Accidental Duelist

by Jamie Davis

  "It must be harder to navigate when you must make all the turns to curve around the raider territory."

  "That is why I take readings with my sextant in the morning, at noon, and at the evening bell every day. It helps me locate my position on the chart with greater accuracy. Here let me show you how it works."

  Cari watched as the captain showed her how he worked out his position using the navigational tools he had at his disposal. By using his compass, sextant, and charts, Captain McShea said he could gauge his position on the chart with great precision. He used a great chart under a plate of clear glass in his cabin to follow his position, marking each day's progress with a line drawn on the glass using a soot-blackened wax pencil.

  On the third day of teaching her his charting techniques, he allowed her to take the morning readings under his watchful eye and make the notation of their progress overnight. As she drew the line on the glass, she thought about how the use of what she thought of as basic math had practical applications she'd never dreamed of in Fantasma. She might have paid more attention to trigonometry if her teacher had explained how ships used math to chart their course.

  That revelation set off a new chime in her head and a flashing menu popped up. When she checked the notification, she saw she'd gained another new skill on this journey.

  * * *

  New skill learned - Navigation

  * * *

  As soon as the new skill was added to her stats, Cari looked at the chart spread on the table. She saw a range of possible course corrections displayed on the glass next to her course markings. As she focused on each, she saw potential adjustments for things like currents, shifts in the winds, and total sail surface area. Cari suspected the broad variations could be refined more as she leveled up the new skill.

  Captain McShea seemed pleased with her progress and the next morning he handed the sextant to her and told her to take the readings on her own and report the ship's position to him on the chart along with the distance from their destination when she finished her calculations.

  Cari smiled, beaming with pride and headed up to the quarterdeck to "shoot the sun" as the captain said. She was making the final adjustments before taking her reading when a voice from the lookout drifted down to the deck.

  "Sail ho. Ten degrees off the port bow."

  Cari turned and looked to port from her position at the rail. Mr. Bowcott stepped up next to her with the ship’s main spyglass raised to his eye. When he was finished, he cursed under his breath and handed the glass to her.

  "Percy, fetch the captain if you would and then tell the quartermaster to unlock the armory."

  The boy raced off below and Cari put the long spyglass to her eye and leaned over to steady her hip on the rail. The approaching ship leapt into view. She could see it cutting through the sea in their direction, a black and red checkered flag flying from its foremast.

  "Raiders?" Cari asked the first mate.

  "Aye, they’re flying the flag for all to see which is pretty brazen, if you ask me. It’s a good-sized ship, too. If she's got the number of cannon to match their size, we're in trouble for sure. If not, we might be able to fight them off. They'll not expect us to have guns, too. Given their position in the wind, we’ll never outrun them. They’ve got the angle on us to cut us off. We’ll have to trade a few broadsides before we can cut past them."

  Cari handed the spyglass back to Mr. Bowcott and ran for her cabin. She stopped long enough to put the sextant back in its case in the captain's cabin next to the chart locker.

  Returning to her room, she opened the cabinet and pulled out her things. She slipped the sword belt over her head, settling the blade and scabbard at her right hip. She slipped her dagger through her belt on the left side and then headed back to the quarterdeck and the captain amidst a flurry of activity from the crew.

  "Keep that cannon port closed!" Captain McShea bellowed. "Let's now show our hand too fast."

  A group of the crew around one of the guns saluted and replaced the removable section of the ship's rail to keep the cannon hidden. Each of the guns, two on each side, had a crew of three or four prepping them for action.

  Mr. Bowcott walked up to the captain with a large wooden case in his arms. He set it down on the deck and opened it.

  "Cutlasses and boarding axes are being handed out to the crew now. I brought these for the quarterdeck crew."

  Cari peered over his shoulder to see flintlock pistols arrayed in a rack inside the wooden case. The lid had a built-in rack with a row of thin paper tubes tied with string at both ends. They were about the size of her forefinger. There was also a small horn with a wooden butt and a removable cork stopper attached with a string at the small end. That must contain gunpowder, she thought.

  "Good work, Mr. Bowcott," the Captain said. "Hand them out to the crew up here with us. I'll take two for myself."

  The first mate selected two of the pistols and started loading them, selecting two of the paper tubes.

  "I can help load those for you, Mr. Bowcott," Cari said, kneeling down next to him on the deck. She was curious about the process. This was the first time she’d had an opportunity to handle firearms here in Fantasma.

  "Have you handled one of these before?"

  "No, but I learn fast. Show me and I'll get them loaded for you."

  "Alright, watch closely while I load the captain's brace of pistols."

  The first mate picked up one of the paper tubes and demonstrated how to tear open the top of the tube with his teeth. He explained that each tube containing a pre-measured amount of gunpowder and a lead ball. She then took one of the other pistols from the box and followed along while he loaded the second of the captain's two pistols.

