A quick glance back to my right told me Zander was safe and still holding his own against our initial attacker. I pivoted in a one hundred and eighty degree motion just in time to skewer a third man in the gut with my short sword.
The pirates came at us one after another, first in singles then in pairs and finally all at once when I had cut down too many of their men for them to continue dismissing me as some silly girl who could be easily overpowered.
Having finally taken care of the one that approached us initially, Zander engaged the pirates alongside me in combat. There were at least a few dozen of them left, way too many for the two of us to fend off. I meant what I had said. As long as I was able to stand and fight, I would continue to do so. They would literally have to cut me down to stop me. I kept fighting even though I knew we were outnumbered and out muscled. I was prepared to die rather than be taken by the pirates. I’d heard tales of the vile things they did to their captives. Their brutality rivaled even that of Belial’s. Apparently Zander shared my thoughts because he continued to fight beside me just as fiercely.
A small metal canister landed on the deck of the ship in the midst of our battle. It emitted a high-pitched noise that made my ears ache. Then it erupted in smoke. The last thing I remember were my limbs growing limp and the feel of my head connecting with the hard wooden deck beneath it.
Chapter 17
"Skyler. Skyler wake up," I heard a distantly familiar voice say.
I latched on to the life preserver that it offered. I used it to drag myself through the haziness and out of the darkness.
Regaining consciousness, I opened my eyes to the dank interior of a cell. The world around me was turned on its side. Zander, whose arms protectively encased me, helped me to a sitting position. My eyes took in the metal bars and the cramped space within them and I knew the answer to my question before I asked it.
"Where are we?" I said the words anyway.
"On the pirates' ship. Whatever that gas was that came out of the canister, it had a sedative in it. I only regained consciousness moments before you did."
"What do you think they want?"
"Gold of course. They're all greedy immoral scourges on society. The lot of them. A messenger is probably already on his way to my parents demanding a hefty sum of it in exchange for my safe release." His eyes darkened as he spoke. "They are no better than the scheming nobles at Court."
“Oh surely we’re not all that bad.” The half amused, half insulted reply came from a man entering the below deck space we were confined in.
A black and white striped scarf tied his inky black hair back and a tacky gold hoop hung from his right lobe. Seriously did all pirates have to dress in a manner that reinforced the cliché?
“Considering we were kidnapped and locked inside a cell, I would say yes you are.” Zander’s tone lacked any of its usual relaxed warmth.
The man shrugged his shoulders letting the accusation roll off of them.
“At least we didn’t place a price on your head. Unlike your nobles, we prefer you alive to dead. You can’t collect a ransom on a dead man.”
“When we get out of here every last one of you are dead,” I warned him.
I would start with him first by wiping the smug grin he wore off his face.
He exploded into raucous laughter in response. It floated across the room, echoing off the surrounding walls.
“Oh little assassin I would love to see you try. I assume you are ignorant to exactly who you’re speaking too. I am a far cry from one of my men you cut down, which will cost you triple the amount of gold in your ransom I thought to originally set by the way.”
"I see my reputation precedes me," I smiled sickly sweet at him. "Good. Then you know that when I tell you I am going to enjoy splitting you open like the pig that you are it is a promise I am more than capable of making good on."
"Please little girl. I am the Pirate Lord not one of the overstuffed nobles you're used to dealing with who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. You kill for personal gain, I do it for fun. I assure you I am the more deadly of the two of us."
A slow smile spread across my. I hoped he felt that way.
"I hear pirates have a penchant for gambling with their lives. Would you like to make a wager?"
"Why would I even waste the time?"
His eyes roved over me from head to toe. The mocking look on his face made it clear what he thought of me. A silly girl playing dress up in a man's world.
Ha! I didn't particularly enjoy or have a penchant for violence but I was going to love proving him wrong. It was one benefit leaving Faerie and masquerading as an assassin in the mortal world had conferred on me. When I returned I would be much stronger than when I left. I saw it as the one silver lining in Samael forcing me to uphold my end of our bargain.
"Why indeed? Maybe because we all know Zander's family will pay the ransom and you won't actually kill us because not even the great Pirate Lord wants the Crown of the mightiest kingdom in the realm after his head. There would be no place on land or on sea you could hide. As it is you're going to have to make yourself scarce for a time after you get the ransom and let us go. A subject of Anthame or not, the King will be looking to arrest you for treason and piracy against the Crown. But if you lay low and don't make too much noise your crime will eventually fade into the background. With all the gold you'll be collecting, I'm sure you can find something to pass the time. But if you kill the heir of Anthame, Zander's father will put a price on your head. He'll likely even go through the Assassin's Guild to get the job done. We both know the guild always completes its contracts. You strike me as an ass but not a moron. You won't take the ransom and kill us. You would never live long enough to enjoy it of you did. You're going to let us go. When you do I will be sure to spread the word amongst the guild, who will spread it to every other party you wouldn't want to know, that the notorious Pirate Lord was too scared to accept a challenge from a seventeen year old girl. Imagine what that would do to the reputation I'm sure you went through great lengths to cultivate and your retention of power lies so heavily upon."
