by Ben White
"Miya, good morning. Nice PJs."
Miya turned, arms full of sheets, at the sound of her mother's voice.
"You should be in bed sleeping," said Miya. "There's nothing happening right now except a little rain. And it's not morning, not nearly."
"I couldn't stay asleep," said Lily. "I kept waking up, sure that Pete was going to signal an attack, or thinking I heard the alarm from town. Why are your arms full of linen?"
"I sootied my sheets."
"Come on then, I'll give you a hand changing them."
Miya and her mother plodded to Miya's bedroom, then worked efficiently together to change the bedding.
"Mum," said Miya, when they were nearly done. "Do you ... are we ... what's going to happen?"
"Well," said Lilith, pulling at the sheet. "We'll get up in the morning, before sunrise, have a good family talk about what to do, make a plan, carry it out, and win the day."
"Really?"
"Of course," said Lilith. "We've had troubles before, Miya. Mostly before you were born, or when you were still too young to remember."
"I ... I remember some things," said Miya. "I remember being hidden with someone one night and hearing a lot of noise outside."
"That was when you were just barely three," said Lilith, her expression darkening. "Marie took you into the basement. Not a night I like to remember. Hold that corner tight."
"Who's Marie?"
"She was a ... a friend."
"So what happened, anyway?" asked Miya, taking a good grip on the sheet. "Why'd I have to hide in the basement?"
"We had some trouble," said Lilith firmly. "And we overcame it."
"But—"
"Just as we will this time. Clover Island is strong, Miya. Don't forget that. Now, you've got nice fresh sheets, some very nice pajamas, and at least three hours before first light. Rest, my sweet."
"Only if you promise to sleep too," said Miya. Her mother nodded.
"I promise."
Miya looked at her mother a moment, then nodded back. "Okay then."
Lily paused at the doorway and watched her daughter get into bed. To her credit, there was just the slightest hint of strain in her voice when she said: "After all, even pirates need to sleep sometimes."
*
Early the next morning, well before the first light of dawn, as the rains fell heavy on Clover Island and the surrounding waters, the family Black gathered in Tomas's study to plan the day.
"I'd suspected as such," said Tomas, after Sola had relayed what he had found out about Badger Pete's ships. "The tactics of some of the ships we've battled recently have been similar to those the Highland uses—either Pete's in with the Highland or they've had a lot of desertions lately."
"Pete's in with the Highland," said Miya, firmly. "I think he's sharing his booty with them or something."
"Do you know that, or are you just guessing?" Lilith asked.
"I was ... we had to ... I ended up on Embassy Island last week, he was throwing a party there for his stupid daughter Grace."
"He has a daughter?" asked Tomas. Miya scowled.
"She's arrogant and rude and nasty and mean and has this laugh. She's the worst person I've ever met," said Miya. Her father hid his smile expertly.
"So you met Badger Pete too?" he asked.
"Yes, except he was calling himself Peter Morgon and pretending to be a gentleman," said Miya. "Sola told him off really well."
"Good on ya, son," said Heartless Jon, patting Sola on the shoulder. "Never hurts to stick the boot in if'n ye get the chance."
Sola looked at his feet, embarrassed.
"Anyway," said Miya, trying to pull attention away from her brother—for his sake, of course!—"It looked like he was pretty friendly with all the Very Important Snobs there. And Mr Pearson thought he might be working with the Highland to take over the archipelago."
"Oh, how is old Barty?" asked Tomas. "Still fighting the good fight against the—" he stopped talking as he noticed the look his wife was giving him.
"That would make sense," said Lily, after making sure her husband was properly focused. "Even putting aside the strategic benefits that having a couple of naval bases here in the archipelago would grant the Highland, by all accounts Embassy Island is very popular these days as a vacation spot, despite not being intended as anything of the sort. I'm sure there are a lot of Highlanders with more money than morals who'd jump at the chance to own a holiday home around these parts. They couldn't just invade us and take what they wanted—I'm sure Algernon would have something to say about that—and they'd rather eat their own faces than negotiate the acquisition of an island or two—that would mean official acknowledgement of our domain here. But if a rogue pirate were to take over the archipelago then the Highland would be well within their rights to launch some kind of 'rescue' ... they'd love that, they adore pantomime and farce over there, the idea of staging a grand victory over the evil pirate's forces must have them jiggling in their overstuffed seats."
