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.oOo. PROLOGUE .oOo.
“Captain?”
“I’m thinking…”
It was important… thinking that is. Captain always thought before she pursued a vessel, especially when the riches were bountiful as this one was sure to be. Because the more you stood to gain the more you stood to lose, Captain thought. It was especially true in the pirating sense. But this… this vessel was not carrying gold or jewels (but there were sure to be some of those), it was not carrying gunpowder or ale or oil or grain. It was carrying something far, far more precious.
It was carrying a princess.
.oOo. BLUE AS THE SKY AND SEA .oOo.
Captain thought all through the night, and as the next morning dawned and her men and women were waking to begin their duties, she had decided what course of action to take. It would be risky, but nothing worthwhile was ever given freely, especially in this case. It would take some serious firepower and some subterfuge too. Captain was excited, and nothing raised the morale of her pirates quite like a siege.
“What’s the plan?” Gold Eye said. Witchy had gathered the crew who all now watched her, hopeful and tired and just a little bit greedy. Exactly how she liked them.
“We’ll need to be fast,” she said. Gold Eye nodded and gestured for her to continue. “We strike in the night,” she said simply, and smiled at the cheers of her people. Her other ships that lingered close by seemed to be caught by the noise. Gold Eye smiled and Witchy cheered along with her crewmates. She gave them their orders for the day, to change the sails to the black ones, and to have their black clothes ready and to alert the other ships about their plans. It would be a mission of stealth, Captain decided. The sails would be black, they’d extinguish the lights on the ships and wait four days until the sky was moonless to strike.
“Have you decided on a group to breach the ship?” Gold Eye asked her the next night. Captain nodded and said nothing. “Let me guess,” Gold Eye began sarcastically. “You’re going to hop on a stealth one and take the glory for yourself? Guns blazing?”
“Well, you and Witchy will have some glory, and I’ll have my cutlass, too.”
“Captain, with respect, I don’t think-”
“Nigel, this is my raid. You know it is,” she interrupted. The hard glare in her eyes stopped him from arguing further with her. As in all things, he deferred to her judgement, and she was grateful for that loyalty. Deep down she knew it came from a place of worry for her, but they had known each other so long, and she had never let a mission take her down. She was the best, and he knew it, she knew it, and all of the world knew it. He nodded to her and left her to her cabin. They’d need to port soon to gather more grain and oil, and perhaps some more ale. Food could be restocked, too, she supposed.
When finally the night had arrived, Captain was giddy with excitement. The sails were black, the lights had been extinguished and the whole fleet had slowly been closing in on the plain looking vessel in their sights. It was all coming together, and she did so love when a good plan came together. When they were less than a league away, Captain could see that the lights on the deck of the prey vessel were far too bright to allow for much sight into the distance, especially as the night was so dark with no moon.
It was almost too good to be true, Captain thought.
When they were close enough to be spotted, Captain gave the signal for the smaller ships to surround the target and for ropes to be launched from her ship. Witchy, with her keen eye and impeccable aim, pierced an anchor straight into the aft of the ship at the perfect angle to both zipline over and pull the smaller vessel to their own larger one. The crew on the target ship was now aware they were under attack, but Captain wasn’t worried in the slightest.
“Gold Eye,” she called, “shoot their sail,” she ordered. In a flash of orange light and sparks, the sail before them burst into flames, a neat trick she had invented for her right hand man. The poor little ship’s crew were now suitably panicked, some of them having enough sense to grab weapons and others running to get buckets to put out their fiery sails. Captain gave the signal to Witchy to cease shooting anchors and to start pulling and ziplining. She readied herself to fly across the reinforced rope then leapt across the distance between the ships. The ocean below was black as the sky above, but she wasn’t afraid. Certainly not when she landed into a neat tuck and roll on the deck of her target vessel, cutlass flying and killing and maiming all those who moved to attack her.
She heard members of her crew land behind her and made the order to Witchy, who revelled in teaming with her, to have her back as they progressed along the ship. They made it to the captain’s chambers to find it empty. Captain frowned in displeasure, then huffed when she figured out her dilemma.
“They’re in the crew cabins,” she said, turning around and marching back onto the open deck, where her crew were disarming and tying up the leftover defenders. It was a hideously short battle, but it would do, she supposed, to sate the adventurists within her men and women. But now, she thought, marching down to the crew’s quarters, to find the prize.
