They dropped anchor once Martin had, with the help of Edana and Frances casting some wind magic, turned the vessel sideways. Several of the commandeered vessels weren’t moving anymore. One was burning. The rest were moving towards the breakwater.

Frances raised a magic shield as she heard the crack of muskets. Edana and her friends filed behind the barrier.

“What is Ophelia doing?” Frances asked, focusing on her ring.

Ayax ran to the stern of their ship, peering at the activity on the southern harbour breakwater and blinked. The group at the southern breakwater of the harbour, where Ophelia was, were dumping crates and sandbags onto the ground, forming a makeshift barricade. She could see musketeers and mages taking position behind this barricade.

She conveyed as much to her friends when she ran back to them.

“It looks like they’re going to provide us support,” said Elizabeth, running back from the bow of the vessel. “Robert and Jeffrey are there, organizing another firing position.”

“Not going to do us much good if we’re boarded,” Martin muttered.

Edana frowned and snapped her fingers. “No, but Hold on.” She seemed to peer at the approaching vessels. The first one was trying to pass behind them, heading for the gap between their ship and the harbour breakwater. “Frances, can you snap that ship’s mast once they reach the breakwater gap, and then hole it beneath the waterline?”

“You want to use it to block the gap?” Frances asked.

“Exactly dear. I’ll hold them off and keep them distracted. You get ready.”

Ayax and Frances nodded and ran to the stern of the ship. Across the water, Ophelia and what had to be Voidsailor soldiers were firing on the approaching vessel. To Frances's surprise, it looked like the group had even gotten a small cannon that they were pointing at the approaching vessel.

Frances wondered if the cannon would prove effective at all, but any doubts were wiped away when it fired. The boom deafened her for a moment, sending a cannonball she could just see shoot towards the approaching ship and smash into its timbers just above the water.

That gave Frances an idea. She muttered a Word of Power to magnify her voice and yelled, “Ophelia! Point the cannon to us!”

The orange-clad girl stared at her. “I know you’re a bit eccentric, but I didn’t think you were crazy!”

“I’m not! I want you to fire your cannon when it is just passing us!” Frances yelled.

“What do you—OH! Got it, but how are you going to stop it?”

“I got a plan! Just be ready!” Frances yelled back, noting the ship drawing closer. She ducked behind the side of the ship and watched the approaching sails.

Ayax crouched down beside her. “What if they board us?”

“Can you deal with them?” Frances asked.

The troll swallowed, but she pressed the button to extend her staff. “I think so.” She smiled meaningfully. “I’ll tell you if I get in over my head.”

Frances forced a smile and glanced back at the position of the enemy ship’s sails. They loomed over their ship. She began to cast, drawing on her magic, her voice rising in song, building the lightning at the tip of Ivy’s Sting.

They didn’t board, the ship must have been trying to get away. Their mistake. Frances pushed magic into her brigandine and stood. The musketeers and archers on the enemy ship immediately fired, but the armour’s magic deflected the shots, as Frances pointed her wand and fired.

The mast didn’t stand a chance and with an almighty crack, it fell over, but to the two girls' alarm, it was falling towards them.

Ayax immediately raised her staff and began to sing, trying to halt or at least turn the mast’s fall to their right. Frances joined her and the massive tangle of wood, sail and ropes slowed and started to fall towards the side of the ship.

But it didn’t stop. It continued to inch towards them.

Neither mage could say anything. All they could do was push as hard as they could. Slowly, the mast moved.

But not fast enough. Frances saw the mercenary musketeers, seeing two stationary targets, could hardly resist raising their muskets to take a shot.

Frances froze. She was fine. Her magic brigandine was still active, but Ayax had no such protection. But if they let the mast fall on the ship…

“Ayax let go!” twisting on her feet, Frances tackled Ayax to the ship’s deck as bullets flew over. The mast hung for a split second and came crashing down.

The deck shook, bouncing the two girls into the air and sending them plummeting into the deck again. Somehow, Frances managed to get back to her feet and take in the situation. The mast had smashed through the poop deck’s wooden bulwark and onto the deck itself.

The ship was still afloat, though. And she heard the boom of a cannon, Ophelia’s cannon, and the splintering of wood.

She also saw the mercenaries getting onto the broken mainmast of their ship and starting to run, or gingerly walk across it.

Ayax grabbed Frances’s arm and pulled her down. “Frances you need to go. There’s another ship passing to our bow, you need to sink it or disable it.”

“But you—”

“You already saved our lives. Let me hold them off. They can only fight me one by one. I’ll be alright cuz.” Ayax hugged Frances and then shoved her away. Blinking away tears, Frances struggled to her feet and ran down.

