Read Online Ocean Without End by Kelly Gardiner - Free Book Online Page B

ships while our crew got ready to board, cutlasses in hand; how Diablo blasted his prey with a broadside from each side;how the merchant ship, the richest prize, sank almost immediately, her gunpowder casks exploding in an inferno that nearly sank us all; how Diablo cursed, left the burned survivors to drown, and raced after the sloop.
    By then, the first wounded were being brought to the galley. The sloop had got off a round from its twelve-pounder that had put a hole right through the bows of Gisella and taken off Harry’s left arm. He was carried in screaming, and kept screaming while Cook tried to staunch the flow of blood with a wad of linen.
    Old Brasher limped in with a piece of wood the size of a belaying-pin sticking out of his thigh. ‘Pull that out for me, lass,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to be getting on. Captain’s ready to board.’
    I put both hands around the splintered wood and yanked as hard as I could. Brasher let out a mighty roar. ‘Good girl,’ he said, when he’d caught his breath. I tied up the wound as Cookie had taught me, and Brasher hobbled back to the action.
    Harry was whimpering now, reciting some half-forgotten prayer. Cook stood by his side, just waiting. Harry was not long for this world.
    It seemed we were all waiting. The ships collided with an enormous thud that threw me to the floor. A roar from above meant the crew was boarding the other ship, swords and daggers drawn. There was gunfire — muskets or boarding pistols, I couldn’t tell — and shouted curses, stopped dead by a scream. More shouting, and then the clash of sword on sword. The din was terrifying, but seemed strangely muffled.After a few minutes, Francesco dragged in a wounded man and dumped him in the middle of the floor.
    â€˜We have boarded,’ he shouted, ‘but they fight like demons!’ He ran back to the fray.
    Brasher staggered in again, this time with a sword gash across his forehead. I pushed him down onto the bench, and scolded. ‘This time, you’re staying here.’
    I don’t think he minded too much. There was blood on his cutlass.
    â€˜I gave as good as I got, you know, lass.’
    â€˜I’m sure you did,’ I assured him.
    â€˜Cookie!’ came a call down the hatch. ‘Come quick.’
    Cook didn’t even glance up from the wound he was tending.
    â€˜You’ll have to go, girl. I can’t take my hands off this. Take some cloth and the brandy. But don’t let the liquor out of your sight.’
    I didn’t move.
    â€˜Go!’
    Of course. Someone was hurt. I scrambled up the ladder with the bottle in one hand, and emerged into bright sunlight. Gisella ’s deck was empty. Ropes were strewn over the starboard rails, and I looked down over the side at a scene of mayhem.
    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, men were lying in the strangestpositions, staring straight up into the sky, collapsed face down on the boards, or curled into corners, moaning. There was blood everywhere.
    â€˜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 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.
    â€˜What hit you?’
    â€˜A sword slash. Blasted thing. There were two of ’em at once, I couldn’t take ’em both. Got ’em in the end,