"Why would Badger Pete go to all the trouble of conquering these islands just to give them up again?" asked Miya.
"Conquering's one thing," said Heartless Jon. "Keeping's another. It's all very well to stomp through a place and declare it conquered, but once ye move onto yer next target, what's to stop some other bugger comin' in and takin' what ye just left? Nah, then ye gotta leave men behind, ye've got to make sure they're lads ye can trust too—it gets to be a right complicated mess real quick, ain't worth the trouble and ye'd never pull it off for long, especially not in a big long chain o' islands like yez got here. Nah, I can see exactly what Pete's in this for—money, and plenty of it."
"I'm sure he'd have some arrangement with the Highland, too," said Tomas, his tone thoughtful. "If they're staging a grand victory then I'm sure they could fit in Pete's Last Stand, that turns out to be not quite so 'last' after all ... 'with the exception of one small island, the Highland has successfully liberated the entire Rainbow Archipelago'. Pete may be trying to carve out a nice little pirate kingdom for himself."
"But if the Highland comes here saying they're going to 'help' us, how does that give them the islands?" asked Miya.
"Badger Pete's enslavement," said Sola. The others turned to him. "He took everyone from my village, and I have heard the same story from other northern islanders I have talked to. With no one on the islands, they can be seen as uninhabited."
"Uninhabited," said Lily. "With no 'sphere of influence' such as we have over the Trinket Chain. The Highland would be entirely free to claim them for their own—'while we're here, I'm sure no one would protest if we set up a few naval bases on these recently uninhabited islands, only to prevent this sort of thing from happening again of course'."
There was a short silence in the study, which Miya broke.
"Huh," she said. "But if Badger Pete's secretly working with the Highland like that, why's he using their flag? Now it looks really obvious that they're working together. Seems pretty stupid."
"No," said Lily. "It's a smart move. 'This evil pirate has not only attacked these defenceless islands, but he has affronted our great nation by doing so under our flag—we cannot let such an insult stand'. It gives the Highland an excuse to send ships into the archipelago, too—if challenged, they can claim any ships seen flying Highland colours were actually Badger Pete's."
"It's like flying false colours except actually flying your true colours," said Miya. She thought for a second. "I hate how clever that is!"
"The Highland didn't get to be the power it is by being stupid," said Tomas. "It's big and bloated and full of corruption and ill-will towards anyone not falling in line with their ideas, but they know how to play the game—and how to fight dirty."
"So how do we stop them? How do we protect our island? How do we save the archipelago?"
Miya looked around, at her mother and father, brother and grandfather. All were silent.
"Come on," she said. "There must be some way to stop Badger Pete, at least!
"
The silence continued for a moment, then Sola cleared his throat.
"... duel?" he suggested.
"Of course!" Miya cried. "He's a pirate captain! I sneak out to Pete's flagship before dawn—I can borrow that canoe you borrowed, Sola—get on board, challenge him, win, then claim his ship! If I control the flagship then I command his entire fleet, right? That's 'chain of command'!"
"Wait wait wait wait wait," said Tomas, his tone amused. "What's this 'I' business, Miya?"
"Well ... I mean ... I want to!"
"Firstly, Pete doesn't seem the type to stick to the rules, especially with so much to lose. I don't think defeating him in a duel would achieve anything, except proving that you're the better fighter. Secondly, you don't get to be a pirate boss without winning a few fights. I'm not insulting your swordsmanship, Miya, but I'm sure he's no pushover. Thirdly, finally, and most importantly ... you're my daughter. Up until recently I didn't know what had happened to you. I was ... I don't want to have to go through that again. I can't have you putting yourself in danger. Okay? Remember your promise. Don't make your father cry, Miya. Please."
