Hurting bad, and the fight turns against her side.

Lana made a **** lunge for her opponent, knowing she had to kill the assassin before the dagger's venom took her out of the fight.

There was a swirl of a cloak and a stinging pain in her side. Up turned to down and a dark hole in the deck rose up to swallow her.

Lana spun in the air like a discarded rag doll and landed with a winding blow in the bottom of a cargo net. Stunned and blazing with pain, she lay staring upward at the square of sky and sail as the battle raged on the deck above. Wisps of smoke blew across the open cargo hatch. Shredded sail and cordage quivered in the breeze. Shouts, screams, and curses echoed down from above.

Lana fought against the pain and the poison to rejoin her raiding crew. The Dogs of Luck needed their captain to lead the fight. After what seemed an age of striving as the men clashed above, Lana pulled herself to unsteady feet.

"Ali's down!" came a shout. "No, no!" "The captain! Where's the captain?" came other voices.

Lana filled her lungs to shout a reply.

A triple whistle. The pirates' retreat. No.

"DAMN YOU FOR A BARREL OF BILGE-WALLOWING SEA RATS!" Lana bellowed. "TO ME, TO ME!"

The deck shifted under her unsteady feet with the effort of her shout. Where was her grace, her dancing gait that could dodge musket balls, as Alistair bragged? Her head swam, and she clutched at the cargo net to keep from falling. Just staying upright was a struggle. Blood ran from her cheek and ear down to her neck and shoulder. Perhaps it'd wash the poison out.

"Da, what would you do?" Lana whispered to herself. "Still be stuck in the hatch, girl, that's what he'd say. On, then."

She couldn't stay here, clinging to the net under an open hatch. It was up, sick and unsteady as she felt, a **** choice as her crew retreated, or bind up her face and stow away on this ship, perhaps a more **** choice unless someone had killed the assassin she faced, who would surely recognize her.

All these choices presumed she had the freedom of choosing her next action. The poison and wounds left Lana near fainting, and an enemy could find her at any moment.

Lana scanned the hatch and corners for signs of the Cryn assassins, or for ship's crew or passengers bumbling about.