Damnation seize my soul if I give you quarters, or take any from you

[Plink]

Plink scurried through the empty corridors, following the raised voices to where Robert and Blade faced off. Cannonfire echoed from the battling ships outside, but the Zephyr's guns sat silent. Plink had relayed the order herself.

"Cap'n Blade says to ready the cannons, but stay outta range 'til those escaped slaves use up their ammunition. When they stop shootin', move in an' sink 'em."

But that wasn't going to happen. Plink would make sure of it.

She followed their voices to a place near the aft stair and peeked around a corner to see the open door. The room beyond was too dark to see, but Plink could hear Robert demanding Blade show himself. She could hear Blade, too, his self-satisfied tone.

"But you're wrong. You'll never triumph over us. Not until you learn one simple fact about us vermin."

Plink's throat seized up in horror. She knew what he kept in that room.

"We are never unarmed."

There was a flash and a heart-stopping boom. The cannon ball smashed through the doorframe and a good length of the wall, knocking Plink on her tail and showering her with splinters. Ears ringing, she clambered to her footpaws and staggered to where Robert had been blown through the demolished doorway. He stared at the smoke clouding above him, blinking rapidly, vacantly. Plink got a grip on his coat and leaned in close in an effort to get him to look at her.

"Mister Robert? Are- are you alright?"

His eyes flicked to her face and he squinted, lifting a shaky paw toward his ear. "Plink? I cain't hear so good..."

Plink shook her head, too relieved to keep from smiling. "That'll pass. We gotta get outta here."

She tried pulling him upright, but he winced and fell back. "M' leg!"

What he clutched was hardly a leg anymore at all. Plink gaped at the mangled footpaw, then the laid-open calf. Sharp bits stuck out of the wound, splinters of wood and bone. Plink's stomach lurched, and she turned away to retch.

When she looked back, she noticed the rapidly-growing pool of blood on the deck. Robert was flat on his back again, grimacing at the ceiling, but his paws were tugging at his belt. Plink hovered over him.

"What do I do? Mister Robert, I don't know what to do!"

"Tourniquet," he grunted, thumbclaws wedged under his belt. "Gotta tie it 'round my leg. Cut off the blood flow. 'Fore I pass out."

The belt - he meant to use his belt to tie around his leg. That would mean getting it out from under his body, though, and there was no time for that. Plink yanked off the black and red sashes she wore and looped them around his thigh where he indicated, cinching them tight. Robert blinked dizzily at her, a lopsided smile tugging at his muzzle.

"G'job, lass. An' you tied a solid bowline, too."

Plink squirmed at the praise and turned to check the wrecked doorway. Beams had fallen across it and the doorframe had splintered outward, obscuring the dark room beyond. Foul-smelling smoke still hung thick on the close air. Blade had made no noise if he was still in there, but Plink didn't want to wait around to find out.

"Mister Robert, we can't stay here. We gotta move now."

"Better you go on, get yourself to safety. I'll be right behind you."

Plink narrowed her eyes and positioned herself near his shoulders, bracing to haul him upright. "I ain't leavin' you, even if I gotta carry you up all those stairs myself. Now come on an' help me, or you'll get us both caught fer you bein' so lazy."

Robert wheezed out a quiet laugh. "Heh heh heh, when you put it thata way, I cain't rightly say no."

After a lot of straining and yelping, they managed to get Robert up on his good leg. Plink pulled his arm over her shoulders and wrapped hers around his back and, ignoring the way his quills pricked her arm through his coat, she guided him to the stairs.

The cannonball had blasted clear through a few steps and severed the main support beam that kept the flight steady. As they climbed, the stairs wobbled under their weight. With each hopping step Robert managed, Plink could imagine the planks collapsing beneath them, dropping them down to the hold. She shook under his hefty weight each time it bore down on her. So close to him, Plink could feel how hard he was breathing. He clung to her and to the rail of the aft stair, but he still swayed more than balancing on one leg could account for. He was weak from pain and all that blood he'd lost. Plink shuddered inwardly and grumbled to fill the frightening silence.