  "Good, you've got it. Finish the rest of them and hand them out to the helmsman and the others up here on the quarterdeck. Save one for me. I'll get it later. I've got to get down to the main deck and supervise the loading of the cannons. We haven't drilled on them nearly as much as I'd like."

  Cari set to work while the first mate left to deal with his other responsibilities. There were ten pistols in all inside the case. It didn't take her long to finish the task. When she finished Cari, wished she had a canteen or something to wash the acrid taste of gunpowder from her mouth after tearing open all the cartridges with her teeth.

  Picking up the heavy box, Cari brought it to each person around her starting with the captain. He seemed startled to see her there with the pistols but he reached in and took the first two in the double row. He shot a glance down at her swords and up at her determined face. After a moment of thought, the captain nodded.

  "Stay back and out of the way until we close. If they manage to board us, fight as if your life depended on it. You don't want to be taken prisoner."

  "I understand, Captain."

  "Good." He forced a smile on his face. "We'll get through this in one piece. Just keep your head down."

  Cari nodded and moved around to the rest of the crew on the quarterdeck with the pistols. There were three left when she was finished. She set aside the one for Mr. Bowcott and shoved the final two into her belt.

  Standing there with her wide-brimmed plumed hat, hands on her hips, bristling with weapons, Cari figured she cut quite the figure. She let a smile play across her face, despite the deadly seriousness of what the crew of the small merchant vessel faced.

  The raider ship was close enough to see without a spyglass now. She could see men climbing the rigging as the ship put on more sail to catch the Bonnie Beth. Others clustered along the rail and pointed in the direction of their intended prey.

  All of them were armed, carrying everything from cutlasses, to wicked looking battle axes. It was going to be a dire fight indeed when they caught up to the merchantman.

  The chase was a foregone conclusion. Cari had learned enough of navigation and seamanship to see the angle and judge the wind. It would take perhaps half an hour or so, but soon they would be alongside preparing to board.

 
For now, all they could do was wait. A chill raced down Cari's spine as she stood at the stern rail, watching the raider closing from behind. It wouldn't be long now.

  Chapter 24

  Cari was in no way prepared for the carnage she saw from the first canon broadside from the raider ship. Two of the shots knocked out one of the two guns on the port side, blasting apart the rail and killing the entire four person gun crew.

  Holes were blown in the rail in other areas, killing the members of the Bonnie Beth's crew sheltering behind it. Two feet away from her, the helmsman was decapitated by a cannon ball flying across the quarterdeck. His headless body collapsed to the deck in a spray of blood, the ship's wheel spinning free causing them to start turning in the direction of the raider.

  Seeing what was happening before anyone else, Cari ran over and grabbed at the spokes of the wheel as they spun by, halting the turn. Pulling with all her might, Cari brought the ship back around on course to hold them away from the raider ship. Judging by the angle and the sudden shift in their direction while the wheel spun free, she realized it might be too late.

  Another broadside, this time firing balls connected together by an iron chain causing them to spin through the air, took out whole sections of rigging and ropes holding the masts and sails as they passed through air above the deck. The foremast tilted as the mainstays were cut. The weight of the wind in the sails was too much for it. The mast snapped in half and came crashing down to the deck, crushing several crew members beneath it.

  The second broadside was followed by a dozen thrown grappling hooks as the Bonnie Beth slowed from the loss of sail. Most of the ropes and grapnels connected, clawing at the wood of the smaller merchant ship, the tines digging in as the ropes attached were pulled taught.

  The raiders hauled on the ropes, pulling the two ships closer and closer.

  Mr. Bowcott called down to the main deck for men armed with axes to cut the ropes as fast as they landed but there were too many to cut before the raiders pulled their ships together.

  The captain spotted her by the wheel, trying to turn the ship against the inexorable pull from the grappling lines.

  "Tie off the wheel, Miss Dix, and ready yourself for boarding. Here they come."

  A shouted cheer sounded from the raider ship as the two ships ground together with a crash. Raiders, men and women alike, started leaping across to the Bonnie Beth, yelling their battle cries.

  The leaders of the charge were met at the rail and pushed back, some of them falling back to plunge into the sea below. Others followed, though, and soon the main deck was a mass of men and women, all fighting for their lives.

  A group of raiders raced up the ladders to the quarterdeck. The first two up the ladder fell back as the captain fired his pistols into their faces. Those following snarled with rage and swarmed up to engage the captain, the bosun and the two other crew members assigned there with them.

  Two charged past them to where Cari stood by the helm.

  She drew her sword and dagger and crouched to meet them.

  Her sword whipped up, the speed enhancements she'd added back in Morton Creek bringing a vicious smile to her face.

  The first raider tried in vain to bring his cutlass up to parry the lightning fast blow. He shouted a gurgling cry as his throat was slashed open.

  * * *

  1,200 experience awarded

  * * *

  The second man had to jump backward to avoid the first as he fell over clutching his neck. This gave Cari the opportunity to lunge forward and try to catch him unawares.

