do it too. They were paddling fast and relentlessly. The rowboats were catching up, and soon the individual boys could be seen—and of course they were just that, boys. They shouted threats while Edyon’s guards shot arrows at them, but they raised their shields and still powered the boats forward. One boy even let an arrow go through his hand. Laughing, he pulled it out and shouted, “Your arrows don’t hurt us!”
“Get below, Edyon!” Byron shouted.
But Edyon didn’t want to hide. He had to do something. “I’ll take some smoke, Byron. At least it’ll give me strength to fight them off.”
Before Byron could object, Edyon inhaled the last of the purple smoke. He felt giddy and clumsy but also much stronger.
The three rowboats were closing in, but they were so low in the water compared to the Pilar that it seemed it would be impossible for them to board. But Edyon had no sooner thought that than he was proved wrong. One boy was launched into the air by two others. It was the sort of acrobatics seen at a circus, but here the boys went higher and farther. Except this boy had not gone quite far enough and landed with a splash, to much jeering from his fellow boys. Their leader was furiously barking instructions. “I told you to wait for the order. The rest of you get ready to boost your partners! If the prince is on board, I want him alive. Kill the rest.”
The rowboats drew closer still, and the boy leader shouted: “Now!” Six boys were launched high in the air. But at that moment there was a gust of wind. The captain of the Pilar swung the wheel and the ship turned sharply. The sud-den wind meant that three more boys landed in the sea. But three landed on the deck of the Pilar. The wind was increasing and the captain pulled the wheel back as more boys were launched into the air and the ship turned sharply again. The three boys on deck slid across it and Byron sliced into the first boy, then quickly turned to the next. The sail was full of wind now, and the Pilar was moving away from the Brigantine boats, as there were fewer of the boys left to row.
We can do it. We can get away.
But three more boys had landed on deck and one bowled the captain over, taking the wheel with a whoop, sending Edyon off-balance and careering to the side of the ship. The Pilar was heading back to the rowers.
Byron had three boys against him. As a noble with a lifetime of training, he was better than them with a sword. But he couldn’t hold them all off, and one ran at him and stabbed him in the back. Byron fell to his knees, turning to look at Edyon. Edyon shouted as Byron slumped to the deck. Edyon ran forward, but more boys landed on the Pilar and something hit him hard in the face. He staggered back and fell to the deck, but the smoke healed him almost instantly. So he tried to get up, but there were boys all around him, holding his arms.
“Tie him down. Tie him down. Don’t kill him. Harold’ll give us a bonus for this one.”
Edyon struggled to get free, but even with the strength of the smoke he was outmatched, and the boys knocked him back. He screamed in fury. Ropes were brought, his arms were bound to his sides. And all he could do was stand there and let them laugh. Byron’s bloody body was motionless at his feet, his face still toward Edyon, his eyes open and empty. The other guards were all dead, Talin’s body was sprawled out, and there were bodies in the water, floating among the white jellyfish.
“Does anyone know how to sail this heap of shit or do we paddle back?” the leader shouted.
It turned out that no one knew, and Edyon was tossed over the side of the ship into a rowboat, and they left the Pilar, Byron, Talin, and the others drifting and lifeless.
MARCH
CALIA, CALIDOR
HAROLD WAS gathering the brigades together in preparation for leaving Calia Castle. March needed smoke if he was to keep up with the boys, but he couldn’t see Rashford and ended up having to ask Sam for some of his.
“I suppose so, but Harold won’t like that you’ve used yours up. He hates boys wasting it. We don’t have an endless supply, you know.”