I can’t overpower him, but if there’s something sharp, perhaps I can do some real damage.
But my arms are weak, and my wrists are still shackled.
And then a plan coalesces. There’s only one part of my body with any strength left in it. One part that could possibly take on this horrible slaver.
He’s scrambling on the floor, still on all fours, a breath away from Meg. I rush forward, bringing a leg up and bringing it down between his head and shoulder, then I do the same with the other.
Luckily, he’s caught off guard and can’t gather his bearings.
With my legs around his neck, I sit back, cross my calves, and squeeze as hard as I can.
His hand shoots up, trying to pry my legs open. He’s strong—so strong, and just when I think I’m going to break, Meg kicks his head again and again until he’s forced to defend himself.
I squint my eyes closed and muster every bit of energy I have, trying like hell to stay on and fell the giant as he writhes beneath me. But just as I think it’s working, he lifts, rising to a stand, bringing my situation from bad to worse.
No fucking way—there’s no way I’ll get out of this…
He shifts, stumbles, then rushes forward in a mad dash.
CRASH!
I ride the slaver down to the floor, releasing my legs so they don’t get smashed.
Stunned, I sit, wondering what the hell just happened.
“You did it!” Meg enthuses, rushing to me. Another girl searches the slaver’s body.
“What just happened?” I say in a daze.
Meg smiles. “You took down the beast!”
“I did?” I sit up and look at him crumpled on the floor.“Wedid!”
Meg assists with looking through the man’s clothes. “There will be others. We have to get the keys.”
It occurs to me that if I wanted to, I could run. There’s a knife in the slaver’s belt I could use to defend myself, and I don’t think many of our captors survived the crash. With any luck, I could hide out, evading capture from corsairs and exiles alike.
And why shouldn’t I? None of these women looked twice at me before we were captured, unless it was to sneer.
I look out the broken hull, considering my options.
“Are you just going to sit there?” Meg says, frantically searching the body.
If she hadn’t acted, I’d have been raped, probably beaten, possibly murdered. I’ll help, if only for her.
We roll the body over and locate a ring of keys, but none of them work on our cuffs, but it’s not a total loss as one works on the locks securing the chain to the hull.
We work quickly, freeing the other girls. Some are so dazed they don’t even realize they’re free. That they can walk around and aren’t confined to the small space we were chained to.
The ones who are strong enough huddle to form a plan.
“We won’t be able to overpower them,” one says. “We’re weak, and we still have these shackles.”
Meg cuts in with, “There’s more of us.”
“But-but some of us could get hurt—we could die!” another says, her eyes big and full of worry.
Nori looks at each of us as though she were taking calculations. “While it’s probable that some of us will die, I see no other recourse. At least right now we have the element of surprise.”