PoraBora

Chapter Sixty-Three

"Hurry up," demanded Pe, moving supplies into the hulls to make more room.

"Save Keasau," smiled Pora.

"Just get on."

The boy did, and his bird joined him. Pe gave it a look to remind it that she would absolutely eat it if it so much as pooped on her boat, and she wouldn't even worry about flavor. The oil had been long enough ago, surely.

Hui was the last one down the mouth. "I wish we could bring a cannon."

"I don't think it would help much with the net," said Pe, and she pulled out her knots, each in a single motion, because they were fisher's knots, and, unlike Noikoa's morons, she knew exactly what she was doing.

Well, other than right now, ferrying the shark's kid and a koa warrior, even if he was her friend, across a tenuous ceasefire to tear open a net the size of Li'hili, just so a god could get away.

Why they wanted to let Taipala's source of oil disappear into the ocean wasn't clear to her, but if it would get them out of her way so that she could catch Bora, she was more than happy to lend a hand.

Hopefully it wouldn't take more than that.

"You don't have to do this, Pe," said Hui. "You know that, right?"

"Yes, Hui," said Pe, stepping aside so that he could board. "I make my own decisions. You know that, right?"

He smiled, which Pe thought was odd, not because of his frogfish face, but because they were in the middle of risking their lives, and her boat. Was it risk if getting blown apart by a cannon was certain?

They had surrendered, she told herself. The cannons would be cooling, and the boats would be busier counting their dead than watching the nets.

Noikoa had probably called for her to be picked up. Or sunk.

"Stop smiling," Pe growled.

"Okay," said Hui. "How are we going to do this?"

Pe pointed to Pora. "He goes in, and figures out what can be done about the net below the surface."

"I don't mean to question your decisions," said Hui, "since you make your own, but you do remember the jellyfish, right?"

"Meanwhile," Pe continued, "You and I are going to keep this boat afloat." Part of the plan included picking up Pora, but it hadn't been her decision, so she didn't include it. "If we can, we'll help with the net. I don't know how. If we approach it at all, we'll probably be shot."

"They wouldn't guess what we're trying to do," said Hui.

"We'll be at the net," she said. "What else could they assume?"

"That we're trying to get out. Maybe they'll think we're trying to smuggle Akoni. But Keasau? No way."

"Maybe they'll let us out."

"Escort Keasau," Pora reminded them.

Pe grabbed the starter cord and looked up to see Akoni glancing over the rim. He nodded and disappeared. Their cover would be moving, because Akoni was going to have to meet Noikoa and discuss surrender. Not that it would be a discussion, anymore. Akoni had lost. His fleet was sacrifice.

"Get in the hull," Pe told Hui. "We'll be less conspicuous if we aren't motoring around with a warrior on deck."

"My muscles will get stiff. I won't be able to fight."

"Nobody's going to fight me," said Pe. "I'm a crippled fisher, caught in a bad place at a bad time."

"And you went from Noikoa to Akoni," said Hui. "Noikoa will have sent a message about you. I guarantee it."