Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns

by Ben White

"Sola ... son. Don't call me 'Father'. It sounds bloody awful—excuse my language, Miya. Please, call me 'Dad'."

  Sola nodded solemnly. "Dad," he said.

  "Got one bit o' good news for ye," said Heartless Jon. "Pete's raiders may have taken yer town, but they weren't so lucky with yer ships."

  Tomas shook his head. "That doesn't help us. We can't attack with this rain. We should have abandoned those ships and set the crew to repel the raiders."

  "Dad, we can't change that now. Remember? All the what-ifs in the world couldn't shift a grain of sand," said Miya.

  Heartless Jon glanced at his son, his expression amused. "Aye," he said. "Words o' wisdom from yer daughter there."

  Tomas sighed, then stood, Miya rushing to help him up. He grimaced at the pain in his side.

  "I'm all right," he said. "I can stand on my own—thank you, Miya."

  Miya stepped reluctantly away.

  "So what are we doing?" she asked, after a moment. "Because we have to do something, right? Right?"

  "Yes," said Tomas. He smiled, just a little. "We have to be very clever."

  19

  The Girl Who Tried

  Badger Pete's great white frigate was huge and intimidating. It was of Highland make, strong and bulky and functional, with rows upon rows of cannons lining the sides.

  The climb up to board the ship was long, and once upon the main deck the sight that greeted the small party from Clover Island was not cheering. Pete's crew had been posted everywhere, by the ladder leading up to the ship, around the meeting spot Pete had chosen on the main deck—a wide, clear space—and up on the stern deck. Then there was Badger Pete's parley group, the same as he'd taken to Clover Island; his daughter, scowling viciously at Miya, her forehead bandaged, along with his two lieutenants, the slim man Tomas had greeted as 'Darkeye' and the red lady he had greeted as 'Steel'. Behind them were a dozen northern islanders, older and younger, all tied, blindfolded, and gagged, each with an armed member of Pete's crew behind them. To Steel's right was Lilith, on her knees, her hands tied behind her back. Her right eye was blackened and there was blood around her mouth. When Miya saw this, she thought that perhaps she understood a little of what her father felt when she was duelling with Grace; it took every ounce of her willpower not to draw her sword and fight through to her mother there and then.

  As for Tomas, nothing of what he felt showed on his face, except for the determination in his eyes.

  The rain suddenly dropped off as they walked towards Pete's group, then stopped completely. The sky above was still overcast, but the sun was around an hour risen and the clouds were bright.

  "Gonna be a beauty of a day once these clouds clear," said Heartless Jon, conversationally. Pete smirked at him.

  "Jonathan Black," he said. "I had a few run-ins with your wife a couple of years back."

  "Ah? Hope ye gave the ol' wench what-for, she like as not deserved it," Heartless Jon replied. Pete's expression darkened, and Jon chuckled. "But knowing Jean, she whipped ye straight and sent ye home crying. Notice ye said 'a few', so ye crossed her more'n once? Doesn't speak much to yer brains there, mate. No offence."

  Pete stared at Heartless Jon a moment, then clasped his hands together and smiled.

  "But would you look at this," he said. "The entire Black family, gathered together in one place. Even the long-lost grandfather and illegitimate son. Very nice to see you again, by the way."

  Sola breathed deep, and inclined his head. Miya glanced back at him, then looked straight ahead, at Badger Pete.

  "Now," said Pete. "You all being here means you got my message, which means you know I not only have your queen and young Sola's entire village, but also several hundred of your good 'subjects', all tied up and very well-guarded over on that island that you used to call home. Last we parleyed we spoke of positions of power, did we not?"

  Tomas closed his eyes a moment, then nodded. "We did."

  "I believe that this time, the position of power is held clearly by myself. Now. I want that island. I want my frigates. I want anything and everything of value you've got hidden away. In return I'll let you keep ships enough to cram the whole stinking lot of your 'subjects' aboard—a couple of brigs should be enough, though it might be 'standing room only'." Pete paused, smiling to himself before continuing. "Then you'll be free to go off and 'build' some other stinking little kingdom on some other stinking little island, so long as it's a good distance from here. How does that sound? Fair? After all, it's the lives of your subjects that's the important thing, that's what you told me, isn't it? Where there is life there is hope, yes?"