“Come no further,” a pitchy voice called in the dark quarters. Captain grinned and moved to light a lamp. There, stood in a plain but expensive dress, was a pale woman with dark hair and bright eyes. She was indeed beautiful, Captain thought, as she glanced from the frightened woman to the plainer dressed lady behind her. “I am the princess,” she woman said, panic evident in her tone. Captain nearly laughed. “Leave us be, my maid and I wish no harm to you.”
“You wish no harm to me?”
“She is a fool. Very pretty, but a fool all the same,” Witchy said beside her. Captain nodded.
“Even more so if she thinks she is getting the best of me,” Captain said, then whistled a high-pitched tri tone song which summoned Gold Eye and several other of her crew members. “Gather them and bring them aboard. No harm is to befall them,” she ordered, then turned on her heel and marched out of the dank belly of the ship. The night air tasted sweeter with her victory under her belt. She made her way (rather difficultly, but she managed) across to her ship and decided a bath and then a small rest would do her some good.
When she woke a candle mark later, the sun still had not risen, and it seemed, from the screaming and shouting, that the princess and her maid were being brought aboard. Captain rolled out of bed, energised, and dressed in a plain white shirt and leather trousers, her cutlass on her hip and sturdy boots on her feet. She wanted to see about the commotion, and by the increased volume in shouting, there was quite a bit of it.
Gold Eye and Witchy were watching with bemused grins as the dark-haired woman shouted and screamed as the maid tried to calm her. Both were tied but not gagged, as Captain had ordered it, but perhaps she should have given her permission to silence them. The dark haired one was very, very loud.
“She’s as loud as she is beautiful,” Witchy smirked.
“Shame she doesn’t take after her maid,” Gold Eye quipped.
“Oh, you’re both so silly,” Captain said, leaning beside them and their confused faces. The predawn light was just turning purple on the horizon but lent enough light to begin to make out details that were impossible to see in the dark of night. Captain watched as her crew placed the princess and her maid on a wooden bench and tied them tightly to it, securing them without pain, as she had told them.
“I’m hungry, and there was plenty of dried meat on the ship,” Witchy said.
“Get me some,” Gold Eye said.
“Me too.”
“Yes, Captain,” Witchy saluted with a grin as she marched over to where the barrel of dried meat was. Conveniently, it was placed right next to the princess, who was distressed but not so loud as before. Captain smirked at her blonde markswoman. Being tall, toned and tanned, she was a beauty to be sure, and the Princess seemed to agree, her wet eyes looking at the beauty her crewmember possessed.
“Shameless flirt,” Gold Eye said. She knew he wasn’t jealous, too enamoured with Lucian, another crew member.
“And you’re not? I recall Lucian swooning every time he saw you that first week we set sail,” Captain teased.
“I was shameful,” Gold Eye laughingly defended. “Just not enough to stop.”
“Too right,” Captain laughed, turning to take in the sharp pink of the sunrise. She could see her whole ship clearly now, every nail and wood plank and knot in the anatomy of her pride and joy.
“Have the princess watched and guarded. Fed, too, if she’s hungry. The crew know not to harm her, but make sure they’re reminded, then divide them into shifts so some may sleep while the rest keep working. And before I forget, send word to Ellowyn’s ship that they will need to begin repairs on the smaller vessels. Our target damaged some of them through the night.”
“You’re retiring to your quarters?” Gold Eye asked. Captain nodded and turned.
“Oh,” she said, turning to look at the quiet, beautiful maid over her shoulder. “Have the maid fed and washed and sent to my quarters.” Gold Eye nodded, but Captain was already walking away.
It was barely half a candle mark later when her door was knocked on, and Lucian entered with a struggling maid beside him. Captain was staring out at the ocean and sky, admiring the endless blue of it all. “Don’t untie her,” she said. “Leave us,” she ordered next, Lucian answering with a solemn “Yes, Captain,” before making his way out, the door latching shut behind him.
“What do you want with me?” the maid demanded, her tone sure and haughty. Captain smiled into the glass of her window.
“You’re the whole reason we targeted that ship,” she said, not turning yet.
“I’m just a maid,” the woman said clearly.
