Pirate Princess (19 page)

“And I still managed to come in second by only two treasures,” I reminded him.

“Whose ship did you use to put your treasure on and guard?” he asked me.

“I borrowed a ship from someone in town for the week.”

“You really thought I was going to take the ring back?” he asked quietly. I nodded my head and he whispered, “That ring comes off only when you want it to.”

“You say that now, but what if some beautiful new pirate comes along,” I said with a sigh.

“I could say the same for you. I saw the way Cristoff looked at you.”

“He did offer to take my mind off things if you broke up with me,” I told him.

“I’ll slice his head off,” Finn growled.

I laughed and kissed his cheek. “Leave him be. You won.”

“It’s a good year for me,” he said squeezing my shoulders, “I won the Festival and you.”

My eyes grew heavy and he offered to take me to his ship. “I’d better get to my dad’s or he’ll tear your ship apart to find me.”

He kissed me and asked, “When can I see you again?”

“I have to get back to the castle and I don’t know what they might have planned for me. Can you meet me at the balcony tonight after dark?” I asked.

“It’s a date,” he whispered and then kissed me again before heading off to gather his crew. I quickly put my mask back on as I watched him go.

I walked back towards the more populated area of the beach to find my dad when I heard the snap of a twig. I spun, sword in hand and found Jared with his sword raised to my throat. “Jax, I presume?” he asked with a smile.

Griffin walked out of the dark behind him and I saw an army of men in the trees behind them. Had they been listening to our conversation? No, he wouldn’t have called me Jax if he knew it was me. I had to get away without them capturing me or everything would be ruined. I took a step back and Jared followed me. “There’s no escaping,” Griffin said, “We’ve surrounded the island with troops and all of you are too drunk to fight properly.”

I had to warn my dad and everyone else. “Guards!” I screamed as loudly as possible. “Guards!” The pirates stopped for a second and then everyone began grouping up with their crews to take off.

“Advance!” Griffin commanded.

I pulled a dagger and threw it at Jared who pulled his sword back to block it, giving me the chance to run away. I ran as fast as I could down the beach towards my father who I saw looking for me. His eyes landed on me and then he saw who was behind me. “Prepare to set sail!” he yelled, “Cristoff, get Jax!”

“Leave!” I screamed at him.

“You’re not getting away,” said a voice I didn’t want to fear.

Faxon stepped in front of me and froze me in place with a spell. I struggled against it, but it held me still. Cristoff threw a dagger towards him, distracting him from maintaining the spell and letting me break free. I ran around Faxon, set his coat on fire and ran as fast as I could towards Cristoff. Cristoff picked me up and ran down the beach twice as fast.

“You need to learn to run faster,” he told me.

“Escape first, lectures later,” I told him with a scowl. I had to get away from here and make sure everyone got to safety.

I looked over his shoulder and saw Faxon finally get his burning coat off and drop it to the sand. He looked at me with such anger that it frightened me. Jared was running after us, but he wasn’t as fast as Cristoff and we made it onto one of the boats rowing away from the island. Fortunately it was Finn’s boat. “You alright?” Finn asked me, pulling me into the space next to him.

I nodded my head. “They almost got me,” I admitted. “Thank you, Cristoff.”

He smiled. “I told you I’d fight for you.”

Finn glared at him, but bit his lip to keep from responding. Several pirates didn’t make it off the island and the King’s Steel captured them. I thought we were safe and started to relax, but then the boat we were on broke apart and dumped us into the cold sea water. We didn’t hesitate to swim towards Finn’s ship, but then I alone was levitated out of the water and brought back to the beach. I yelled and tried to break free, but Faxon was too powerful for me.

“Jax!” Finn yelled, starting to swim back towards me, but Cristoff made him swim to his ship instead.

Faxon dropped me on the beach on my butt and Jared walked towards me. I leapt up, pulled my sword and a dagger, and faced him and Faxon. I didn’t want to hurt them, but I couldn’t let them hurt me either. They wouldn’t forgive themselves if they killed me and found out who I really was afterwards.

“We’ve been after you for years,” Jared said, “We aren’t letting you get away that easy.”

