I lay in bed listening to the noise from above as the nausea from my dizzy spell passed. Once I began to regain my senses, I heard panicked, unfamiliar voices.

“He almost saw us.”

“Shhh! He didn’t, now, did he? His woman is still here. She may hear us.”

“So what if she does? She’s only a woman and anyway, she probably fainted. Did you see her?”

“It’s what she gets for thinking she could be a sailor.”

“Just shut up. The both of you. All we have to do is stay down here until the coast is clear. No one will ever know any different. We’ll get our pay and still keep our necks.”

Testing to make sure I had regained my balance, I sat up. Once I was confident I could stand, I grabbed one of José’s swords that he kept in the cabin. I crept from our room and found the men, sailors hiding from their duty in the storage room next door. “So, I am only a woman, am I?” I asked, pointing the sword at them. “This woman has shown more courage than all of you jellyfish combined.”

The one who appeared to be their leader laughed. “You should put that down, senhora, before you hurt yourself.” He had a pointed face with a long, thin nose that resembled a beak. His coal-black eyes narrowed on me.

I stuck him in the chest. A little pool of blood welled up around the point of my sword. “While you were down here scared and playing the coward, this woman killed, and I am not afraid to do it again.” I pushed a little harder with my sword. “Do you want to be my next?”

I looked at the two other men standing there. One was shorter in stature, with straight golden hair and a small beard that held patches of red. The one next to him was much shorter than the other two, and younger. Beads of sweat broke out across his forehead.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves. Only in this for the money, are you? So are most of your comrades above, but the difference between them and you is that they actually have the courage to be men and earn their living.” I let my sword slide down to his belly. “Do you know what we do to cowards where I am from?”

One of the other men stepped forward. “All right. We’ll go.” He motioned for the other two to follow. Pointy Face motioned for me to go first, but I directed him with my sword to walk ahead. As we made our way topside, I kept poking him in the back for fun.

José came running up to us. “Anita! What are you doing? I thought I told you to stay below!”

“I did! But only to bring you more sailors.” I pointed the sword at him. “Now get back to work before I come after you!”

“Sì, signora,” he said with a grin before taking off again.