The Triumphant (The Valiant #3)(93)

In the blink of an eye, the waves began to gather in peaks and troughs, iron gray and angry, and a stiff gale whipped the foam from them and drove it into our faces like rain. The clouds rolled in, and the ceiling of the world lowered down upon us until we could barely tell sea from sky. Then the rain began in earnest. We were so close. So very close to home. I peered so hard into the darkness in front of us, it felt like I could almost draw the sacred white cliffs closer through sheer force of will . . .

A flash of lightning shattered the chaotic gloom, and there they were—a ghostly white curtain drifting ever closer—then the thunderclap that followed almost knocked me flat to the deck.

“Hang on to something!” the captain shouted as the ship heaved to one side.

We all scrambled for ropes and handholds—anything to keep from plunging over the sides. I saw Damya wrap an arm around Nephele to keep her from being swept into the sea as a rogue wave swamped the stern. Over the howling chaos I heard the whinnying of the chariot horses and the shouts of the barge boys.

The white cliffs loomed up in front of us, and suddenly they seemed far more forbidding than welcoming. But it was what was behind us that was the real threat. The heavy hemp tow ropes for the transport barge had gone slack, sinking beneath the surface of the waves as the storm drove the vessel hard toward the galley. I watched, horrified, as the craft suddenly lifted high on a cresting wave, the front end rising to tower above the deck of our ship like some kind of leviathan out of a legend—a sea monster from the depths—hanging suspended in the air above us for an eternity before it came crashing down.

“Quint!” Cai shouted. “Look out!”

Elka and I both screamed warnings as Cai lunged forward to tackle his friend out of the way as the nose of the barge descended, clipping the galley and smashing off a chunk of the stern rail, sending split and splintered planks flying. The rigging that tethered the two vessels together knotted in a hopeless tangle, and if it wasn’t cut loose—fast—both would flounder. Through the lashing, blinding rain, I could just make out Cai and Quint dragging themselves across the deck toward the stern. I called Cai’s name, but I doubted he could hear me over the crashing of waves and thunder. The only other thing I could hear was the high-pitched screaming of the panicked animals picketed on the deck of the barge. My heart pounded in my chest at the thought of those beautiful creatures—Cleopatra’s gift to me—lost to the raging sea.

I struggled against the heeling of the deck and dragged myself along the rail toward the stern, where the sailors were furiously hacking at the tangled rigging. Damya and Gratia had joined them, wielding axes like foresters to cut through the heavy ropes. Most of the rest of the girls were just desperately trying not to get washed overboard.

Then I saw Cai stripping off his armor and throwing it to the deck.

“What are you doing?” I screamed at him.

“We’ve got to cut the horses free!” he shouted back.

“Cai—no!”

He grabbed me by the shoulders. His face was less than a handsbreadth from mine and I could still barely hear him. “The barge is sinking, and the horses won’t stand a chance if it goes down and they’re still tethered! They can swim but not if they’re still tied down . . .”

I hesitated, and he dropped a swift kiss on my forehead before sprinting away. “Quint!” he called.

“Right behind you!” Quint called back.

The two of them together took a running leap off the stern of the ship.

“Cai!”

But he was already gone.

Another wave rose up and swamped the deck, knocking me off my feet, and suddenly Elka was there beside me, helping me to stand.

“I don’t know about you,” she yelled over the storm, “but I’m not letting them grab all the glory of a dramatic rescue!” I could see in her eyes that glory was hardly the issue. She was terrified for Quint. Like I was for Cai.

“We’d best go help them,” I yelled back. “They’re useless without us!”

By that time, more of the girls had made their way to the stern to help hack the ship free with axes and swords. Kallista and Selene had heard us and staggered over.

“We’ll come too,” Kallista said. Then she rolled her eyes at me. “He’s my uncle—I’m honor bound to make sure nothing happens to him.”

“We can swim like fish!” Selene said, already stripping off her boots. “It’ll be fun!”

The captain shouted for everyone to brace themselves again, and the ship heeled sharply over. I hung on with grim determination, arms wrapped around a bollard, until the ship slowly righted itself. In the blackness between bursts of day-bright lightning, afterimages of the ship flashed before my eyes.

Just the ship. Not the barge.

The barge, when I finally reached the stern rail and stared out over the water into the rain and waves, was nowhere to be seen. Cai and Quint, the horses, the Iceni boys . . . they were all gone. Swallowed by the storm as if they’d never been . . .

“There . . .” Ajani’s sharp gaze pierced the curtains of rain, and she thrust out her arm. The barge floated, half-swamped, just to the west of us.

“Come on!” Elka shouted.

I looked over to see the other girls—the ones not actively engaged in cutting loose the sinking barge lines—gathering all the spare lengths of rope and anything that would float and hauling it all to the side. Anything for the barge boys to grab on to once they went into the water.