“Come at me!” Ayax bellowed, leaping onto the mast with a cat’s grace. Focusing on the gem in her staff, she extended shields to her sides and charged. The first mercenary, armed with sword and buckler, blocked her first strike, but she slammed her staff’s steel end into his boot. As he cried out in pain, he lost his balance and toppled over the mast and into the water below.

One down, many to go. Ayax snarled as the mercenaries continued to come, fleeing their sinking ship.

---

Edana was doing her level best not to damage the ships of her city too badly, but there was a lot of heat coming her way. Musketballs whistled over her head or hit the white shield she projected. One ship had tried to close to boarding range, but she’d thrown a fireball into the ship’s side, blasting a hole. It’d forced the helmsman of the ship to turn away and try to pass their ship by their bow, revealing another ship behind it.

Edana grimaced and staggered as the ship rocked. A moment later, Frances ran down the staircase that led to the poop deck.

“Mom, the ship’s mast collapsed on us. The mercenaries are crossing over it. Martin, can you get to the stern and help Ayax?”

“On it!” Martin yelled, racing up the staircase.

“Frances, can you get to the ship to our bow?” Edana asked. “I’ll hold the other ships off as long as I can.”

“Yes, mom! Elizabeth, follow me!” Frances tore past her mother and sprinted up the forecastle stairs. Elizabeth was right behind her.

Edana quickly took a swig of her hip flask filled with its herbal mixture and refocused on the next ship.

“Alright, come at me,” she whispered.

The ship passing their bow was a much larger galleon that towered over them. Frances, gasping from the non-stop fighting, slid behind the foremast with Elizabeth, and examined the situation.

Robert and Jeffrey were doing their best. Behind makeshift barricades, they and other Windstorm troops were firing spells and muskets at the galleon. But they didn’t have a cannon, and the far larger warship was keeping their heads down.

It was, however, keeping the attention of the mercenaries, but as Frances readied to cast her spell, she paused.

“Elizabeth, should I sink the ship first, or take out the mast?” she whispered.

Elizabeth pursed her lips, eyes scanning the deck. “Sink the ship. You don’t need to worry about stopping it. They want to board.”

Frances glanced back at the captured ship and groaned. She could see the mercenaries preparing boarding hooks. “What are they thinking? They’ll block their own ships!”

“I think they just realized that they can’t get out of the harbour, not without taking out you or Edana,” said Elizabeth.

The thought that she was a threat to people made Frances frown, and she had to shake her head to put aside her thoughts. Still, she felt a squirming sensation in her stomach that she’d never felt before, as she charged her lightning spell.

Hooks started to land on deck and slid towards the bulwark as the mercenaries pulled. Elizabeth drew a knife and hacked at the ropes she could get to. She cut several of them, but many still latched on.

Frances stood and let loose her spell. The lightning smashed into the waterline of the ship, tearing a gaping hole into the ship’s side. She immediately backed away, continuing to sing and fire spells as the mercenaries hauled their ship in closer. She killed several, but there were more lining the bulwark now.

With shouts of rage and battle cries, the mercenaries leaped from their stricken vessel. Landing on the deck, they charged.

Elizabeth crippled a massive ogre with a swing at her knees, which sent her opponent crashing to the ground. But she was fighting while backing away, using her shield to block a blow from the sabre-wielding orc to her left, dodging a stab from the sword of the troll to her right.

Frances was doing no better. She’d activated her brigandine. Two trolls and two goblins were stabbing and hacking at her with swords and spears, but her magic kept them at bay. She managed to sent one flying back with a Word of Power and smashed one goblin into the orc.

As she ripped wooden fittings from the ship and hurled them into the orc trying to break her shield, she felt herself shiver. She staggered, as the ship lurched beneath her. Frances knew it wasn’t the waves, though.

Elizabeth blocked her opponent’s hit and raced to Frances’s side, grabbing her arm and dragging her toward the stern staircase. “Frances! Set the ship on fire!”

“Are you crazy? We’d blow up!” Frances shrieked. Elizabeth stopped at the top of the stern staircase. The mercenaries were almost on top of them.

“Drop the ship’s boat in the water and we leap into it! There’s no choice!” Elizabeth pushed her down the stairs. Somehow by pinwheeling her arms, Frances managed not to plunge face-first, but a glance back showed Elizabeth trying to hold off a burly ogre with a mace. The narrow stairs were keeping Elizabeth’s opponents limited to one, but the mercenaries were already looking around for ways through.

Frances raced back to her mother, who was still firing at ships. “Everybody! We need to leave!” she screamed.

Edana turned to her daughter, eyes widening as she saw the mercenaries on the stern deck. “But—”

“Help!” Martin yelled.

The knight was fighting while trying to back down the sterncastle stairs. Sword parrying and countering the mercenary engaging him. As for Ayax, she was clutching her staff in her left hand. Her right hand was pressing against her blood-soaked left shoulder.