Miya looked up at her father, torn.
"But ... but I want to help! I want to beat Badger Pete! And I'm ... I'm really good!"
"I know you are," said Tomas. "I don't even know half of what you've been up to in the past few weeks but I'm so proud of you. Getting your grandfather's help, fighting the fires, repelling the raiders—"
"Oh, and I found out about some smuggling stuff," said Miya, suddenly remembering. "Apparently Outlook Island is popular with them. Governor Henry's a crook, it turns out."
"I have no idea how you found that out, but I'm sure I'll hear the story sometime soon," said Tomas, smiling. "Henry, you say? Once all this is over, let's you and I go sort him out."
Miya smiled back. "Really?"
"It's a promise."
"Okay! We can—hey, don't distract me!" she said, the smile suddenly replaced with a scowl.
"Miya, this isn't—"
"You're right," said Miya, "you DON'T know what I've been up to. Did you know Sola and I got into a fight with a bunch of thugs at Biscuit Cove? It wasn't our fault, we didn't want to fight them, but they were going to ... they were attacking us and had me cornered on the end of a pier with like LITERALLY thousands of needle lampreys in the water so we didn't have much choice. There were seven of them and we beat them without a scratch. Well, Sola took three of them out from behind before they realised, but still, I took down two myself and I didn't even have to fight the third, he just ran away."
"I'm sure he did!" said Heartless Jon, before noticing the looks Lily and Tomas were directing at him. "Sorry," he said.
"Perhaps I should mention that before being forced to attack, Miya held the thugs at bay for several minutes simply by talking," said Sola. Miya nodded.
"That's true, I had to wait for Sola to get there, I signalled him using this shell," she said, holding up her wrist to show off the Ula Se still hanging from her bracelet, "and then I had to keep them busy until he got to me. I didn't think I could take out six armed men and one armed woman by myself, even if they were just pretty much goons. With Sola's help, though, it was no problem. And then before that even, before we got to Biscuit Cove, I snuck aboard Grace's ship because I was going to blow it up, I mean I didn't know it was Grace's ship at the time—I didn't even know who Grace was—but even so. But then once I was actually on the ship I kind of thought blowing it up might not be such a good idea, so I had to escape from two decks down with every pirate on board chasing me. I ended up jumping from the mast into the water even though I REALLY wanted to fight that stuck-up wench Grace. So I know when NOT to fight, too, even when I really want to! And then later, we found a ship that was pretending to be distressed, although we didn't realise it at the time, and I duelled the captain who was this HUGE guy, and really strong—he was REALLY strong, right Sola?"
"He was strong," said Sola. "I thought Miya would lose."
"Right? I—hey! Well anyway, even though he was so strong and really quick too for a big guy, even though it was like my first real duel ever, I won. I broke his sword."
"You broke his sword?" said Tomas. "What?" he said, as his wife shot him a look. "That's really impressive!"
"Oh! I forgot to tell you, when we were fighting those thugs on the docks? There was this one point where I spun around and smashed the hilt of my sword into this guy's nose, so he was all like 'AH!' and dropped his cutlass, and I caught it. It wasn't even awkward, it was like, spin-smash-grab and bam, I had two swords."
"It was impressive," said Sola.
"Certainly sounds it," said Tomas, his eyes bright.
"And then, oh, Mum, here's one for you, I, um, I wore the dress. The one you gave me for my birthday, although I was kind of a bit, y'know, singed at that point from putting out a few fires—"
"Wait, what fires?" Tomas asked.
"On my ship. There was a blockade of Highland ships near Embassy Island that we had to sail through, they were using fireshot to try to cripple us but you know the Swan."
"I know it when you're at the helm," said Tomas, smiling. "Quickest bloody ship in the whole damned ocean."
"Language," said Lily, but quietly.
