Kal Moonheart Trilogy: Dragon Killer, Roll the Bones & Sirensbane (71 page)

That was it: all Kal could do now was hope her gamble paid off. She folded her arms and tried to adopt a confident front while Azul wrestled with this choice. Eventually he made up his mind …

‘No,’ he said.

‘No?’ Kal parroted. She gestured all around, to where her crew, and the crews of all the other ships from Port Black, had pistols and muskets all trained on Azul.

‘No!’ he repeated, ignoring the threat and raising his own pistols towards Kal. ‘Now I’m taking your ship, so get off this deck before I make
you
spring a leak, too.’

He didn’t get the chance to fire—at that moment, a coil of rope fell from the mast above and pulled Azul’s arms to his sides, making him drop his guns in surprise. Lula came down the rope and picked up both pistols. She tossed one to Kal.

‘Are you sure the answer’s no?’ Lula said, twirling the pistol around her finger. ‘I’ll give you one last chance to call off the Armada.’

‘Lula Pearl!’ Azul exclaimed. ‘I
knew
I hadn’t seen the last of you! I knew you’d somehow managed to trick me when we realised we had dropped you off on the wrong island. I’m glad you made it back alive, in a way! But still, even if I did want to join you and Kal on a wonderful three-way orgy of revenge—and believe me, my loins are stirring at the thought even now—I couldn’t turn back the Armada even if I wanted to. The King of Eldragoro has decreed that Port Black
will
fall, and neither the Magician nor you pair of crafty sirens will be able to stop it. You see, the Magician isn’t the only one who knows how to spring a trap …’

As if to underline his words, a sudden clamour of voices and cheers rose from nearby Eldragoran ships. Both Kal’s crew and Azul’s were looking out to sea, and when she turned Kal saw straight away what the commotion was:
another
mass of ships had appeared on the horizon. The sails filled the horizon, and Kal guessed there must be at least five hundred vessels out there.

‘My king has called on all his powerful allies, and made deals with many other nations,’ Azul gloated. ‘This is the biggest Armada the world has ever seen! This attack has been in the planning ever since Port Black fell out of Republic hands. If I take this town, not only will I have my revenge on the Magician, but I’ll also take the king’s daughter as my prize, and become
gobernador
of these islands. The Eldragoran Empire will finally surpass your Republic in size and strength, so I will be the second most powerful man in the world, after my king—and certainly the most powerful man in the southern hemisphere!’

In response, Lula cocked her pistol. She looked to Kal for the final decision, though. Azul, too, was staring at Kal, but with a manic gleam in his eyes.

A part of Kal died inside. She had completely misjudged the game, and had gotten involved in a hand where the stakes were the highest in the world—far too high even for her. Azul had everything to win and nothing to lose, and like all good gamblers he was fearless in seeing the hand through to the end. For the first time ever, Kal was actually impressed by the man.

She was never going to let Lula kill Azul, of course. Kal’s gambit had failed; her bluff had been well and truly called. Azul’s gang could easily overpower the crew of the
Black Lotus
, so Kal’s ship (and the captain’s hat that went with it) were no doubt lost to her now.

The shadow of the zombie galleon was creeping across the deck. The ships that had followed Kal from Port Black were already attempting to extricate themselves from this disaster and flee the battle. Azul shrugged away his bonds and took his pistol back from Lula. ‘So if you’re not going to shoot me, Moonheart,’ he said to Kal, ‘I’ll ask you again: get the hell off
my
new ship!’

IV.vii

Sirensbane Smile

Kal was frozen with indecision. What was her play now? The word
run
sprang to mind—but that was no easy task, seeing as she was surrounded by water and fighting ships.
Swim
, perhaps? While she was agonising over the situation, Azul grabbed Lula by the wrist and hurled her in Kal’s direction. Lula crashed into Kal at the exact moment a thundering boom sounded overhead, and the zombie galleon fired all of its starboard guns directly down into the deck of the nearest Eldragoran man o’ war. The warship was instantly crippled, and the wave it threw up rocked the
Black Lotus
, throwing Kal and Lula over the rail and into the sea.

Under the water, the world was quiet and slow-moving: a complete contrast to the battle raging overhead. Kal could see twenty fathoms down to the white sand, where brightly coloured fish went about their business, oblivious to the world-changing events playing out above. Cannonballs dropping into the water had their anger quenched, and they sank like graceful diving seabirds. One of the Magician’s nautilus submarines floated past, the refracted sunlight dappling its silvery scaled carapace, making it look like an elegant fish riding the current.

