“A few hours. She’s pretty efficient about it by now—we could probably take the ship with blindfolds on. Approach their broadside and get as close as we can before turning our cannon side to them—you want to avoid turning too quickly, because then you give them a larger target,” he explains. “It’s much harder to do damage to the bow of a ship.”
I nod and wait for him to continue.
“Sometimes they’ll surrender before we even shoot. They know Dragonsbane’s reputation by now and there’s a rumor that she’s merciful to those who surrender, that she lets them sail off to Esstena or Timmoree or some small country and live so long as they swear to never return to Astrea. But the captain’s never shown mercy to any Kalovaxian.”
“And if they don’t surrender?”
Spiros shrugs. “We fire on them until