  Tomas looked at Badger Pete a long moment.

  "Have you looked out north, since the rain let up?" he asked. "It's a beautiful view."

  Pete narrowed his eyes, then jerked his head at a crewman. The crewman pulled out a spyglass and scanned the oceans to the north for a moment, before moving to Pete's side and whispering to him. Pete's expression didn't change.

  "So ye've noticed our tactical manoeuvre, then," he said. "Ah well, can't keep everything a secret."

  "Was that an attempt at a bluff?" The voice was Lilith's. She smiled thinly at Pete. "Your Highland friends have left. How interesting."

  "They've not left, they're ... they're—"

  "It's amazing what a simple little note can do," said Tomas. "When properly applied."

  "What the hell have you been up to?" Pete growled. "What did you tell them?"

  "Only the truth, Badger. Only the truth."

  Pete seethed silently.

  "When the day of your defeat comes, and that day will come," said Miya, her voice level. "There will be not one of these people standing by your side."

  Badger Pete glared at Miya. She shrugged.

  "I thought it seemed an appropriate quote."

  "Shut that little sea rat up," Pete growled at Tomas.

  "I see no reason to," said Tomas. "She's made no threat, said no words of disrespect. Which is more than I could say for you. It's interesting, you've obviously had some dealings with the Highland but you clearly don't understand how they work at all." He smiled grimly at Badger Pete. "My wife is perhaps best suited to explain one of the cornerstones of Highland philosophy. Lily?"

  " 'Never back a losing team'," said Queen Lilith, the smile on her face mirroring her husband's.

  Tomas held Pete's gaze for a moment, then he shrugged lightly. "I'm a reasonable man. Perhaps you'd like to present a more suitable offer, considering the effect that this new information might have on your 'position of power'."

  Pete glared at Tomas, then shook his head angrily.

  "Keep the damned island," he said. "It's nothing. But I want me frigates back."

  "I'm sure you do," said Tomas. "As much as I'm sure that the moment I returned them to you, you'd turn around and attack us again."

  "Then toss the gunpowder overboard!"

  "You'd resupply and be back within the week."

  "What'd be the point! If the—" Badger Pete stopped himself, glared at Tomas and his family.

  "If the deal with Highland has gone sour?" Lilith asked. "I wonder what kind of message those ships are going to take back to their superiors. The Highland view of failure isn't exactly positive. I don't think you're going to get many invitations to parties after this."

  Pete gritted his teeth and gave a brief nod to Steel, who grabbed Lilith by the hair and put her sword to her throat. Lilith didn't cry out, didn't change her expression, except perhaps to one that was even more determined than before. Miya's face darkened, her hand going to the hilt of her sword before her father's hand clasped around her wrist. Tomas wasn't looking at her, his eyes were fixed on Lilith's, but Miya understood clearly what he was saying to her: choose your moment.

  "Position of power," said Pete, as the remaining crew behind him put their swords to the throats of the Tonfa-Tonfa'an prisoners before them. "You give me what I want or I'll have your wife's throat slit, don't think I won't."

  "Ah, give it up,
boy." Heartless Jon stepped forward. Miya looked at him, worried. Tomas's expression was neutral, his eyes still locked with his wife's.

  "Take one step further and you'll have your daughter-in-law's blood on your hands," said Pete. Heartless Jon grinned.

  "Sure'n what do I care for her? Nah, ye won't do it anyways. The lass with the sword to her throat saw it plain in ye and I can too—ye're cursed with pride, Badger Pete."

  Pete glared at Heartless Jon.

  "I'm right, ain't I?" Jon continued. "Can see it in yer eyes, read it on yer face plain as day. Because ye knows that giving that order'd damn ye—damn ye to knowing ye lost, now and forever."

  Heartless Jon stared Pete down, then spoke again:

  "Do ye think ye're doin' right here, boy? Think ye're on some grand bloody quest o' righteousness? Ye do, don't ye. Well take it from me, boy, ye're a damned sight distant from anywhere near right. I've done some bad bloody stuff in my time, but enslavement? Hostages? Usin' threats o' harm 'gainst a lad's family to get him to fight for ye? That's low as a damn snake and ye know it. Duel, boy. You and me. Right now."

