The railing in front of Ethan exploded. Wood splinters sprayed outward and upward as Ethan watched the cannonball pass right through his body. The projectile from the enemy ship continued unabated across the surface of the deck and disappeared into the roiling Azure Sea on the other side of the Maelstrom.
Ethan clutched his chest checking for injury. He didn’t have a scratch on him. The liquid metal armor he wore had not repelled the shot. Instead, the shell had passed through him as if he wasn’t there. Then it occurred to him. He wasn’t there, at least not in the physical realm where the cannonball was. That could be useful, he thought.
Then he remembered the enemy had fired upon the Maelstrom. Bonifast’s crew scrambled back and forth, preparing to retaliate. Ethan found Gideon among the frantic crew. The priest stood at Bonifast’s side again, watching the enemy vessel. The captain sounded the order. “FIRE!”
A terrible volley of cannon fire erupted from the port side of Bonifast’s ship. Ethan watched as iron cannonballs flew through the air toward the enemy vessel still bobbing with the ocean swells. Ethan tracked each one of the shots.
Several of the heavy balls struck the slaver in the aft end at different heights, as the vessel lifted up on the storm surge. Most of them splashed into the side of a blue wave, scattering plumes of sea spray into the air before disappearing. The gap had not been closed with the slaver. Bonifast had intended to do so before starting his attack. But the other ship had fired first and he would return their fire in even greater amounts.
I’ve got to get over there before Bonifast blows it out of the water! An urgency to save his sister boiled inside of him. But how can I get over to the slaver? Lightning struck in the distance ahead of them. They were sailing into the worst part of the storm. Ethan had to act now.
The demon had leaped from ship to ship in order to attack him moments ago. He had seen them float through the trees as a child while he and Elspeth were escaping the massacre at Salem. There was no reason to suppose his abilities to operate contrary to the physical laws were any different. If I’m really this Deliverer everyone keeps talking about then Lord Shaddai please help me to know what to do.
Ethan ran to the railing and jumped up on it. The crew still buzzed about like bees as cannon fire erupted between the ships. Fortunately, the storm surge caused a great deal of inaccuracy on the part of both crews, giving him more time to act.
Ethan noticed, as he stood on the railing of the tossed vessel, his body did not sway back and forth. He might as well have been a statue fastened to the wood with nails. As he watched the slaver in the distance, Ethan caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked to his right and found a gull sitting on the railing looking directly at him. The bird seemed to be gauging the boy’s intentions.
“I’m going,” Ethan said, although he was not sure why he talked to the bird.
The bird cocked its head sideways, regarding him. “I’m just not quite sure how to go about it is all,” he said.
The bird, as if in response to his query, lifted its wings and then stood there looking at him. Ethan watched the bird. Then the gull hopped up into the wind and sailed across the expanse toward the slaver ship. For some reason, Ethan felt like he was being told what to do.
Cannonballs pounded into the rolling waves just beneath the hull of the ship, sending spray into the air. Ethan hunched down like a spring, then released. His body rocketed away from the railing of the Maelstrom. He felt like a bird in flight, careening through the air toward his target. The slaver ship surged upward on a wave, coming to meet him as he landed safely on the deck.
When Ethan turned to look back, Ethan saw the gull perched upon the railing next to him. It regarded him once more, seeming to nod its approval before taking flight again. Ethan turned his eye to the heavens and whispered, “Thank you,” unto the Almighty.