I could practically see the steam coming from his ears by the time I finished convincing him to accept my challenge.
"Fine," he bit off. "It's your funeral. I assume the conditions of you winning is your and the Crown Prince's immediate release?"
"You assume right. But I also want a boat and it made clear that we are to be released alive."
Pirates, like assassins, held strict to their word. Surprisingly, there was some honor among thieves and criminals. Also like assassins, pirates will use even the tiniest loophole to get out of actually having to make good on their word.
He nodded his head in acceptance. "And what are you offering if I win?"
"Four times the amount of gold you've already demanded from the Roths."
It was technically not my gold to offer up. Then again if I was betrothed to Zander it was, or at the very least it would be.
"Not good enough," the Pirate Lord dismissed my offer without thinking about it. "If I'm placing my life on the line it won't be for something as easily come by as gold."
His rejection completely dumbfounded me. Pirates liked gold as much as the High Nobles and were just as greedy about it. What could he possibly want more than it? I eyed him suspiciously through new eyes. Perhaps there was more to the man that stood before me than his despicable occupation suggested?
"What do you want?" I asked cautiously.
"You," he stated plainly as if it wasn't the most absurd thing he could possibly demand.
"Excuse me?" Zander, who had been silent until that point, said at the same time I did.
"Don't flatter yourself." His eyes shone with amusement.
Bastard. He knew what his words insinuated. He was toying with me.
"I want use of your services free of charge and indefinitely. There are a few choice individuals that sometimes make it difficult for me to conduct my business."
&n
bsp; "That doesn't make sense. If I'm dead I can't work for you. "
He smiled sinisterly. "Then I guess when I win I'll simply leave you writhing on the floor in excruciating pain rather than permanently ending you. I'll let you fully recover before I exact payment of your services."
He reached into his pocket and produced a key. He cockily unlocked our cell and allowed the bars to swing wide open.
"After you." He held out a hand.
I grumbled to myself as we exited the cell, irked at being stripped of my blades. If I had one I would've buried it in his neck as I walked by.
Chapter 18
The Pirate Lord was nice enough to let me choose my weapon. I would have to thank him for the boon before I carved his heart out. He’d unknowingly made a wager that he did not have a hope in hell of winning. At the end of the day no matter how good he thought he was, he was human and I was fae. My strength, speed, and reflexes easily outmatched his.
His men formed a semi-circle around us on the top deck of the ship. Zander stood sandwiched between two of them with his hands bound behind his back. Apparently the Pirate Lord saw him as more of a threat than me.
I balanced my weight evenly between my feet and sank back on my heels into a defensive stance. I held the identical short blades with serrated edges I selected at the ready.
The Pirate Lord bowed mockingly to me before smirking, “After you, My Lady.”
“Fine, have it your way,” I shrugged.
I launched myself at him not bothering to use glamour to conceal the speed with which I moved. He had well and truly pissed me off and I wanted him and all of his men to know the grave error they’d made in kidnapping us. We did not have time for the shit.
I struck out in one quick and efficient motion that none of the eyes around me were able to track. I stepped away from the Pirate Lord and stared into eyes wide with shock. A split second later his knees buckled from the agonizing pain he felt and his body crumpled to the ground. To his credit he tried to stand again but midway through the attempt he ended up back on his knees.
“I bet you never thought you would kneel before a Lady,” I mimicked his tone.
He clutched at his torso, trying in vain to hold the flesh together and keep his insides from spilling forth.
“You tricked me,” he rasped. “What are you?”
“A girl you never should have messed with,” I tsked down at him. “You offered to let me live by way of excruciating pain so I suppose I will return the favor. I purposely missed nicking any major organs. You might want to get that put back in and yourself stitched up though,” I said glancing down at a portion of his intestines peeking through the deep horizontal gash I inflicted. “You know before your near disembowelment becomes fatal.”
Chapter 19
The Pirate Lord held to his word. Zander and I were escorted immediately off the ship and provided a small lifeboat to leave in. I did not relax until we were far away from the damned pirates and their schemes of abduction.
“You were curiously quiet for most of my exchange with the Pirate Lord,” I eyed him suspiciously as I rowed from one end of the boat while he did the same from the other. We sat facing one another.
“I trust you,” he said in earnest. “You appeared to have things under control so I let you work your magic.”
I stared at him contemplating the weight of his words.
“Really you trust me?” I asked. “After everything-- all of my deceit and the many reasons I have given you not to?”
He answered without needing to think about his response.
“Yes, I do. You had your reasons and I understand them. I wouldn’t have gone about things the same way if our positions were reversed, but I don’t fault you for your actions. You acted with good intentions and for the good of an entire realm.”
His acknowledgement lifted a weight from my chest that I did not even realize bore down on it until I began breathing a little easier.
