Every man and woman in this group had been selected carefully for their bravery and skill—still it was a roll of the dice if they would succeed. She lived for such moments normally, but now there was too much at stake. She glanced over her shoulder, adding in the other equation—their prey. The Heavenly Soul was only a few hundred feet from their portside, and they were closing on her with every moment. It wouldn’t be long until they found out exactly the makeup of her crew. For days they had been chasing their prize, striking and harrying it, letting it feel the teeth of their cannons. She eased her grip on her cutlass and narrowed her eyes. The sway of the Deadly Miss under her feet was slight, but she knew every creak of rigging and groan of wood better than she did any noise coming from her own body. Its guns were still smoking, but the warning incendiary shots over the Heavenly Soul’s bow had only been that; she did not want to risk damaging what she hoped very shortly would be her new command vessel.
