Despite the fact the Blackwell sisters appeared to be giving up without a fight, there was a hint of suspicion on Rowley’s face.

  “They’re up to something.” She muttered, “Zindo, let’s give them a rendition of Hopeless in the Void, to break their spirits.”

  “I think not.” Iris commented, her words carried via the bone transduction spell.

  Rowley began, “And what do you think-”

  Though Rowley couldn’t see it, Iris smiled and kicked the woman in the face! Rowley crashed into her throne and rolled off the side, adding a few extra bruises!

  “What the-” The first officer wasn’t able to finish his sentence, because Iris interrupted with a punch that knocked a tooth out!

  Next, she turned her attention to a woman in a black and red dress matching the uniform the men wore, who’s pointed hat marked her as a witch. She was rising from her seat, with hands raised. Iris mentally adjusted her projected position to get close enough and kicked the witch in the chin with an upward motion!

  With four more rapid-fire changes in position, she kneed a man in the groin, stomped on the inseam of another, followed by an elbow to the gut, laid out the third with a round-house kick and for the last, she changed things up, by grabbing the man’s head with both hands, only to haul his forehead into her rising knee for a devastating blow!

  Iris sighed and commented, “Everyone on the command deck is down, for the moment.”

  Amelia glanced at the rear-view crystal, confirming they were nearing the open bay door of the bigger ship, where a figure in a pressure suit stood ready, with a gleaming wand very much like those Docking Witches used.

  Amelia didn’t want a death on her conscience, but whoever it was, they were a pirate and it was three lives in the balance against one.

  She laid hold of the control stick for the gas thrusters and shouted for both of her sisters to hear, “Hold on to something! We’re getting out of here!”

  Iris pressed herself into the corner and Amelia rammed the throttle all the way forward, producing a burst of acceleration as the engines came to life!

  Marta lay on the floor, against the back wall, with her head and shoulders just below the spell-core, with one hand on it.

  She’d already used it to give herself the power to remote-view, a spell she’d never been good at.

  Feeling the initial kick of acceleration, she reached out and concentrated the enchanted device’s remaining magic on putting more heat into the engines, though she made sure to imagine everything heating up without melting. After a half second, there was an even more powerful burst of acceleration!

  The Docking Witch of Glass House stared with horror at the sight of steam blasting out of the four engine nozzles of the smaller ship, which initially began at low pressure, because pumps rarely went from full stop to full speed in an instant.

  She dove for one of the larger ships parked in the bay, taking cover inside its open cargo bay! She barely managed to seal the rear door of the ship in time to save her from being cooked alive!

  Superheated steam poured into the docking bay, flinging the small fighter craft into the back wall, while the larger ships scraped along the floor, producing a terrible screeching sound that carried through the hull of Glass House!

  Marta scanned space as she muttered in the witch’s tongue, using the words for ‘sense’ and ‘stone’ to give herself an extra edge, because the pirate ship wasn’t fully disabled and that was a situation she didn’t care for.

  Between the two sensory spells, Marta found herself a rock, floating in space, which Amelia would have called an ‘asteroid’. She remembered her sister having mentioned space was full of them, constantly whizzing about, which was one of the things that could set off an alarm, one of the many jobs of the spell-core.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  It was only a few hundred pounds of stone, but that would be more than enough to destroy some engine nozzles.

  Marta spoke with great confidence in the ancient language, using the words for ‘stone’ and ‘attraction’, following with a linking twist to attach the words ‘glass’ and ‘steam’.

  She watched as the big ship began to turn and the main engines came to life, laughing as the asteroid she’d selected accelerated toward the array of rocket nozzles at the tail of the big ship.

  Amelia shouted, “They’re following us!”

  Marta shouted back, “Not for long!”

  Rowley was absolutely incensed, more furious than she’d ever been in her life. Not only had she been hit in the face by some invisible force, but it had felt like a boot with rubber soles, when most were leather or wood. She’d underestimated the sisters, and her entire bridge crew had been temporarily stunned by the same flurry of attacks from an invisible force.

  Still, the pilot had recovered fairly quickly and the engines had come to life, which ran the entire length of Glass House. Additionally, the water tanks were almost full, because they’d sailed to Taneas on the solar wind.

