He Who Breaks the Earth by Caitlin Sangster

Author:Caitlin Sangster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2023-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

A Prize Bathtub

The crew had not been particularly happy about Lia storming onto the boat and demanding they fight pirates. They’d been even less happy when Noa had dragged herself sopping wet over the railing like a narmaiden that had somehow grown a face as beautiful as its voice. But peak unhappiness was achieved when the pirate, whatever his name was, climbed up above his little sail and started shooting trails of smoke and fire into the water around them, splashing the rails with saltwater that smelled of acid and char.

To be perfectly honest, Lia wasn’t particularly happy about it herself.

“You said you had a plan!” the captain screamed from where he huddled just below deck. “We could have jumped ship and rowed away safe like we were supposed to, but now—” He ducked as another blast flew toward them and clipped the forward prow, sending chips of wood zipping through the air.

“He missed,” Knox breathed, adjusting the carom on his shoulder. He set the edge of it on the prow, Galerey climbing down into its belly with one of the salpowder packets in her mouth.

“He’s so upset!” Noa breathed, but Lia could see her white-knuckling the edge of the bench. Knox braced the tube against the rail, unprepared when it kicked back in a sputter of smoke and flames, sending a ball of flame into the air with an unhealthy whine. It came down between the two boats, fizzing as it went underwater. After a moment, a dull boom churned up through the water, making the boat pitch backward. Ellis’s ship continued its approach, threading its way toward their side exposed to the ocean.

The smoke from Knox’s carom came out acrid, stealing Lia’s breath. She hunched down, coughing until she could breathe again. Another explosion ignited on the other boat, sending something small and black lancing toward them. It struck the mast, splintering wood and sail.

“I think Ellis is getting impatient?” Lia breathed. She pointed toward the Russo boat making its way toward them and the little trail of smaller crafts racing out from the harbor, bristling with bows, knives, and spears. The harbormaster’s own boat was at the very back, obviously not interested in being the one to face Ellis’s carom. “That’s our cue, I think. Knox, would you untie a rowboat?” She raised her voice, crowing like an auroshe. “Abandon ship!”

“Thanks all the gods,” Noa breathed, hopping up from her seat to assist Knox in untying the ropes.

Lia joined her, letting the ship twist in the waves, a spectacle for anyone watching. The harbormaster probably had money tied up on this ship, and it wasn’t going to last long enough for him to save much of any of it. The sailors would be picked up, though.

Lia heaved one of the boats into the water, then helped Noa over the rail before she felt Knox go stiff next to her. “What is—”

But then she felt it too. Golden sparks at the very edge of her aurasight. She looked around wildly.

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