"What?" asked Lucian. "Who is that?" Fengel said nothing, instead passing the spyglass wordlessly to his mate. Lucian looked through it and uttered an exclamation. "The Copper Queen?" he cried. "Euron himself is bearing down on us?"
"No," said Fengel. "Natasha." He knew it to be true. The ship from earlier had been her. If she'd moved quickly enough from Haventown she could have just made it to Engmann's Maelstrom. But it would have been close. Fengel had an epiphany. He dropped back down to the deck. "She knew. She knew about the skysails. That was her earlier, Lucian. She wasn't chasing because she knew she could lay an ambush here, knew we'd have lost the sails if it hadn't been for Miss Stone. She'd have had to go at full speed to make it. Blast it, how did she know?" he turned to the deck and bellowed through cupped hands. "Everyone to stations! Heft open the weapons lockers! Arm the wounded and call everyone up on deck!"
Fengel raced back to the helm without looking at the crew. Andrea Holt made to relinquish the helm and he waved her back to it. Instead, he leaned in towards the speaking-tube atop the helmsman's gearbox. "Furnace to full!" he cried.
Silence. Fengel felt Andrea's gaze on him and turned back to her. She shrugged, watching him curiously. Did the Mechanist hear me? He leaned farther in. "I say, are you down there? Get that furnace stoked up—"
A discordant screech exploded from the tube. Fengel jumped back, cursing and rubbing at his ear. The tube fell silent, only to erupt again in an unintelligible cacophony.
"Dash it all," muttered Fengel. He turned back to the helm. "Andrea, get down to the Mechanist and—"
"No time sir," said the piratess, pointing. She shook her head, dark locks of hair splaying about. Fengel followed her gesture. Up the deck the crew moved frantically, grabbing weapons from hastily opened lockers while others climbed up from the hatches belowdecks. Past them, the black hull of the Copper Queen was just visible, descending two hundred feet away to come level alongside.
Sarah Lome clambered up from the aft hatch and took in the situation at a glance. She immediately moved amidships to the weapons locker. Fengel nodded to Andrea and moved up the deck to where the massive piratess stood. His gunnery mistress nodded at him as she picked up a heavy axe and belted on a brace of pistols. Lucian and Henry Smalls joined them.
"Evening, Captain," said Sarah. She turned to Lucian. "Mister Thorne, what have you let happen on your watch? I'm told we got attacked by scryn too."
Lucian glowered. "Well, not all of us can sleep the day away—"
"Belay all that," ordered Fengel. His officers immediately quieted. He gestured them away so that the crew could keep arming themselves. "We're going to be boarded. If things go poorly, though, I'll call for quarter."
Henry frowned at the other airship. "Think she'll use a broadside to soften us up?" Most modern airships had a few cannons along the lowest decks, to bombard seagoing vessels. With it's traditional layout, Old Euron's ship was ironically better suited to attacking the Dawnhawk than any modern airship.
Fengel shook his head. "No. She won't want to damage the Dawnhawk. Still, if she came all this way in that old wreck..."
He trailed off as the other airship approached. It was close enough that he could pick out the individual crewmen on the other side, all shouting and waiving cutlasses high. A few overeager musket-shots rang out, too far away to be even close to effective, the plumes of gun smoke puffing away on the wind. Natasha stood on the foredeck, blade held in the air. Up on the aftcastle he spied Mordecai, a dark figure standing quietly.
Fengel hardened his heart and drew his blade. "This is our ship," he said, quietly, dangerously. "We stole it, fair and square. And that besotted slattern is not going to take it back from us. Lucian, give the order."
His first mate nodded and turned to face the deck. "Stand ready to repel borders!" he cried. The crew readied their weapons and pushed up against the rails, swords raised and axes readied to hack away boarding-ropes. Lucian looked back to his captain.
Fengel met their gazes in turn and then smiled. He drew the saber at his hip and stuck it point down in the deck. "Well then, me hearties, let's be about it."
His officers turned to the starboard-side, and the enemy airship, with a wordless yell.
Chapter Nine
They were closing in on their prey.
The Dawnhawk lay dead ahead. Even adrift, its skysails presumably damaged, the airship appeared mighty. Her long, clean lines were magnificent in the late afternoon sun. The sight of his ship relieved Mordecai, just as it enraged him to see her in the grip of her captors. Fengel's Men scurried about its deck in alarm, moving like cockroaches startled by a sudden light. Mordecai allowed himself a smile.