Sirius woke her early the next morning. She groaned, mildly regretting she hadn’t started her non-drinking days the night before.

  The rest of the morning was normal enough. Amanda helped Marianne out in the kitchens for a few hours and was then released to wander the ship of do whatever. She found Sirius up on deck gazing out at the sea. His black cloak flapping in the wind. She noticed his sword more now. Ever since he’d been giving her lessons, she noticed swords everywhere. The subtlety different styles and ways that people attached them to their belts, and the side at which they did so. Morgan’s sword was hitched on the opposite side to Sirius and Amanda wondered if that meant she was left handed.

  She was about to ask if they could pick up their lessons again in the time they had before lunch when suddenly a shout went up from the crow’s next.

  “Ship ahoy! Vessel to port! Flying the black flag!”

  Amanda peered into the distance but it was hard to see what the crow saw. It took her a few seconds to notice the white sails that were hidden against a backdrop of horizon hugging clouds. She turned to Sirius with a frown. “Pirates?”

  She didn’t get an immediate answer for a second later the Wolverine sharply shifted it’s heading, toward the direction of the other ship.

  “Pirates? We’re sailing after the pirates?” Amanda asked as she gripped the railing.

  Morgan, who had just arrived near the bow to get a good look, overheard her and replied, “The Law of the Sea says we give chase, and so chase we shall give.”

  “We’re going to attack them?” Amanda asked.

  But Morgan didn’t answer. She just smiled. Then she returned to the main deck of the ship and started barking orders to the crew. It sounded like they were indeed preparing for a battle.

  Amanda looked toward Sirius for answers.

  He met her gaze with a worried one of his own. “I don’t suppose you’d be content to wait this out below deck?” He didn’t look like he was expecting a yes in reply.

  She raised her eyebrows. “Would you wait with me?” she asked in reply expecting no more a yes than he had.

  He sighed and stared out in the direction of the ship they were pursuing. “I suppose it’s not any less safe up here as long as they don’t shoot at us.”

  “Shoot what? Cannons? Guns? Or magic?”

  “All three. I’m less worried about the magic, and cannons are old school although still regularly used. Some ships carry turret guns though. Let’s just hope Morgan gets them to surrender quick enough.”

  Morgan joined them again shortly, watching their approach from the bow, with a crooked smile and a hunger in her eyes.

  Stinger came up behind her.

  “Do you recognise the vessel? Who have we got?” she asked.

  “We have sailed upon The Piper. He likes to take his quarry’s children on as new recruits if they’re young enough. Usually gives the parents a choice but you’d be surprised how many say yes. Treats his crew well enough but has a tendency to take more than is agreed upon from a plunder. He’s greedy and liable to put up a fight. So, tooth and claw?”

  “Tooth and claw?” she agreed. “Spare the cubs but no one else. Strip the hull.”

  “Have you no mercy, Morgan?” Sirius asked. “I’ve heard of The Piper. Not all his crew sail with him of their own accord.”

  “You know I don’t,” Morgan replied as if it were a conversation she were tired of having. “I’ve agreed to spare the ones under 14 but you won’t get much more than that.”

  “There are children on that boat?” Amanda asked Sirius incredulously as Morgan walked off.

  He looked concerned but he shook his head. “Not for certain.”

  It was then that the first cannon was fired.

  The Piper attacked first. They had come up almost alongside her. She was a slightly smaller ship than The Wolverine with a similar layout for the sails.

  Amanda started to make for port so she could see what was happening, but Sirius pulled her back towards starboard. “Best to stay back until the shooting’s over.”

  Another cannon went sailing overhead, splitting a chunk of wood right off the mast and sending splinters flying.

  Sirius shielded Amanda with his body and coat.

  More heavy balls of steel went flying overhead, each one wrecking more devastation. Amanda could only stare past the edges of Sirius’s coat while he whispered, “No magic, remember.”

  She didn’t think that right and it made no sense to her that such vicious pirates would play by such rules, but before she could think to do anything, The Wolverine fired back.

  In seconds the upper hand was gained and soon she could see Morgan and the rest of the crew jumping across to the other ship. A makeshift plank went down and more men followed.

  Swords clanged and at one point Amanda could see Morgan standing naked except for her weapons belt on one of the higher decks shouting encouragements to her crew and insults to the enemy. Amanda wasn’t sure if it was some kind of distraction or if it was just to make it easier for the woman to shapeshift into wolf form if she needed to.

