Crystal Rain (27 page)

Read Crystal Rain Online

Authors: Tobias S. Buckell

BOOK: Crystal Rain
4.66Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
 
 
The swells calmed. The steamship no longer plunged its bow into the troughs of the vicious north seas, but cut its way through a small white chop that sprang up with a strong wind. A lone seagull swooped down into the small waves by
La Revanche
’s side. It plunged its beak into the water to pluck out a struggling fish that glinted silver in the sun.
“I see reef.” John held a brass spyglass to his left eye, balancing it on the end of his hook. He handed it over to Barclay.
Barclay stared through it. “Yeah, that look right.”
“Good, good.” John smiled. Barclay’s blue uniform looked ragged and unwashed. “You ever navigate the Lantail Reefs before?”
“Once I see them, I know the reef.”
“Then take the helm. Put us right through the middle channel.” If they skirted the islands, there was always a chance of hitting hidden offshore reef thanks to faulty charts. The islands and the channel were well-known, a safe bet. “I’m going up the mast.” John walked down the deck, pulled himself up onto the rail, and took to the ropes to clamber up and join the men in the crow’s nest. They watched him use his hook to maneuver up through the ropes and gave him a hand getting in.
“It a nice view from up here, eh?” John stood up with them.
“Yeah, but it look like a lot reefs is around.”
They could see the craggy hills of the Lantails, and the water brightened from a dark blue into an aquamarine as the water got shallow. John shared the nest with his men until they passed through the worst of the reef, barking down warnings as they sidled too close to the brown patches of coral and rock.
The islands loomed up on either side as they went up the middle of the channel.
The Lantails. It meant they were over a third of the way there. They were making good time.
When John was navigator on the outbound expedition, the Lantails had been the edge of the map: the place where the largest fishing vessels stopped and turned around. The reefs extended outward for miles and miles, notorious for sinking explorers this far north.
Before they passed out from in between the hills of the Lantails, John had another decision to make.
John crawled out of the crow’s nest.
 
When his feet his the deck, he walked forward toward the bowsprit. At the wooden, slatted doors of the sail locker the two shirtless mongoose guards got up and saluted him.
“Pepper, you there?” John hit the slats with the palm of his hand. “Pepper?”
“I’m here,” Pepper said.
“We’re at the Lantails.”
“Not bad.”
John crouched by the door and looked in. He could only see dark shadows between the tiny pieces of wood.
“So what am I supposed to do with you?” John asked. “You say you aren’t the one who blew up the back of the boat, you know my son is okay, and you seem to know a lot about what is going on.” John looked around. “Should I leave you here on these islands?”
“That wouldn’t be good. Your survival depends on me.”
“Really? Do you have another trap waiting for us? Will it go off if you aren’t appeased?”
“John.” Pepper sighed. “I’m not that kind of person.”
“Maybe, but I can’t really be sure, can I?”
“That’s true. Let me out, I’ll find who your saboteur is and save you all sorts of trouble.”
“No.”
“Come on, John.” Pepper’s eyes appeared between the slats as he leaned forward. John wondered if Pepper would be able to survive on the rocky Lantails, and if it was fair to maroon any man on mere suspicions.
The steamship rocked some as it encountered choppy
water. They would be rounding the cliffs and heading back out toward open water. John had twenty minutes to decide whether to throw Pepper into one of the skiffs with enough food to live on the Lantails until the next fishing boat came out.
Which might not be for months.
“Hey!” The two men in the crow’s nest shouted. “Them boat!”
John jumped up. A faint boom reached them on the deck. He scrambled up to the railing and looked out in front of
La Revanche.
A geyser of water erupted just off the bow. He raced over to the other side. A large green ship with full canvas bore down on them. It had been hidden by the cliffs and islands. Damn it. Damn it. They’d have to turn and run, skirt the islands and reefs, lose time.
A second shot from its bow gun whistled overhead.
“A trap,” Harrison shouted, coming up from belowdecks. He had his shirt in his left hand and a rifle in his right.
“Get your rifles!” John yelled. “Uncover the deck gun.”
“John,” Pepper said from the sail locker. “Don’t forget the other two ships.”
Right. John ran down the deck, dodging ropes and tackle, crew and hatches. He stopped amidships and leaned back to shout at the crow’s nest.
One man had crawled out and clambered halfway down the nets.
“What the hell are you doing?” John shouted.
“I coming down.”
“The hell you are. There might be two other ships out there. Find them and tell me where they are.”
Another shot landed fifteen feet short of
La Revanche
’s side. The spray drifted over the rail. John took a good look at the Azteca ship. It was sail-powered; he couldn’t see a smokestack anywhere. They could outrun it if they lasted through the shelling. He walked down the deck to Barclay.
“In all of this time the Azteca never make a ship. We ain’t really made for fighting,” Barclay said.
The deck gun was being uncovered from its waterproof
canvas by two mongoose-men. A third mongoose-man stumbled up from under the hold with a single shell. Another came behind him with another, and two more struggled topside with a trunk of ammunition.
“We’ll improvise,” John said as they swiveled the barrel to face the Azteca ship. “Get everyone armed. We going as fast as we can?”
“As fast as we go get without busting something,” Barclay said.
Harrison walked up to them, pulling on his shirt. He looked at the Azteca ship. “Ten minute before she catch us,” he estimated. “I say turn around, skirt the island.”
La Revanche
steamed straight north, and the Azteca ship came down at an angle off the starboard bow.
“Reef on either side,” John said. It’d be hard to dodge the other ship. He looked down the channel they’d steamed their way up. Harrison was right. He opened his mouth to give the order.
“Them other two ship behind we” came the word from the crow’s nest. John reached for Barclay’s spyglass and took a look. The other two ships Pepper had warned him about rounded the channel behind them. They couldn’t catch
La Revanche
, but they had cut them off.
“What we go do?” Barclay asked.
John looked at the large, yellowed sails of the Azteca boat. Another boom and puff of smoke from the front of that ship, and this time they heard a whistle close overhead, twanging some rigging. Everyone ducked. The shot landed fifty yards on the other side.
“We go forward. Faster,” John said. Barclay opened his mouth and John kept going. “Tell your engineer to go
faster
or we all die.”
“Okay.” Barclay ran down to the nearest companionway. He grabbed the wooden trim, his fingers scraping the edge, then disappeared below with a jump.
 