"Come on, you heavy old prickledog," she sniffled as she steadied him at the landing and he prepared to take another step. "We gotta get to the main deck."

"We cain't go up there," he wheezed. "S'where all the pirates are?"

"Yeah, well it's where all the lifeboats are, too, an' if this is as good as you can walk, you ain't gonna be swimmin' anyplace." She paused, and her tone softened minutely. "'Sides, the aft stair'll let us out real close to the lifeboats. Maybe we can-"

BOOM

Plink's heart fell and Robert lurched against the wall as the ship swayed. "The cannons!" he gasped. "The Waverunners are movin' in!"

"Maybe," Plink said quietly. She had not heard any shots from the Phantom for a while now. "Come on! We gotta hurry!"

They made their way up past the gun deck and were on the final landing when Plink heard a hammering of footfalls on the deck above. She leapt away from Robert and raced up to see what was happening, clearing the stairs just in time to intercept the pawful of pirates who were about to descend. Without batting an eye, the little rat threw up her paws and puffed up importantly.

"What d'yew lot think yer doin'? Cap'n Blade wants all paws on deck an' at the ready to fight. You'd best all get back to yer stations!"

"We heard a blast from down below," said Surg, the boatswain. He was watching her very closely. "Sounded like it damaged the ship. What happened? Where's the cap'n?"

"He's down near the hold, finishin' off those slaves you let aboard!" Plink glared hard at the weasel, then stepped aside. "The stairs're ruined. If you really wanna see fer yerself, you go on, but the cap'n ain't gonna be happy 'bout you disobeyin' his orders when I tell him."

Surg hesitated before finally curling his lip at her. He grabbed the front of her coat and jerked her close so he could sneer into her face. "Grovelin' liddle snitch. If yew don't watch yer mouth, yer gonna get a knife through yer ribs real soon."

Plink hung from his fist, too stunned to struggle. Though there had been palpable tension during her days aboard the Zephyr, nobeast had openly confronted her this way.

After a beat of silence, Surg shoved her back, nearly sending her toppling down the stairs. "Go on back ter kissin' Blade's tail, Halfrat. An' don' let me catch yer skulkin' around, neither."

Plink dropped down to the first step to catch her balance and glared as Surg and his cronies snickered. She burned to teach them a lesson, the bullies, but Robert was there on the stairs below her. If she did the wrong thing now, something stupid and selfish like picking a fight, she would get him caught.

Glowering under the sting of the pirates' laughter, she lowered herself down another stair, and another after that. Finally, Surg and the rest turned to leave.

Plink waited until their backs were turned, then scurried down to where Robert sat on the stairs with his head hanging low. Afraid he had passed out, she crouched beside him with a paw on his shoulder. Robert's head lolled to the side and he smiled weakly at her from the corner of his eye.

"Still here, lass."

Plink let out a relieved breath and glanced back toward the grey dawn sky above. "We gotta hurry. It ain't gonna be dark enough to cover us much longer."

Robert grunted as she helped him rise and together they climbed the last of the stairs. The deck above was in chaos. Crews were hard at work adjusting sails to catch the light wind, but a great many had splintered off to watch the hazy shadow of the Phantom where it was entangled with a Waverunner ship. Ships were embattled all around. The Zephyr's cannons sounded again, and another Waverunner vessel shuddered and began nosing into the sea.

Plink had marveled at the explosions flashing against mist and smoke earlier on. Now, she was only grateful for the distraction. With every step, she was terrified that some pirate would spot them and call an alarm, but no cry went up. Plink hustled Robert to the aftmost longboat and helped him clamber inside before following.

They lowered it together, each working one of the ropes rigged to the ends with pulleys, and soon were below the level of the deck. Abruptly, Plink found her end of the boat had dipped out of balance. When she looked at Robert, she saw why. He had stopped lowering his end.

"It ain't right," he panted, staring hazily back up at the deck. "Us runnin' off an' leavin' the others behind this way."

Plink scowled at him, but kept her voice low. "Yer hurt, Mister Robert. The only thing you could do up there is get yerself killed. Yer friends can take care of themselves."

