Free Deborah Hale by The Destined Queen

Hanish spies? Perhaps we had better toss them overboard.”
    “Gull,” Rath growled, “you do not have time for this. If we were spies, we would have jumped into the sea already. I am not a strong swimmer, but I could stay afloat long enough for one of those ore tubs to retrieve me, rather than stay here to be cut to pieces by their warships!”
    An instant of silence greeted his words, as if Gull and his men were trying to work out whether they might be true. In that instant, an idea blossomed in Maura’s mind. Seizing the chance to be heard, she blurted it out before she could question her own ignorance of seafaring or reject the notion as madly dangerous.
    “Turn on the Han!” she cried. “You said they are too fast for you with the wind behind them, but the Phantom is nimble and can sail against the wind. Prove it!”
    Time seemed to slow as Gull took a step toward her, his mouth opening. Maura thanked the Giver there were no metal weapons aboard the Phantom. If Gull had held a sword, she feared he would have run her through for daring to tell him what to do with his ship.
    The words that came out of Gull’s mouth were the last she expected. “You heard the wench! Turn and dart in among the galleys. That should take the Han by surprise.”
    The crew leaped into action and slowly the Phantom swung about to meet the Ore Fleet head-on.
    “Captain,” called the man holding Maura, “does that mean we can let go of these two?”
    Gull looked from Maura to Rath and back again. Then he nodded. “But keep a close watch and seize them again if they make any move to jump overboard. I swear, if this goes awry, I will kill them with my own hands.”
    Rath shook off the hold of the two large crewmen it had taken to restrain him, then gathered Maura into the shelter of his embrace.
    “A bold plan, love!” He chuckled. “Ordered like a true—”
    “I know,” muttered Maura. That jest had no power to amuse or soothe her now. “Like a true outlaw.”
    “Nay.” Rath shook his head, then lifted her hand to his lips. “I was going to say, ordered like a true queen. ”
     
    It was a bold plan. Rath pressed his lips to Maura’s hand, in admiration and homage. But would it work?
    The Phantom was only one ship and small compared to the monstrous vessels bearing down on them. Her crew was not even armed to repel boarders. It was one thing for Gull to boast of sailing circles around the Hanish ore galleys. If the Phantom were caught in a squeeze between two of those big iron hulls, the wooden ship would be smashed to splinters.
    “Oh, Rath—” Maura gripped his fingers so tight that he almost cried out “—what have I done?”
    “Only what you needed to do and what you bid me do.” For her sake, Rath cast all his doubts adrift. “Trusted in the Giver and in our destiny.”
    “But what if…”
    Rath knew what she was feeling—the weight of leadership pressing down upon her. The fear that a bad decision of hers might harm more than just herself. He had no advice to give her for he had never learned how to overcome that feeling. The best he’d ever been able to do was ignore it until the crisis passed.
    He pressed his forefinger to her lips. “We have no time for what-ifs now. Besides, the plan may have been yours but the decision was Gull’s. I do not reckon him a man to heed bad advice when it comes to his ship and crew. He must believe this is our best chance.”
    Or perhaps he had decided, since there was no hope of escape, he would rather die in some grand, hopeless attack on the Ore Fleet. Rath remembered the day he had turned to face a whole host of Hanish warriors, and how astonished he’d been when they had all run past him. He also remembered a small battle with the Han at Raynor’s Rift and an idea he’d feared he would not live to try.
    But he had lived and here was his chance to give it a go.
    “Have you any madfern left in your sash?” he asked Maura.
    She looked puzzled by his question. “Two