Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns (2 page)

"At your big birthday event, certainly," said Lars.

"Looking forward to it?"

"Oh, of course! How could I not?"

"I can't wait for the swordsmanship contest," said Miya.

"Well, there is that, but I read there would be a formal dance at evening's end—"

"What? The DANCE?"

"Of course, who doesn't like dancing?"

"No one, apparently," said Miya, with a small sigh.

"You are an accomplished dancer yourself, yes? I think that shows in your movements clearly, you certainly have an elegance to you."

"Really?" Miya gave a little spin, pleased. "Well ... I do like dancing. But—"

"Then enjoy it, Miya, enjoy it."

"I've already decided I won't," said Miya.

"Oh?" said Lars, turning to walk away. "That's a shame. See you later, Princess."

"Later, then."

Miya sheathed her sword, then started off down the path opposite the one Lars took. It was a nice day, not too hot, the sky blue, the few clouds she could see fluffy and white, the palm trees along the path rustling in the gentle sea breeze. Miya's training ground was a wide, sheltered ledge halfway down the path from her home, which was a large house built near the edge of a cliff overlooking the bay. Below lay the town of Blackport, where some thousand people lived, and to the east were wide green fields of clover. The horse stables were also here, on the edge of the clover fields, and that was where Miya was heading now.

"Hi Penny," she said, as she entered the stables. Penny was a tallish kind of girl with short, messy blonde hair and kind green eyes. She was fourteen years old and knew everything there was to know in the world, at least as far as horses were concerned.

"Hey Miya," she said, looking up from the horse she was rubbing down. "Here to take Three Leaf out?"

"Not today, I was practicing swordsmanship all morning, better not push myself too hard," said Miya, walking over to the horse Penny was tending and patting its nose.

"Again? That's like almost every day this week, don't you get sick of swords?"

"Don't you get sick of horses?"

"Fair point."

"You're coming to my party, right?" Miya asked, stroking the horse's side absently. "I mean, you got an invitation?"

"Isn't it an open party? There are posters all over town."

"Oh. Right," said Miya. "I haven't been into town lately. So you're coming?"

"Of course, why would you even ask?"

Miya shrugged. "Just wanted to make sure."

"I don't think you have to worry about low attendance, it's kind of the 'hot topic' at the moment."

"Really? Gosh, that's kind of sad," said Miya, half-smiling. "No one's got anything better to talk about than my birthday?"

"Well, it's mostly the party they're talking about," said Penny.

"Oh."

"But if you weren't having a birthday there wouldn't be a party, so ... y'know."

"I guess. How are the horses?"

"Pretty good, Moonlight's off his feed but I think he's just being fussy. Bandit's been really jumpy lately, though. Something's gotten into her."

"Bandit? She's Lars's horse, right?"

"When he rides, which is almost never. Maybe she's just worked up because she doesn't get taken out often enough," said Penny. "I was thinking of running her around the fields this afternoon, if you want to join?"

"Can't. Book lessons. You're really lucky just getting to play with horses all day."

"Hm," said Penny.

"Wish I could, you know, just sail around and spar and swim," said Miya. "Without having to take lessons all the time."

"Be a pirate, you mean?" asked Penny. Miya grinned.

"Well I am a pirate's daughter, you know. That makes me half-pirate."

"At least. You're a queen's daughter too, does that make you a half-princess?"

"At least," Miya sighed.

"I think you're lucky. A lot of girls would love to be a princess. Even half of one," said Penny, patting the horse's flank and then washing her hands in a bucket.

"They can have it," said Miya, making a face. "It's probably not as much fun as it looks."

Penny wiped her hands on a rag then stood up. "Probably not."

"Anyway, I should get going before Mum starts looking for me. You know how embarrassingly loud she can get," said Miya.

"See ya," said Penny, as Miya headed for the stable doors. "Stop in if you change your mind about this afternoon."

"Okay. See you later!"

Miya left the stables behind and began ambling towards her house, hands in her pockets. About halfway up she stopped and looked back, smiling as she saw Penny taking a horse into the fields.

