"There isn't much I can do, not with the time we have," Emmaline admitted, casting a nervous look over her shoulder at the rapidly closing Sea Drake. All of the possibilities Markus suggested were possible in fact, but each one would take hours of preparation for a single shot.

"Do what you can," Markus declared dismissively, clearly focused on the coming battle. He seized the wheel and turned them toward the northwest, the sails snapping fully taught as they took the optimum breeze against the fabric. That seemed like a better tactic to Emmaline than going south as he had said he was going to but she didn't pretend to understand tactics. The Sea Drake turned to match their course, surging forward as its greater sail area took the wind and made better use of it than the Hammer.

"Hand's aloft, set the royals but don't tighten em, keep em loose topman!" Markus bawled.

"Run out starboard guns and snub them down!" Morgan shouted, "then stand by to port but don't run out." Half the crew, those already on watch scrambled up the rigging and began to deploy more sail, though as Markus instructed they remained curiously slack. The other half thundered below the decks, the grininding rumble of the guns running out followed a second or two later.

Markus kept a hand on the wheel watching over his shoulder as the Sea Drake closed. There was a puff of smoke a second before a boom. The tafrail ten feet from Emmaline exploded in a shower of splinters as Von Roberts' bow chasers found the range. Emmaline yelped and ducked down. A second shot whislted over head splashing down ahead of them with a spray of water.

"Any time now," Morgan said tightly.

"A moment longer..." Markus said. Another shot cracked through the air, missing them by feet. Emmaline thought she saw the slightest twitch in the mustache of foam being thrown up by the Sea Drake as she raced towards them. Apparently it was what Markus was waiting for, with a snarl he threw the wheel over. The Hammer slewed hard to port, wrong footing the Sea Drake which had already commited to turning toward the coast. Emmaline realised that Markus had fooled Von Roberts by making it look like he was trying to run back towards Araby where the Hammer could use her shallower draught to hide out close to the coast. Instead the sloop slewed towards the open sea. The set royals billowed out like laundry snapping like coach whips overhead. They had been set to give the appearance of flight, but not lashed down so they didn't hinder the ship as it crossed the eye of the wind. For a moment the ship hung losing speed as it crossed the eye of the wind, then the sails luffed and she was accelerating again.

"Run out!" Markus yelled and the port side battery, emerged from their gun ports. Emmaline took a glass and peered through the eye piece. Von Roberts' was already correcting his mistake, his own guns running out. Worse still there was a figure standing on the quaterdeck beside Von Roberts. He was clearly Araybian and, from the arcane markings on his robe and the aura of power around him, a wizard.

"Shizz," Emmaline moaned a second before the side of the Sea Drake erupted in a cloud of powder smoke.