  Whether it was intended to distract or not it certainly served it’s purpose. Several opponents suddenly found themselves tripping over themselves and even Amanda forgot about the main battle for a second or two.

  At one point, Morgan glanced up, met Amanda’s eyes and then she grinned a wild and wicked smile, before leaping a whole deck down into the fray.

  The battle was over soon after that, not a single drop of blood was shed somehow, at least not the permanent kind. There were several minor injuries however, and the cannons had made a bit of a mess of both ships.

  Sirius and Amanda watched then from the port railing as on the other ship, Morgan sat down with the other captain. Someone had brought her her clothes and she got dressed again without a hint of shame or embarrassment. Soon, goods were being hauled back across the planks. Amanda couldn’t see any kids on board thankfully, although she supposed it was possible they were hiding below deck.

  “I thought tooth and claw meant she was going to slaughter them all?” Amanda asked Sirius in a confused tone.

  He nodded. “So did I.” He didn’t look at Amanda though. He kept his eyes on the scene before them.

  But as they watched, halfway through the conversation, Morgan suddenly got to her feet, drew her sword and cut the other captain’s head clean off.

  Amanda gripped the railing tightly. She felt Sirius’s hand on her shoulder, perhaps trying to stop her from doing anything rash. But what could she do now?

  For a moment she feared Morgan might order the same done to the rest of the crew but she didn’t. Instead, amongst complete calm she picked out five men from the other crew to be taken back on board The Wolverine. They were lined up in a neat line, guarded by The Wolverine’s own crew. Ropes on The Piper were cut, her sails left hanging uselessly, and then Morgan lead her men back across the gangplank, pulling it up behind them.

  They cut The Piper and her remaining crew free. Amanda looked down on the faces of those men with their stoic expressions. Then she looked to Sirius. She didn’t understand what was going on. Sirius didn’t look confused though. He was just watching Morgan with the same sort of expression she’d just seen on the faces of the losing crew.

  Morgan paced back and forth in front of the five selected men. She spoke to them in a commanding voice. “Each of you fought valiantly today but thievery comes with a cost.” She reached the end of the line. “And today you have been chosen to pay it. In honour of a battle well fought I won’t make you wait any longer.”

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  She thrust her sword up into the chest of the man at the end of the row.

  Then she moved on to the second.

  Amanda couldn’t believe her eyes. Surely Morgan didn’t intend to slaughter five unarmed men just for being pirates? Even if they had done worse, this wasn’t right. This wasn’t justice.

  Morgan thrust her sword into the second man’s chest.

  None of the other men looked toward the fallen comrades but Amanda thought she could see fear in the eyes of the man at the end.

  She shook off Sirius’s hold on her shoulder. She took a step forward.

  “Stop!” she commanded.

  Behind her she thought she heard Sirius groan.

  Morgan had been about to strike the third man. When Amanda spoke Morgan paused. Her shoulders tensed and then slowly she turned and looked directly at Amanda.

  “What did you say?” Morgan asked between gritted teeth.

  Amanda kept moving forward until she stood only a few paces away from Morgan. “They’re defenseless. How can you kill them just like this? It’s barbaric.”

  “This is the law of the sea,” Morgan replied.

  “Thievery doesn’t deserve death.”

  “And what of slavery or child kidnapping?” Morgan asked.

  But Amanda was too familiar with how perception could be twisted and rumours could spread to let that sway her from her stance and she could see from where she stood how that 3rd man shook ever so slightly. “Those men deserve a fair trail with evidence,” she replied fiercely, refusing to back down.

  “The only trial that exists out here is one by combat and they lost that one,” Morgan told her. Thinking the conversation done, Morgan started to turn back to the third man with her sword lifting into position to strike.

  “Then I’ll fight you for them!”

  Once again, Morgan paused. Around the deck, snickers could be heard. Morgan turned to look at Amanda with a fury in her eyes along with a subtle glint of something else, something that could have been amusement or surprise.

  “You’ll fight me for them?” she queried as if she had not heard quite right.

  A hush fell over the deck.

  “That’s right.”

  Morgan gave one loud ‘hah’. Then she smirked and carefully paced, sword at the ready a few steps away from her line of victims.