  She screamed, “There’s no way they can outrun us in the long term! I want full acceleration!”

  “Yes, ma'am!” Zindo acknowledged, then shouted down the stairwell at the back of the bridge, “All hands: brace for full acceleration!”

  The order echoed back, several times, as it was relayed with haste. That was the disadvantage of a large ship: such orders took time, while a small ship merely needed the order to be spoken once. What they needed was some system to carry sound without a witch at both ends, like perhaps a series of enchanted tubes-

  The entire ship rocked and distant cries of alarm echoed up the stairs as Glass House twisted sideways and began to spin! To one side of the bridge, a bell with a mechanical striker rang in rapid succession, very similar to an alarm clock, though it was much larger and deeper.

  She glanced at the label above the bell, angry that it read as ‘collision’.

  She looked forward, then back, seeing the tail end of the ship had been struck by a small asteroid, which was hurtling away, while glass fragments pinwheeled into the dark depths of space, reflecting as they caught the light.

  Frustrated, she growled, “Hopeless in the Void, Zindo! This time, they die screaming!”

  “Very good, ma'am.” Her first officer nodded and got to strumming, beginning the song with the usual bass solo, while Rowley awaited her moment, raising her hand in preparation to deliver a lethal sonic attack.

  Iris heard the bassline and growled, while Amelia cursed.

  Rowley was quite pleased by the sound of her victims, reveling in their terror as she lowered her hand, only to suddenly be yanked off-balance by the same invisible force pulling her guitar out of her hands, followed by the strap catching her back! The strap tore and the guitar floated away, which was really weird, because the only magic she could sense, aside from her own, was a remote-viewing spell, which didn’t add up!

  Rowley stumbled and looked up, just in time to see her guitar swing through the air like a club, the neck serving as a handle! The glass body smashed into her face and shattered just like the tail of her ship, blue fragments of it going all over the bridge!

  One of the shards hit Zindo in the right shoulder with some force, impaling him!

  Rowley hit the floor with her head, which added a second concussion to the one Iris had given her with the guitar!

  Zindo clutched his bleeding shoulder and shouted, “Get a healer!”

  The Captain stared up for a brief moment with blurred vision, before she passed out.

  After taking a moment to calculate that Starwitch had reached escape velocity, Amelia shut down the engines. Taking a moment longer on the numbers, she confirmed they were now in Junas orbit, which would give them time enough to repair the damaged mast, though that would require a spacewalk, something Amelia was more than a little scared of.

  Glancing back at the glass ship, she was glad to see it spinning in space, with badly damaged engines.

  “We should be fine, now.” Amelia decided, aloud.

  Iris climbed to her feet and leaned on the back of the pilot’s seat. After a short while, Marta joined them, resting against one of the outer walls.

  Iris sighed, “I’ve been thinking about what Mother taught us.”

  “Oh?” Amelia asked.

  “She made both of you vow to do no harm with magic, but I always remembered how much trouble Marta got in for using magic to give a boy pimples. She never had that particular discussion with me, though I still made the vow on my own. I believe it’s the right thing, but considering our experiences both in Dugaria and up here, facing magic from some obviously evil witches, I find myself doubting.”

  “What’s your point?” Marta prompted.

  Iris grumbled, “I think ‘do no harm’ was essential to our survival back home, but we also need to adapt to changing circumstances. As much as I love Mother and value what she taught us, I feel we need to take a new vow, to do no harm unless it’s in self-defense, which is what I think we’ve done every time a witch has attacked us, anyway. Mother was wrong, but only a little.”

  Marta nodded, “I think you’re right.”

  “So do I.” Amelia agreed, “Back in the air above Dugaria, I reasoned it was one life against three, just the same as I did when I noticed someone was in the docking bay of that pirate ship. Both times, I made the choice to save the three of us, breaking my word and hoping Mother would understand.”

  Iris spoke softly and with emotion, “I vow to do no harm, except in self-defense, for the greater good.”

  “I vow to do no harm, except in self-defense, for the greater good.” Marta repeated the vow.

  Amelia thought the words over for a time, then spoke, “I vow to do no harm, except in self-defense, for the greater good.”