  The raider parried the attack and jumped over his fallen shipmate to take the attack to her with his shorter cutlass blade.

  Cari retreated to give herself some room, parrying the first cutlass slash with her dagger. The heavy cutlass blade pressed her arm back against her chest bringing the raider so close, she caught the fetid stench of his breath passing through his clenched, discolored teeth.

  She couldn't bring her sword to bear with him this close and he tried to grab her wrist to pin her other arm in place.

  Cari brought up her knee as hard as she could, driving the man's balls up into him so hard he screamed like a young girl.

  He didn't break away from her, though, and when she tried the knee again, he twisted and took the strike on the hip.

  He twisted the cutlass and slid it downward, pulling it away from her dagger and slashing open a long cut in her arm.

  * * *

  Health damage - health -10

  * * *

  Hissing at the pain, Cari stomped down with her boot's heel on the raider's instep crushing the bones in his foot. He hobbled backwards, favoring the crushed bones in his injured foot. She brought the sword around once again using its enhanced blade speed to drive past his defenses.

  The raider managed desperate parries of the first and second attacks but that left him open to an upward slash from her dagger. It passed up beneath his sternum and drove into his heart. He shouted a pained gasp and fell to the deck.

  * * *

  1,200 experience awarded

  * * *

  An explosion from just below on the main deck picked her up and threw her all the way to the stern. Cari landed hard, her ears ringing. She sat up, seeing double for a few seconds. Everyone on the quarterdeck was down, raider and merchant sailors alike.

  Captain McShea's sightless eyes stared back at her, his chest stained with blood around the two-foot splinter of wood protruding from it.

  Fire and smoke rolled back to the stern from the main deck. One of the gunpowder kegs for the cannons must have ignited. It managed to kill most of the raiders who’d been massed on the main deck, luckily. They had driven the surviving crew members back against the forecastle and took the brunt of the blast for the crew.

  Some of the crew were fighting the remaining raiders, the others were fighting the fire. There was no organization to anything they were doing though. It only took Cari a split second to realize no one was left in command. She didn't know where Mr. Bowcott was but the captain was dead, as was the bosun and the helmsman.

  Over on the raider ship, she saw the pirate captain shouting orders and the few remaining crew members on board were hacking at the lines tying the ships together. If they managed to cut themselves free, the survivors of the Bonnie Beth would die when the ship burned and eventually sank.

  Cari had to get things under control or they were all going to end up floating out here on bits of charred wood.

  She sheathed her sword and ran to the front quarterdeck rail, leaping up and springing off it over the burning main deck. Before she fell into the flames, Cari grabbed at a line tied off from the mainmast and slashed it free with a sweep of her dagger.

  She swung out over the flames to the far side of the main deck. Timing her release so she cleared the fire, Cari let go of the rope, landing with a tumbling roll. She popped back to her feet as soon as she landed looking around for nearby raiders.

  One of them stood over Percy with his cutlass raised to kill the boy.

  Cari's dagger thrust took him in the left kidney and she drove the blade up and to the side, severing one of the great vessels in his abdomen.

  The raider crumpled to the deck with a single, choked-off scream of pain.

  * * *

  1,200 experience awarded

  * * *

  Cari offered a hand to help Percy to his feet.

  "Where's Mr. Bowcott?"

  "He's unconscious up on the forecastle, Miss."

  "We have to get out of here or we're all gonna die on this ship. We’ve only got one option. Run up to the forecastle and get someone to bring the first mate to the rail. Send everyone else to me."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "I'm going to capture us a pirate ship."

  * * *

  Quest accepted - Capture the raider ship

  * * *

  Cari waived her sword in the air over her head as she raised her voice over the shouts and screa
ms.

  "Men and women of the Bonnie Beth, to me. Rally to me. We must take the fight to them or we'll all surely die here. Follow me!"

  A ragged cheer went up from those closest to her. It would have to do.

  Cari ran to the rail, planted her booted foot on it and vaulted across the gap between the ships. Only two or three lines still held the two ships together.

  She kicked downward at an axe-wielding raider below her as she landed. Her boot caught him in the face and he fell backward.

  Drawing her sword, Cari stabbed down at the raider on the deck beside her. He spasmed once and lay still.

  * * *

  1,200 experience awarded

  * * *

  A thump beside her, then another, announced the arrival of two of her crew mates from the burning ship.

  Cari pointed along the rail with her sword.

  "Stop those men from cutting us free. We need to give our survivors time to come over."

  "Aye aye, ma'am."

  Both men ran forward and attacked the two raiders cutting at the lines tying the ships together.

  More survivors from the Bonnie Beth came over and she sent the first arrivals to help the first two. The rest she formed into an expanding defensive semicircle around their little beachhead on the raider ship.

  When she had fifteen armed survivors standing with her, all wounded in one way or another, Cari made the decision to try for the raider's quarter deck and control of the ship.