Robert's eyes slid in and out of focus as they settled back on her. "At least you're safe. I been worried sick 'bout you, Miss Plink."

Plink nearly smiled, but found herself chewing her thumbclaw instead. It hurt; she'd chewed it to the quick over the past few days and yet she couldn't seem to let it alone. "Come on, Mister Robert. We ain't safe like this."

They went on lowering the longboat until it was bobbing in the waves, occasionally bumping hard against the Zephyr's hull. The sound was lost in the din of battle. Plink unhooked the rope from her end of the boat and passed Robert an oar before he could do the same. Then, as she tugged the rope to make it draw back up, she assessed him once more.

The hedgehog clutched the oar loosely, barely staying upright. He only looked tired, but despite the little Plink knew about serious injuries, she was fairly sure it would be bad if he fell asleep.

"Don't unhook that line unless somebeast tries pullin' the boat back up," she said, then tore her eyes from him and fixed them on the rope in her paws. "There's somethin' I need to go back an' do. You've gotta stay awake an' watch fer me, okay?"

Robert gaped at her, so alarmed that he finally managed to sit fully upright. "I'll come with you, then. You cain't be goin' back up there alone."

"You ain't gonna follow me," Plink said quietly. She wasn't arguing, just stating the fact.

Before Robert could disagree, she began climbing the rope, using what remained of her tail to steady her. Out of reach, she peered back down at him, and remembered the last time she had left a friend behind in a longboat. She hadn't come back in time to help Scully. It was probably better not to promise to come back at all, but Robert needed the reassurance. He needed a reason to stay awake.

He gripped the oar in both paws, much more alert now. "You don't have to go, Plink. Whatever it is, there's other beasts as can handle it."

The little rat shook her head. "No beast else is gonna do it, Mister Robert. These're my people. It's my responsibility."

Robert protested again, but Plink just turned and scrambled up the rope. His plaintive tone clung to her in the way of a summer memory lingering on into winter. With her paws occupied with the rope, she had to scrub her face against the stiff shoulder of her coat to clear the tears away.

She was faster alone. In the uproar of the growing battle, Plink crept over the rail like a scuttling shadow and vanished back down the stairs. She climbed down past the broken planks as the cannons shook the blackened and shattered woodwork, and ventured deeper into the ship. Finally, she came to the brig.

Atlas raised his head at her approach, but did not speak.

"It's me," Plink said, though it wasn't necessary. He always knew who she was before she spoke. "There's a fight goin' on. I'm gonna get you outta there, but? ya gotta help me with somethin' before we can get off this ship."

The badgerlord climbed to his feet, and Plink stared. For all his weeks wasting away, for all his sickness and remorse, he was a spectacular beast, so tall he had to duck his head so that it would not bark the ceiling. "If it involves making trouble for Blade, I will do anything in my power, miss."

"G-good." Plink licked her whiskers on one side and dug in her pocket for the stolen key. Though she knew Atlas was blind and no longer wanted to hack her to pieces, her paw still shook as she unlocked the cell door. "Alright," she said, backing up a few steps. "This way."

Atlas followed her, trailing his massive paws along the walls of the corridor. Plink guided him to the room with the heap of uniforms. He stopped in the doorway, his snout wrinkling in disgust. "What is that ghastly smell? Brimstone?"

"It's Blade's explodin' powder." Plink tossed aside the most ragged uniforms to uncover her hidden inventions. "Come closer. I can't carry these far. They got too heavy."

"What are they?" Atlas asked, shuffling closer.

Plink grunted as she sat one of the improvised sacks up on end, but she couldn't help smiling. "Old Waverunner uniforms sewn shut an' filled with black powder. I call 'em 'Runner Dummies." Her smile faded as she watched Atlas's big paw settle tenderly on the stained blue fabric. "But I guess that ain't very nice."

Atlas felt along the fat torso and packed sleeves of the coat, and his mouth quirked tightly upward at one corner. "Children are notoriously cruel." He patted around, feeling the other five dummies. "How did you get all this black powder without anybeast noticing?"

