Sink or swim : the search for Aveline

259 Pages·2017·1.33 MB·English

by  Stephanie Rabig

Table of Contents
The Search for Aveline
Book Details
Dedication
We Were Strangers
Silence
Security
Weathering the Storm
Healer
The Duel
Distractions
Fading Memories
Cursed
Moon-drunk
How to Kill
Rendezvous
One Wild Night in Bogo
Night Terrors
The Clan of the Black Rocks
Doldrums
Letters and Loss
Glamour
Memorial
Isabelle
Non-Sequitur
The Kidnapping of Lady Cavendish
Returning the Favor
Strengthening Bonds
First Love
In the Firelight
Revelation
Portrait
Luck Changes
A Song Without Words
Bravery and Trust
Remember
Reunion
About the Authors
Captain Harriet "Harry" Roberts and her daring crew have many adventures
involving dangerous mermaids, stolen sisters, voiceless sirens, and various love
affairs whilst clashing with the wicked Wrath Drew, captain of The Charon.
Climb aboard, and enjoy this series of interconnected stories about the good-
hearted, diverse, (and rather lusty) crew of The Sappho.
Sink or Swim
The Search for Aveline
By Stephanie Rabig and Angie Bee Published by Less Than Three Press LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of
reviews.
Edited by Emilia Vane
Cover designed by Natasha Snow This book is a work of fiction and all
names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.
First Edition March 2017
Copyright © 2016 by Stephanie Rabig, Angie Bee Printed in the United
States of America Digital ISBN 9781620049204
Print ISBN 9781620049211
To all of the ladies left out of the history books. We know you were there,
even if others ignored or forgot you.
We Were Strangers
They always said Captain Harry Roberts had the Devil's luck.
As a curtain of rain doused the rigging and sails, the only illumination
intermittent forks of lightning, Harry wondered if perhaps that luck had finally
hit its limits. The ship tossed and bucked like an unbroken stallion—the wild to-
and-fro-ing would have sent a lesser seaman careening over the railing. But the
captain pushed forward doggedly, hand tight around the sea-slick wood.
"What's the status?" Harry screamed over the tempest, voice crying out
between crashes of thunder.
"The hole aft is getting bigger, Cap!" the first mate reported, usual sangfroid
cracking. If asked before today, Harry would've said it'd be a frozen day in hell
before Jo's steel of self-control would so much as bend; now the captain was
half-tempted to check the tropical waves for icecaps. "The bilges are half-full
and the level's only rising. If we don't find the eye of this storm or a harbor soon
—"
The rest of the words were lost in an apocalyptic crack. The questing
lightning had finally struck something solid: one of the three masts. There was a
terrible, pungent scent of ozone and ruined wood, a chorus of screams from the
crew in the adjacent rigging still trying to secure the now-useless sails, and then
the top third of the splintered mast gave way to gravity and fell. Jo threw an arm
around the captain's waist and dove to the side only a moment before the timber
cracked the boards they had been standing upon.
"Captain!" shouted the steerswoman over the chaos. "Captain, I see a cove
ahead!"
"Aim true, Agnessa!" Harry ordered, standing and helping Jo upright.
"Aye, Captain!" The thin arms strained with the wheel, hauling the listing
craft to the east. If it had been anyone but Agnessa standing there, Harry might
have worried. But the steerswoman's slight frame belied a whipcord strength and
a diamond-hard resolve. Lashed to the tiller with knotted rope, feet planted as if
she was rooted there, Agnessa stared straight ahead through the storm. When she
was focused on her job, she never paid the slightest attention to anything else.
Harry Roberts was not superstitious. While other pirates carried talismans and
steered clear of so-called cursed wrecks and paid soothsayers outrageous sums to