  Pete looked at Heartless Jon a moment, then a smile made its way onto his face. Without a word he drew his cutlass, a long, beautiful, elegantly curved weapon, Jon following suit with his own cutlass, which was decidedly unbeautiful—slightly tarnished, obviously old, its edge pitted with the mark of many duels.

  Both men stepped towards each other and assumed fighting stances.

  "You think me an easy mark," said Badger Pete. Miya examined his stance but could find no flaw, no weakness; the way he stood and held his sword spoke of a master swordsman, supremely confident in his own ability. "But you don't survive as a pirate for nigh-on twenty years without knowing how to fight."

  "Ye've crossed me wife before," said Heartless Jon, his own stance, Miya noted nervously, more than a little sloppy—he held his sword too loosely and too low, his feet seemed to be too close together. "So ye know she's a great one for fancy footwork and flashy swordsmanship and all that kind of goings on. Finesse, that's the word. The lady's got bucketloads of finesse. Me, I can stab and slash all right, but I've only really got what ye'd call one 'move'."

  Before Miya could even really register what had happened, Pete's cutlass was clattering to the deck and the edge of Heartless Jon's sword was at his throat.

  "Aye, just one move," said Jon. "But ye've got to admit, it's a bloody good one. Son, go see to yer wife."

  "Stop." Badger Pete's expression was calm, his tone confident. "You won't do anything to me. You're as prideful as I am."

  Heartless Jon stepped forward, the blade of his sword pushing hard against Pete's throat.

  "No I ain't," he said, grinning. Pete hesitated a moment, then waved his hand. Steel immediately released Lilith, and Tomas ran forward to her side. He and Steel exchanged glances as he cut the ropes binding Lilith's hands, then husband and wife were moving back to Miya and Sola, Miya embracing her mother quickly before setting her expression once more, watching Jon and Pete.

  "Now," said Heartless Jon. "Maybe ye could see fit to—"

  "GRANDAD!"

  Jon brought his sword away from Pete's throat to parry an attack from Steel, then he scowled as Darkeye's sword bit deep into his right hand, his sword falling to the deck.

  "Where the hell did ye come from, ye quick wee devil?" he growled at Darkeye, backing away from the two lieutenants, hand dripping blood. Steel raised her sword warningly, and Heartless Jon sighed.

  "All right, all right, can't fight without a bloody weapon. I yi—"

  "Grandad!" Miya's voice was shocked. Heartless Jon glanced around at her.

  "Give me some credit, love, what am I supposed to do?"

  "Kick the sword from Steel's hand, catch it, and then disarm Darkeye, OF COURSE!"

  "With this?" Heartless Jon held up his hand. The wound was obviously deep.

  "Use your off hand!"

  "What? I can't fight with me left hand, are ye daft?"

  "Why not? I can!"

  "Well aren't ye a clever little thing."

  Miya thought for a moment, then let out a short, irritated breath.

  "I guess you can yield, then," she said.

  "Oh, how gracious of ye," said Heartless Jon. He shrugged at the two lieutenants in front of him. "Ye heard the lass. I yield."

  Steel and Darkeye looked at him a moment, then Darkeye nodded and returned to Pete's side, while Steel simply lowered her weapon and remained where she was standing.

  "A shame you don't have more than the one move, really," said Pete. Heartless Jon grinned as he pulled off his bandanna and wrapped it around his hand. Pete looked back suspiciously.

  "Why are you smiling?" he asked, his tone careful.

  "Because it's been an age since I got cut and I forgot how alive it makes ye feel, because ye're standing there swallowing hard, thinking how close ye just came to kicking the bucket, but mostly, and I don't know if you kids noticed this," said Heartless Jon, turning to wink at his grandchildren, "because ye've got a lot less crew standing around now than when we first came aboard."

  Miya's eyes widened as she realised this was true; she couldn't see a single member of Pete's crew—and, for that matter, all of Sola's villagers that had been behind Pete's group had disappeared, too. How on earth did I miss that, she thought.

  "What's this treachery?" Pete demanded, turning and glaring around the deck. "Deserters! Cowardly deserters!"

  "Nah, shouldn't think they've deserted," said Heartless Jon, still grinning.

  "Then what?" Pete turned on him. "What's happened here?"