"I stole it a little at a time from the reserve barrels. Nobeast checks those. An' the night guards were always sleepin' on the job." Plink watched Atlas lift one dummy under his arm, then tuck in a second beside it as easily as if they were pillows. "Alright, this way."

She led him down the corridor to the room full of wine barrels and to the shelves that had once been lined with winter squash. "I'll climb up through the hole, an' you pass 'em through to me."

"The hole?" Plink did not see the badger's ears twitch as she climbed the shelves and dislodged the loose floor board, but when she hoisted herself through into the infirmary and looked back, his snout was turned up toward her, poking into the light of the single oil lamp that sat on the nearby cabinet.

The infirmary was trashed, broken bottles of ointment and herbal blends scattered about the floor. Atlas must have smelled the spilled medicines. "So this is how you were getting in," he rumbled as he lifted a dummy up and slid it onto the infirmary floor. "Miss Crue was having fits about you."

"I know."

Plink ducked her head and heaved with all her might to drag the dummy across the polished floorboards. A large post had been installed in the center of the room to support the cannon on the level above. As Plink arranged the dummy against the post, she could hear the crew overhead, working to prepare their gun for another blow.

Atlas lifted the next dummy up and Plink hurried to drag it into place. As soon as she had finished, he returned with the next two dummies. It was when he had gone again, when Plink was just beginning to shove the forth dummy toward the post, that the door opened behind her and a familiar voice froze her in her tracks.

"Aren't you a bit old t' be playing with dolls, Miss Plink?"

Plink turned slowly to face Blade where he filled the doorway, Robert's sword in one paw and some glimmering object barely peeking through his other fist. In contrast to his light, almost playful words, his expression was murderous. He sniffed the air and his eyes narrowed to hateful slits.

"But then, those aren't exactly filled with straw an' lavender, are they?"

Plink fought to keep her eyes on him and not flick to the hole in the floor, her one escape route from that sword and the much bigger beast wielding it. "Cap'n, it ain't what-"

"I don't want to hear your lies." He took one threatening step closer. "Too late for that, now. I saw you help that hedgehog escape, you wretched little traitor. And I know that's not all you've been up to."

He raised up his fist suddenly and let the ruby fall to the end of its silver chain, shimmying in the light of the oil lamp. Plink stared at the glimmering stone, remembering - it was the necklace she had barely noticed in the drawer with Scully's dagger.

"I think you forgot something while you were making free with my affects," Blade growled. He took a step closer. "It belongs to your friend, you know. Admit the truth and I'll give it to you."

Plink held up her paws in a forestalling gesture. "I don't know what yer talkin' about, sir."

"Admit it! Admit you were in cahoots with that thievin' vixen all along. Admit you knew she stole from me an' never said a word."

Blade stepped closer still as he spoke. The ruby sparked and glimmered where it hung between them.

Just as it had when it hung between Vera and Ciera in the jungle, seconds before Murdin's corpse hit the sand, bleeding from his gashed throat.

Plink tore her eyes from the gem and ducked just as Blade slashed at her. The sword breezed over her head and struck the post, biting deep. Plink made to dart for the door, but Blade abandoned his weapon to grab a fistful of her scruff and drag her back. Desperate with pain and alarm, the little rat wrenched the dagger from her sash and twisted against him, sawing at the nearest part of him. With a howl, Blade released her and staggered back, clutching his sliced forearm.

Blood and the ruby hit the deck and, rather than dodging past him to escape, Plink paused. Slowly, she bent down to pick up the amulet and straightened, clutching it near her chest.

"Vera never stole from you," she said, meeting Blade's infuriated eye. "It was me. I used fox perfume to cover my scent an' I stole a diamond. I shouldn't've done it, an' I'm sorry?" Plink frowned, narrowing her own eyes at him. "But more to Vera than you. You ain't what I thought you were, at all."

"Oh no?" Blade sneered. He lowered his paw from his bleeding forearm and stepped toward the post where his sword was still lodged. "Do enlighten me. What did you think I was?"