“You look like one with that dress,” Captain agreed easily. “And with that other woman dressed as she is, you certainly pass as a maid by comparison.” Captain uncrossed her arms and rested her hands on her belt where her cutlass sat. “But I’m not fooled, Princess.” She turned to see the pale, hateful face of her prize. Her hair was white, which she had expected, but short, which was not. She was as beautiful as she remembered, and she seemed to be catching on.
”You!?”
Captain laughed and said, “me.”
“The Devil? But, you said your name was-”
“I told you my true name, but I prefer Captain if you’d be so kind,” Captain interrupted.
“You swear it?” the princess demanded. Captain frowned.
“Swear what?”
“That you told me your true name? That night?” Captain’s face softened and the indignation on the woman’s face.
“I do,” she said. “You may use it, but only in private.”
The princess seemed to hesitate, her face angry and her eyes sharp but unsure. She wiggled her fingers, no doubt to keep the circulation as her wrists were tied. She opened her mouth, however, and said, softly, “Andra.”
“Miran,” she returned. Princess Miran’s eyes watered, whether from fury or relief or both, Andra didn’t know.
“I thought you were never coming back,” the older woman whispered.
“You thought right,” Andra responded. “I never have been back to Elias kingdom, but that doesn’t mean I never had to see you again. And you were so unhappy there, especially that night at the ball.”
“Why did you even get into the ball?”
Andra laughed. “It was a bet that I couldn’t get into the palace that night. I won, by the way.” Princess Miran didn’t seem as amused as Andra.
“How did you even get into the ball?”
“I am the craftiest, most feared pirate in all the seas, and you want to know how I got into a little party?”
“Little party?” Princess Miran spluttered. “It was the grandest event of the century!”
“It was,” Andra agreed quietly, and far more softly than she meant. “Won’t you sit?” she said to distract from her slip up.
“Untie me, my wrists are chafing,” the princess ordered. “Why did you kidnap me?” she asked as Andra approached, sharp, glinting knife in hand.
“You told me at your event of the century that you would rather live a life on the sea than be sent to marry King Irv. We have not yet burned your ship if you’d rather the marriage?”
“No!”
Captain laughed. “Good. I don’t want you to do that either.”
Miran was silent once her wrists were freed and she was gestured to a low, wide bench seat. It was plush, she noted, but nothing like the cushions at her palace. But she hated that palace, and her siblings and the maids and all of the nobles, too. Her brother, the king, had sold her off to the highest bidder and shoved her on a small supplies ship to avoid pirates (oh, the irony). She only had Emily, who was the single bearable person in her kingdom, for company for two weeks, which was enough time to know that the life that awaited her with King Irv was not the one she wanted.
She looked to Andra, who was dressed more simply than she’d been at her birthday ball several months before. Her hair was braided back simply and out of the way, and her lips were bare but still as plump. Her eyes were almost too kind for a pirate, but she was ruthless, as she’d witnessed when the brunette cut her way through the ship’s crew last night. She had gone to all this trouble, all this effort, to take Miran away from a life of emptiness and give her the option to adventure. What an easy decision it was.
“Do you remember what you did at my ball?” Miranda asked.
“I remember doing lots of things,” Andra said with a sly grin.
“When you spirited me away to the gardens,” Miran clarified sternly, though her cheeks warmed. She could recall it all in perfect detail herself, but she needed to know if Andra could recall it as well. If it meant as much.
“You mean,” she said, sitting close to Miran on the bench seat, “When I asked you what you wished for most in the world?”
“Yes,” Miran said quietly, watching every small flicker of emotion in the dark eyes of her unlikely rescuer.
“And you said you wished for someone to love you,” Andra continued. Miran nodded.
“And then do you remember what happened?”
“How could I forget,” Andra said. “You kissed me.”
“You kissed me back,” Miran argued indignantly. Andra laughed lightly.
“I did. Are you trying to tell me something, Princess?”
“Kiss me again,” she demanded. And though Andra was a captain and had no one to answer to, no one to dare give her orders, she followed Miran’s, and kissed her.
“I’ll stay, if you’ll have me,” Miran whispered against Andra’s lips when they decided to catch their breath. “But Emily must be allowed to stay as well.” She frowned when Andra laughed, and nearly pulled away when she was tugged closer and into long, strong arms. She settled with a huff, confused why the pirate was laughing at her.
