by Monica Hahn
Catarina grinned. “Tell that to your parents!” she said. “And what else would you expect of a pirate’s wife?”
“I expect nothing less,” he said, kissing her again, as the crowd cheered.
Epilogue
“He’s late,” Johan said, stretching a leg out onto the bench beside him.
Seb shifted across the table from him, glancing at the clock on the wall of The Roost as he did so. It had just chimed the hour as three o’clock. “It’s barely three,” he said. “Tarik will be here. He’s a man of his word.”
And just then, the door opened to admit Tarik, but he wasn’t alone. Accompanying him were the king and queen of Tibercon, along with Princess Arati, three small children, two babies, and a contingent of royal guardians.
Johan and Seb sprung to their feet, and crossed the room to greet the royal party.
Jagan, the oldest child at almost five, rushed towards the pirates, and was swept up into Johan’s massive arms. “It’s good to see you, lad!” Johan said, giving him a squeeze.
Jagan, who was normally a very solemn child, grinned at Johan. “Guess what we saw on the way here?” he asked.
Johan had no idea what they might have encountered on the walk from the castle, so he furrowed his brow in an exaggerated gesture of pondering. “An elephant?” he asked.
Jagan giggled at the absurdity. “Of course, not! That’s silly! We saw a new chocolate shop, and my father said we could stop in on the way back.”
“Well, that’s wonderful,” Johan said. “Guess what we saw on the way here?”
Jagan thought hard. “A sea monster?” he asked. “Or mermaids?”
“Not this trip. But we did see a family of dolphins playing.”
Jagan smiled so big that his brown eyes crinkled at the corners. “Father!” he shouted at Tarik. “Johan and Seb saw some dolphins!”
Tarik, who had picked up his three-year-old daughter that wasn’t sure about her surroundings, smiled indulgently at Jagan. “That sounds exciting,” he said. “We’ll have to take you out soon and see if we can spot them.”
Seb stopped his fussing over the twin baby he was holding and looked at Mikel. “I hadn’t realized it was going to be a family party, or we wouldn’t have suggested meeting at The Roost,” he said.
“Since when are you worried about propriety?” Mikel teased. Now that Port Sinbad had regained its reputation as the safest port, and his grandfather was no longer alive, Mikel definitely wasn’t worried about taking his family anywhere in the kingdom that they wanted to go.
“Besides, I insisted,” Catarina said. “When Tarik said you two had refused to come up to the castle, I figured we could just all come to you.” She was holding the matching twin baby, who was cooing adorably at her.
Seb shrieked in pain as the baby he was holding suddenly yanked at his beard hair with impossibly strong fingers. His eyes watering, he finally pried the chubby fingers loose. “He’s a strong one,” he said.
Arati laughed. “That’s my granddaughter,” she said. “Catarina’s holding Beldan.”
Mikel’s four-year-old daughter tugged at Seb’s jacket skirt. Looking up at him with her mother’s cornflower blue eyes, she said, “Did you know I’m going to be a pirate when I grow up?”
Seb patted her head of dark curls. “I’m certain you’ll be a very ferocious one,” he said.
“Larina can’t be a pirate,” Jagan said, with a hint of superiority in his young tone. “She’s a female!”
Larina narrowed her eyes and growled at him. “I will be a pirate!” she said. “I’m going to be the captain of a pirate ship of all females, and we’re going to be the most ferocious pirates ever!”
Jagan’s younger sister, safe and cuddled in Tarik’s arms, raised her head. “Me too!” she said.
Jagan turned to his older brother Mikel. “There aren’t any female pirates, are there?” he asked.
“Not that I know of personally,” Mikel said. “But I’ve heard some tales of a few that were pretty ferocious. And even if there weren’t, I wouldn’t bet against anything that my daughter or sister wanted to do.”
“Are you going to be a pirate?” Johan asked Jagan.
“I’m going to be the Minister of Defense,” Jagan said. “Beldan will need me when he’s the king.”
Catarina smiled at the small baby prince she was holding, amusing him with a rattle made of xanuite. “Yes, he will,” she said. “And you’ll both help keep Port Sinbad the safest port city in the island kingdoms.”
“Naturally,” Jagan said. “We have to keep it safe so that chocolate will keep coming in.”