Far out, he saw two lifeboats inching by.
Despite the panic in his gut, it clicked. The split before Kalen’s army met up with Asara’s ships had been a fake, and it had fooled all of them. No one had ever planned to attack Oriel’s side during the war on Meadow. The small group that had returned to Asara had duped them. The much larger portion had been planning to wait until much later to betray Oriel.
Asara had used them so they’d help take care of Taven and his army, leaving the way for West Bay and Meadow open for her to take.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Oriel’s already lost half of his playing money,” Kalen said. “Maybe he should cut his losses because I think he’s about to lose some more.”
A Commander snorted as Oriel scowled at his current cards.
“What was that earlier?” asked Rhys. “Something about West Bay showing East Forest how it’s done?”
“I think there was something about taking all of our money too,” said Commander.
“But oddly, I have more money now than when I started,” Kalen said with a small smile.
Oriel internally cursed the cards he held. “I will win all of your money…in a few minutes.”
“Suuuuure.” The Commander threw back the last of the whiskey in his glass.
Oriel was about to say something else, but he forgot it when he heard multiple cannons go off.