John ran midships as he watched the progress of the Azteca ship long enough to make sure they would intersect
La Revanche.
“What that on them sail?” someone behind him asked.
John frowned and looked at the image on the advancing ship’s full sails.
“A lady’s face.” The face in question had tassels hanging down from either side, and blue and white shapes decorated the edges.
“Chalchihuitlicue.” Oaxyctl leaned against the rail next to John. He held his atlatl in one hand and throwing spears bundled in the other. “Jade Skirt Goddess, She Who Was the Water. Those are her symbols.”
Appropriate for Azteca sailors, John thought.
La Revanche
’s gun fired. A cloud of smoke floated out over the rear cabin. Mongoose-men lined up on deck and checked their rifles.
Harrison joined them. “They go ram we?” he asked.
“They might. All they have to do is stop us, and then wait for the other two ships to pick them up if they sink,” John said. “They can afford to lose a boat.”
“If she bow got good wood, or some metal in it, it go tear we side up real bad.”
“True.” John watched. Another shot made everyone on deck flinch. An upper boom cracked and fell down into the rigging.
La Revanche
responded with a shot of her own.
“We have more maneuverability and speed,” John said. “We need to use that.” He walked back down toward the helmsman, dodging a pile of rope.
La Revanche
’s gun fired again, deafening him.
The Azteca ship fired back; it sounded louder now that it was closer. Small pops carried over the foaming water; Azteca rifles. The mongoose-men returned shots, but Major Avasa shouted for them to wait. The Azteca ship was still too far away.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” John yelled at the helmsman, standing so he could talk and watch the Azteca ship. “Wait until the last minute, then turn hard right to try and get around him. We don’t want him to hit us. We need to hit him while getting around him. Understand?”
The helmsman nodded. The Azteca ship came from
La Revanche’
s northeast and
La Revanche
steamed straight north. The Azteca had a sail ship; it would take a while for them to turn and keep
La Revanche
boxed in.
La Revanche
could steam north hard, wait until the last second, then turn hard east and get around the Azteca ship. But it would be tight with the reefs on either side.
La Revanche
fired. The men on the gun cheered as they hit something.
“And have someone bring up your replacement, have him lay low, in case you get hit.”
The helmsman’s eyes widened. The Azteca ship fired back. A whistling sound snapped through the air, and the sound of exploding wood made everyone jump. The middle of the starboard rail sagged. Three sailors lay in a bloody heap on the deck, one moaning. John’s heart raced.
“I go do that.” The helmsman turned and yelled at one of the sailors on deck to come be his replacement.
“Barclay,” John yelled. Barclay had come back up topside. “We’re going to turn hard right in a minute and try to go behind them.”
Barclay actually grinned. “I see. Engine full astern for the turn, get back up to speed. I like it.”
“I’m going forward.”
John walked forward. This wasn’t Capitol City, but they were going to face Azteca. It almost felt good, being forced into this trap. The wind kicked up, tussling John’s hair and the edges of his shirt. It gave the Azteca ship more speed, and the Azteca sailors used the opportunity to try to put their ship almost dead in front of
La Revanche.
“Shit.”
La Revanche
fired again.
“Here.” One of the mongoose-men handed John a rifle.
“Everyone move to the port side,” John yelled. “That’s where they’ll hit us.” Mongoose-men moved to the left side of the bow, though the Azteca ship was off the starboard bow and they couldn’t shoot their rifles at it now.
John put his hook into the trigger guard but behind the trigger and let the rifle dangle as he continued toward the bow. The Azteca’s sails loomed, the larger-than-life caricature of their water goddess looking down at them. It closed in fast, sail canvas taut with the wind, and
La Revanche
strained forward through the water to meet her.
The Azteca’s guns kept firing, smacking into the metal sides, tearing at the rigging, and exploding into the water
around them. The mongoose-men kept
La Revanche
’s single gun firing.
John looked back at the helmsman. “Hard starboard,” he shouted. Sailors repeated the shout down the side of the ship. The steam engine beneath vibrated the entire hull as they started the maneuver, engines churning in full reverse.
La Revanche
turned east and the two ships faced each other bow to bow.
La Revanche
kept turning. Now the Azteca ship was off the port side of the bow, not the starboard.
“Now!” Avasa yelled. The mongoose-men fired their rifles in series.
“Go, go, go,” John screamed.
La Revanche
surged forward. The Azteca ship let its sails flutter in the wind as they tried to turn in and still hit
La
Revanche
. John had them steaming for the reefs, but the Azteca ship was still trying to turn into their side and ram them. They hadn’t dodged her yet.

Other books

Nillium Neems by Francisco J Ruiz
Mrs. Dalloway (Annotated) by Virginia Woolf
America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction by John Steinbeck, Susan Shillinglaw
A Calculus of Angels by Keyes, J. Gregory
A Perfect Mistress by Barbara Mack
Another Love by Amanda Prowse
Unforgiven by Calhoun, Anne