Fated Tides: A Metaphysical Love Story by Sarah Sanders

Author:Sarah Sanders [Sanders, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Duck & A Rabbit Press
Published: 2024-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

13

“Fuck,” Zander muttered, shaking his hand to dispel the pain that blossomed on his fingertips. He resisted the urge to plunge his burning fingers into his mouth to soothe them. They were coated in pitch.

Yarrow made a tsking noise under their breath, reaching for Zander’s hand so they could inspect it.

“I’m okay,” Zander said, shaking his head. “You warned me.”

“I did,” Yarrow agreed.

Zander took a deep breath, resolved to ignore the pain in his hand, and reached for the container of viscous liquid again. He scolded himself internally for not being more careful. He was rushing, his anxiety over getting to shore and finding Ace growing by the second.

The three of them had been awake since dawn. After hauling buckets of water from the bilge that had leaked in overnight, they began work on the sails. Zander made hasty repairs that made him cringe to look at, but the sails were functional. Still, they’d been sailing painfully slow since then. It wasn’t yet noon, but Zander felt like time was slipping away from them.

There was not but a light breeze pushing them toward shore, and a heavy fog surrounded them the closer they got to Algarve. Zander anxiously checked Ace’s compass every few minutes. Theo, who was at the helm, joked that even if they ran straight into a cliffside in the dense fog, they were moving so slowly it wouldn’t feel like much more than a tap.

He carefully painted more pitch over the large canvas ball, his hands shaking. The pitch would soon harden the outer edge of canvas, protecting the store of gunpowder inside. A fuse made of yarn soaked in linseed oil stuck out at one end.

Yarrow had explained the glass bomb they’d detonated with Theo’s gun the day before was far more difficult to make. It was meant to be detonated immediately and from afar. They spoke of it as if it was made with a secret formula, and Zander wondered where else they’d used the signature device before.

For the purposes of their impending rescue—namely, making lots of noise, setting a large fire, and snatching Ace in the ensuing chaos—a more basic explosive would work fine.

Their plan had come together in bits and pieces as they worked. Theo seemed confident he could find passage to Porto using what supplies they could scavenge from the ailing sloop. They hoped that in addition to horses, medicine, and weapons, Abilio might send a few men with them as backup, as they expected the Sanz estate to be well-guarded. Ideally, they would use stealth and a well-timed distraction to find Ace, but they would be prepared for a fight, nonetheless.

Zander let out a long breath as Yarrow carefully lowered the finished grenadier to the deck. They’d stretched their supplies to make three fist-sized devices, one for each of them. Yarrow’s satchel was air drying over a piece of rigging, having been soaked in the sea, its contents emptied when they jumped overboard. All three would fit nicely in the satchel until they could secure packhorses.

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