Kal grabbed the side of the nautilus with one hand, and pulled Lula along with the other. When the submarine surfaced, they clambered up onto its back.

They were back in the thick of it, in a world of smoke, spray and noise. Over the rumble of cannon and the creaking and cracking of wood, it was the screams of dying sailors that sounded loudest in Kal’s ears. The nearby man o’ war was now just a floating horror house of blood and splinters. Kal and Lula were trapped in a narrow canyon, with the stricken warship on one side and the cliff-like hull of the zombie galleon on the other. Kal could see that the galleon’s hull was all iron and rivets underneath its wooden outer shell.
Was the whole ship metal?
Such a thing was incomprehensible to her.

What
wasn’t
incomprehensible was the galleon’s other secret. It fired again: another devastating broadside that followed fast on the heels of the last, causing further catastrophic damage to the Eldragoran ship. The gaping mouths of the guns were almost wide enough to crawl down—they were larger than even the fort’s giant forty-four pound guns. So one thing was certain: when comparing the galleon’s latest strikes to its clumsy pot shots earlier in the day, Kal guessed that the ship wasn’t entirely crewed by zombies.

The round lid of the nautilus flipped open, and the Nubaran pilot popped out to see who was on his back. Kal still had one of Azul’s pistols—it was waterlogged, but that didn’t matter; she held it by the barrel and knocked the pilot out cold with the heavy stock. She took his cutlass and was staring down into the cabin of the vessel—there were lots of strange levers and brass-rimmed dials—when Lula grabbed her and pulled her back into the water …

The
Black Lotus
had been coming up the channel between the two larger ships, its long bow-chasers pointing directly ahead. When it fired, the nautilus was flipped out of the water and turned on its back. Another booming double crash, and the small metal craft was knocked out of the end of the channel. The
Lotus
slipped past, and Kal took a mouthful of water from its swell.

Kal and Lula climbed aboard the wrecked warship through a gash in the hull. The gundeck was flooded, but the ship was still afloat … for now. Up top, it was chaos; hundreds of fighting men were moving among the ruined masts and rigging, at a loss what to do next. There were bodies everywhere: Kal saw one man with a six-foot-long splinter of wood through his chest, and another body that was clean, dry and smartly dressed in an officer’s uniform … except that it was missing a head.

Amid the noise and cries of battle, a new sound could be heard: trumpets and horns from the Eldragoran Armada. ‘What does that mean?’ Kal asked Lula.

‘Some new threat,’ Lula said, leading Kal to the opposite side of the ship where they could get a better look at the state of the battle. Kal couldn’t see anything except ships and smoke, but Lula was reading the signal flags that were being hoisted on the command ships. ‘It’s
another
fleet!’ she exclaimed. ‘Three hundred more ships, but this time they’re not part of the Armada … they’re mercenaries, privateers and Nubaran pirates!’

Of course!
Kal should have known that Sirensbane wouldn’t trust his defences completely to brainless zombies. The shuffling creatures they had seen on the deck of the galleon earlier, who were such a bad shot, were merely a facade. In truth, the galleon, the nautilus submarines, and now this new fleet, were all controlled by some of the bloodthirstiest pirates and immoral hired-killers who ever put to sail.

Once more, the odds of victory for either side were shortened, as if the dice were held perpetually spinning in mid-air. And once more, Kal felt that it was somehow down to her to do something decisive …

She could see the sails of
Black Lotus
again—it was coming around on the side of the warship away from the galleon. Eldragoran marines were lining up for the chance to leave the wreck of their ship. Kal pulled Lula by the hand and ran to join the queue.

‘Kal, wait!’ Lula protested. ‘There’s no point in going after Azul again! You can’t stop this battle.’

‘I’m not going to
stop
it,’ Kal replied. ‘I’m going to
win
it!’

The starboard side of the warship’s deck was tilting upwards, and the troops were clambering onto the exposed hull and sliding down to the deck of the
Black Lotus
. Azul was welcoming them aboard with enthusiasm, but his mood soured when Kal and Lula dropped in on him. ‘You are like a couple of cursed doubloons that keep coming back!’ he said. ‘Someone lock these troublemakers below! I tell you, both of you have a date with my codpiece when this is all over—my
studded
codpiece!’

‘This time, we’re here to fight for you!’ Kal said.

‘
What?
’ Azul and Lula exclaimed as one.

‘The Magician’s army is pirates, not zombies,’ Kal explained. ‘And I don’t have a problem killing pirates.’ She patted her pockets. ‘In fact, I have a warrant for that sort of thing on me somewhere.’