---
We made it to Decretum by daybreak. The humble kingdom was nothing like Anthame, whose lands sprawled across hundreds of miles and were comprised of all different manners of bustling, thriving cities. Its only city was also its namesake. It consisted of a modest town by the sea and an equally modest palace that sat on top of a hill not too far away from its shores. The rest of the territory claimed by the Queen of Decretum consisted of largely uninhabited expanses of land peppered with antiquated little villages here and there.
Our plan was to talk to Decretum’s townspeople and hope we came by a myth or a legend that would point us in the general vicinity of where we should start looking for the supposed sorcerer. From Kade and the con man’s accounts, it did not seem it would be too hard to get Decretum’s people to talk.
We did not get very far. Men who looked to be members of the Queen’s Guard from their groomed appearances and matching uniforms intercepted us outside of a boarding house we were about to enter.
One of them rode slightly in front of and a part from the others. His offset position was one thing that gave him away as the Guard Captain. The other was the color of his uniform. Whereas the rest of the men on their horses behind him wore silver with midnight blue embellishments, the color scheme he wore was inverted—midnight blue with swaths of silver. For a trained soldier, he was strikingly handsome with boyish features and unhardened edges. Yet, when I looked into his ice blue stare I knew I was looking into the eyes of a born warrior. They reflected an unyielding determination to protect that which it was his duty to at all costs or to forfeit his life trying.
Our greeting party came to a halt and its leader tipped his head toward Zander in a slight nod of deference. Zander may not be his Queen but he was still royalty and would be afforded the respect the title was due in any kingdom.
“Queen Ainsley sends her welcome and requests an audience.”
He phrased his statement as a polite request but all parties present knew it was not.
If we refused, the Queen would take it as an affront, and we had bigger problems to deal with than the fallout it might cause.
“Of course,” Zander answered as poised and regally as ever.
Irritation flashed across his face that I curiously wondered at the cause of. I soon found out.
---
“Prince Edwin how delightful it is that you are visiting Decretum. I admit I was a bit put out when you did not immediately make your way to the palace upon arriving, but gossip travels fast I suppose. Of course you wouldn’t come to Decretum and not say hello. We were once almost betrothed,” Queen Ainsley spoke only to Zander, completely ignoring me as if my presence mattered not.
It made me want to knock her perfectly pouty lips off her face. As did the too familiar way in which she brushed her hand against his arm.
“I meant no affront,” Zander said diplomatically. “My betrothed and I are on a time-sensitive quest of sorts for something rumored to reside in your lands. Of course, I would have stopped by the palace to say hello before our departure.”
“Of course you would have.”
The Queen’s self-absorbedness allowed her to easily believe what was so clearly a lie of diplomacy.
“Well now that you are here, I will not allow you to leave before dining with me. It will be just like old times.”
Again I did not miss the familiarity in her words or the whimsical manner, like a girl gazing dreamy-eyed at her first crush, in which she looked at Zander.
“We cannot,” I declined for him, sounding more testily than I intended to. Okay, maybe I admittedly sounded exactly as testily as I intended to.
The Queen finally deemed me worthy of acknowledging.
“I believe I asked Prince Edwin, not…who are you again?” Her eyes narrowed at me in catty dismissal.
I rolled my eyes. It was like dealing with Iliana all over again. Did the universe hate me so much? Was this some cosmic joke it kept playing on me? Did it enjoy placing shallow pretentious bitches in my path and watching me have to rest
rain myself from strangling them?
I took a calming breath before I did something I would later regret.
“I’m not Zander’s almost betrothed.”
I used her words to spite her. It was childish and petulant and I couldn’t care less.
“I am his betrothed. I’m surprised you haven’t already heard-- you know with gossip traveling fast and all.”
Her eyes sparked with jealousy, but she held her queenly composure. Too bad she couldn’t hold her tongue. Or choke on it.
“Tell me about this object in Decretum you are seeking. I am curious to know what you think is so valuable in my lands?” The Bitch Queen abruptly changed the subject.
Zander looked at me in silent question of what and how much of it we should divulge.
“We might as well tell her what we are in search of. If she knows something it may save us some time.”
“We heard that some of the people of Decretum whisper of a legend of a possible sorcerer dwelling in the uninhabited mountains. We seek to discern if there is any truth in it.”
I expected the Queen to look at us in derision or maybe even throw back her head and laugh out right, mocking us for setting out on a wild goose chase that was nothing more than a story parents told their children to warn them of the dangers of wandering into that which is unknown. Instead, her face closed off just before a flicker of suspicion passed over it.
“Why? What have you heard about the mountains of Decretum?”
“Very little. It is not the mountains we are concerned with. We wish to know if there is any truth to the legend of their inhabitant,” Zander told her in a mollifying tone.
He must have gotten the same impression from her as I did.
Queen Ainsley eyed him cautiously, weighing her next words. I could practically see the wheels of calculation turning in her mind. Perhaps she was not as completely vapid as she came across.
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