With all need for concealment past, the crew jumped to their feet, cheering and brandishing their weapons. Someone sent the Magdalene's crudely drawn black flag skittering up the pole. As it unfurled, flapping wildly in the breeze, the crew cheered again, blood-lust in the cry.
There was another boom, and a white spume hurtled skyward just beyond the Bettina's bowsprit as a second shot was fired across her prow.
Standing now with the rest, Lilah could see the tiny figures on the galleon's deck scramble for weapons. The Magdalene's strategy had been masterly, her surprise complete.
"Poor souls," she whispered, the horror of what was happening making her forget that she wasn't supposed to speak. Behind her, Silas cocked an ear and gave her a sharp look, but Lilah was too preoccupied to notice.
"Stern cannon!"
At the command, Joss motioned to Lilah to raise the wood panel that hid the mouth of the gun until needed. Lilah did so, fingers stiff with fright, then stood by the sand bucket as Joss lit a match. Cupping his hand around it, he applied it to the wick. Powder sputtered as the wick caught, burned. Lilah winced, clapped hands to her ears.
The cannon exploded with a roar and an enormous backkick that would have sent it skittering across the deck if it had not been lashed into place. Smoke spewed, and through it the ball arched up. Lilah watched, fascinated, horrified as it spun on its arcing trajectory. She breathed a sigh of relief as it fell just short of its goal, kicking up another harmless geyser of water scant feet from the Bettina's side.
"Come about!" Logan ordered.
The helmsman did as directed, and the Magdalene turned sideways in the water, slid right alongside her prey. The galleon was taller, but not more than six feet or so. Wood screamed as the ships scraped. Logan's crew cheered as they rushed the side. Fired from close range, another cannonball hit, bringing down the Bettina's mizzen to a chorus of hoarse screams. Grapnel hooks, gleaming silver in the bright sunlight, were hurled upwards, hooked over the galleon's rail. From the deck of the Magdalene rose another earsplitting cry as the pirates prepared to swarm their prey en masse.
"Boarders away!"
Logan led the charge, and was eagerly followed. With the prospect of blood and loot to draw them, the pirates leaped up the nets that had been connected to the grapnel, easily scaling the distance to the galleon's rail. Half the crew seemed to go over at once; they were met with little resistance.
Then, from the Bettina's deck, a cannon exploded. Shrapnel came flying over the rail to scourge the Magdalene's deck. Black smoke laced with flame appeared briefly above Lilah and Joss. This time the chorus of victory cries came from the Bettina's deck. Bodies of men who had just been going over the Bettina's rail when the cannon fired tumbled onto the Magdalene's deck, thudding as they hit. More bodies got caught in the grapnel lashings, hanging grotesquely as blood poured from them. Those who had not yet made it over the rail fell back, dropping and scrambling for cover.
"Get down!" Joss yelled, coming around the cannon in a single bound to throw Lilah bodily to the deck.
"What's happening?" Lilah gasped as a second explosion from the galleon came whistling over.
"They were ready after all. That cannon was loaded with scrap metal. It probably took out half our crew!"
"Fire cannon!"
The command came from the Bettina. A round black cannonball hurtled over the Magdalene's deck, taking the mizzen with it. The mast crashed down to the accompaniment 6f screams.
"Holy hell, Cap'n got it full in the face. Blew the top of his head clean off, by God! They were ready, suspecting a trap!" Blood ran down Speare's face. Lilah saw to her horror that his right ear was gone. "Why ain't you at that cannon, damn you? It's a bloody slaughter up there!"
"Too many of our own aboard. Cannon aren't picky who they kill," Joss told him.
' 'Boarders-again!''
The cry came from Foxy, who was trying to muster the crew now that Logan was dead. A few leaped up the nets at his words, only to be cut down by a hail of small arms fire as the defenders rushed the rail. More screams sliced through the smoke, more bodies thumped to the deck. One unfortunate lost his hold on the nets, then caught himself again with just his shoulders and head visible above the Magdalene's bulwarks. He started to grin with relief, only to have the grin change to a look of surprise as the two ships, caught up on a wave, smacked together. Lilah watched bright blood pour from his mouth as he was crushed between the hulls. When the ships parted again, instants later, he hung on to the net for scant seconds, then dropped soundlessly from sight.
"Cut line! Cut line!"
The cry came from many throats at once. The pirates had had enough of the one-sided fight. In her entire life Lilah had never been so glad to hear anything as that order to retreat. Joss, after ordering Lilah to stay put, set to slashing at the grapnel holding the Magdalene to the Bettina. Pistol fire sounded from the Bettina as the unfortunates left behind battled to the death. Lilah remembered anew that there was no surrender for pirates; to surrender only traded death in battle for death by hanging.
More shrapnel raked the brigantine's deck as the men worked frantically to free her from her erstwhile prey. The sulphurous smell of gunpowder was everywhere. Lilah could barely breathe, barely see through the pall of black smoke. She had passed the point of terror by now. She lay huddled beneath the sheltering bulwark, her arms providing what protection they could for her head. Horror had rendered her emotions numb.
In a matter of moments, the Magdalene was safely away. 1\vo pirates who had been left behind on the Bettina, alive and apparently not badly wounded, leaped into the sea and began to swim frantically after the brigantine. Fire from defenders at the rail of the Bettina cut them down. They sank, screaming, as their blood rose to join the crimson puddles that had already spread over the surface of the sea.
A plume of smoke rose from where a cannonball had torn into the Magdalene's deck. Men quickly extinguished it while more men worked to get die brig's sails up. Joss labored with the rest. Lilah felt renewed terror as she saw him shin up the jib to help with the torn rigging.
The wounded littered the deck. Their screams and moans were hideous to hear, but they were ignored as the survivors rushed to get the ship clear. Lilah was just taking hold of herself, telling herself that, pirates or not, she had to help men in need, when the cannonball came screeching overhead.
It hurtled down like a heaven-thrown thunderbolt, and when it hit it took the Magdalene with it.
The powder was stored aft, in barrels, and the ball found it.
The ship exploded, the sound a giant's enormous sneeze, its force lifting the Magdalene clear out of the water. When she fell back, shuddering and splintering, a great fan of jet-black smoke rose from her innards.
A second explosion sounded, the force of it knocking Lilah off her feet, slamming her headfirst into the bulwark.
When she recovered her senses, it was to find the Magdalene's bow almost under water and a bright sheet of flame rushing toward her from the hatchway with the awful speed of a herd of stampeding horses. Lilah barely had time to do more than take a second horrified look before instinct sent her leaping over the rail, to fall down, down, deep into the bloodied sea.