“Rocco got away,” Griffin cursed. He turned and glared at me. “If you hadn’t warned them we would have finally captured him.”

I changed my voice and said, “I thought you had us surrounded? How could his ship sail away if you surrounded us?”

He clenched his fists and took a step towards me, but Jared held his sword up, blocking his advance. “Do you know who I am?” Jared asked me.

“Aye,” I answered. So much better than you think.

“Then you know it’s useless to try to fight me,” he said smugly.

“Tell ye what,” I continued in my fake voice and spun my sword in my hand as I tried to come off calm and collected, “I beat you fair and square and you let me go. What do you say?”

Griffin laughed, but Jared nodded his head and said, “Agreed.”

“Your Highness,” Griffin growled.

“Do you doubt my ability?” Jared asked angrily.

Griffin backed away as did Faxon who had been surprisingly silent the entire time.

I moved farther onto the beach to give myself more room to maneuver and faced Jared. I really wanted to take my mask off, but knew there was absolutely no way I could do that. He rolled his shoulders and asked, “Ready?”

“Always,” I whispered and then charged forward, struck high and used the dagger to slice low, but he blocked both and pushed me back. He was so much stronger than me that I had no hope of overpowering him. I had to think of some way to win. How could I win?

He attacked and I blocked his strikes which were so much harder than in our practices. I grunted with the strain and tried to kick his leg. I remembered to bring it back high so he couldn’t kick it out from under me and danced back. He frowned as he watched me, but said nothing. I ran forward, leapt up and over him, trying to slice open his back as I landed and tried to stab him with a dagger, but he spun around, and blocked them. He was about to attack me back, but I threw a dagger I had pulled while up in the air at his chest. He barely blocked it and staggered back a step. I ran forward, kicked his right ankle out from under him, and tried to stab his shoulder. He dropped his dagger, grabbed my wrist, and held me back with strength alone.

“You aren’t strong enough to win,” he told me angrily.

I didn’t respond. I dropped my sword, punched him as hard as I could in the stomach, grabbed a dagger, and sliced it down his forearm. I felt sick to my stomach at cutting him so deeply, but I knew Faxon could heal him immediately after we stopped. I grabbed my sword, jumped away from him, and stood ready again.

He stood up, grabbed his sword and ignored his bleeding forearm. “You’re the first to draw blood in a very long time. Who trained you?”

I didn’t respond. How could I?

“Decided not to talk anymore? Don’t want to taunt me anymore?” he asked. “Or did you realize that your taunting won’t rile me up?”

I threw two daggers at him slid under his sword and would have stabbed him in the leg, but he grabbed my wrist, jerked me up and put his sword to my throat. It was such an easy move for him to make. “You lose,” he said victoriously with a snarl in my face.

I swallowed nervously and dropped my weapons. What do I do? What do I do?!

A cannonball exploded on the beach to our left, sending sand flying into the air and to the sides of where it hit. Jared threw his arm up to shield himself, temporarily forgetting me. I kicked his knee, punched his stomach and jerked my wrist free at the same time. I dove into the ocean, swimming as fast as I could. Cannonballs exploded on the beach all around the men, but I couldn’t worry about them. I swam and tried to turn invisible. I was almost to Finn’s ship when I levitated out of the water again. Faxon!

“No!” I screamed angrily.

He brought me back, put a dagger to my throat and called, “Unless you want her to die cease fire.”

The cannonballs stopped. “Release her and we’ll allow you all to live,” Dad said.

No, you idiot. Run!

“You think you can escape us?” Jared asked.

“Go!” I screamed.

“Jax!” my dad yelled, “I won’t leave you.”

“Please! Go!” I yelled.

Faxon’s dagger lowered a little, but Griffin walked over and put restraints on me, taking me from him.

“I’ll get you out!” Finn yelled.

“Go!” I screamed one last time, opening the restraints with my power and waved my hands at them. “Leave!”

Griffin grabbed my arms and then hit me in the back of the head stunning me. “Be quiet, Jax.”

I heard the ships sailing away and cried quietly as I knelt on the beach. “Let’s get these prisoners back to Markleville,” Jared ordered.

