Soraya limped back onto the bridge. “I’m fine,” she said, looking anything but. “I just tripped when the sound came.”

Anton nodded, but couldn’t spare much attention for the courl girl. He was focused on the two galleys he was engaged with. One was dead in the water, the other was moving in fast. Soraya looked forward, to where they were heading.

“I thought I told you that we couldn’t ram!” she yelled. Anton ignored her. After Kelsey’s attack, the archers on the first galley were in no condition to fire on them, and while the second galley was in arrow range, the first was too close to their line of fire to risk it.

Anton tried to figure out where each ship was going to go and frowned. If he was right, the second captain had not only worked out what he was going to try but had also worked out a counter to it. Still, there wasn’t much else for him to do.

The first galley was starting to loom over them as Kelsey finished tending to Tyla and ran forward.

“Kelsey!” Anton called. “We’re pretty sure the oars are manned by slaves, aren’t we?”

“Spoilsport!” she called back. Anton took that to mean she’d grasped his meaning. “The top deck is fair game, though, right?”

How is she going to shoot the top deck? Anton wondered. The galley was a full three yards taller than their boat’s top deck. That hadn’t mattered at a distance, but now that they were closer, Anton’s view of the archers was already blocked. He would have left it to her to decide, but then he remembered her reloading time.

“No! Wait until we come out from behind, and target the second ship!” he yelled. Then he spun the wheel so that his boat swung to the side, no longer on a ramming course. Then he swung back so that they would pass the ship and have it block the sight of the second galley.

It might not have worked if the galley had been fully operational. As it was, they tried to reorient the ship but failed. Too many of the oars were hanging limply in the water, getting in the way of the working ones.

This is exactly what the other captain expected me to do, Anton reminded himself. He hoped he wasn’t overestimating the galley captain but he felt confident about his assessment. The captain did this for a living, there was no way that Anton was going to outsail him.

But Kelsey had left him with one surprise to pull. He jammed the throttle to the maximum. The pitch of the engine rose higher and the Whiskerwind jumped forward.

“Look out for oars!” he called as Kelsey whooped in glee. They sped past the galley, not close enough to touch, but close enough that any oars left in the water got splintered against the Whiskerwind’s hull. Most of the still-working oarsmen saw them coming, and raised their oars high, out of danger. One enterprising crew tried to bring their oar down on Kelsey, but she laughed and shot it to pieces with her handgun.

Aris started taking shots, using her pistols to shoot at targets of opportunity, as men and courls started looking over the side of the galley at them.

Now that they were closer, Anton could see the damage that Kelsey had done to the ship. Her bullets had punched holes right through the hull and had gone on to injure those behind. He couldn’t see into the lower decks, but, based on the number of inactive oars, they must have been awash with blood.

It was only a few moments more, and then they were past the first galley. As Anton had predicted, the second galley captain had lined himself up perfectly.

They must practice these maneuvers, Anton thought. One ship shielding the other, so when it moves out of the way, the other is poised to strike.

If Anton had kept at his previous speed, the second ship would have been perfectly placed to slam into him from the side. It must have taken great skill to get it exactly right— or maybe the captain had a Trait. Too fast, and he would have rammed his ally, too slow and Anton would have slipped out of reach.

He’d gotten it right, but Anton had arrived early. Which meant the Whiskerwind was sliding past the deadly underwater ram, just out of reach. The second galley wasn’t out of reach of Kelsey’s deck-sweeper though.

“And it isn’t even my birthday!” she exclaimed. Then she fired.

BRAP-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA

This time, Anton noticed more than just the overwhelming sound. He felt the way the entire ship shuddered with the recoil. He saw the puffs of smoke and splinters as the bullets smashed their way into the hull. As he’d requested, Kelsey directed her fire slightly upward, shooting through the hull to rake fire across the entire top deck.

Anton didn’t know how a galley was arranged, but he was fairly sure that the top deck was where the archers were, where the captain and the important officers were. They were all targets of Kelsey’s fire. Maybe a fourth-tier like Al-Kadir could dodge or block bullets. For these guys, survival was purely a matter of chance. Kelsey couldn’t see who she was aiming at, they couldn’t see the bullets coming.

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This time, when Kelsey stopped firing, they were close enough to hear the screams over the sound of the engine.

“Yeah! Take that, capitalist pigs!” Kesley called. She left her position and headed back to the stern deck.

Anton pulled the throttle back to what it was before. He fought the urge to turn around and offer help.

Those are the enemy, he reminded himself. Those are the ones who raid Zamarra whenever they feel like getting a few more slaves.

Aris was looking equally sombre. She stepped closer to him, and he pulled her in for a one-armed hug.

Soraya was looking back across their wake with a stricken look on her face. “How…” she said.

“That’s the power of modern engineering!” Kelsey said brightly. She clapped Soraya on the back. “You’re on the winning team now, kid.”

They stared back in silence. It was fortunate that the boat didn’t need any input from them. It just kept on travelling on the same heading, out into open sea.