"Probably not," she muttered to herself, then she took her hands out of her pockets and ran up the path.

*

Blackport really is a pretty town, Miya thought. I know I don't have much to compare it to, just the towns on Triangle Island and Outlook Island really ... but there's no question, it beats the pants off them in terms of prettiness. I even like how all the houses are kind of squashed up against each other ... I don't know, it just looks friendly.

Most of the houses in Blackport were made of light wood, or bricks made from the golden-yellow clay found on the eastern side of the island, or a combination of the two. That was just the basis of things, though; for whatever reason, Clover Islanders tended towards a love of colour—almost every house was painted brightly, flags and flowers could be seen everywhere, and at least a dozen houses had full vegetable gardens on their flat roofs. Maybe it's because lots of artists come here, Miya thought. Like Mr Petic, he's painted those cute trees and flowers on nearly every exposed wall on his entire street now. And Ms Dahlia with that big mural she did against the cliff, all those spirals and shapes and amazing colours.

"... have you been listening to a single word I've said?"

Miya continued gazing out the window for a few seconds before she realised her mother had asked her a direct question.

"Um ... yes?"

"Come on, Miya," said Lily. "I know these lessons aren't your favourite but they ARE important. Like it or not, you are a princess. There are certain things you have to know."

"But they're so BORING. And I can't see where I'd ever need to know about ... about ... what am I learning about today?"

"Miya, honestly. You've filled almost a whole page of your workbook with notes, what have you been writing?"

"I have? Oh wow, I have! That's kind of impressive, right? I wasn't even looking when I wrote most of that." Miya peered at her handwriting, trying to decipher what she'd written. "Um ... salutation? Wait, what? Why are we doing salutation AGAIN?"

"In order for you to remember it."

"But I do remember it! I remember how boring it is!"

"Well, maybe you could tell me what salutation is, then."

"What, don't YOU know?"

"Miya."

"All right, fine." Miya sighed, then put on a bored, sing-song voice: "Salutation is the right of royalty to ... to present themselves—"

"To be presented."

"—to be presented before the ... guys in charge. Kind of like parley."

"Not precisely. Salutation is—"

"Why do I have to study all these rules and little nitpicky annoying details? Basically all it means is that if I'm somewhere new I can go talk to the king or mayor or whatever, right? That's just like, I don't know, common sense or something, why do I need to remember all this useless stuff?"

"Miya."

"Well it is! It's all so USELESS! Why can't I just read something from the library instead of studying this? I'm sure I learn more from stories than from THIS thing."

'THIS thing' was the huge, heavy tome that Lilith used to teach her daughter; 'The Royal Code'. It was a complex book that attempted to unify the royal laws of Algernon and the Highland, the two most powerful nations in the Western Necessary Ocean.

"This book is the reason we have this island at all," said Lily, calmly. "It's important to understand the rules of the world you live in, Miya. I know that you think of yourself as a 'girl of action', I know you'd rather be riding your horse or exploring the island or out on your ship, or even down at the docks helping your father coil ropes, but action without understanding is futile—dangerous, even."

Queen Lilith looked at her daughter, at the look of annoyed incomprehension on her face. She let out a patient sigh.

"Someday you'll understand," she said.

*

"I knew you'd be in here."

Tomas looked up at his daughter, who was standing in the doorway to his little library with a smug smile on her face.

"I'm so predictable, I know," he said. "Off to bed already?"

"Yeah, I thought I'd turn in early, get rested up for tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?" Tomas asked, putting a book back in a bookshelf.

"Um, hello? My birthday?"

"Just teasing, Coconut." Miya's father inspected the books on the shelf, then reached out to take one.

" 'Necessary Tales'?" said Miya.

"What with your birthday coming up and all, it reminded me of when I used to read to you," said Tomas, smiling fondly at the book's cover. "This was always your favourite."

"Yeah, when I was younger."

"You're not so old yet."

"I'll be fourteen tomorrow, that's pretty old."

