With grim resolve, she grabbed hold of the thruster controls in order to swivel them about. The sky went dark as the large hull of the pirate ship blocked out the sun. The Water Lily dipped in a desperate bid for freedom.
Suddenly there was a loud clanging noise. The ship shuddered and listed sharply to the port side. The sudden jolt caused a universal pressure release, and with a hiss of steam the engines went out.
Elle grabbed her periscope and swung it round. The pirate ship was directly above them. Above her, the Water Lily’s balloon billowed limply below it. Her rigging cables creaked as the hull swung in the bottom drag caused by the hull of the bigger ship.
The Water Lily was securely caught in the row of grappling hooks attached to the bottom of the hull of the pirate ship. And judging by the flapping of the balloon canvas, she appeared to have bled out all of her gas.
“That’s not terribly good, is it?” Dr. Bell said.
“No, it’s not,” Elle replied. Her duck-and-cover maneuver had been too little, too late, and they were now stuck, with no means of escape. Elle felt a wave of panicky fear rise up into her throat. They were in very big trouble indeed.
CHAPTER 5
The sharp rattle of her communications console startled Elle out of her fear-induced stupor.
Elle grabbed the speaking tube. “What?” she said rather rudely.
“This is the captain of the pirate ship Inanna. You are completely immobilized. Any further resistance will only result in your death.”
“How dare you attack my ship, you vile bastard? Have you no honor? I will never surrender to you!” she shouted.
The captain just laughed at her fury. “Prepare to be boarded. Any resistance will be met with violence. You have been warned.” The console lights went out as the communication was terminated.
There were a series of loud thumps overhead as the pirates dropped down onto the roof of the Water Lily.
“I’m so sorry,” Elle said to Dr. Bell.
Dr. Bell just closed the shotgun and aimed for the hatch. “Oh, I think we could still give them a run for their money. I for one am not prepared to give up my artifacts so easily. Not after all I’ve been through to find them.”
“Right on.” Elle pulled her revolver out and cocked it. “We fight until we cannot fight any longer, but please be careful, Gertrude.”
Dr. Bell just gave her a reassuring smile. “Never you mind about me. I can take care of myself. You should rather pay attention to staying alive yourself, hmm?”
“Right. United we stand, divided we fall.” She gripped her pistol. “Bring it on, you rotters.”
Slowly the hatch above them creaked open. A pair of heavy rubber-soled, steel-tipped boots appeared at the top of the ladder. Attached to the boots was a pair of legs, clad in brown canvas trousers, soon followed by a broad leather belt and the bottom of a shirt and waistcoat.
Then there was the eardrum-ripping boom that only a shotgun could make, as Dr. Bell dispatched the pirate before he could even draw his weapon. The cabin filled with gun smoke as he dropped to the floor with a dull thump, his face covered by the leather aviator mask.
Chaos ensued as the pirates boarded the Water Lily.
Elle took out the next two men who came through the hatch. They too dropped to the floor on top of their departed compatriot.
Then the shooting started in earnest as more pirates than Elle and Gertrude could take aim at dropped through the hatch. Chaos ensured as the pirates boarded the Water Lily.
Elle ducked behind the flight console as bullets pinged all around her; at that moment feeling deeply grateful for the solid-oak paneling of the Water Lily. The noise and smell of gunfire left her deaf and almost blind but she had to keep fighting. With fingers that were slippery with fear sweat, she reloaded the Colt and took aim.
The pirates who stole through the hatch looked a raggedy lot, and judging by the way they moved, they were quite used to fighting in close quarters. They easily avoided her shots, which grew more urgent and less accurate as the cabin filled with invaders.
“Gertrude, take cover!” she yelled, but it was too late. She watched in horror as one of the pirates raised his pistol to take proper aim at her shotgun-wielding friend.
Elle saw the man’s face draw into a satisfied grin as he pulled the trigger. “Gertrude! No!” Elle shouted as the shot hit the older woman squarely in the stomach. Elle raised her Colt and shot the pirate in the face. His head exploded like a melon, with bright red gore splattering against the wood paneling behind him.
