Half way up the wall was the disembodied head of Abe.

  As the three speechless woman all watched, he pulled himself forward and his body soon followed through the wall after him. He was at Marianne’s side a moment later. His fingers passed right through the metal of her restraints. There was a click and Marianne’s hand dropped down, freed from its binds. Abe did the same thing to her other three locks, then he moved on to Amanda.

  “Abe?” she said in a whisper.

  “Hi,” he replied just as quietly. As he worked her free he said, “I know I never said before and I probably should have but thanks for saving my life. I know the others didn’t really appreciate it. Well, Phil probably did but he just wanted to get back to The Piper. He always enjoyed it there you know.” Abe winced giving the impression that it had not been the case for him. “And Sam, well, he had some very specific views about dying with honor and stuff. But me, you know, I’m just glad to be alive. And if I never see the inside of that ship again, I’ll be a very happy man. So anyway, thank you.”

  Her last physical restraint fell free and she made a quick start on freeing herself from the binding cuffs as well. “Your welcome,” she replied, finding some relief at being both free and learning that her efforts to save the three men hadn’t been entirely wasted.

  Abe moved on to Pip’s restraints next.

  Nearby, Marianne was rubbing her sore wrists and glancing about nervously.

  “Not that I’m not appreciative,” Amanda started, “But Abe, why are you here?”

  Pip jumped off the wall with large grin across her face. She looked eagerly at the door.

  “We’re not going out that way,” Abe told her. He joined Marianne by the wall he’d originally come in through and then turned to Amanda. He shrugged. “The red wolf said if I helped him with his plan I could join their crew.”

  “Ferret?” Amanda asked. She wasn’t sure if any of the other werewolves were red but she knew Ferret was.

  Abe nodded. “No time to talk now though. We gotta get going.” He held out his hand to Marianne. “Now, three is kinda tricky for me so grab a tight hold of each other, make sure you got solid skin contact, and whatever you do don’t let go cause getting stuck in the wall is not a nice way to go okay?”

  “We’re not going to fight?” Pip looked disappointed.

  Abe shook his head and gave a short soft laugh. “No, we’d never make it. We’re ghosting out instead. Now hurry, before the ship blows.”

  “What?” Amanda asked as she grabbed hold of Marianne’s hand, not certain she’d heard him right. Pip grabbed her other one.

  “Ferret’s plan,” Abe explained. “I’ve wired up a bunch of explosives in the hold on a slow burn fuse but it won’t be much longer so we gotta go. Alright, holding on. Good.”

  He pulled them along through the wall, what looked like another prison cell, then into an empty office. One more wall and they stood inside a upper-level hold that housed dozens of barrels, probably liquor of some kind.

  “Right,” said Abe. “This is where we go out. Gods I hate this bit. We all gotta go together. It’s a quick drop down to the water. Don’t hesitate okay.”

  He gave them little time to think about it. Next thing Amanda knew they were all moving right through the outer wall of the ship, and then they were falling. Down, down, down, and into the blue.

  They all released hands as they hit the water.

  As she surfaced, Amanda looked around for the others. Pip and Marianne were nearby and after a shared worried glance both of them started swimming toward The Wolverine. But there was no sign of Abe. That was when Amanda remembered that he couldn’t swim.

  “Abe?”

  “Come on,” Pip called back to her. “Ships about to blow remember.”

  Amanda glanced behind herself and seeing how close she was to The Slicer, started to swim as well, looking around for Abe all the while she did. She ducked under hoping she might see him and be able to pull him up. Seeing no sign of him and worried about the explosives going off while she was still close she quickly followed the others.

  A moment later a large red wolf surfaced not far off to her right. Abe was clinging to the creature’s fur mumbling, “I hate this bit. I hate this bit.”

  “Ferret!” Amanda exclaimed, happy to see them both alive. But her mind was soon fixated on a new problem. “How are we going to get back on the ship?”

  “No problem,” Abe said, still clinging to Ferret’s fur like his life depended on it.

  Indeed, it was no problem. Abe went first, right through the belly of The Wolverine. Then he stuck out a hand and pulled the rest of them through one by one.

