Trying to follow him, I saw two more uninvited guests spring over the bulwark. I turned toward them, but realized I’d never reach them in time. Two shots merged into a single roar, and a terrifying force flung me onto my back. The armor took the lead, but the impact was so massive it felt as if every rib in my chest had shattered.

A completely absurd thought flashed through my mind – how the boatswain had calculated that each of us only had to deal with a single opponent. Clearly, these two hadn’t been part of the plan. Tears clouded my eyes. I wanted to howl from the pain, but I couldn’t even draw a proper breath. In the fall, I’d managed to lose my cutlass, leaving me armed with nothing but the Lynx.

“Who are you?” Assured that I was making no move to approach, the wretched girl rose to her feet and, snatching a candelabra from the table, took up a defensive stance on the opposite side.

The alcalde certainly had a knack for choosing his victims.

This one was a breathtaking beauty in her own right, a vision fit for a canvas. She possessed enormous, expressive olive eyes, a thick mane of fiery-red hair, and a noble carriage. She was like a magnificent vixen, fresh from evading the trappers’ chase.

“Señorita, we’ve come for your jailer.”

“For that monster, Esteban?”

“Yes, for him.”

“And what is to become of me?”

“You are free as a bird.”

“Why do you want him?” The girl calmed down a fraction, yet she refused to step out from behind her barricade.

“It is time he answered for his crimes.”

“Can this truly not be a dream?” she sighed mournfully.

“Would you object if we set an ambush in your room?”

“I hold no sway here,” the captive said, burying her face in her hands.

For the third month in a row, the teacher had been methodically honing my fencing technique, but it was not going as well as my father had expected. I do not know how gifted his other students were, but this science proved incredibly difficult for me.

“Michel, what are we training?”

“Reaction and strength, teacher?” I looked at Isagani, trying to understand what he was getting at.

“That is so, but I asked: what are we training?”

“Agility?”

“Do you bring your spoon to your ear during dinner?”

“No.”

“Then what are we training?”

“Awareness? My head?”

“Then why, tell me, do you leave yours at the threshold when you enter the fencing hall?”

I remember our first lesson. Instead of a practice rapier, Isagani pulled out bamboo sticks, and it wasn’t entirely clear to me how one could possibly withstand an armed opponent with those.

To me, a smallsword is an inseparable attribute of a nobleman; surely I wouldn’t go around carrying some extra sticks with me.

“Here you go, gorgeous.” Joseph Fouché placed a gold coin on the table and stood up with a wince. His chief gunner, Richard Lafayette, followed suit.

“I hope you enjoyed your stay, Señor?” The girl swiftly swept the coin into her apron and began counting the change.

In over a dozen years as a merchant captain, Fouché had seen it all, but he had never encountered a shithole like this tavern before.

“It’s alright, sweetheart, keep the change.”

“Gracias,” the waitress curtsied and vanished.

“Doc, we’ll be waiting for you outside.”

Remaining any longer in this filthy, tobacco-stenched room was more than he could bear, and Fouché crossed the threshold with a sigh of relief.

“I won’t be long, Monsieur,” the ship’s surgeon noted, neatly tying a napkin around his neck as he fell to his meal.

Doctor Lucien Durand had been busy settling the wounded across town and had only just received his order after arriving at the establishment.