Plink watched him edge toward the weapon and stepped back. Her shadow, cast by the oil lamp behind her, swept over the ferret. "I thought you were lookin' out fer us, but it's just yerself you care about. Yer treasure, yer cannons? yer power. We'd be better off without the lot of it, an' without you."

She kicked over the dummy at her footpaws. Blade jumped as if expecting it to explode. When it didn't, when it only flopped over and ripped open at the top, spewing black powder across the floor around his footpaws, he wrenched his cutlass from the post and glared at her.

Plink glared right back, but her next words came out choked. "Why'd you kill Scully? He just wanted to help you."

"You mean Mister Hagglethrump?" Blade curled his lip on the name. "Your little friend was as much a traitorous liar as you turned out to be. Not to worry, though. I'm sure you'll see him in Hellgates directly."

He lunged for her and Plink darted back, hooking her dagger through the brass loop of the oil lamp and slinging the hot glass vessel to the floor between them. Blade danced back from the sudden blaze, and Plink dove for the hole in the floor as the scattered black powder erupted in a hiss of sparks.

Falling into the darker hold below, Plink braced herself to hit the floor or the shelves. Instead, huge paws caught her and she felt herself rushed away as an explosion overhead rocked the ship. There was an ear-splitting crash as timbers broke and a mass of steel came crashing through the infirmary ceiling.

In the silence that followed, Plink clung to Atlas, only barely aware of the noise building around her. Screams leaked through the floor from the fallen cannon crew, but more chilling than that was the squeal of planks and joists as the floor bowed overhead.

"It's gonna come down," Plink managed to shriek, clawing to get away from the badger as flaming oil dribbled from the ceiling and onto the last two dummies.

Atlas turned and managed three steps toward the door before a blast sent him flying into the opposite wall of the corridor. He sagged, and Plink struggled out from under his huge arm, coughing in the smoke and dust. When it cleared enough for her to see, she gaped.

Daylight glowed through the wreckage from a hole twice the height and breadth of the badgerlord. The cannon and much of the floor had been blown through the hull, leaving a massive empty space criss-crossed with broken beams and dying pirates. Plink stared as water began sweeping in, lapping toward her with deceptive gentleness.

Beside her, Atlas groaned. Roused from her stupor, Plink found herself with the dagger still in one paw and the amulet in the other. Pocketing the amulet, she shook his enormous shoulder ineffectually. "Come on! We gotta get outta here!"

"Blade," Atlas growled as he pushed himself up. "Is he dead?"

"Yes! Now would you-" Plink stopped as the badger's paw closed around her forearm.

"Did you see him die?" he asked deliberately.

"I- He had to've died. The explosion was so big," she hurried on, "I don't see how he could've got away."

Atlas sighed and climbed to his footpaws. "I won't take the chance that he did. You run along, miss. Get off this ship while you still can."

Plink didn't move, except to bite at her raw thumbclaw as she assessed him. "Yer blind, sir. It ain't right to just leave you all alone?"

Unerringly, Atlas reached out and tugged her paw from where she'd been chewing at it. "I am not so helpless as all that. Besides, a blind beast may still face his destiny."

Plink opened her mouth to argue, but the deck began listing toward the hole. Atlas pushed her toward the stairs. "Go now!"

She went, driven to a sprint by his hoarse bark. She scrambled out of the hold and dashed up to the cannon deck. Smoke and chaos ruled the cleared-out space. The ship listed hard to port now, and as Plink paused to watch, a cannon snapped its restraints and went rolling from starboard to port, smashing through wood and bone with equal ease. Pirates had abandoned their stations and were kicking and clawing one another in their efforts to flee up the fore stair. The wild-eyed crowd who had chosen the aft stairs squeezed together on the narrower flight. Plink joined them easily, gripping the rail as she followed on an unknown stoat's heels.

An agonized groan of failing wood welled up from beneath them and, with a monumental crash, the stairs collapsed. Plink clung to the rail and gaped at the fallen beasts below, many too broken now to flee. Swallowing back another wave of sickness, she hauled herself upward along the sturdy railing, clawing her way onto the stairs that had survived.

