Winds of Fate [Books I-III]

Chapter 140: A Life You've Always Wanted (Part One)

The light comes first.

Starbursts cleave the black clouds open atop Tortuga's hill, flashing hot and spinning furiously. They make a fiery path plummeting downward, illuminating the faces of Sparta's crew and the rest of the pirates along the port watching on the decks of their ships with mouths agape in awe and disbelief.

Even James halts; he knows what it is, where it will go, but still he is chained to his place, denial overtaking his senses as the cannonball blazes through the Fortress' ramparts, sending chips of the gray boulders tumbling down.

His blood pumps with a steady woosh behind his ears, dampened only by the muffled crash that finally rolls down the hilltop to the port; a crisp crack, followed by the cruel hiss of fire.

Cold sweat breaks out his forehead.

"Dear Baby Jesus," Nigel whispers beside, his knitted cap over his mouth.

James heaves as his the deck threatens to spin underneath him. A captain needs a moment, and at that moment, he takes a quick glance of the deck, and terrified faces meet his. He glances up, beyond the quarterdeck.

The familiar outline of a sloop disturbs the shadows.

"Full sail!" James hollers up to the riggers and runs to the rails to feel the wind. "Prepare for battle!"

"Oh, no, no!" Maddy cries, aghast, beside the shaman who has picked up her implements. "We can't leave! Nellie! The Captain! And Eugenie and Ben went after them!"

Vic raises a finger. "Aggy too!"

"Aye, and Thibaud." Ricky swallows hard, looking up at Ulric, who has paled so much his skin could rival a whalebone. "Thibaud hasn't..."

James closes his eyes. Damn the second, a second is not enough to solve all their problems. But then, he sees Nigel send the midshipmen to work, with Victor and Jay and Maurice stubbornly lingering behind. "You know what Eleanore said!" He scowls. "If we stay, we'll sink!"

Decisive and firm, he never once betrays any doubt. Madeline shivers, but there, with the older pirates taking James' side and the younger ones too terrified to stand up, tears sting her eyes at the fate awaiting her dear friend with such thoughtless, immediate decisions.

"If they don't die, they'll be captured!"

She trembles as her voice breaks, and Madeline wipes her sudden tears in disgust, heart aching even more at the worry in the Vic and Jay's eyes.

James swivels on his heels and turns to her, but the fury in his face at that impudence dissipates immediately when he lowers his eyes.

Only then does she see how her hands had been shaking. "How," Madeline weeps,"How can you do this?!"

Disbelief crosses his face, until James mutters a curse and looks away, pinching his forehead—

"Take up arms!" Douglas hollers, oblivious to them. "To yer stations!" He eyes Jay. "Yer stations!"

Madeline holds her breath.

But it doesn't take long before James looks up. "I need someone to stay behind and meet them," he resigns, and then walks up to her, "we're in a battle, Miss. We cannot stay put in one place." The gust fills their sails, luffing them with a crackle. "But you're right too. They need to know we didn't just leave them."