When night finally fell, it was Aethe who moved the out of the trees. Marco watched her flit from cover to cover, getting to the first boat and disappearing down its hatch like a greased shadow.

“Explain how this is safe again,” Marco said. “Please, Elisa.”

“It’s not safe. It’s a mission involving dozens of pirate ships.”

“Just tell me it’s safe, then tell me how it works,” Marco said, more urgently. “I didn’t ask for honesty.”

“So the way this works is because of the Ghost Fuse. You remember that much at least, right?”

“Right.”

“She’s going to sneak from ship to ship,” Elisa explained. “She’s going to grease as many black powder barrels as she can. Then she’s going to get back to us.”

“And what keeps her from getting caught?” Marco asked.

“It’s Aethe. She felt she could do it. Do you feel you have any real right to argue?”

Marco did not. Aethe knew her business. In the meantime, he and the rest of the crew were sneaking at a much slower pace, trying to get almost all the way to the shore. It had been something both Marco and Elisa had fought Aethe for. If she needed to run, they said, she needed a place to run to and that would be easier if they were closer to the elf rather than waiting at the treeline. She had finally agreed to let them do it without exactly agreeing that she needed it.

Their hiding place was behind a woodpile by a shed of sorts that they had spent the better part of the day confirming had no current occupants. It was probably for some kind of storage or even left behind from before the pirates got there. The vast majority of the pirates were loudly drinking near the center of their settlement, pulling rum from barrels that looked conspicuously similar to what the floating bar had served before its destruction. It seemed routine, for all that it was a loud, raucous meeting.

In the shadow of the building and the cover of the debauchery, they should have been more or less invisible to prying eyes.

They were not. It took a while before solid evidence of that appeared, but somewhere deep down Marco could feel that this wasn’t working before the proof even arrived. When it did, he was hardly surprised.

“There you are. I was wondering when you’d show up.” A huge, unwashed man bearing a two-sided, one-handed axe stepped into view and announced without turning at first, then chuckled and looked straight at them. “Should have taken out someone other than my new errand boy. I notice when my help goes missing, you see.”

Marco stood. “Steed?”

“That’s right. Now, let me explain to you why this is going to be so funny to me.” Steed raised his axe as he brought a medium-sized metal shield around from his back. “I’m going to clang this, and the boys are going to come running. Half of them are desperate for action. But by the time they get here, you’re already going to be dead. Hell, maybe you’re tougher than you look.” Steed eyed Marco and his crew, and laughed again. “You don’t seem it, but who knows? Even if you stay alive for a moment longer, though, you’ll just die for your trouble when my men get here. And like I said, that’s not a bet you want to make. You know, Captain of the Dark Armada likes it when I take revenge for my fleet. Between you and that damned barmaid whenever I catch her, it will eat well this week.”

The group let him talk. Even if they weren’t petrified by fear, they had to buy time for Aethe. The captain laughed to himself and raised his axe even higher before bringing it down hard on the face of the shield.

The clang never reached the ears of its intended audience. Marco had heard of an alarm getting killed before, but this was the first time he saw it outright murdered. Any worries they had about the sound of the metal were buried with the sound itself in a wave of fire and death from several ships exploding at once.

Steed had expected desperation, but he had no idea that Marco and his crew were planning something that was a lot bigger than just desperation. The blast didn’t hurt him, but he reeled from it reflexively before turning his head to the inferno. The first ships to blow had already caught several others on fire via flaming shrapnel, and as mooring ropes burned, the prospect of the entire armada going down was not entirely outside of the realm of possibility.

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“Fire!” the captain yelled, clanging his shield. “Fire! And catch…”

Marco and his crew were already gone. Aethe was waiting for them at the trees, somehow. Marco waved to the captain. Steed might be willing to sacrifice a lot to catch them, but Marco doubted he was willing to pay with his own ship.

“Will this work?” Marco said. “They’ll put out those fires fast.”

“Not before more ships explode. They have hours of work ahead of them,” Aethe said. “I could have got them all, you know. Noisy, the lot of you.”

“Shh. Yell at us later. You think we’ll get away?”

“Maybe. Only just, if we do. They’ll be out searching for us by land and sea,” Elisa responded.

