I leaned forward to kiss him, but the rope kept me a foot away from his lips.
He laughed and asked, “What’s wrong, former co-captain?”
I grabbed his shirt and dragged him forward to kiss him. “Nothing. Everything is right in this world as long as I get to kiss you each day.”
We leaned back and he continued to rub my hand as the ship sailed deeper into the open ocean.
“You think Duke’s bored out of his mind at home?” Finn asked.
“No, that horse of mine is probably enjoying being able to eat grass nonstop and will most likely have a grass belly when we return.” Duke was my horse, his coat, mane, and tail the same color as my golden hair. He was large, a mix of the types of horses that had been used for battle in the old days. Whatever his breeding was, he was my gentle giant.
“I wonder what progress they have made on the town,” Finn pondered softly as he thought about his former crew and my father’s who had banded together to form a town where they could live in peace and leave piracy behind.
“Do you miss living with them?” I asked him softly. Part of me knew he had to, but I also wished that I was enough to make him not care. Selfish and narcissistic as that was.
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “But life with you is what I want. Jared’s teaching me so much new information about tactics and war and politics, I am enjoying myself too much to really think about them. And that also makes me feel bad. I don’t want to forget them.”
“You’ll never forget them,” I assured him. “They will always be a part of you, just like my father and his crew are still my family.” He nodded, but stayed silent. “Would you like to visit them when we get back?”
He smiled and nodded. “I would like that.”
“Good! We can make a trip to see them and spend a few days enjoying the rowdiness of our crews.”
“Sounds wonderful,” he said and kissed me quickly. “I’m going to go find Jared and see if he needs me for anything.”
“I’ll be here!” I called after him.
I closed my eyes and resumed my peaceful morning of doing absolutely nothing. The sound of a broom on the deck sweeping back and forth grew louder and louder and seemed as though it was right next to me. I opened my eyes.
A crewmember that looked to be in his late thirties was sweeping the deck near me. He had on pants that were torn almost up to the knee and a billowy shirt. His beard was thick and hung down almost to his belly button, looking as though he had not shaved it his entire life. He stopped sweeping when he noticed me and stared at me in surprise. “There a storm?” he asked. “Captain didn’t mention a storm.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I figured I would fall asleep here and thought I had better tie off to be safe.”
He nodded his head and resumed sweeping. “Good idea. You’re smart.”
“Thanks.”
“You seem to enjoy the ocean more than the rest of your group,” he commented. “Well, that fiancé of yours loves it too, but you definitely love it most.”
“Yes, we’re former pirates,” I told him truthfully.
He stopped sweeping and stared at me with wide eyes. “What?”
“My fiancé was a captain of a pirate ship and I sailed with him for about four months,” I told him since I couldn’t tell him about my dad.
“You don’t say. And now he’s going to be the prince?”
“That’s the plan,” I said with a smile.
“And you’re not worried that he’ll revert to his old ways?” he asked me, crossing his arms and leaning on the handle of his broom.
“No. He and I go out and sail occasionally, but he doesn’t feel like he has to go out plundering anymore.”
“A retired pirate becoming prince.” He scoffed. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“You and me both,” I told him and laughed.
“You aren’t like most royals,” he said.
“How so?”
“I’m from Blith,” he said.
I laughed and waved my hand. “No more needed to be said. I met the King of Blith.”
“I take it things didn’t go well?”
“He let King Priam of Trian kidnap me and take me to Trian where he was planning to execute me.”
He gasped. “That’s why Crilan blew up the Capitol and took over their Kingdom?”
I nodded my head. “They came to rescue me.”
“That fiancé of yours go too?”
“Yes, he broke me out of the prison.”
“Good man. I guess I’ll give him a break on being a former pirate.”
“Glad to hear it,” I teased him.
“Tilia,” Faxon called. “Are you hungry?”
Was I? How long had I been here? It couldn’t have been more than an hour.
The crewmember resumed his sweeping, moving away from me.
“Uh, a little.”
He walked over to me and sat down. “I enjoy spending time with you while you are on a ship. You’re much more at ease here.”
“It’s nice to be on a ship every once in a while.”
“So, how would you feel about joining me on my continued hunt for information about these devices?” he asked.
“I thought that was the plan?” I asked him.
“It was, but I didn’t know if you still wanted to, after seeing how boring it could be.”
“Do you know where we are going next?” I asked and adjusted my butt on the deck.
“I have to do a bit more research and examine the things we’re bringing back home with us, but I think we might be headed to Judby.”
“I’ve never been there! Are we going diplomatically or stealthily? Or are we blowing things up?” Personally, I preferred the last two options.
“We’re going in disguise,” he said. “Any objection to that?”
“No, but how…”
“I will take care of the disguises.”
“Disguises for what?” Finn asked.
“For our trip to Judby,” I answered.
“I’m coming,” Finn told Faxon.
“Finn, Jared told you…”
“I’m not letting her go outside of Crilan without me. This has nothing to do with your strength, Faxon, but you know exactly how I feel. You wouldn’t want her to go without you either.”
Faxon frowned, but nodded his head. “Fine. I’ll discuss it with Jared. Your speed will likely come in useful for our objective.”
“What is our objective?” I asked.
“Research first and then plan development next.”
“Okay,” I said with a sigh.
“Lunch time!” Esmeralda yelled.
“How is it lunch time already? I swear I’ve only been out here an hour,” I muttered as I untied myself.
Finn and Faxon looked at each other in that weird way that men do when they communicate without words and then turned their gazes on me.
“You’ve been out here three hours,” Finn told me. “I left you out here two hours ago.”
“No. You were just here,” I responded nervously. If that was true, why was time off for me?
“You probably dozed off and didn’t realize it,” Faxon assured me and put an arm around my shoulders as we walked towards the stairs that led below deck. “Don’t worry about it.”
