The Mermaids Madness

here, not with the damage a single open flame could cause.
    “What are we doing?” Talia asked.
    Danielle nearly collided with a boy running fresh cartridges to the guns. She stepped around and pushed through a damp curtain into the magazine.
    The room was almost pitch black, save for a few cracks of weak light that pierced the walls. A shadow of a man rose as Danielle entered. “You can’t be down here.”
    “She can if I say so,” said Captain Hephyra, entering behind Talia. “That’s one of the perks of being captain.”
    “We need a powder barrel.” Danielle was already searching the room the best she could. She bumped one barrel sitting against the wall. The top of the barrel came to her midthigh. A single push told her it was far too heavy to lift. Too heavy for a human, at least. “You saw the cannons firing at the undine. They missed, but the impact stunned one of the undine.”
    “So we need a bigger impact.” She could hear Talia’s grin.
    “Stand aside.” Hephyra grunted as she dragged the barrel onto its side and rolled it out of the magazine toward the ladder. When she reached it, she wrapped her arms around the barrel and hoisted it into the air. “We’ll teach those bottom-feeders to hack at my ship.”
    The ladder creaked from the strain. With each step, Danielle held her breath, certain Hephyra would overbalance or drop the barrel. But Hephyra climbed as though rooted to the ladder.
    Danielle ran after her. Hephyra was already rolling the barrel toward the side of the ship.
    “We’ll need a way to set it off,” Talia said.
    Danielle grabbed the linstock from the nearest gun crew. The gunner yanked it back, raising a fist before he realized who stood before him. He blanched, but didn’t release the linstock. “Princess, we’re almost ready to—”
    Hephyra cleared her throat, and the man let go as though the slow match at the end of the linstock had burned him. Danielle handed it to Talia, who hefted the iron rod in one hand.
    “Think you can hit a barrel with that thing?” Danielle asked. The slow match was a short distance back from the tip of the rod. Talia would have to throw hard enough to pierce the barrel and drive the ember into the powder.
    Talia raised an eyebrow. “You’re joking, right?”
    Hephyra raised the barrel above her head and tossed it over the rail. It splashed into the water, nearly landing on one of the undine. “If it blows so close to the ship, the explosion might crack the hull.”
    “Imagine what it will do to the undine.” Danielle backed away. “Everyone clear the starboard rail!”
    “You break my ship, I’ll use you for compost.” Hephyra turned around and shouted, “Get back and brace yourselves!”
    Talia leaned over the rail, raised the linstock, and threw. As soon as the linstock left her hand, she leaped back from the rail. Danielle heard a thunk as iron hit wood. For an instant, she thought her plan had failed.
    The sea exploded. The Phillipa pitched sideways, and even Talia stumbled. Over the ringing in her ears, Danielle could hear shouts and curses from the crew. She moved toward the rail, grimacing at the plume of black smoke rising from the water.
    Several undine already bobbed on the surface. Most appeared to be breathing, though the explosion had killed at least two. Others followed, floating to the surface and drawing cheers from the ship. The kelpies were already retreating, their head fins flared in fear. A cannon fired on the fleeing kelpies, driving them beneath the water.
    “Not bad.” Hephyra grinned and ran back to the ladder, though she didn’t bother to use it. She simply jumped, hair flying as she vanished into the darkness.
    Talia pulled Danielle down as a fresh wave of spears flew toward the ship. Some of the undine had obviously escaped the explosion. The crew returned fire, sending three crossbow bolts into the water for every spear the undine threw.
    Soon the floating bodies began to disappear, no doubt dragged to safety by the still conscious undine.
    Even from this distance, Lirea’s scream of rage was enough to make Danielle stumble. Lirea guided her kelpie around, pointing her spear and urging her people to attack. Most of the undine were underwater, making it hard to follow their movements. Their bodies were little more than pale streaks doubling back toward the Phillipa .
    At the back of a ship, the helmsman screamed as the wheel spun out of his grip. Even from here Danielle could see that his