Dr. Bell gasped and let go of the shotgun as she slumped against the woodwork.
“Stop!” Elle shouted. “Please stop shooting. We surrender!” She stepped out from behind her hiding place and held out her revolver to signal surrender.
One of the pirates grabbed Elle by the collar. He pressed the muzzle of his pistol against her temple.
“Enough with the shooting, little girl,” he sneered through tobacco-yellowed teeth. “Drop the gun.”
Elle felt the cold of true terror as her Colt was wrenched from her grip.
Someone grabbed her arms and dragged her hands up over her head. She flinched as they tied her wrists together. The rough rope bit into the delicate scarred skin of her wrists. The pirate pushed her to the floor and she landed heavily on her knees next to where Dr. Bell lay.
“Gertrude,” Elle gasped.
The older woman lay back with her hand on her belly. She looked pale. Deep red blood seeped through her fingers and onto the wood of the deck. “Oh dear, I seem to have gotten myself in a spot of bother,” she muttered.
“Hold on,” Elle whispered as she dragged herself onto her knees. “We need to keep pressure on the wound. She pressed down with her bound hands, but dark red blood kept seeping through her fingers. “They must have a doctor on board who can help. Pirates always have medics on their crew.” She did her best to stop her voice from trembling.
“Oh, I don’t think we’ll have time for that, my dear,” said Dr. Bell. “I think the bullet has gone right through me, quite possibly severing my spine. You see, I can’t feel or move my legs at the minute.”
“There has got to be something we can do,” Elle said. “I am not letting you die. Not like this.”
“Stay alive,” Dr. Bell whispered. “Do what you must, but stay alive,” she added before she closed her eyes.
“No, please,”’ Elle said. She felt a sudden, unbidden tear trickle down her cheek.
The pirates had evidently found what they were looking for: loud whoops of excitement along with the violent crunch of crowbars on wooden crates rose up from the freight hold.
The big pirate with the beard and the yellow teeth came striding into the cockpit with his huge fist clamped round a jeweled goblet. “Nubian gold,” he sneered. “The Cap’n is going to be pleased.”
“Take whatever you want. Just please could you get my companion to a doctor? She needs help,” Elle pleaded.
The pirate laughed. “Then she shouldn’t ’ave been shooting at us in the first place. The Cap’n did warn you there’d be trouble if you did that.”
“Please,” Elle said again. “She’s going to die if you don’t help us.”
The pirate strode over to them and cast an eye over Dr. Bell. He scratched his beard and sucked air through his teeth as he regarded the wound. “That bullet’s gone straight into the gut,” he said after a few moments. “There ain’t a doctor alive that can cure a shot like that. She’ll be a goner in a few hours, for sure. But I’ve orders to take you alive so you’d best wait here quietly until the Captain calls for you.”
“If you’ve orders to take us alive, then you should get us to your sick bay. If she goes, I do too,” Elle said.
The pirate ignored her. Instead, he strode over to the cockpit. “My, but it’s hot in here. Must be from the shooting. He shrugged off the black canvas coat he was wearing and flung himself into the pilot seat. Then he put his great hobnail boots up onto the flight consol
e and stretched out. “Ah, that’s a nice chair. I think I might take it for myself.” Then he grabbed the communications tube and barked a few orders into it.
“Pity you ripped the balloon on this one. She’s a pretty little freighter. But I reckon she’d fetch a nice price, ripped canvas or not.” His face broke open in a dirty grin. “A bit like her little pilot. What d’ya say?” He guffawed at his joke.
Elle just glared at him with cold anger. There was much she wanted to say to this vile man, but she had to stay calm for Gertrude’s sake.
She watched with naked hatred as the pirates carried the crates up through the hatch and into the hull of the Inanna.
