Page 21 of By the Flames of Her Fury

“Vera, down!” Starke yelled.

I glanced up in time to see a horizontal pole flying through the air. It jammed into my midsection, sweeping me off my feet. Stars swam in my vision as I gasped and tried to wrap my arms around the boom, leaving my legs dangling precariously above the open waves.

More adrenaline rushed through me, along with a hint of hot, metallic fear. My vision came back to me in sharp clarity as I took in the oncoming threat. Water at the heart of the whirlpool yawned, exposing a cone of dark, churning waves.

And something—something moved.

My breaths came faster as I struggled to keep my grip on the boom. It was something long and scaled—no, not scaled⁠—

Without warning, the boom jerked forward. Several men rushed to help as I came swinging back to the deck, the strange mirage in the water now gone.

Starke stood in the center of them all. “Are you alright?” he shouted, reaching to catch me as I untwined my arms from the pole and landed on my feet. He gripped my forearms, eyes scanning me.

I brushed out of his hold. “I’m fine. But there’s something out there.” I nodded my head toward the whirl. It grew closer, like a wide mouth with a sea of white, foamy teeth.

“Yes, a giant whirlpool,” Starke said exasperatedly.

I waved a hand. “No, something else. I saw⁠—”

“Cap’n, we’re getting too close for comfort over here!” Lenny yelled from the helm in a cracked voice.

Starke strode past me, boots sloshing on the water-logged deck. He motioned to his first mate. “Can we anchor and wait it out?” he asked Karye.

“It’s too deep,” she said, shaking her head. It rattled the chains she wore around her neck. “We’re too far from shore.”

The three of us reached the helm to find a very sweaty, very anxious Lenny. He dabbed his forehead with the back of his hand. “I can’t hold her,” he sputtered. “She keeps wantin’ to fall into it.”

The compass on the binnacle spun around and around in its circle. I furrowed my brow as I stared at it. Something about it gave me an idea. A stupid, reckless idea.

“Then let her,” I said, dangerous excitement snaking through my veins.

Karye raised a dark eyebrow. “Come again?”

“Not fall into it,” I amended. “Fall around it. The rim of the whirlpool. We can ride it like a current and sort of…slingshot out.” I used my hands to demonstrate what I meant.

Starke scratched his neck. “And if it pulls us under instead?”

I gave him a grim smile. “Guess we better hold on tight.”

Karye shook her head in disbelief. “You’re going to get us killed, kid.”

She was probably right. The fact that this was the most alive I’d felt in months wasn’t a good sign either, but I could dwell on that later.

Starke eyed me, then sighed. I knew he was going to agree before he said anything. He always did. “Do it,” he said to Lenny.

Lenny gawked up at him. “What? That’s a terrible plan. We’re all gonna die.”

“Lenny,” Starke said, crossing his arms.

“Think of my children!” Lenny whined.

Starke squinted at him. “You don’t have any children.”

“Someday I might.” When the three of us glared at him, he threw his hands in the air. “Alright, fine!”

Starke gave the orders to the rest of the crew. The sails shifted, and the White Moonstone shuddered. Water raced faster than a raging river, and we moved with it, sliding toward the rim. Another shape rose in the distance. It wavered in the darkness for a breath, something long and curved and shadowed, almost like a⁠—

But it was gone a second later.