Sequel: The White Doe ›
Status: 1 of 7 volumes. Complete.
A Good Run
Thirteen
It is noon and the fires on the water are so intense she cannot breath and has to retreat. The galleys burn slowly, but the vampires inside them burn much faster and she can hear their screams behind her as she works from ship to ship, the torch in one hand and a skin in the wood, dumping oil all over the decks.
When she touches the torch to the puddles, the flame races along the cracks in the wood, sucking the air from below.
She leaps from the prow of the sixth galley to the back of the seventh and douses the nearest hatch with the last of her oil. She drops the torch in the pool and feels the heat rises around her so suddenly her eyelashes curl.
The hatch ahead of her burst open and the vampire who has broken the chains bursts into flames and falls back into the hold.
She hears more hissing and then screams and she spares a look down as she passes, seeing them crowded together in the shadows, trying to avoid the sun, trying to avoid the flames.
For a moment, she almost pities them.
Then she leaps from the last galley to the water and swims to the shore.
With the last of her strength, she runs.
When she touches the torch to the puddles, the flame races along the cracks in the wood, sucking the air from below.
She leaps from the prow of the sixth galley to the back of the seventh and douses the nearest hatch with the last of her oil. She drops the torch in the pool and feels the heat rises around her so suddenly her eyelashes curl.
The hatch ahead of her burst open and the vampire who has broken the chains bursts into flames and falls back into the hold.
She hears more hissing and then screams and she spares a look down as she passes, seeing them crowded together in the shadows, trying to avoid the sun, trying to avoid the flames.
For a moment, she almost pities them.
Then she leaps from the last galley to the water and swims to the shore.
With the last of her strength, she runs.