Elle’s back ached from sitting in such an awkward position and her hands were numb, but she held on to Dr. Bell, willing her own life force into her and hoping for a miracle. From time to time, she felt the strange trickle of energy slip between them. It was, after all, the function of an Oracle to channel the energies of the worlds, but she had no knowledge of the healing skills of the Shadow Realm. Gertrude was growing quieter and paler by the minute, and Elle could see that what she was doing was not enough. There was so little aether up here that there was not much more she could do.
The pirate with the yellow teeth eventually strode up to them. “That one still alive?” he enquired.
“Please. You must help her,” Elle murmured. “Look, I’m a good pilot. I can navigate. Let me work in return for her treatment.”
The pirate laughed heartily at her offer, but he did stand back and survey them for a moment. Elle could almost see the cogs and gears turning inside his meaty head. “That’s a mighty fine offer, but who says we don’t already have a good navvy on board?”
“I’ll do anything … anything you want if you just get her to a doctor,” Elle said.
The pirate scratched the back of his greasy neck. “Well, as I said before, I have strict orders to bring you aboard alive.”
“And what if we resist?”
“Well, then I have orders to shoot you. Not kill you, mind. Just maim you a little. Seems our Captain wants a word with you.” He shrugged. “You should count yourself lucky that we only have orders to put the two of you into a life-raft balloon and set adrift out there if you refuse.” He wiped his huge hand on his none-too-clean shirt, leaving a brownish streak of what may have been blood or engine grease across it. “Millions of square miles of nothing but sand and sun,” he said sniffing.
“If I come without protest, will you ask your doctor to help my friend?”
The pirate shrugged. “Can’t promise anything, but if we bring her on board, Doc said he’d look.”
Elle closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Very well then, I accept,” she said. She could play at being a willing prisoner if it meant there was a chance of getting Dr. Bell some help. She could find a way to escape later.
The pirate grinned through his thick beard and the skin around his eyes crinkled with pleasure. “Well then, Osbert Heller’s the name. First mate and bosun of the Inanna.
“Eleanor Chance,” Elle said.
“Well, welcome aboard the Inanna, Eleanor Chance,” he said in a tone that was anything but welcoming.
He turned and whistled. “Elias! Finn! Get a stretcher and take the old lady to the infirmary. See if Doc can do something for her. Cap’n wants to see the other one. Chop-chop.”
With that, Heller gripped Elle with his enormous hands and dragged her to her feet. She barely had an opportunity to ensure that Dr. Bell’s head did not hit the floor before she was hoisted along and shoved up the ladder that led out of the hatch. Outside, boarding scaffolding had been lashed to the fuselage leading up to an open cargo hatch in the hull.
Elle also noted, with some dismay, that more large iron hooks and tether ropes were holding the Water Lily in place now. There would be no escaping from here without a fight. And it was a fight she was not so sure she would win on her own.
“Up the ladder then,” Heller said as he shoved her toward it. “And no funny tricks or your friend won’t see the doctor.”
Elle gritted her teeth and started climbing the ladder. This was not an easy task, considering the fact that her hands were bound. She slipped once or twice on the rungs. Each time she stumbled, Heller gripped her painfully and hoisted her up before him. “Come on, girly. I thought you were a pilot,” he growled. “Steady on now.”
When Elle’s head reached the top of the ladder, she was unceremoniously seized by the collar and dragged inside.
The first thing that hit her was a blast of warm air, slick and damp with the smell of metal and engine grease. She stumbled along the narrow gangway that led from the cargo hatch. She was on board the Inanna.
Inside, the ship was enormous, with walkways and doors stretching off to all sides. Everything was painted in the same drab shade of anticorrosive paint that prevented the ship from rusting. This was indeed a warship, she thought as she looked around. It was solid, impenetrable and a million times different from the pretty wood paneling and hand-painted windowpanes of the Water Lily.
Elle felt a strange sense of claustrophobia envelop her. All her senses felt dull—as if she had her head inside a metal bucket. Iron, she thought. This ship is made of iron.
Even with her navigational skills, Elle was soon lost as she was manhandled down yet another narrow corridor by Heller. He kept one of his large hands clamped securely around her elbow, forcing her to walk in front of him, their footfalls clunking along the metal walkway.
