Vampirates: Tide of Terror Read Free Page B

the skull’s head. She took the ring in her fingers. This was too great a gift, she thought. It was almost a part of Lorcan. But perhaps that was the point, she thought with a thrill. He wanted her to have a part of him. She’d have to return it to him one day, she decided. In the meantime, it would be her talisman — a reminder of the time she had spent on the Vampirate ship and an omen that one day, in the future, she would return.
    For now, she unfastened the chain Connor had given her, and slipped the ring onto it, so that it nestled beside Connor’s locket. They were her two most precious possessions.
    Grace reached up her fingers to touch the ring now. Sometimes, when she touched it, she closed her eyes and had such a clear vision of the Vampirate ship, it was as if she were able to see it for real. If only this were true!
    How were they all — the captain and Darcy and Lorcan? — she wondered. Where were they now? Once again, she wished she had had longer to say her good-byes. It had been impossible to argue with Connor when he had said she must come to live with him on The Diablo . She would never have been able to convince him that they should stay on the Vampirate ship. That would be madness , wouldn’t it? Choosing to live amongst a crew of vampires? She remembered something her father had once told her. “Sometimes madness is wisdom, Gracie.” She had the feeling her dad would have understood.
    Grace let her hand fall from Lorcan’s ring. She would have chosen to stay with them if she had had a real choice. Only one of the crew had threatened her. As always, she shuddered as the image of Lieutenant Sidorio came into her mind — his eyes flaming pits of fire, his gold incisors as sharp as daggers.
    Sidorio — who had killed his donor and held Grace hostage in her cabin until the captain rescued her.
    Sidorio — who had told her that he had been killed by Julius Caesar himself before he crossed.
    Sidorio — who had been banished from the ship, and sent into exile.
    He had been the only truly dangerous one aboard that ship, thought Grace, as she stared out into the translucent ocean. But Sidorio was gone. The danger had passed. Surely it would be safe to return now, if she could only find a way.

2
    AN EASY VICTORY
    “Sound the cannon!” cried Cate. The attack was on.
    Now The Diablo was alongside the target ship. Cannon fire signalled the raid had begun and the sound of grinding metal signalled that the grids the pirates called the “Three Wishes” had swung down from above to make bridges onto the containership. Connor had not yet cured his fear of heights and his heart did a familiar somersault as he heard the wishes descend, anticipating his imminent run across the wishes, high above the water. Mercifully, it all happened quickly, and today, there was further compensation in the relative gentleness of the ocean.
    “Fours — go!”
    The instant the wishes were near horizontal, the teams of four raced heavy-footed across them. These were the teams of muscle — mostly grown men, including Bart — who began the attack by swirling their broadswords and inducing fear and apparent chaos on the other deck.
    “First eights — in!”
    Cate’s cry signalled the movement of three teams of eight rapier and épée bearers across the metal grids. This was the first flank of precision fighters. Though the broadsworders appeared more fearsome, it was the first eights who posed the deeper threat. As Cate had once told Connor, using her épée was like “fighting with a needle.” If that needle pierced a human target in the right spot, it would puncture a vital organ and trigger a slow, painful death from the inside out. Jez was the last of the first eights, ahead of Connor.
    “See you on the other side!” he cried to Connor as he jumped onto the wish.
    The 4–8–8 formation in which the pirates of The Diablo launched their attack on the containership was one of Cate’s favorite and most successful