They blazed across the island, making plans as they went. Driven by adrenaline and walking a path they had already carved, they made much better time on their way out than they made on their way in.

Nobody chased them. Aethe was fairly sure of that. There might be better scouts on some of the bigger ships, she said, but she was fairly sure that none of the pirates were good enough to track them while staying invisible and accompanied by any sizeable team. The entirety of the pirates had apparently stayed back to make sure the fires in the boats didn’t spread. That was great in the short term, but dangerous in the long term since it meant that more ships would be chasing them once they got things under control.

Sooner than Marco thought possible, they were in the last straightaway, The Foolish Endeavor bobbing placidly in the water ahead of them waiting for their arrival. The team didn’t break stride, splashing through the surf and clambering up the sides of the ship before taking their positions.

“Marco, how fast can you get us into open water? From the last point we’ll have cover, how long until we are well into the water and wind?” Elisa asked.

“I don’t know exactly. Not long, if I overdrive everything. Why?”

“Because if we get into the water before they get to us, it will only be with a little bit of a lead. We’ll have to run for it, and I want to know how much lead we’ll have. Otherwise, maybe they’ll chase out ahead of us and we can slip out behind them. ”

“Elisa, I…” Marco was trying to do the calculations in his head.

“Dumb guy veto,” Riv said. “Listen, I know you two want to make this safe, but we don’t have time for that. Every second counts, right? There’s no time for planning when it all comes down to us having to go out there eventually.”

“So just go?” Marco made it to the wheel as Aethe cut the mooring lines. “Right now?”

“Yes. Right now,” Elisa said. “He’s right. Thanks, Riv.”

“I have to be useful sometimes.” Riv gave a mock salute. “Captain, let’s do it.”

The ship pulled away from the shore and caught the wind. Marco revved his powers into the ship and increased the speed further. Up ahead of them, at the end of the natural inlet they were in, there was a sort of natural corner. Inside of it, they wouldn’t be able to see much. Once they broke the plane of the corner, they’d be able to see more or less that entire side of the island, along with all the ocean that surrounded it.

Marco held his breath as they began to pass that point, hoping with everything he had that the seas would be clear. It was not to be. As the ocean opened up to each side of them, he saw sails. Not one or two, not a few, but dozens of them. Every survivor of the armada was out on the water, moving fast. The ships that couldn’t keep up were falling behind, leaving a front of high-quality ships that looked sturdier, quicker, and better armed than the ships bringing up the rear.

Marco could have probably taken out one of the better ships, maybe two. But the lead ship, the one he could all but be sure Steed was captaining, was out of the question. It was too big. Too obviously armed. Too well crewed. If they were caught, they were dead.

“They’re gaining,” Riv warned.

“Not for long,” Marco said. “You don’t see that?”

“See what? Something good?”

“Usually.” Marco could feel the big ball of golden energy coming towards him, which let him know exactly where to look. “No telling what it will do this time.”

The gold swirled through the air and blasted towards them faster than any ship could sail, catching up in no time at all. At the last moment, it split into two pieces, slamming into Marco and the ship.

Marco sighed as the feeling of power washed over him, warm and invigorating. The ship jerked forward, increasing its speed relative to the fleet behind them.

“That helped,” Aethe observed. “Steed’s pushing his ship too. I think they still might be gaining.”

“Gaining is fine. We aren’t far from the island,” Marco said. “With any luck, that old woman will be ready for us.”

“Oh, that’s not luck, Marco. That’s just who she is.”

They pushed forward. The distance between the two islands was not that great, and chases at sea were sometimes measured in days. Most ships didn’t have fore-mounted cannons as a standard thing, but after several minutes Marco learned something new about just how easily they could if the crews of the ships wanted to make an effort.

Cannonballs began plopping into the water around the ship as Elisa ducked underdecks for cover. Marco decided not to zig or zag. If anything, that would make them take more shots over time when the pirate ships gained on them. They only had several minutes to go before they made it to the island, anyway.

As the ships got closer, The Foolish Endeavor started taking damage. At first, it was minor. Soon, the effect of the repeated hits started to splinter rails and break boards.

“We’re taking on water,” Elisa stated after taking a trip to assess the damage. “It’s eating into our buoyancy. Soon it’ll slow us down.”