As they walked, Elle stared sideways at Heller’s hip. Peeking out from underneath the leather waistcoat was her Colt, tucked away into his belt. It sat there, its pearl butt jiggling just out of reach.
She resolved that retrieving it would be the first thing she did. A bullet between this hideous man’s eyes would quite possibly be the second. She was secretly relieved that no one had bothered to check her for other weapons. Her stiletto sat tucked securely in a front pocket of her corset. It would take more than a cursory search to find it. She would sort out her escape later. For now, saving Gertrude was all that mattered.
They came to a closed door and stopped. Heller reached over to turn the round metal wheel that operated the opening mechanism. As he moved, Elle caught the distinct smell of engine grease, unwashed bodies and stale tobacco. Elle closed her eyes and tried to block out the awfulness of him brushing past her.
The door swung open with a clang.
“Permission to enter the ready room with the prisoner, Captain,” Heller said.
“Permission granted Mr. Heller,” a man said from inside.
Without further ceremony, Heller shoved Elle through the door. She stumbled but he was still holding on to her so she ended up being half dragged until he dropped her into a heap on the floor.
“Miss Chance. Or is it Lady Greychester? It’s nice to see you again,” the Captain said.
Elle looked up and felt all the blood drain from her face. “You!” was all she managed to stammer. Before her was none other than Captain Logan Dashwood.
He gave her a lazy smile. “The one and only,” he said.
Suddenly furious, Elle found her feet and yanked her elbow out of Heller’s grasp. “How dare you steal the Water Lily!” she shouted at him. “Dr. Bell is likely to die because of you!”
Dashwood sat back in his chair. “My dear Mrs. Marsh, if I recall correctly, you stole the Iron Phoenix off me in Amsterdam. You had no compunction about leaving me stranded with my crew at that point. We could have died too, you know.”
“There was no shooting. No one got hurt!” she said. “I won that fair and square,”
“Oh no you didn’t. You never let on that you were gifted by the Shadow. Took me for all I had, if I recall rightly.”
“You were the one who was cheating.” Elle lurched at him, the intention to kill upon her, but Heller had grabbed hold of her and dragged her back.
“Easy now. That’s no way to address a Captain, now is it?” he said.
“Let go of me, you hairy gorilla.” Elle spat.
Dashwood sat back in his seat, enjoying the spectacle. “It’s all right, Heller. Let her be.”
Heller set Elle back onto her feet. She straightened her coat and glared at him.
He shrugged and ambled up to the doorway where he leaned against the door, crossed his arms, and regarded Elle with hard eyes, slightly narrowed.
At well over six foot and with a chest as broad as an oak, this was not a man she wished to tangle with, she realized.
“Not only did you steal my beautiful ship, you then crashed her into the ground near Battersea,” Dashwood said, drawing her attention back to him.
“I was not flying her and you know it,” Elle said.
Dashwood was right though. He and Ducky Richardson—one of her oldest friends—had come to lend their assistance at the Battersea spark monastery in London during her attempt to rescue Marsh from the lair of the Lady in White. The rigging of the Iron Phoenix had become entangled with another ship, with disastrous consequences. Both had crashed into the ground, causing untold damage.
“Does Ducky even know you’re a—a pirate?” Elle said.
“Oh yes. In fact he’s been on a few raids with me,” Dashwood said smoothly. “I think he quite enjoys the excitement of it all.”
“And what about Dr. Bell? What did she ever do to you to deserve this?”
Dashwood’s face colored for a second. “Look, I am sorry about your friend. My men had orders to take you alive and unhurt. You shouldn’t have opened fire on us. Accidents happen.”
“And you think that justifies your actions?” Elle said, horrified at his glib attempt at shifting the blame.
He sat forward, his eyes suddenly intensely blue. “You gave the lady a shotgun instead of surrendering like you should have. You are the one with blood on your hands, Mrs. Marsh. Not me.”
Elle stared at him in disbelief. There was no point in arguing with him. “Can I see her, please?” she said, changing tactics.
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