  Amanda felt suddenly very exposed. Morgan stepped the way Sirius did when he was in a fight. Remembering the rules she added quickly, “To first blood. Also I need to borrow a sword. It’s only fair.” This way, at least if she lost, which she was almost certain to do, she probably wouldn’t die in the process. But maybe if she proved herself enough, she could get Morgan to reconsider killing them? Maybe if she just put up enough of a fight?

  More snickers went up around the deck.

  Morgan snorted then she shouted, “Peaches, lend the girl your sword.”

  Peaches walked up to Amanda and drew his sword from its scabbard so fast that for a moment she thought he was going to attack her. She flinched before she realised he was just handing it to her. She tried to ignore the jeers from the crowd but as she got herself into her starting guard, the snickers only increased. Even Morgan seemed to be resisting the urge to laugh.

  Morgan was taller and obviously stronger and more practised with the sword. Her nudity several moments earlier had made it darn clear that she was extremely fit. And worst of all she could beat Sirius. Amanda was screwed and she knew it but she was the only thing that stood between those men’s deaths and she would not back down. She had been half hoping that Morgan would let them live to save the effort of a fight. But at the excited glint in Morgan’s eye she now knew that was never going to happen. Perhaps she would think of something else?

  But there was no time. The fight was over before Amanda even registered it had started.

  “In a bored drawl,” Larska had counted down quickly. “Three, two, one, fight.”

  Amanda had barely moved her sword when after a flicker of brief movement she felt something nick her neck. Morgan pulled back and stood waiting for Amanda to respond.

  For a moment Amanda stood still, thinking it was a trap, but when she finally raised her hand to her neck it came away red. Her finger felt the cut. She could barely feel it and there didn’t appear to be a lot of blood. It really was just a nick, but still, it was blood. She had lost and before she had even realised the battle had begun.

  Morgan’s smile had faded now. She simply looked annoyed or bored. She turned back toward the 3rd man in line. At the look of hopelessness that had fallen over his face, Amanda desperately called out, “Best of three!”

  Morgan spun once more, her nose wrinkled up in anger. She stamped her way right up to Amanda until her face was inches away. “Are you mad?” she asked.

  Amanda didn’t flinch. “That was a practice.”

  Morgan snorted but it was not a snort of laughter. “Fine.” She spun on her feet to resume a starting position once more. “But don’t expect me to go easy on you this time.”

  Adrenaline coursed through Amanda’s veins. She was ready this time. She had to be. What the fuck was she doing? She pushed the questioning thoughts down and focused.

  She tired. She really did. And Morgan gave her a chance this time. She didn’t immediately go for the kill like last time. She got in close, gave Amanda a target, then danced away with ease. Instead of a cut to the throat, Amanda got a whack to the head with the flat side of Morgan’s sword.

  Morgan backed up and lowered her guard right down into what Sirius had called the Fool’s Guard. Amanda knew better than to run right into that. She tied to approach from the sides. It prompted a small smile on Morgan’s lips, but only a brief one. Then Morgan flew in close again, this time with her sword outstretched in front of her. She stuck out at Amanda several times, her sword stopped short of any proper stabs but the ferocity of the attack forced Amanda to step backward, all the way until her back was against the rail.

  Morgan laughed then gave her room to come forward again. But another sudden thrust forward caused Amanda to jerk backward again, her back crashing hard into the railing of the ship.

  Once more Morgan let her forward. Amanda knew she was being toyed with but still she couldn’t let up. Every second Morgan gave her was a little more time she had to think of another solution. But it was hard to think when Morgan kept tapping her with the flat side of her sword. Little taps at first, perhaps to humiliate. Then harder. Finally, Morgan got in close and she knocked Amanda’s sword right from her hands. It fell to the deck with a clatter.

  Amanda froze, sure she was done for now. But Morgan took a step back and barked, “Pick it up!”

  Amanda hesitated, knowing the move would leave her vulnerable but she had no other choice and Morgan obviously had her on the ropes easily.

  As Amanda bent down to pick it up Morgan hit her in the back of the shoulder with the pommel of her sword. A sharp pain shot through Amanda’s body.

  Still she reached down and she gripped the sword and stood, ready to face what ever came next. Morgan hit her again, and again. Each time a little harder, until…

  “Enough!” Sirius barked across the deck.