"Anyway," said Miya, "we just caught the edge of one broadside even though there were two ships closing on us, that's why we had to go to Embassy Island, because they damaged the mast, I put out the fires but my hair and hands were a bit burnt—not too bad, but I guess I looked a bit 'off', anyway, I wore the dress and ... and it looked good. It looked good, didn't it, Sola?"
"Miya certainly looked like a princess," said Sola.
"Right? Even though you know my feelings about dresses. It ... Mum, you really gave me a good dress. And I was definitely in 'princess' mode, I was really polite and civil, I didn't get into any arguments or anything even though the people were so awful, you would've been really proud of me."
"I'm ... I'm sure I would have been," said Lily. She smiled. "I am."
"And then I, um, after I met with Grandad he told me where my grandmother might be, but she wouldn't talk to me at first so I thought 'we'll see about that!' but when I climbed onto her ship without permission her like whole crew attacked me ... they were tough," said Miya, reflectively. "But I managed to hold them off and then Jean attacked me—"
"I'll bet she did," muttered Heartless Jon.
"—and she's REALLY tough, I mean ... I thought there was no way I could beat her and, well, y'know, maybe, maybe not, but anyway I ended up cutting her cheek—"
"You got past my mother's guard?" said Tomas. "Really?"
"I mean, it was just a tiny little nick, less than what she gave me," said Miya, touching her cheek, "and then she disarmed me—like REALLY disarmed me, my sword went flying into the water."
"What?" Tomas's face fell. "So that sword ... so you ... you lost—"
"Of course not. Dad. How could you even think that," said Miya. "I dove straight in after it and swam down until I thought I'd explode, but I got it back."
"Good on ye, girl," said Heartless Jon. He glanced at Lily. "Ye'd have to have a heart made of stone not to respect that."
"But even so ... she wouldn't help. She wanted me to join her crew, to forget about Clover Island. But of course, I couldn't! I could never!"
"Of course you couldn't," said Tomas, quietly. He looked at his wife, and reached out to take hold of her hand as he saw the look in her eyes.
"So then ... then I guess we just came back. I mean, we HAD to come back. And just in time, because all this was happening ... and I should have come back sooner, we could have, I don't know ... done something." Miya was silent a moment, looking down at her hands. Then she smiled up at her family. "But I'm here now."
"You certainly are," said Tomas.
"And I'm going to fight. Because I'm strong, and I'm quick, and I'm smart, and there's no way I'm standing at the back while Badger Pete or ANYONE tries to stomp all o
ver my home. And you can try to stop me if you like, but if you lock me in my room I'll kick the door down even if it means breaking my foot, and if you tie me up I'll chew through the ropes even if it makes my gums bleed, and if you put me at the top of a tower I'll jump down even if that breaks my legs—I'll drag myself along until my fingers snap and all my fingernails come off and I'll wield my sword with my teeth if I have to."
"Let's not get over-dramatic," said Tomas.
"And grotesque," added Lily.
"Son," Heartless Jon said quietly to Tomas. "Could I have a little word with ye? You too, Lilith, know we've never seen eye to eye exactly but I got something important ye should hear. Kids, would ye be so kind as to give us older types a few minutes alone?"
Miya looked at him a few seconds, then at her parents, then she nodded.
"Fine," she said. She turned and walked towards the door, pausing as she passed her grandfather.
"You'd better not sell me out," she hissed at him, before leaving. Sola followed her out of the room, closing the door behind.
"No," he said, as Miya instantly went to listen at the door. "This is not for you to hear."
"But—"
"Even so."
"Hey, you didn't even wait for me to say anything, that 'even so' just now didn't make any sense!"
"Even so."
Miya glared at her brother a moment. "You're dangerous," she said. "You don't argue fair."
"I feel that they'll be talking for some time," said Sola. "Let's take a walk."
"In the rain?"
"I like the rain. Don't you like the rain?"
"I'm not AFRAID of it, if that's what you're implying."
"I'm not."
"Well, maybe we can go sit in the gazebo out there," said Miya. "Geez, it's really pouring down."