Frances didn’t wait for her mother’s command. She turned to the ship’s wooden rowboat and pointed Ivy’s Sting at it. She drew on her last reserves of power, including the power she’d stored in her diamond ring, and imagined the boat rising.

The rowboat rose off its mounting and in what seemed like slow motion, hovered over the side. Frances walked to the side of the ship and lowered it toward the water below.

Another dizzying spell hit her just as the boat was a few feet from the seawater. The boat slammed into the water with a splash. For a heart-stopping moment, Frances thought she’d broken the boat, but no, it was still intact.

“Ayax you first!” Frances cried out.

The troll shook her head, raised her staff and gasped a Word of Power with a pained breath.

Suddenly, Frances couldn’t feel the wooden deck underneath her boots. She screamed as she was hurled backwards. “AYAX!”

Falling, Frances did the only thing she could. She threw the last of her magic into her brigandine, her shields flickered behind her.

She slammed into the boat, hard, and heard two cracks. The first had to be her shields, but it seemed they didn’t work completely. Her rear, back and left arm, which she realized in her pain-addled mind, had hit the boat first, were gripped in a rictus of pain. A glance at her wand hand showed Ivy’s Sting tightly gripped in her hand. Her fall had been broken by her armour and one of the boat’s thwarts (a piece of wood that went across the boat and acted as a seat).

“No. No—agh!” She blinked, trying to keep her eyes open. She could hear someone shouting. Elizabeth? Martin? Now her mother was snapping panicked orders.

Ayax came over the side next, she somehow landed on the boat, feet first, rocking Frances up. She groaned as she shifted, but her eyes were on her two friends.

Elizabeth and Martin fell together, arms linked. They were followed by Edana. Ayax, raising her staff, sang a quick tune and somehow managed to grab Elizabeth and Martin in her magic and slow their fall. Edana shrieking some kind of song managed to guide herself directly to the boat, landing softly, before grabbing Elizabeth and Martin and putting them on the boat.

“Row!” Edana screamed. Martin and Elizabeth obliged, whilst the Dragon of Erisdale did what she did best, and let loose a fireball at the ship they’d commandeered.

As flames engulfed the side of the ship, the mercenaries fled, dropping armour and weapons and jumping for the water. Frances, through her blurring vision, could just spy the name of the vessel they’d been using in a placard on its side.

SS Lightning Dragon.

Frances shut her eyes and groaned. The universe did have a wicked sense of humour sometimes.

“Ayax what the hell were you thinking throwing Frances from that height! You could have killed her!”

Frances blinked, eyes widening as she saw her mother, green eyes narrowed with fury, glaring at her cousin. She still had a shield up, but for the moment they had some respite.

“No she wouldn’t, and I flung her off because if she dies Edana, she won’t die quickly!” Ayax hissed.

“And what if she fell in the water young lady? What if she hit the boat head-first? You could have just sent her back and—”

“Can we argue later and row now! The ship is going to blow up when that fire reaches the magazine!” Martin shouted.

“I might need some healing after we get away from the exploding boat. My arm feels weird,” Frances groaned. “But help Ayax first. She looks like she’s losing a lot of blood.”

Edana blinked, and muttered something exceedingly foul, before taking a seat and raised Poker. The boat suddenly seemed to bounce across the waves, away from the harbour entrance and the burning ship, and towards the open sea. Frances spied Ophelia and Robert’s parties running away from the harbour breakwater, having put together that the ship was going to explode.

When the ship did explode, it was spectacular. Their boat had managed to get some distance, but they were all knocked flat on their feet as a tower of flame and black smok shot up into the sky. Edana managed to raise a magic shield as wooden splinters poured down on them.

When it had stopped, most of the upper structure of the SS Lightning Dragon was gone, along with parts of the two ships it had entangled. What was left was a black, smoking ruin, blocking the harbour off.

Edana looked at it with grim satisfaction and turned to her charges, her eyes widening. “Ayax? Oh no. You two stay awake! You hear me!”

“Um, ma’am, please tell me those ships are friendly!” Martin exclaimed pointing to something over Frances’s shoulder. She wanted to turn and look, but she felt so tired.

“Yes. That’s my brother Eustace’s flagship. Just hold on for a little longer both of you,” Edana stammered. She was pressing her hands on Ayax’s shoulder, Frances realized.

“Wait, it’s over?” gasped Frances.

“For now,” stammered Elizabeth.

Breathing out, Frances let herself look up at the pale blue winter sky of Erlenberg, which was now wreathed in smoke.

They’d survived, somehow. Ayax was hurt, but Edana was treating her. They’d all gotten out alive. That was when Frances realized something that brought tears to her eyes. Something that hurt far more than the fall she’d taken.

They hadn’t won. They hadn’t lost, but this was not a victory.