  "I happened."

  Captain Jean Scarlet appeared at the top of the stairs leading to the forecastle deck, blood red sabre in her hand.

  "Hello, granddaughter," she said, looking at Miya. "Came to see how you were doing."

  "G-grandmother," whispered Miya, unbelieving. Jean looked at her a moment, face as stern as ever, then she turned her gaze to the other members of Miya's family.

  "Hello, you," she said, looking at Tomas. He looked back at his mother, his face grim, and nodded, once, curtly. Jean studied his face for a moment, then her eyes went to Lilith.

  "I don't know if it was any concern of mine," she said, addressing the queen of Clover Island, "but there were a bunch of thugs on that island nearby, seemed to be holding some innocents hostage."

  Lily looked back at Jean, her expression as neutral as her mother-in-law's.

  "As I said," Jean continued, "I don't know if it was my concern, but I've never held with taking hostages. Bad way of doing business if you ask me."

  Lilith smiled thinly.

  "And," Jean said, her voice hard, "I reckon that about makes us even."

  Lilith's smile faded. She looked at Jean for a moment then inclined her head, just slightly. Jean held her gaze a moment longer, then turned to look at Heartless Jon.

  "And you, you big fool. What happened to your hand?"

  "Ah, these two blades came at me at once, ye know how these things occur."

  "And you found yourself cut? I suppose that's what retirement does to you," said Jean. "These two here?"

  Jean looked at the two lieutenants, at the way they stood, the fight in their eyes.

  "I know you, don't I?" she said to Steel. "Steel. Steel O'Toole. You were working with Northern Algernon for a while there."

  Steel shrugged. "Government changed."

  "Aye, that it did. Good pay with this fellow?" Jean asked, nodding towards Pete. Steel shrugged again.

  "Decent enough."

  "Good enough to die for?"

  Steel looked at Jean for a long moment, then sheathed her sword. She turned to Pete, shrugged one last time, and then walked away.

  "Where are you going? What, you're scared of this old woman? She's nothing! She's—"

  "I remember you too, Peter," said Jean, walking down the steps towards him. "I remember when you were just starting out. You had some ideas then. Not good ones, either."
>
  "That was a long time ago," Pete growled. "I've learnt a lot since then."

  "Maybe you have," said Jean. "You've not grown a brain, though. Lower your sword, boy," she said to Darkeye as he approached her, "less'n you've got a death wish."

  "You are Jean Black," said Darkeye. He smiled. "Duel."

  "You daft, boy?"

  "Duel," Darkeye repeated. Jean looked at him a moment, then shrugged. In an instant their swords were locked, Jean pushing against Darkeye's blade, his confident smile slowly fading as she forced his arm back. He tried to break the lock, to step back, but Jean grabbed his sword hand, forced him to stay locked with her.

  "No," she said. "You wanted this."

  "Y-yield!" he gasped, as Jean forced his sword to within an inch of his neck. She held it there a moment, then released him, put her boot to his chest and pushed, sending him sprawling.

  "Now run," said Jean. Darkeye struggled to his feet, looked at her, then ran.

  "Useless," growled Pete as his lieutenant fled. "You just can't buy loyalty these days."

  He turned his attention to Jean, raising his sword. "I remember your little tricks, Scarlet, and I'm not the scrap you fought back then."

  Jean looked at Badger Pete a moment. Then she laughed, a short, sharp, cheerless bark of a laugh, and turned her back on him. She sheathed her sword as she walked past Miya, and took up a place a distance behind the rest of the family, arms folded.

  "Go on then," she said. "As you were."

  Miya turned to look at her grandmother. Jean looked back.

  "This ain't my fight," she said.

  "But—"

  "Sort it out yourself. I'm just here to watch."

  Heartless Jon chuckled.

  "You're a hard woman, Jean," he said. "A hard bloody woman."

  Jean's only response to that was a thin smile.

  "What a ridiculous family."

  All eyes went to Grace, who until this point had been standing with her arms crossed, glaring out to sea, sulking. Now she stepped forward.

  "You want to fight but you can't," Grace said to Heartless Jon, who shrugged and grinned. "You can fight but you won't," this time her remark directed at Jean, who raised her eyebrows just slightly. "Ridiculous."