On the main deck, Plink dodged through the crowd as fights broke out in and around the overcrowded longboats. The Zephyr shuddered and groaned beneath her, pitching her to all fours on the stairs to the aftcastle. As she came level to the deck, her hackles rose at the sight before her.

A pawful of pirates were climbing over the gunwale and down the rope toward the longboat Plink had helped lower. Toward Robert.

Of course he wouldn't leave without her, even with the ship sinking and his longboat about to be overrun. It shocked Plink to realize that in her rush to reach the deck, it had never occurred to her that he might not be there when she arrived.

And now that stalwartness was about to get him killed.

Plink leapt between the distracted pirates and onto the gunwale, slamming into a weasel who was mid-reach for the rope. His arms windmilled as he tipped off the edge and fell screaming toward the water far below. His comrades on the rope and the deck watched him fall, then looked up at Plink in fury and confusion.

She leapt for the rope just as the nearest pirates swiped their claws through the air where she had been. They grabbed for her, tearing her coat and roaring and spitting curses, but Plink rapidly descended the rope and was quickly out of their grasp.

The rat on the rope beneath her was glaring up at her. "Wha'd ya do that fer? Wurli didn't do nothin' ter yew!"

The one-eyed stoat below him sneered, her snout crinkling nastily below her eyepatch. "That be th' Halfrat, dingy. She's like to got a soft spot fer woodlander scum."

"You stay away from Robert!" Plink dropped down the rope with all the speed and agility it had taken to outclimb Maurick on his tree and stomped the rat in the snout. He grunted and lost his grip on the rope, but he had been using his tail to steady himself. When his claws slipped free, he swung briefly by his tail, slamming bodily into the stoat below him.

She snarled and kicked him away, sending him flying without so much as a pause. Then she rolled her one eyed glare up to Plink. "Yer dead, Halfrat."

Steel rang as she drew the scimitar from her hip.

A quiver in the rope alerted Plink to more danger and she looked up to see a tattooed marten shimmying down toward her with a long knife clenched between his teeth. If she went down, the stoat would slash her before she ever got close, but there was no other way to go. Plink hesitated.

Far below, steel rang against wood followed by a crash of water. "I cain't be lettin' you beasts aboard armed," Robert panted, "but if'n you'll just surrender your weapons-"

"'E's gettin' tired! Cut 'im down! Take 'is oar an' gut that thorny devil!"

Plink knew that voice as well. It was Surg, the boatswain. More than that, though, she knew he was right. Robert sounded exhausted. She had to do something.

Plink dropped toward the stoat, pulling herself to a sudden stop just out of reach. The stoat slashed at her, her scimitar nicking the tough rope but flying short of its target. Taking advantage of the backswing, Plink scrambled down the opposite side of the rope, ducking to one side and using the stoat's own body to avoid her weapon.

The stoat let out a frenzied snarl. "Hol' still yer dirty liddle-"

Her scimitar bit deep into the rope overhead and both stoat and rat paused to watch the fibers separate and spiral off under the weight of all the pirates below. Then, both broke into action at once.

"We gorra bad rope," the stoat shouted as she struggled to sheathe her weapon and climb at the same time. "She's gonna snap!"

With empty paws and new desperation, Plink dropped quickly past the stoat and the confused rats below her. She stepped on paws and faces heedlessly, occasionally gripping tails instead of the rope. Not far below, there was a thump and scratch of impact as Surg kicked Robert in the gut, sending him sprawling back in the longboat. The hedgehog's face twisted in pain as he clutched his injured leg. The weasel loomed over him, cutlass raised.

Plink let go of the rope and fell hard on the pirate's shoulders, sending them both to the belly of the longboat in a groaning, swearing heap.

"What the blazes are yew-?" Surg twisted his neck around to see who had hit him and his glare turned from sour to icy. His claws tightened around the hilt of his cutlass as he began climbing to his footpaws. "If it ain't Blade's toady. Where's the cap'n ter protect ye now, Halfrat?"