  “Three cheers for Abe!” declared Pip, the last one to be pulled through.

  Abe breathed out a long huff and then lay down in the dim light of the belly of the ship. Nearby, Marianne had done the same.

  Amanda fiddled with the ring around her neck. She could feel the power in it again now. All she had to do to go back was to focus on it.

  “We got lucky today,” Ferret said. Sometime in the last minute or so he had transformed back into a person.

  His words caused Amanda to hesitate. “Lucky?” she asked as she gave an involuntary shiver from the cold.

  In the dim light he met her eyes and then nodded slowly.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Despite the darkness that surrounded them, she could see the weight of the day’s events laid bare in his expression. He was fully aware of what had been lost and yet he still thought them lucky. She thought back to how it had all gone the first time, back to her and Sirius alone together in a longboat, stranded in the middle of the ocean. Everyone else dead, drowned or burnt. Perhaps by the numbers, Ferret was right.

  But it didn’t feel better. Sirius was dead. Morgan too, and she had been Ferret’s lover. He felt the pain of that, she could see it, and yet he was aware enough to see the wider picture too.

  “It could have been a lot worse,” he explained.

  From somewhere outside the ship there came a sudden boom and then The Wolverine rocked beneath them softly as if trying to lull them off to sleep.

  Pip took off. “Let’s go watch them sink!” she exclaimed.

  With a sigh and then a soft giggle, Marianne picked herself up and followed after Pip.

  Abe glanced at Ferret and then Amanda before following along after them himself.

  Ferret stayed where he was, watching Amanda closely.

  Amanda’s hands still clutched at the ring. All it would take to save Sirius was at her fingertips. But Ferret was right, things could have gone a lot worse. She could go back. She could save him, but at what cost? Was it selfish to try? Could she do better? If she jumped back then she had to get it right. For that, maybe a little more information would be useful before she did. But she had to be careful. Wait too long and she might not be able to go back far enough. Just a little time was all she needed.

  She made to follow the others. She might as well see what state the rest of the crew was in, and she had to be certain of Sirius’s fate too, before she risked everything.

  Ferret followed along behind her. He was smart, perhaps the smartest of out of the three of Morgan’s lovers. As they walked, Amanda made good use of the time she had.

  “Ferret,” she asked, “Were you the reason Abe was missing this morning when Brutus went to fetch him? Was that part of your plan?”

  “No, he was hiding, from the Butcher and the crew of the Slicer. He was afraid of being sent back or being made to join them.”

  “So, how…” She trailed off as Ferret picked up on what she was asking.

  “Thing is, bread’s been going missing at night. Marian mentioned it this morning and yesterday. And none of us thought to check their powers. I mean, they hadn’t fought and he was always in his room when he was checked on. But bread has a very distinctive scent. I couldn’t figure out why their room smelt so strongly of it. Well, I mean, it became obvious that he was getting out. I thought he might be a teleporter at first but no. Either way, it presented itself an opportunity for us.”

  “To blow up the other ship?”

  “Exactly. Took me a bit to convince him but we came to an agreement.”

  “But that was after the battle started?” She glanced back at him.

  Ferret nodded. “I couldn’t find him at first. He’d escaped his room and I kept losing his scent. I only realised later it was because he was hiding in the walls. I stupidly assumed he’d have simply jumped somewhere like a teleporter would. They’re more common you know. After Morgan…” Ferret’s voice caught in his throat and he went silent for a moment. Then he started up again. “When I realised we were losing, I took a chance and gave it another go. I followed his scent as far as I could and then I talked to a wall hoping he was near enough to hear me.”

  “Do you think if we’d known in advance that it would have changed anything?” she asked.

  Ferret was quiet for long enough that Amanda glanced back again. The sad look on his face made her stomach twist but she needed to know.

  “Maybe,” he finally answered.

  She considered it. Maybe that was all she needed to do then.

