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If
you haven't read Ocean Without End, the first book in the
Swashbuckler trilogy, here's a sneak preview.
In this chapter,
Lily (the nickname the crew has given her is Cygnet or "Cyg")
witnesses her first battle, as the pirate ship Gisella goes
into attack...
The little sloop had been blasted by
cannon, fouling the rigging and smashing the tiller. A tangle of shrouds
and canvas lay across her stern and dipped into the sea. There was an
odd group of men near the bow, wrestling and pushing each other like
schoolboys, and the sound of swords clashing somewhere below decks.
All over the ship were men, lying in
the strangest positions, staring straight up into the sky, or collapsed
face down on the boards, or curled into corners, moaning. There was
blood everywhere.
“Hey there, Cyg. Bring the swabs!”
Miller was crouched over someone near
the mast. He waved to me, urgently. I tucked the linen and bottle into
my shirt, threw myself over the side and slipped down a rope to the
lower deck of the captured ship. I ran over to see who was wounded.
It was Max, slumped over someone else’s
dead body. He had a hole through his blouse, and blood coursing down
his side and onto the deck, where it mingled with other people’s
blood.
“What hit you?”
“A sword slash. Blasted thing.
There were two of ‘em at once, I couldn’t take ‘em
both. Got ‘em in the end, though.”
I peered at the gash in his side. It
was clean, and the bleeding seemed to be slowing.
“Seems all right,” I announced,
as if I’d been a surgeon all my life. “I’ll just wrap
you up and we’ll get you back aboard Gisella.”
It was all right, compared to Harry
or any of those other poor sods lying about. Miller ran off, cutlass
in hand, to rejoin the attack.
I was tying the bandage at Max’s
waist when there was a clash of swords quite near to us, and Max cried
out, “Look out behind you!”
I spun around to see Carlo trapped
in a strange embrace with a man in a blue uniform. Their swords were
locked together, faces close and both grimacing, pushing each other
backwards, first one way, then the next.
The soldier grunted, shook himself
free, and landed Carlo a thump on the head with his sword pommel. That
decked him. His face went white and he dropped like a sinker. The soldier
stepped quickly over Carlo and raised his sword. Above me.
“No!” I shouted.
I pushed Max to one side and I rolled
to the other. The sword came down on the deck between us with a thwack.
I kicked out at the soldier’s knees, hitting him hard and knocking
him off balance. As he steadied himself I reached for Carlo’s
sword and scrambled to my feet.
The blue-coat turned to face me. Everything
I knew about sword-fighting, every thrust and parry Flynn had taught
me on those hot afternoons in the piazza, seemed to vanish from my mind
in an instant. I drew the sword up before me. We were standing close,
a sword’s length perhaps, face to face. He smiled.
“Mademoiselle,”
he said, bowing ever so slightly. I didn’t take my eyes off him.
He lunged, so fast I only just blocked
it in time. He was strong, far stronger than the boys in Santa Lucia.
A few more blows like that, and I wouldn’t be able to hold him.
But I was fighting for my life. Before, I had only fought for fun.
I watched him. He was scared, twitching
his coat nervously with his left hand. Another breath, and he’d
try again. Now! A slash towards my head, parried high across my face,
then another, weaker, thrust down low. I smacked it away hard. There!
His arms were longer than mine. I had to keep out of his reach.
He wasn’t thinking clearly. I
took a quick step forward and feinted, the point of my blade flickering
close to his shoulder. He panicked, stepped back, and then once more.
He wasn’t prepared for this, I knew it. He blinked. Blinked again
and I lunged, fast, aiming just above his hand. He saw me coming, jerked
his guard up.
My blade circled his and slid under
his fist, and I lunged again.
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