Finally, Tyla called out from above. “The barge is stopping to render assistance,” she said.

“Does that mean we’ve gotten away?” Anton said. A notification and a surge of experience was his answer.

You have reached Level 3.

Applying Benefits for Level 3

Strength +1

Toughness + 1

Agility + 1

Dexterity + 1

Perception + 1

Willpower + 1

Charisma +1

Please allocate 2 free Ability points.

“We did,” he said, answering himself. “I’m getting the experience from freeing the slaves.”

Almost without thought, he put the free points in Strength and Toughness. He had a long way to go before he could catch up with Al-Kadir, but it was a start.

“There might be some in there for your awesome job at captaining,” Kelsey said.

“It was pretty heroic,” Aris said. “I thought we were going to die when that second ship came at us.”

“That weapon, though,” Soraya said nervously. “I knew guns were… dangerous, but I had no idea they could get that powerful.”

Kelsey pouted. “I just wish I’d had time to train someone on it so the experience wasn’t wasted,” she said. “Can you imagine if Cheia had made all those kills?”

“I’m not sure I want Cheia being… that comfortable with killing so many people,” Aris said. “I’d much rather she transitioned into a lady-in-waiting or something.”

Anton blinked. Now that he thought about it, Cheia was the sister-in-law of the Baron, ie, himself. Did that make her noble? He wasn’t sure, but he resolved to ask Suliel when they got back.

“You took up guns,” Soraya said, and Anton could hear a hint of disapproval in her voice.

“I did what I had to, to save Cheia,” Aris said, her voice hard. “I’d do a lot more if I had to.”

“Soraya,” Anton said carefully. He knew better than to interfere, but he also knew they didn’t need a fight right now. “Can you go below and let everyone know that the fighting’s over? They must have been worried with all the noise.”

“I—” Soraya started, and then visibly reconsidered. “I can do that, yes,” she said and headed for the cargo hatch.

Kelsey watched go, expressionless. Then she turned to Aris.

“Well, loath as I am to stand in someone’s Path,” Kelsey said. “There are a lot of new classes opening up in Kirido. Not all of them are combat-oriented. We can see if she’s interested in any of them.”

“There shouldn’t be any need to fight now, though?” Aris asked. “We can just sail back to Kirido and Cheia will be safe. I can let Mum and Dad convince her to stay a baker.”

“There’s a bit more to do yet,” Anton told her. “We still have to go after the third group of slaves.”

“Oh,” Aris said, disappointed. “I’d forgotten about those. Where did they go?”

“They were bought by Dragan Vorin, from Verheti,” Kelsey told her.

“Can’t we go home and drop everyone off and then go back to Verheti?” Aris asked.

“The longer we take to get there, the more likely it is that they’ve been sold and the harder it gets to track them down,” Kelsey said. “We’ve got a pretty defensible mobile base now, we can keep them safe while we travel.”

“I suppose,” Aris said. “I just really want to get back now.”

“Anton promised to save everyone,” Kelsey said. “And to be honest, rescuing slaves is great experience for him.”

The others were coming up from below decks, filled with questions.

“We made it?”

“What was that noise?”

“What’s happening now?”

“Where’re all our supplies?”

“I need to go to the toilet.”

Kelsey clapped her hands together, attracting everyone’s attention. “Ladies and decidedly-not-gentlemen!” she called out. “Let me try and answer your questions in order of urgency! Yes, we have escaped.”

She looked at Aris. “Aris, I’m sure you’ve noticed the sling and sailcloth tucked away in the corner. You can show anyone who needs to go, how we do it on board ship.”

Aris looked where Kelsey was pointing. “Ugh, we have to go over the side again?”

“We’re a little cramped for space,” Kelsey told her. “I’ll see what I can do about setting up an onboard toilet, but I don’t like our chances.”

She turned back to the crowd. “What’s happening now, is a celebratory feast! We’ll get the tables and food out in a minute.”

This got a half-hearted cheer from the group, but a few of them put up their hands.

“I don’t feel like food right now,” Syrena said. “I’ve been feeling ill since I got on the boat.”

“That will pass,” Kelsey told them, “Stare at the horizon until you get used to the motion. Those of you who are feeling all right can help me with the tables and food. Then we’ll start allocating cabins. And all of you, leave our gallant Captain alone, he needs to pilot the ship.”

Anton watched as the lower deck evolved into a bustling hive of activity. Once things had settled down, Kelsey brought a plate up for Anton and Aris to share.

“So,” she said. “We’re headed for Verheti?”

“Yeah,” Anton agreed. “Sorry, Aris.”

“It’s all right,” Aris said, leaning against him. “You need to save everyone in the town, not just Cheia.”

“We’ll keep her safe,” he promised her. All of them, he promised himself.

He turned to Kelsey. “So which way do we go?” he asked.

“Verheti,” Kelsey said.

“Right, but which way is that?” he asked.

Kelsey looked at him, puzzled. “You don’t know?” she asked. Then her eyes widened. “Did we… forget to get a map?”