“The way Witchy is eyeing your little handmaiden, I don’t think she’d be allowed to leave anyway.”
“Witchy?”
“Tall, blonde, good with a gun,” she said.
“Her name isn’t really Witchy is it?”
“It’s Serena but she’s magic with a projectile weapon,” Andra explained as she settled back against a cushion, her prize in her arms once again and safe.
“And the man with the gold earrings?”
“Nigel, but we call him Gold Eye.”
“Dare I ask?”
“One of his earring’s is a gold eye.”
Miran pulled out of the embrace to look at Andra sternly. “Are any of you more creative than that? It’s a miracle you’re so feared as you are,” she criticised. Andra rolled her eyes and pulled her back to her chest. It was very soft, Miran noticed. She blushed softly when she realised that it was because of Andra’s breasts.
“We’re creative enough to steal a monarch,” Andra groused. Miran hummed and nuzzled the soft breast below her, glad that Andra couldn’t see her blush. “You’ll have to learn the ropes in time,” the captain said, her voice rumbling against Miran’s cheek pleasantly. “You’re not a princess anymore. Not here.”
“I’m a brilliant strategist,” she said, the sleepless night catching up to her in a wave of drowsiness. “And I know how the naval ships are built and organised.”
“Sleep now,” Andra hushed, though she was excited by the knowledge she’d soon have at her disposal. “We’ll figure it all out when you wake. Do you want to sleep in the bed?”
“Are you tired too?” Miran asked instead of answering. Andra smiled down at her.
“Exhausted,” she lied. “Let’s sleep for a while,” she said as she pulled the princess to her feet and to the bed at the far end of the room.
“I don’t ever let myself sleep past sunrise,” Miran argued as she climbed into bed. “I don’t ever nap,” she added, laying her head on the pillow, snuggling into Andra as they both reclined. “Really, I’m sure we should just get to work.”
She was asleep instantly.
.oOo. EPILOGUE .oOo.
“Hold fire! Anchors middle aim! Canons? Launch!”
Andra watched in awe as her wife commanded their crew with the confidence and ferocity of a war general. The ship, naval and larger than theirs, stood no chance against the precision of Eagle, as the crew had fondly dubbed her. She could see so far, both strategically and literally, that her gaze was akin to that of the bird she was named for. She made Andra prouder every day, especially on days that they took out another naval ship. The gesture of surrender waving in front of the navy and white country flag signalled the surrender of their prey. Andra turned to her wife to see what her decision would be.
“No prisoners,” she announced, to the great joy of the crew, who continued to aim and fire with great success. Andra watched as their smaller, faster ships surrounded the vessel, taking out the cannons that aimed back in desperation. Their bulkier ships followed the smaller ones, blasting the rest of the ship that remained. Andra cheered with her crew and watched as Miran spun to her, kissing her senseless.
“We understand blowing up one of old Irv’s naval ships,” a voice said.
“But we draw the line at witnessing that,” the other finished.
“Karolyn, Kassa, go tell Gold Eye that you’re both on cannon polishing duty,” Miran said with a satisfied smirk up at her wife. Andra laughed.
“Isn’t that a bit harsh, my love?”
“Yeah, that’s harsh!”
“If you don’t go now, I’ll make it deck scrubbing,” Miran retorted, nuzzling Andra’s neck. Miran knew how much their daughters hated scrubbing the deck, and as she predicted, they were off like a shot. Their girls had been five when they rescued them from a ship of child slaves several years before. Now, at nearly sixteen summers old, they were still young enough to be subject to their mothers’ discipline (and to be disgusted by their open affection) but old enough to be active members of the crew. Thus, cannon polishing.
“Quickly, let’s go to our quarters,” Miran purred. Andra laughed and kissed her neck.
“Nothing makes you as randy as destroying one of old Irv’s ships,” she teased.
“Liar!”
“Am not,” she argued, “but we’ll talk about that later,” she said, kissing her love and dragging her to their quarters. Hours later, when Andra had woken to see Miran watching her, she would marvel at the depth and intensity of the love in equally deep blue eyes. And as they lazed with each other, Andra decided that those eyes that she loved were as beautiful, as blue as they sky and the sea. And there her heart lay.
.oOo. END .oOo.