Free On Discord Isle by Jonathon Burgess

“There’s a fat merchant below who needs to have his holds lightened.”
    Everyone roared their approval.
    Lina followed the officers back to the helm. Maxim and Konrad worked together to twist the ship about, Konrad on the wheel and Maxim shouting orders down to the Mechanist in the engine room. Lucian waved Lina over.
    Reaver Jane eyed her warily. “You’ve an awful lot to say of late,” she snapped.
    “She hasn’t been wrong, though,” said Lucian. He clapped a hand on Lina’s shoulder like a proud older brother. “Lina’s relatively new to the life. She hasn’t got the baggage we do, and can see a little more clearly.”
    “Maybe,” said Sarah Lome. “Four’s a bad number for a committee. Could mean a tied decision.”
    “Well, that’s why her position here is honorary, right, Lina?” He smiled down at her, and it wasn’t altogether jovial. “Lass, Sarah is right. Four’s a bad number for decision-making. You don’t get any say more than the rest of the crew. But we’ll want you here for input, all right?”
    Lina thought of something sharp to say, but gave a nod instead.
    Jane sighed. “All right. Enough. How do we do this?” She gestured at the deck, toward where the merchant ship would be.
    “Same as before,” said Sarah Lome. “We go in fast and hit their sails, drop to the deck and pacify them all. Quick and clean. It’s not a military ship. I don’t see no reason to change things up.”
    Jane nodded. “Good.”
    She went to leave but Lucian raised a hand. “Hold up. We offer quarter, and avoid unnecessary bloodshed.”
    Reaver Jane stopped. “What? Fengel’s gone. Don’t tell me you’ve gone all soft in his place.”
    “It’s a good policy,” replied Lucian. “People who think they’ve nothing to lose fight all the harder. There might be a few hired guards down there, but we’ve found that as long as it’s not full of soldiers, which is fairly unlikely, people tend to see sense after a bit of knockin’ about.” He gave her a level look. “Remember, we’re here for the treasure . That’s the important thing.”
    Reaver Jane returned his gaze. “All right. So long as you remember that’s what we’re after.”
    She stalked down the deck. Sarah Lome turned to do the same. Lucian gave Lina a look and gestured for the gunwales.
    That went surprisingly smoothly , she thought as she left to prepare for the attack. Natasha’s crew were a bloodthirsty lot, and Reaver Jane was no exception. That Lucian got his way was surprising, though sensible. Maybe this is going to work even better than I’d hoped.
    Lina went amidships where the equipment lockers were mounted. They’d been opened up, and gunnery mistress Lome was passing out muskets, shot, and powder. Lina took a pistol and checked it, loading as she made her way to the port side of the airship just below the bow. Aside from the flintlock, she had her pair of knives and one other thing as well. She stuffed the barrel of the gun into her waistband and blew a sharp whistle with two fingers. Runt perked up from his doze on the exhaust pipe and gave an answering screech. He rose, stretched, and launched himself to soar across the deck to her shoulder, eliciting yells from startled pirates. Lina caught the scryn and scratched behind his head while he chirruped in pleasure.
    The Dawnhawk came into line on a direct heading for the vessel below. From the stern Lucian called out commands, and Lina felt a deep vibration in the deck below her feet as their engine kicked into higher gear.
    She peered over the side as the merchant ship burst into activity. There were dozens of antlike movements amongst the rigging; sailors furling their sails in a desperate attempt to get away. All pretense was gone. They knew they’d been spotted.
    Lina smiled as the airship bore down. Growing up in the slums of Triskelion, she’d learned to defend herself, but until recently she hadn’t gone looking for any fights. Life as a pirate had changed