  Morgan stepped back and then with one last move she made her final cut. With a sneer at Sirius she replied, “She wanted to fight.”

  Amanda had found herself on her knees on the deck. She hurt all over. Least of all on her neck where she now had not one but two cuts. She gingerly touched her hand to the second one. It was no deeper than the first. Then she glanced up as Sirius swept by.

  He had an angry expression on his face and he was looking at Morgan. “She has a right to pick a champion.”

  “Had a right. She forfeit that right when she accepted that sword.”

  “Then I will fight for them. I too, have that right.”

  Morgan was silent a moment. “Fine but I’ll not fight two of you for nothing. What do I get in return?”

  “If I win, you will spare their lives. If you win, you can have my coat.”

  Amanda registered surprise on Morgan’s face. Then a slowly spreading smile.

  Sirius drew his sword.

  Amanda wanted to tell him not to. There suddenly seemed a lot more on the line when it was Sirius out there, fighting someone he had previously lost to. Still, he had a size advantage. Maybe he had a chance? But Morgan had proved far more vicious than Amanda had anticipated.

  She suddenly felt hands lifting her up by the arm pits and pulling her away from the dueling area. Someone sat her down on a crate. Her head spun and everything hurt.

  “Let’s see,” said a voice.

  When she turned to look she realised it was Stinger studying her.

  “That was quite a fight you put up,” he told her once she was looking in his direction.

  “I barely got a hit in.” She shook her head and then winced at the pain of it.

  Stinger laughed softly. Then he turned to a nearby crewman. “Pewter, get the healer.”

  As the pain settled, Amanda tried to peer past Stinger to the centre of the deck where Morgan and Sirius were now standing opposite each other with their swords drawn. Larska was lazily resuming his place between them, about to start the countdown.

  “She won’t kill him,” Stinger told her.

  “How do you know?” Amanda asked.

  But before Stinger could answer, another man appeared. One whose name she knew to be Riki. She hadn’t known his power until now. She’d originally assumed that he might be a shapeshifter. He had hair dyed a bright blue, short on top and even shorter on the sides. His hair matched his eyes, the latter of which found Amanda’s neck. “Shit!” he remarked. “She did the pair of them perfectly even. You were lucky you were.”

  Amanda heard the countdown start and she leaned to the side to try and see past Riki.

  But he blocked her view as he reached out a hand and placed it on her neck.

  “Do her head first,” Stinger instructed. “She’s probably got a concussion.”

  But Amanda didn’t care about any of that. She needed to know what was happening.

  “Trust me, you don’t want to watch this,” Stinger told her.

  Her annoyance and worry reached a peak point and Amanda finally shoved herself up off the crate, pushed them both aside, and made her way to the front of the crowd, terrified of what she would find.

  Swords clashed and clanged. They moved so fast that Amanda could barely see what was happening, but neither one seemed to have laid a cut on the other yet.

  Morgan was aggressive. She attacked with all the ferocity of the creature her ship was named for, sending Sirius backing up several paces.

  Sirius blocked strike after strike. Wherever Morgan’s sword was, Sirius’s was there first, just barely. He blocked several strikes in a row, simply stepping to the side and making no attacks in return, but then every now and again, when Morgan’s sword hit just right, he’d push it back with a force that would send her stumbling. But still he didn’t attack.

  Morgan seemed to be getting more impatient. Her strikes grew faster and more frantic. Sirius started to hit back. And then, a moment came, as Morgan was pulling back to grab her breath, Sirius turned his head to look for Amanda.

  His eyes met hers.

  Behind him, Morgan saw her opening.

  Amanda wanted to yell at him to look out but all of this occurred in less than a second. She didn’t have the time to react.

  Morgan lunged with her sword.

  And Sirius parried. His sword raised to meet hers even before he’d finished turning his head back to the battle, almost as if he’d known exactly what she was going to do.

  And then he thrust her sword off to the side with his, made himself an opening, and with one last flick of his arm, he drew his blade across the skin of her cheek.

  She backed up rapidly, her hand flying to the side of her face. When she drew it away again, the blood was obvious. She looked furious.

  Sucking large gulps of air in through her nose, Morgan took several paces back.

  Standing beside one of the surviving prisoners she raised her sword and she cut his bindings loose.