“It goes without saying, Red. But someone should come with you.”
I shook my head. “Whoever comes with me is likely to hang. As am I, if I’m caught.”
“Doesn’t matter. I can’t send you into almost certain—” Solo cut himself off. “I can’t send you into a dangerous situation alone. I’ll come with you myself.” His bright eyes sparkled and his eyebrows arched skyward.
“Is it your princely background that makes you think you’re right?”
Solo shrugged, a small smile finally gracing his lips. “Perhaps.”
Best to appease him. I nodded. “It’s a deal. But none of the crew can know.”
“Agreed, then.” He held my blade back out to me and winked. “Better hold onto this little beauty though. You know, just in case you might need it.”
Almost as soon as I closed the door to my sadly empty bunk, fully clothed and waiting for the ship to go to sleep, the unthinkable happened. Howling wind whistled outside the portholes and shrieked through the blackwashed boards. Patters of rain dotted the windows as I pushed myself to my feet. Much too nervous to even sit still, I paced the bunk I shared with my late husband.
All jittery, I pulled one of Jack’s shirts and a pair of his britches over my own clothes. I rummaged in the trunk until I found his long, black coat and donned it, too. By the time I closed the door to my bunk and made the climb upstairs to the deck, the wind was howling and the rain pounded down in sheets. Solo was there.
“Poison Lightning’s on watch.” He had to yell to be heard over the gale-force wind. “But judging by this weather, I think we’d be better advised to wait and go tomorrow night.”
My breath came quicker. “How long can he live in the gibbet?” It felt strange to scream the words into the wet wind.
“About three days.”
I glanced overboard at the rowboat that pitched against the side of the ship. The lights of shore flickered through the squall. “At least this rain will give him something to drink.” Thinking of Jack’s dry, parched throat made me physically hurt. I looked back at Solo. “You’re probably right about going in the morning.”
He patted my shoulder. “Get some sleep, Red. We’ll take care of Jack, don’t worry.” His bright smile shone from under his hood. “You have my word.”
I nodded and returned his smile. “Thank you, Solo. For everything.”
I watched as my faithful cohort trotted off across the deck, back to where he would climb down into his warm, dry bunk. Once he was safely out of sight, I sprinted back toward the room I’d shared with Jack. Instead of climbing down the stairs, I unhooked my belt and saber and stashed it on the stairs to the captain’s quarters. Steeling my reserve, I pulled the door shut and dashed back across the deck to the rope ladder that lay, unused, in an innocent coil.
I flung it over the side.
I’m coming Jacky.
I threw one leg over the side, then the other, before daring a glance up to the eagle’s nest. Though the sheets of rain had turned white and opaque, I could make out The Poison Lightning’s hand as it waved to me in wide waves.
Did you cause this storm, my unlikely friend? For me? For Jack?
I threw him a salute before climbing down the rope ladder, toward the rowboat. The wind whipped me this way and that, sometimes beating me against the ship like a human hammer. My fingers smashed with each fling as I tried to adjust my grip on the rope.
I only made the mistake of looking down once. The scourging waves, whitecapped and frothy, looked angry. Hungry. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to think about what sea creatures lay in wait below. White-knuckled, I gripped the ladder and felt for each sopping rung.
Just a little more. Surely you’re almost there, Red.
Raindrops felt like needles as I forced myself down, down, down, toward the tempestuous sea. I was powerless to look down, even if I wanted to, for fear I’d be blinded if I opened my eyes.
Then, I heard it. Like thunder, but lower. Angrier. Wetter. The rogue wave built up speed and sounded like one of those new, impossibly loud steam pumps that miners used to pump water out of flooded mines. I braced myself and gripped the ladder with all my strength before the devil of a wave met the side of The Black Otter and like the hand of God.
I was made helpless by the wrath of the wave. It tore me easily from my ladder.
A scream, lost to the wind, tore from my throat as my fingers reached for something, anything, as I fell. Jack’s face flashed to the forefront of my mind, followed by the ghastly gibbet.
Please—don’t let me die like this. Not until I have a chance to at least try and save Jack. So he knows I didn’t abandon him.
My back arched as I hit the bottom of the rowboat.
Thank you, God.
I ignored the throbbing in my battered body and unhooked the rowboat’s rope from The Black Otter and with shaky hands. I fumbled for the oars with aching arms. The wind screamed in my ears, like a siren calling sailors to their deaths, as I pulled hard against the swell.
“There’s nothing standing between me and Jack now,” I called to nobody. “Only a stormy sea, a rocky coast, and a mob of angry killers.” My voice dropped with the more things I named, but something deep down made my arms work harder against the wind, the rain, and the white-capped waves.
Not long after I started rowing, I began to think that Solo was right in his desire to wait until morning.
I shook the thought off at once. If I had waited, then Solo would have tried to accompany me to shore. I could not risk Solo getting caught by the bloodthirsty lot of pirate hunters.
Caught and hung.
I forced a swallow and tried not to think about what a scratchy rope around my neck would feel like. Sheets of torrential rain came in unending undulation and erased everything from my sight. Eyes closed fast against the driving rain, I was effectively blinded. Incessant waves slapped me from first this way, then from that. I dared a peek at the world around me though it did no good.
Am I even going toward the shoreline? There were no more lights to guide me and it felt as though I’d been turned a thousand different ways by the storm.
Am I even rowing?
A huge wave washed over me and my tiny boat and ripped one of the oars from my hands. I scrambled to grab it, but missed. It disappeared into the bubbling sea.
The first oar was lost to the wave. The second, to my stupidity in grabbing for the first one.
