She shook her head. This wasn’t a merchantman with a handful of cannons. They were facing three warships built solely to destroy. The Morrigan could fit inside a man-o’-war four times over and still rattle around. Hells, a first-rate like that probably carried fifteen cannons on the port side of just one of their three gun decks.

The Morrigan carried sixteen cannons. Total.

“FitzRoy,” Perry hissed, “we’ll—”

“They’ll destroy you,” Knigh said, voice flat, expression mastered again. “They’re first-rates. Do you have any idea of the firepower of just one first-rate ship of the line? They could sneeze and obliterate The Morrigan.”

FitzRoy lifted his chin, giving Knigh a cool look. “They’ll destroy us, don’t you mean?”

“No,” Vice growled, “he said you. He isn’t one of us and he—he’s done this.” She rounded on him again, neck knotted, and shook a finger in his face. “You’ve tricked us, or you’ve pissed your own people off so much that they’ve turned on you. Either way—you’re going to get us all killed.”

His cheek twitched, but he gave no other response.

“Fitz,” she muttered, “we were fools to listen to him, to—”

“It was my decision to take his offer,” Fitz replied, voice soft, “are you calling me a fool?”

“Enough.” Perry stepped between them, her blond braid whipping in the wind. “Fault doesn’t matter right now. Survival does. What do we do?”

Fitz’s jaw rippled with tension. “We flee,” he ground out, “then we deal with him. Vice—do what you can. When they fire, evade. We’re twenty miles south of Inagua—we can lose them there if we reach it, their draught’s got to be four times ours. They’ll never be able to cross the shoals.”

An excellent idea, but twenty miles? Even with her gift, it would take an hour and three quarters, maybe an hour and a half. She drew a long breath and glanced back at the warships, their Albionic flags now clear to the naked eye—they’d gained throughout this conversation. Getting to Inagua before they caught up would be … Urgh, she hated the word, but it would be impossible.

She swallowed and nodded. “Fine.” They were already light, having sold their cargo at Nassau. “Can we offload the fresh water, lighten us up a bit?”

Jaw clenched, Perry nodded and made for the main hatch. “I’ll see what we can jettison.” She called over half a dozen men and women before disappearing belowdecks.

“I need the wheel.” Vice raised her eyebrows at Fitz.

He waved a hand. “Do whatever you need to.”

With a nod, she started for the helm, chest pounding.