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end!”
    They all turned to run away, but Carolina grabbed the third sailor by his jacket before he got too far.
    “Wait!” she said. “Where is your surgeon? My friend needs help.”
    Diego let out a small groan of pain. The sailor blinked at him, then at Carolina, then back at Diego. “Our surgeon,” he said dazedly. “Our surgeon is our captain. He used to be a doctor before he went to sea—he fired the last surgeon in Marseille because he knew he could do a better job than that idiot.”
    “Right,” Carolina said, although her heart sank a little. The captain surely wouldn’t have time to look at Diego in the middle of a battle, while he was trying to save his ship from corsairs. “Help me carry him up to the deck,” she commanded the sailor.
    Even dressed as a ragamuffin pirate, she had the royal bearing of a princess, and it had the desired effect. The sailor obediently knelt to lift Diego’s head and shoulders while Carolina took his legs. Carefully they maneuvered him up the stairs into the fresh air above, away from the billowing clouds of smoke that were spreading throughout the lower decks.
    They emerged from the hatch into a scene of chaos and panic. Sailors were running back and forth, half of them loading guns while the others tried to make the ship go faster. But it was no use; the galley was nearly upon them. Carolina could see the word SEREF emblazoned on the side of the pirate ship in large gold letters. Pirates crowded the railings, their gold teeth glittering as they smiled, waving their scimitars in anticipation of the battle to come.
    Carolina spotted the captain of the merchant ship right away. He was standing on the quarterdeck, yelling instructions in a businesslike way, with the red glow of the setting sun at his back. His hair was thin and gray and balding; most of it was tied back in a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. He wore silver-rimmed spectacles and a green kerchief tied around his neck. He looked significantly calmer than most of the other men on board.
    “That’s Captain Hawk,” the sailor with Carolina said, pointing to him. He helped Carolina prop Diego against one of the masts, out of the way of all the running boots.
    The wind caught Carolina’s hair and tossed it around her face. Even in the midst of panic, a few sailors stopped to gape at the sudden appearance of a girl on their ship. She wished she could hide under her cloak again, but she’d torn that into strips to bandage Diego’s wounds. So instead she scowled back at them until they ran back to their jobs.
    She looked back to the quarterdeck and caught Captain Hawk’s eye. He looked mildly astonished, but didn’t stop shouting orders as he strode down the stairs toward her. His eyes took in her ragged state and the blood-stained makeshift bandages on Diego’s leg and shoulder.
    “I’m sorry, sir,” Carolina said quickly as Captain Hawk reached her. “We were only hiding from—from some terrible men, and we didn’t realize your ship was leaving port until it was too late. We didn’t mean to be stowaw—”
    “Hush now, don’t worry about that,” Captain Hawk said, kneeling and lifting Diego’s injured leg into his lap. Diego was only semiconscious, but he whimpered and gritted his teeth.
    “Tim!” Captain Hawk yelled. “Water, rum, and my kit! Quickly! And Jefferson, prepare the men! Weapons loaded, but nobody fire until my command!”
    A young man about Jean’s age, presumably Tim, came running up carrying a bottle of rum, a bronze bowl filled with water, and a leather bag. Captain Hawk poured some of the water over Diego’s leg and set about removing the wooden shard and rebandaging the wound with efficient speed. When Diego yelped in agony and tried to wriggle away, the captain directed Tim to pour some of the rum into Diego’s mouth.
    At the same time, Captain Hawk continued to bark instructions to his crew as the pirate ship drew closer and closer. He had just finished tying a new