Free Across The Sea by Eric Marier

shall blow this raft
straight back to Hades!”
    Several pirates dropped their
swords and raised their hands. Others looked around and soon
realized that with both the crews of the Glide and the Whisper
aboard, they were outnumbered. They too released their swords and
lifted their hands.
    Captain Mann looked over
everyone's heads. “Where is Bodin?” he demanded.
    No one spoke.
    “One of you had better speak,”
Captain Strick added.
    BAM ! BAM ! BAM !
    Explosions blasted up through
the deck, chunks of wood flying everywhere.
    Captain Strick grabbed onto the
gunwale to keep from falling. The vessel tilted forward.
    The Red Mist was sinking, bow
first.
    “Transfer as many prisoners as
you can to your ship!” Captain Mann shouted to Captain Strick.
    Pirates were clutched by the
arm and forced away.
    Everyone moved fast.
    Lily, from the deck of the HMS
Glide, stared at the British sailors as they scrambled off the Red
Mist with their prisoners. Francis was nowhere to be seen. He’s
still below deck , she thought to herself. I can’t let him
sink.
    Lily climbed onto one of the
narrow planks as sailors and their prisoners clambered across it,
up toward the Glide. Lily ran down toward them, trying her best to
keep her balance on the plank which was now shaking with all the
movement and weight placed upon it. As the onslaught of men going
up the quivering plank rushed at her, Lily jumped atop the back of
a crouching pirate, who was moving up the plank on all fours, and
jumped back down behind him, heading straight toward the Red
Mist.
    The deck of the sinking ship
was frenzied with men running in all directions. It was also now
much lower than the two ships on either side of it. Lily ran,
ducking and dodging all the men scurrying off the doomed craft.
    In his cell below, Francis was
now wading knee-deep in water. The ship was tilted toward the bow.
An empty cell at the start of the corridor had a faulty lock and
its door swung open, clanging against the cell next to it. Francis
looked over at Keeb with a panicked look on his face.
    “Trust me,” Keeb said to him.
“This is a much better way to die.”
    Francis charged at the bars of
his locked door and seized them with both hands. He shook them with
all his strength, clenching his teeth. “Help! Help!” he
shouted.
    The door above the ladder
ripped open. A figure jumped down into the corridor with a splash.
Francis looked up.
    Bodin grabbed the keys off the
peg.
    “What’s happening?” Francis
yelled. The water was now above his waist. Bodin unlocked his cell
and pulled the door against the heavy water. He gripped the back of
Francis’ neck and shoved him toward the ladder.
    “Climb,” Bodin instructed.
    Another figure jumped down into
the water from the doorway, and this person brandished a sword.
    Lily.
    She had found the sword
abandoned on deck.
    “Nice to see the coward finally
show his face,” she said to Bodin.
    Bodin whipped his sword from
its sheath, knocking Lily’s right out of her hands. Lily had no
time to react as Bodin sheathed his sword, swung Francis over his
shoulder and snatched Lily by the arm, flinging her out of the way
as if she were a mere piece of crumpled parchment. Screaming, Lily
splashed down into the open first cell.
    Bodin, with Francis over his
shoulder, scaled the ladder.
    “Lily!” Francis yelled, as he
kicked and punched at Bodin. Water poured in on top of them from
the doorway.
    The door to the open cell swung
back shut, its unpredictable lock clicking once.
    Outside, the bow of the ship
was now sunken. The stern tilted up toward the sky. Bodin, one
brutish arm around Francis, moved deep beneath the surface of the
water. He swam, away from the vessel, the commotion above now
silenced by the hungry ocean.
    Keeb, trapped in his now fully
submerged cell, saw the ring of keys float by, right under his
nose. He could not believe his luck. He seized the ring and moved
to unlock his door. Free at last, he swam toward the doorway to