All of them jumped to their feet, looking to the north, from where the heard another roar.
"The Phantom is under attack!" cried Maxó.
"To the shallop!" Marina ordered. "Leave the boat!"
The pirates left it all behind but their weapons and ran after the girl to the shallop. Marina hurried to board it, hoisting the sail while the men pushed it afloat and jumped onboard.
The wind blew from the southeast, so the pirates bent over the oars to move faster. They dodged the shoal along the beach, and they saw the flashes ahead as soon as they rowed past the keys enclosing the southern side of the bay, only two-hundred yards away.
But the night was so dark they couldn't even see the Phantom, or what it was fighting against. Another sound mixed with the deep roaring of the cannons.
"Swivel guns and muskets!" De Neill said, panting as he kept rowing.
"They're repelling a boarding!" Marina cried.
"What the hell?" Maxó snarled. "They came from Trujillo? How come we didn't see them?"
They had to row a hundred yards to spot the shadow of the other ship. By her size, it could only be a frigate.
"Could it be that Holly Avenger?" asked Gerrit.
"East ahoy!" cried Oliver, his hawk eyes piercing through the darkness.
All of them looked that way and saw another massive shadow gliding among the northern keys. It fired her chasers against the vessel attacking the Phantom.
"Another frigate?"
"I'll be damned!"
"Quiet!" Marina commanded, striking the sail.
The frigate attacking the Phantom had ceased fire and maneuvered to flee from the second frigate sailing into the bay from the north.
"She's coming!" De Neill whispered.
"To the shore!" Marina ordered.
The pirates rowed with all their strength toward the beach. When they were sure the enemy frigate wouldn't ram onto them, they lifted the oars and threw themselves down on the benches, their faces against the gunwale and their pistols ready. They held their breath as the huge vessel cleaved the waters only a dozen yards away from the shallop, looking for a way out of those shallow waters without running aground on a key.
And as it sailed by them, they got to hear the voices onboard. They spoke Spanish. The orders were to steal away from the shoals and wait for the "accursed English" with all their larboard guns ready. Somebody shouted an order to take the prisoners to the hold.
"Hurry!" Marina cried as the shallop still swayed in the frigate's wake. "Did you hear them? They took prisoners!"
The time it took them to reach the Phantom was raw agony for Marina. She had no doubt that frigate was the Holly Avenger Robin had told them about. But if she had any luck left on that black night, the English the Spaniards referred to would be Robin himself and his men.
And she was right. The Victory floated almost side to side with the Phantom.
The girl and the others hardly paused to tie the shallop to the ladder before climbing up to the deck. They found Robin near the mainmast, shouting orders all around. The larboard side had been damaged, and Marina spotted at least a dozen wounded still lying on the weather deck.
"Pearl!" all the pirates cried in relief when they saw her.
"What happened?" she asked, joining Robin and Jean.
"They came out of nowhere, pearl!" Jean replied. "We didn't see them until they were upon us. And they only used their guns to cover the boarding. They didn't want to sink us: they wanted prisoners."
"It's the Holly Avenger," said Robin. "I saw her out of chance near the Swan Islands and followed her all the way here."
"How many did they take?"
"About a dozen, and..."
Marina felt a frozen claw clutching at her heart when she saw Jean's grimace.
"They took Van Dort away," Robin finished, impatient.
The girl managed to breath in enough air not to pass out right there and then, even though she wasn't sure her legs would hold her up.
"Put yourselves together and catch up," said Robin. "If I don't chase them down right now, we will lose them. I'm leaving Sorensen and two dozen men with you, so you can use all your guns."
Marina reacted enough to warn him. "They're waiting for you south of here."
"Thanks, pearl. Then I'm catching those sons of bitches from the other side."
Marina didn't answer. She didn't even look at Robin as he left.
Maxó and Jean traded a worried frown when she brushed past them to head for her cabin. Everybody was startled when she paused at the doorway and turned to them, her voice lashing like a whip despite the tears in her eyes.
"De Neill, take the helm! We're going after the Victory! Oliver, to your top and stay sharp! Maxó, report of casualties, wounded and prisoners! Briand!"
"He's wounded, pearl," a pirate replied.
"Shit! Jean, you take care of the repairs needed because we're in for another battle! Everybody, set to work with your arms at hand! Now move!"
"Aye, aye, pearl!"
Marina stormed into the cabin and slammed the door shut. Then she allowed herself a moment to take a shaky hand to her chest. Morris captive! On a heavy frigate armed by the Inquisition! Her heart seemed about to burst up in flames of anguish and her throat burned in tears she was forced to swallow back.
She didn't take off the light dress she was wearing—she ripped it off her. And doing so, the laces got entangled around the ring in her finger. She yanked it off her hand and threw it to the floor.
"And all of this because I was waiting for Castillano!" she snarled. "Like the same old idiot! If anything happens to Morris...!"
She was back on deck a few minutes later, dressed up in black, pistols and blades on her waist. On the way to the bridge, she paused to look up at the rigging.
"Hurry up, dammit!" she roared. "We'll rest after we got back our brothers!"
She couldn't just stand on the bridge, so she joined the men heaving the rigging.
As soon as the anchor was weighed two feet, De Neill guided the Phantom around the northern keys, after the Victory.
Maxó joined Marina near the bow. "We only have forty able men, pearl."
"Sixty-five, with the English," she replied. "How many are missing?"
"Fifteen, including Morris."
"I'll make them swallow iron and blood," she growled, heading aft.
Maxó rested a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "Cool down, pearl, or we'll only count more dead."
She shook his hand off with glaring eyes. "No, old wolf. I've kept my head cool all this time, and never sought revenge for what they did to me. But today I'm teaching those Inquisition bastards a lesson."