Lula didn’t look convinced, but Azul slapped his thigh with glee. ‘Well, bugger me with the mizzenmast,’ he laughed. ‘Maybe this ship does have room for two captains, after all. Although I have to say, Moonheart, that despite the fact that you managed to sink the
Drago Azul
with a lucky shot, this ship of yours hasn’t as much firepower as I’d like. But what we do have now is swords, so how do you feel about sailing into the heart of that pirate fleet and taking part in a bit of boarding action?’

‘Bring it on,’ Kal said. She had an idea who the pirate leader might be, and she was begging for the chance to take him on.

The
Black Lotus
set its staysails, reached around and ran fast towards the line of pirate ships that were rounding the coast. Amaro Azul jumped up onto the bowsprit and turned to face the men and women who were crowded on deck. There must have been over a hundred of them: Eldragoran marines as well as both Kal and Azul’s crews. ‘Listen to me,’ Azul shouted. ‘These good-for-nothing pirates are not likely to be honourable bastards like we are; they won’t surrender if we strike their colours or kill their captain. So we’re going to have to kill every last one of them. Don’t stop fighting until there’s no one left to fight!’

He turned and pulled out his shining spyglass, and sighted to the fore. He turned back and closed the glass by slamming it against his chest. ‘We’ve enough troops to take on their biggest ship,’ he said, ‘but be prepared to take a couple of broadsides before we manage to scupper their guns. Some of you here will surely die! Hell, it might even be me feeding the fishes tonight, but until that happens we will live the Eldragoran way: we will take life by the tail and ride it as hard as we can until we are thrown off!’

The marines cheered. Next to Kal, Lula looked terrified. Dogwood and Doctor Tooth joined them. The doctor was holding his bonesaw in a clenched fist, and Dogwood was brandishing his Senate Guard shortsword. The sight of the Republic crest on the hilt made Kal suddenly homesick, and that sickness turned to fear in her mouth. The marines were all equipped with muskets, swords, grappling hooks and even breastplates, but all Kal had was a cutlass she hadn’t even had chance to swing yet, let alone fight with. Oh, and her meat cleaver.
If only Nim could see me now,
she thought, thinking about the blond girl back in Amaranthium who manufactured all her tools and weapons.

Kal tried to hold it together. ‘I’ll look after you,’ she said to Lula, putting a hand on her friend’s trembling shoulder.

‘It’s you who needs looking after,’ Lula replied, with a weak smile. ‘All these crazy situations you keep getting us into.’

‘I’m glad you came back, Moonheart,’ Dogwood chipped in. ‘I wasn’t sure how I felt about being press-ganged into the Eldragoran marines.’

Kal fist-bumped the fat man’s chest. Dogwood would have survived being part of Azul’s crew, Kal was sure of it. He would have found a role that no one else wanted, and thrived. People like him didn’t care who they worked with, when they really only ever worked for themselves.

There was no time to worry about things for much longer; the
Black Lotus
was closing on the largest of the pirate ships—a massive forty-gun, square-rigged brig with black sails. It was flying a skull and crossbones, of course. The deck was lined with black Nubarans, as well as mercenaries of every shade of skin from all around the world. Musket shots filled the air, and a marine standing next to Kal dropped to the deck, a red hole in his temple.

This was just a taster, though, of what they would have to endure once they bumped up against the larger ship. No one spoke as the distance closed. The gun teams made ready to fire, for all the good it would do, while the pirate ship also seemed to be holding its breath, ready for a close range broadside. The
Lotus
slid smoothly alongside its enemy as if it were docking in a cramped harbour, nudging it gently at the widest part of the beam.

Then all hell broke loose.

When the pirate cannons let rip, over one thousand pounds of iron were loosed at the
Black Lotus
. Grapeshot shredded her rigging and sails, and twenty-four pound balls the size of grapefruit tore through her deck and hull. The air was suddenly filled with splinters, and as time seemed to stand still, Kal was hyper-aware of the carnage all around her: Azul’s giant first mate, a man Kal imagined would be in the thick of the fighting, never got the chance to set foot on board the pirate ship—he was lifted off his feet by a cannonball to the chest and flung out to sea. Three marines were treated to broken necks and spines as the mainmast snapped and fell on top of them, and one of the
Lotus’s
two-ton guns was knocked free of its moorings and slid back across the deck. Dogwood was in the way, and he was crushed against the opposite bulwark. His scream hung in the air seemingly forever …