Natasha's Reavers trudged onward. The cracks in the canopy grew brighter as the morning went on, but precious little light spilled down into the gloom they moved through. Though there were no more nettles, Natasha still hacked at any overgrown fronds or thick vines that dared to be in her way.
The ground grew steeper. Beneath them the loamy earth slanted sharply upward until they were forced to climb on hands and knees up a slope. They had reached the craggy hill. Hopefully, the Queen was still caught at its summit.
Mordecai stopped to rest against the trunk of a banyan, panting heavily. The incline rose even more sharply just up ahead. Rocks protruded from the hill to form a network of minor cliffs. Natasha started to ascend. Mordecai shot out an arm. "Wait," he gasped. "We need rest before we can climb that."
His captain gave him an ugly look. Her eyes were sunken and bruised from exhaustion. The skin along her jaw was swollen from the touch of some venomous plant. "Got to catch the Queen," she snarled. "Stay here and have a bit of a sit for yourself if you want to."
She shrugged his hand away and threw herself into the ascent. A spasm of anger coursed through Mordecai. He forced himself to calm, or at least to somewhere calmer, then followed.
The trees were shorter and thicker here, not having to grow so high for nourishment. That also meant that there was more undergrowth. Between the rocks and the branches, Mordecai needed both hands free. He sheathed his sword. All too soon he wished he'd had it back. Branches that Natasha pushed aside whipped back at him, and his fine, soft gloves were going to tatters where he grabbed at the sharp rocks. Gradually, the gloom brightened. The way became easier, and the foliage less thick. The rocks leveled out back to an incline rather than a set of cliffs. Mordecai ducked under one last low-hanging banyan limb and stepped out into daylight.
And then he stared.
The top of the hill flattened, stretching out into a broad overhang that extended above the jungle below. It was grassy and level with the canopy of the trees growing from the flanks of the hill. The Copper Queen was caught on the jutting outcrop of rock by some rope that dangled from its bow, the deck being only a little higher than the rocky outcrop. Past it, the Yulan Jungle stretched for hundreds of miles, brilliant and emerald green in the morning sunlight. His captain stood only a few feet ahead.
The ship looked even worse in the daylight than when he'd seen it last. The bag was sagging, the hull was scorched through in places, and the ratlines and rigging were a tangled mess. Cannons had either broken free or unmoored themselves and lay scattered about. All in all, Euron's ship was not destined to fly for very much longer, if at all.
Also, there were apes.
They were large and white furred, shorter than a man by a foot, but thick and powerfully built. Heavy tusks poked up from their lower jaws, gleaming white in the sunlight. The apes, fifty or so, crawled about the deck, hooting and gibbering.
"Well," said Natasha after a moment.
Mordecai glanced at the outcrop and the uncertain footing of the deck. In both places they'd be at a disadvantage. And while the apes would die like anything else, there were quite a lot of them. "We should wait them out," he said after a moment. "Maybe somewhere down below."
"No."
Mordecai caught her eye and held it. "We're exhausted, and I don't think these brutes will cow easily." He grimaced back at their own ragged line of crew still making their way up the hill. "Unlike our own. There's nothing we can really do at the moment."
Natasha snarled. "You're wrong, Mordecai. There is one thing we can do; we take that damned ship back."
She hefted her blade and marched across the outcrop to where the rigging had snared. Senseless wench, Mordecai cursed to himself. He glanced back at the crew stretched behind him. They were just as rag-tag and exhausted as he'd said. Reaver Jane looked dead on her feet, and Guye Farrel was a swollen mass of stings and bug-bites. The Wiley brothers were gasping and cursing. Everyone else either stared at him dumbly, or had taken the opportunity to sit. Mordecai hissed a command at them, voice hoarse from weariness and pain. Those closest started and shambled forward, while those sitting climbed wearily to their feet. He made sure they were all moving before stalking over to his captain himself.
He caught up with her just below the ship where the snared rigging created a convenient ladder up to the slanting bow. Hoots and grunts echoed off the ship, and a single white ape clung to the ropes before them, jumping up and down. It noticed Natasha approach and stopped. As Mordecai walked up to her, the creature bared its fangs and hissed in warning. Some of the other apes clambering about up above peeked over the bow, curious at the noise. They stared at the pirates.