Faxon was healing Jared’s arm, but looked over at me every few seconds. I looked away from them, waiting to find out my future. Griffin hauled me to my feet and shoved me towards the other pirates they had captured. I didn’t know any of them, but they shuffled me into the middle of the group and several patted my back reassuringly. I walked in the center of the pirate prisoners and cried silently, grateful that my mask concealed my tears. As soon as they removed my mask they would know the truth and I had no idea what would happen to me.

They had us climb onto small boats with four guards for each boat, and we sailed to Markleville. It was almost dinner time when we finally arrived and I was starving. One of the pirates near me must have heard my stomach because he pulled out a small piece of bread he had stowed in his pocket and handed it to me where the guards couldn’t see.

“Thanks,” I whispered, taking the bread and carefully lifting my mask just enough to get the bread to my mouth.

At the docks they made us walk in two straight lines and paraded us down the center of town. People lined up to see the prisoners and many murmured my name in shock. We were taken to the prison and they pushed us into two large group cages made of steel bars in the stone so the guards could see in easily. “What happens next?” I asked quietly.

“They take us one by one, ask our names and see if we are wanted anywhere and then decide our fate,” one of the pirates nearest me answered.

There were three guards stationed to have constant view of the cells. If they were gone I could take my mask off and get out of the cell and leave.

“Jax!” Griffin called, “Follow me.”

The pirates patted my back as I walked by them to the front of the cage. Griffin unlocked it, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me passed all the prisoner cells to a small office. He forced me to sit in a wooden chair in front of a desk and sat behind the desk in a chair. “So, Jax, if that is your real name, let us see if there are any crimes you are guilty of.”

I stayed silent and looked down at my hands.

“Surprisingly it looks like you only attacked other pirates. However, you attacked the King and ruined our raid,” he said angrily.

“The King attacked me first,” I mumbled.

He stood up and walked around to my chair. “First, I think we shall take this mask off and see who you really are.”

He reached towards me and had just gripped my mask when his door was thrown open. “Where’s Jared?” Esmeralda asked in a panic.

I didn’t look at her. “He’s on his way here,” Griffin told her, “What’s wrong?”

“Tilia’s gone,” she said in near panic, “She left last night and still isn’t back. What if that pirate stole her? What if she was there when you attacked?” she asked.

“If she had been there we would have found her,” he assured her.

“She could have been kept on a ship,” she said.

Jared walked in and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Tilia’s gone,” Esmeralda told him.

“Did she say anything or leave a note?” he asked her.

She shook her head. “Are you sure you didn’t see her?” she asked him.

He sighed and then said, “Several of the pirates, including Rocco, got away because Jax here warned them of our presence. If she hadn’t been so far away from the others we would have gotten the drop on them.”

“This is Jax?” Esmeralda asked. “Oh Tilia would love to have met her.”

“I doubt she’ll live long enough for that to happen,” Griffin said.

If I exposed myself right now I could end this all. I could explain everything. They would be mad and punish me.

Jared assured Esmeralda he would send out a search party and he escorted her out while I sat numb with fear.

“Now, where were we?” Griffin asked.

“You were about to sentence me to death,” I whispered.

“Do you think you deserve a different sentence?” he asked.

I pulled down the shoulder of my shirt and showed him my tattoo. “I’m Captain Rocco’s daughter. If you kill me he will attack this city and kill as many people as he can,” I warned him.

“Well, well, well. Now that is an interesting development. Perhaps we will simply make Rocco turn himself in under the guise that you’re still alive and then when he gets here we’ll show him your corpse.”

I had never known that Griffin was so cold hearted. I knew he had to do a lot of bad things to keep the peace, but I didn’t know how cruel he was. “He won’t turn himself in until you show me to him,” I warned him. “He isn’t stupid.”

“No, he isn’t. Then again neither are you. Maybe you’re just one of his crew and since you’re a girl you think you can try to weasel your way out of a hanging,” he said.

“Griffin,” Jared said, “I need to speak to you.”

“I can’t leave her alone. She’ll try to escape,” Griffin said.

“Guards, put her back in with the other prisoners,” Jared ordered.

I walked between them, out the door, and to the cage without waiting for the guards to come. They opened the cage and I walked inside, collapsing against the back wall, and slid down to sit and put my face into my knees.