A warning bell ran on the ship. The crew rushed here and there, tying off the rigging, arming themselves, kneeling and praying to their many-breasted god right there on the deck.
Obara grabbed her spear and leapt to her feet, her boots thudding on the wooden deck of the ship. She whirled to the side and peered across the waves. A ship with black sails was closing on them to port, and as ugly a crew of cut-throats standing ready upon her deck as Obara had ever set eyes on. They waved swords and axes over their heads, howling and jabbering in all manner of tongues, doubtless crying out all the horrible things that they intended to do to the crew of the Emerald Runner once they caught them.
And they would catch them, even Obara could see that. The Runner was tacking away, but the pirate ship was too close, and gaining on them too fast. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, a faster boat.
They would catch up to the Emerald Runner, they would board her, they would kill the men and rape the women, and then they would plunder anything worth plundering before they fired the ship and sailed on their merry.
Obara grinned savagely as she settled into a fighting stance. But the one thing they didn't count on was a crew of Sand Snakes. If they want to fuck me it'll have to be as a corpse.
The spear, not the tears. I made my choice a long time ago.
The door from the guest cabins burst open as Father bounded onto the deck.
"What's going on?" he cried.
"Pirates," Obara muttered. "They're gaining on us."
"Seven Hells," Oberyn spat. He turned around, and Obara saw that Elia had come out and was standing in the doorway. "Elia! Get back inside, guard your mother."
"But I can fight-"
"Do as I command!" Oberyn yelled. Obara had never heard him raise his voice at Elia like that before. He had yelled at her plenty of times, but never at the younger children.
He is not angry, he is afraid for her.
Was he ever afraid for me?
Has Ellaria truly made him soft, or has she simply made him whole?
Obara put such thoughts aside. In battle, stray thoughts would get your killed. She needed to be focussed. She needed to be prepared. She needed to think only of herself and of the enemy. That was how she would survive. That was how she'd win.
"What's going to happen now?" Tyene asked. "What do we do?"
"Now we fight," Obara said. Then she remembered who she was talking to. She glanced behind her, and saw that her younger sister's face was pale. Tyene was shivering, despite the heat, trembling like a leaf about to fall from the tree.
Obara had never considered what it would be like to have grown up not knowing how to fight. She could not imagine herself without her spear, or her whip. She could not imagine having to rely on the mask of a sweet face and a phial of poison slipped in the right cup for her protection.
All those times that Tyene had given her diarrhoea, she had always envied her skill with drugs. Now that they were in a situation where she had the advantage, Obara abruptly felt she pitied her.
She reached out and clamped a heavy hand on Tyene's shoulder. "Tyene, look at me. Don't look at them, look at me. Look into my eyes."
Tyene tore her serpent-eyes away from the pirates and stared into Obara's reptilian slits.
"You will be fine," Obara said. "I promise that you will not die. I promise that I will keep you safe. Because I'm your sister, and I'll protect you." She grinned. "Now go and hide behind Elia's skirts."
Tyene nodded, a quick and almost jerky motion, before running to the dubious safety of the cabin.
"Have you learned to love your family?" Oberyn asked, with a rich undercurrent of amusement in his voice.
"I've always loved my family," Obara replied defensively. "I've just never liked them, is all."
Nymeria swaggered up onto deck from down in the hold, still putting her tunic back on. "What's going on? Are we under attack?"
"We're about to be," Obara said. "Pirate ship, closing fast."
"Oh, excellent," Nymeria said, a smile of savage anticipation crossing her face. "Just what I need after my morning prayers."
Obara rolled her eyes.
"You might be praying very often today if they take the ship," Sarella murmured.
"Take the ship? While we Dornish heroes defend it?" Nymeria said. "Surely you jest, sweet little sister. The only risk for us is that the battle will be done before you can string that ridiculous bow of yours."
Sarella had been fighting with her Summer Isles bow ever since the alarm had been sounded. She was only now finally getting it struck.
"It may take a while to set the string," Sarella said softly, as she knocked an arrow to said string. "But the results are more than worth it." She let fly her shaft, which flew over the heads of the closing crew of buccaneers. The pirates jeered her efforts, redoubling their taunts and insults.
"Yes, that was certainly well worth the wait," Nymeria said.
"I always miss one shot," Sarella murmured. "To encourage me to do better next time."
"This isn't really the time for your bookworm's philosophy," Obara growled.
"I am not a bookworm," Sarella said as she fitted another arrow to the string. "I'm well read." She let fly once more, and this time her deadly shaft pierced the chest of one of the pirates. He collapsed to the deck as his fellows gasped in mingled shock and horror. "And I expect to get all of these arrows back." She loosed again, and another pirate fell.
Oberyn chuckled. "Daughter, I shall buy you a new quiver full when we reach Volantis."
"Very generous, father," Sarella said earnestly. "But these are lucky arrows, and I would hate to waste them permanently on such scum."
"Unless you're going to start letting them off much faster than you are now I doubt you'll stop them bringing her alongside," Obara said.
"You can't rush precision," Sarella said. She smiled slightly. "And besides, if I killed them all I know that you'd feel left out."
Oberyn laughed. Obara snorted. "A clever tongue doesn't become you, sister. You should leave that sort of thing to Tyene."
"Oh, I don't know," Nymeria said. "I think you might have a talent for it."
"Wait until she's mocking you," Obara muttered.
Sarella loosed again, bringing the total of dead pirates up to seven. "Should we be more worried?"
"About what?" Nymeria asked.
"The crew of pirates on their way to rape and murder us," Sarella said, felling another of said pirates with her next shot. "And here we are, carrying on a pleasant sisterly conversation. Should we be scared."
Obara frowned. "How many pirates do you think there are?"
"Fifty," Sarella said. She loosed another arrow. "More like forty by now, I think."
"No," Obara said, shaking her head. "Nothing to be afraid of at all."
"Forty pirates, for the three of us," Nymeria said. "Almost an insult."
"They're about to be insulting us even more," Sarella said. "They're almost here."
"And we were having such a good talk," Nymeria said with a sigh. "Well, time for me to do my part." She turned to one of the crew. "You, give me a knife."
The sailor looked down at Nymeria's waist, where she had half a dozen knives thrust into her belt.
"I'm not wasting one of mine," Nymeria snapped. "Hand it over."
Tentatively, the sailor drew his dagger and placed the hilt in the palm of Nymeria's hand. Quick as a snake she whirled and threw it into the chest of a pirate who was trying to swing on a rope over from his ship over to the Emerald Runner. He gurgled as he let go of the rope and fell into the water, where the waves soon claimed him.
Another bold buccaneer tried to follow on a second rope, but Obara's whip lashed out with a crack to strike his hand, making him drop from the swinging cord and fall like the first man into the sea. He made rather more noise, splashing and thrashing about, but he too sank just the same.
The pirate ship was drawing close now. Soon their foes would be able to pour across the side in earnest.
Sarella shot another one dead.
"You really aren't going to leave any for us, are you?" Nymeria asked.
"Do you want me to stop?"
"Not unless you want to."
Obara readied her spear. "Ladies, I think it's time for the sand snakes to show our fangs."
A knife appeared in each of Nym's hands. "That is the best idea you've had... ever."
"That's why I don't like my family," Obara muttered.
The pirate ship came alongside, and the pirates howled and hollered as they leapt across onto the Emerald Runner.
Let the dance begin, Obara thought, grinning manically as she waded into the fighting.
A/N This is a short chapter just to show how badass the Sand Snakes are, even in the face of danger.