"Hah. Try looking at it from the wrong side of forty."

"I can't even IMAGINE being THAT old."

"Oh. My own daughter's words, they do wound me so," said Tomas, grinning. He put the book back. "Maybe I have read that one too many times. It's almost falling apart anyway. Oh, hey, your mother's going to be busy organising things tomorrow, but my part is pretty much done. What are you going to do with your morning?"

"Dunno. Get ready for the competition, maybe."

"It's been a while since we did something, just the two of us. What do you say we take your ship out? We could sail around to your beach, see how that money tree of yours is doing."

"Dad." Miya shook her head, trying to keep from smiling. "Well ... I guess that could be kind of okay."

"Goodness, the enthusiasm of her, I can barely keep up with the youthful exuberance," said Tomas. "Early start?"

"Sure."

"Beat the sun?"

"Mm, I dunno ..."

"Come on, let's make it an adventure. Sneak out while everyone's asleep, while it's still dark ..." Tomas grinned at his daughter.

"Well, if it'll be an adventure, I guess ..."

"That's set then. PP?" Tomas held out his hand.

"Dad. PPs are kind of childish, don't you think?"

"If you can call a promise between two people that death itself would have a hard time breaking 'childish', then maybe."

"Okay, okay, PP," said Miya, taking her father's hand and performing a complicated gesture with him. "It's the name, I think, rather than what it actually is. It should sound more grown-up. Like 'blood oath', now that sounds serious."

"A blood oath is something different."

"Oh?" Miya perked up, suddenly interested. "What is it?"

"... nothing you need worry about," said Tomas. "Off to bed now, if we're to beat the sun."

Miya grumbled for a bit as her father tousled her hair.

"Aren't you getting a book?" she asked, as he walked to the door.

"Not tonight. I don't need one. I'll just think of the adventures we'll have together."

"Goodnight, Dad."

"Goodnight, Coconut."

The big house on the cliff overlooking Blackport was silent in the grey of morning. The sun hadn't risen yet and everything was still. Still, that is, except for two figures climbing down a rope from the third storey. It wasn't totally silent either, the quiet of morning broken by a whispered conversation between the two:

"Why do we have to climb down from here, Dad?"

"Because it's more adventuresome!"

"But neither of our rooms are even on the third storey, why'd we come up here just to climb down again?"

"It's more dangerous and exciting, now hush up!"

They were silent then, as they climbed down, the taller of the two figures tugging on the rope to bring it down after they were safely on the ground. This silence was broken once more as they stole away from the house, moving swiftly and silently, heading for the steep cliff path that led down to the private docks.

"You really miss pirating, don't you Dad."

"What makes you say that?"

"All the effort you go to with stuff like this."

"Well, if you can make life a little more fun, why wouldn't you?"

The smaller of the two figures shrugged.

"If you can call this fun."

"I'm enjoying myself, aren't you enjoying yourself?"

"Maybe just a little."

"Then what's to complain about?"

Evidently the smaller figure couldn't think of anything, as they were both silent again until they reached the small private docks at the base of the cliff, and there a small, slightly unusual-looking ship—a sloop, painted black.

"How long has it been since we took her out together?" asked Miya's father, as they prepared the Black Swan for launch. "Months? Years?"

"We took her out last week. You taught me how to do that fast-turn trick."

"Oh, right."

The Black Swan's sails went up and they slid quietly out of dock and then out of the harbour, away from the island and into more open waters. Father and daughter looked back at Clover Island.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"Our island, you blind mole of a daughter," said Tomas.

"I can barely see anything except some lights and like just a dark outline."

"A silhouette. I love silhouettes, have I ever mentioned?"

"Only about a million times, Dad."

They looked at the silhouette of Clover Island for a few seconds.

"It's a good place," said Tomas. "When all's said and done."

"The best place," said Miya, firmly. Tomas smiled.

"I don't think I ever told you this," he said, with a sidelong glance at his daughter, "your mother never exactly approved—the reason we named it 'Clover' Island."