  Behind her, Ferret sighed. “Then again, maybe not,” he added. “The ships had to be next to each other and slowed down enough. Even if I’d found him earlier, we were still moving when the battle started. Wind died down around then but it still took time for them to slow. I had to swim him across.”

  They reached the door to the main deck then. Amanda paused, half not wanting to go out there. She couldn’t afford to delay things much longer but still her feet her stuck.

  “Go on,” Ferret encouraged. “Better to get it over with.”

  She pushed he way outside. The deck was full of activity. Men scurrying about. They were already moving again. She could see smoke rising up from behind them, from the other ship no doubt.

  In spite of the way that other crew had behaved she felt a little bad for them. “We’re just leaving them?” she asked.

  Ferret nodded as he strode past her. She followed him up to the higher section of the aft-deck where Stinger stood watching the other ship sink. The deck had been cleared of any bodies but was still stained red with blood. She could see men already getting to mopping though. That didn’t feel right to her. It was too soon. She wanted to tell them to stop, to leave it, even just for a moment. Where was Sirius? Where had they taken him?

  Ferret seemed to have forgotten her for he had quickly become distracted by conversation with Stinger. The pair were talking quickly and nodding occasionally.

  Amanda stood aimlessly on the deck, searching for any sign of Sirius. Both hopeful and afraid at the same time. She knew what she would find eventually, but still she half expected to see him come walking around the corner, his black coat flying out behind him. That was all assuming they hadn’t just chucked him overboard. They wouldn’t do that would they?

  She jumped when she felt a hand gently touch her shoulder.

  It was Stinger. “Bodies are around the side deck,” he told her with a solemn nod.

  All she could manage was a nod back. There was a lump in her throat as big as a stone.

  She started to head toward where he had indicated but then she stopped. She needed to make sure she got it right next time.

  She spun back to the two men and interrupted their conversation. “How would you do it?” she asked them. “If you could do the day over, what would you do different?”

  Stinger gave her a sad look. “There’s no point thinking about what might have happened.”

  “But if you could. Hypothetically speaking, what would you change?”

  Stinger shook his head. “Thinking about such things won’t help.”

  Amanda gritted her teeth. How could she make them understand? She needed another option and she was running out of time. Maybe she already was out of time. Just a few more seconds, then she’d go back. If she could just figure out the answer to fixing everything. The answer was important. There were rhymes about time travel, about how hard it was to fix things. Warnings spelled out so simply that a child would understand them. Except child her hadn’t understood. The last time she’d done this, things had gone so wrong. Last time it had taken a sorcerer showing up to fix things. But she was older now. She knew better, right?

  To her relief, Ferret gave her an answer. “Try to outrun them,” he suggested.

  But it was a bad answer. Amanda already knew it wouldn’t work. “But they’d just catch us wouldn’t they?”

  Ferret thought it about it and gave a small sigh. “Probably,” he agreed with a nod.

  “Oh definitely,” Stinger said.

  “So, can’t run, can’t fight, and if you negotiate that’s a fight anyway…” she trailed off.

  Ferret shook his head. The look on his face said he was struggling to think of anything.

  Stinger also looked puzzled, but it was a different kind of puzzled. “I just don’t understand how he knew she was lying,” he said.

  “Lying?” Amanda asked. “You mean Morgan?”

  He nodded. “When she agreed to his trade, it was a bluff. She intended to betray him, but he was ready for her. He struck before she did. How did he know?”

  Amanda frowned. “He missed though.” At least he had on the first hit. She hadn’t realised that Morgan had meant to betray him.

  Stinger nodded. “Because she was about to strike him.”

  “Perhaps neither of them meant to keep their word,” Ferret suggested.

  Amanda sighed. None of this seemed useful. Maybe she’d have better luck in the past? She glanced off toward the edge of the ship. She was out of time. She didn’t need to see Sirius’s body. She knew what had happened, she just hadn’t wanted to admit it. And maybe it was selfish going back in time to save him when it meant risking the lives of everyone who currently still stood, Ferret, Stinger, Riki, and all the rest. But she knew she couldn’t face a new day without Sirius. She was going back and she’d figure out a way to save them all even if it damn near killed her.