"Blade's dead." Plink drew the dagger and held it at the ready. She knew that her chances of fending off a cutlass with it were slim, but when she balanced on a bench between Robert and Surg and stood nearly as tall as her enemy, her doubts did not show. "Get yerself off this boat or I'll send you to follow him."

Surg glanced at the blood-stained dagger and the unflinching little beast who held it.

"Alright," he said at length, lowering his cutlass. "Alright, I see what yer doin'. It's Burnet, ain't it? That wildcat had sommat on ye and she told ye ter kill 'im. An' now yer gonna join 'er crew, aye?" He smiled toothily, perhaps seeing some measure of confirmation in Plink's expression. "I could be a help to ye, y'know. It's always a good idear t' have a mate like me in a crew."

"I ain't with Burnet," Plink snapped. "She's just as bad as Blade, grabbin' power an' throwin' beasts' lives away like they're nothin' but tools!"

Surg's eyes narrowed. "Then ye really are a double-crosser." He raised the tip of his cutlass to indicate Robert behind her. "Ye betrayed Cap'n Blade fer this Waverunner trash."

"Blade betrayed us!"

A pair of rats had climbed down onto the end of the boat and were helping a third down when the rope snapped. The third rat and the one-eyed stoat squawked before crashing into the water. At the noise, Surg turned to look.

Plink didn't waste a second. She snatched up Robert's fallen oar and swung it clumsily, knocking the unsuspecting weasel overboard. The two rats looked up from where they had been urging their comrade to climb aboard. Plink raised the oar with some effort, but Robert spoke first.

"Surrender your weapons, you lot. None o' your captains are comin' back for you, now."

Plink was as startled by his words as the other rats, and she looked up at the ships around them just as they did. With the Zephyr clearly sinking and the Waverunners fighting hard, the pirate fleet had crumbled. Plink picked out the Deathblow leading five ships off to the west, but the other remaining pirate vessels were either captured, scattered, or sunk by the Phantom's cannons. Waverunner ships were everywhere, sweeping between patches of wreckage like vultures.

"There ain't many options left to you, boyos," Robert said in his firm, kind way. "Either you surrender your weapons now and come peacefully, or those goodbeasts'll chase you down and arrest you proper."

Plink looked at the downed hedgehog and, even though she knew his injuries would prevent him from personally backing up the threat, she felt the condemnation of his words. His eyes flicked briefly to her and he winked, but that only made her feel worse.

There was a chorus of splashes as the rats tossed their weapons overboard and hauled up their friend. Plink watched warily as they pulled up the one-eyed stoat. Surg, she noticed, had swum off toward another longboat.

"Plink," Robert said more quietly. She peered back over her shoulder at him, uncertain, confused to see his easy smile. "Let's let those fellows do the rowin'. Ain't no reason to be gluttons for hard work today."

She nodded stiffly and relinquished her oar. From where he sat, Robert directed the four pirates to take up oars and row. They gave him sour looks - especially the stoat - but fell into line. Plink felt their glares linger on her like a physical touch.

The Zephyr was listing deep into the ocean now, and occasional thunderous cracks announced the massive ship was coming apart. Pirates thrashed amongst the debris spreading all around, but there was no sign of Atlas. Plink watched the towering masts quaver against the bruised morning sky. A warm paw settled on her shoulder, but she couldn't bring herself to look at Robert when he spoke.

"That was a mighty brave thing to do, lass."

"You mean betrayin' my people or murderin' all those beasts with the explodin' powder?"

The tough pads of his paw squeezed gently, and Plink finally looked at him from the corner of her eye. The pity in his expression burned her like hot ash. "You made a hard choice. It ain't ever supposed to be easy, takin' a life, an' it ain't a decision a beast young as you should ever have to make. But I think of all the innocent beasts back in Mossflower who'd have suffered if Blade made landfall an'?" He shook his big head and blinked hard. "I'm glad for what you did."

Plink thought of all the innocent beasts in Mossflower, going about their stupid, happy lives, and she thought of all the vermin bodies blasted unrecognizable in the ruins of the Zephyr. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. It was just the easy way to deal with the problem.

The hard way, the way that was right by Plink - that was the difficult road ahead.