Finn didn’t seem to agree with him, but his theory was likely right. I did fall asleep much easier on the ship.
“What’s for lunch?” I asked as we headed to go below deck.
“Fish and rice,” Esmeralda said from below us. It was too dark to see inside, but I assumed she was at the bottom of the stairs.
“Yum,” I said happily.
“When we get back to Crilan I’m buying a pound of chocolate,” Finn informed me.
“Are you going to share the chocolate?” I inquired and headed down first with Finn behind me and Faxon behind him.
“No. You can buy your own pound,” he replied indignantly.
“I would rather buy a dozen cak
es,” I said and practically drooled.
“Stop it. You two are making me want sweets,” Faxon groaned.
“Can’t you make some with your magic?” Finn asked Esmeralda and Faxon.
“I wish,” Esmeralda muttered. “I’ve been trying to figure out a spell for that since I realized I had magic.”
“Have I ever told you about the time that your aunt tried to skewer me with a spear?” Faxon asked me.
“What!” I shrieked.
Esmeralda sighed. “You’ll never forget about that, will you?”
“I have a scar from it,” Faxon reminded her.
“You would have never been in danger, had you given me what I asked for in the first place,” she snapped.
“What happened?” Finn asked.
We entered the dining area and sat around a table. Jared was talking with some of his men at another table, but excused himself to join us.
“Some dignitaries from one of the other Kingdoms, I can’t even remember who anymore, came to visit, so the former King threw a party,” Faxon began.
“You guys sure do love parties,” Finn noted.
“Don’t interrupt,” Faxon ordered him. “Being the princess, Esmeralda had to dance with the sons of these people and those men kept her occupied most of the evening.”
“They smelled terrible,” Esmeralda commented and then shuddered.
“The King knew that these people loved sweets so he had a whole assortment brought in from all across the Kingdom. They were amazing! Jared and I spent most of the evening gorging ourselves on the sweets, as did many of the others in attendance. By the time Esmeralda was able to steal a moment to herself, she walked over to us, we were standing by the display where the sweets had been,” Faxon said.
“Had been?” I asked in shock.
Esmeralda snarled, “Exactly, Tilia.”
“I had one last truffle in my hand and Esmeralda tried to steal it from me,” Faxon recounted as though he were a victim.
“He’d already eaten several dozen of the sweets,” Esmeralda told me, “but he refused to give me that last piece.”
“It was my piece,” Faxon argued.
“Then what happened?” Finn asked.
Faxon turned away from glaring at Esmeralda and looked at us. “She tried to steal it from me, even used magic on me, but I refused to give in. She was screaming at me in the ballroom and everyone was watching us, horrified. A guard walked over to tell us to go outside, but as soon as he got close to us, Esmeralda snatched the spear he was holding and stabbed me with it.”
“No!” I gasped in shock.
“She did,” Jared nodded. “I watched the whole thing.”
“And he didn’t even bother to help his friend,” Faxon said.
“There was no way that I was going to choose a side on that fiasco. Plus, I was trying to ensure she didn’t stab me,” Jared explained with a laugh.
“I jumped away from the lunatic princess and ran out of the ballroom. She chased me all throughout the castle. I made a wrong turn in my attempt to flee and she cornered me in a hallway. Then, since my time was up, I popped the truffle in my mouth and swallowed.”
I laughed and Esmeralda glared at me, not looking amused. “He ate the damn truffle right in front of me and smiled with pieces of the chocolate on his teeth!” she yelled.
“She almost skewered me to the wall, but I dodged her strike and ran past her and out of the castle,” Faxon ended and pulled his shirt down to reveal a scar on his shoulder. “But I still bear the mark of her rage from that day.”
“Maybe you will remember not to be so selfish,” Esmeralda said.
“Would you have really stabbed him again?” I asked.
“Of course, I would have. Not like he would have died,” she replied nonchalantly.
“You could have killed him if you hit anything vital,” Finn said.
“Not likely,” Jared answered. “She has terrible aim with spears.”
Everyone laughed at that, even Esmeralda.
Finn excused himself to get our food and I stared at the tabletop. Something was missing. What was it? Had I left something in my room?
“Tilia,” Esmeralda whispered, “what’s wrong?” She asked and set her hand on top of mine where I had absentmindedly been rubbing my right ring finger.
“I don’t know. I feel like I forgot something or something is missing,” I admitted. “I don’t know what it could be.”
Faxon’s eyes darkened and he walked away from the table without a word.
“I am sure you aren’t missing anything,” Esmeralda assured me.
Jared scowled at her and folded his arms across his chest, but stayed silent. He seemed irritated.
“Did I do something?” I asked quietly.
Jared turned to me and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Everyone, you all and the King’s Steel, are acting strange. Everybody keeps looking at me like I’m crazy. I know that I haven’t been the most level headed with what happened, but it seems like it is something else entirely.”
“How do you feel inside?” Esmeralda asked me with a soft voice.
“Hollow,” I admitted.
“Do you think that perhaps all of these strange feelings that you have been having, are due to you missing that part of yourself? You rubbing your finger and feeling like you are missing something? It could be connected.”
That was a good and likely theory.
“Are you certain that there is not anything else that you haven’t told me?” I asked her.
She leaned back in her seat and said, “The only item I’ve kept from you, I explained during our search of the laboratory.”
“Food,” Finn announced and set a pot of rice in the center of the table.
Faxon set a plate of cooked fish beside the pot and then handed us all plates and utensils. “Eat up!”
The sour expressions everyone had been wearing disappeared as they talked and joked over lunch. Esmeralda was probably right; I was causing myself undue worry from missing my magic. And yet, I felt as though there was something else. There was something in the back of my mind, barely a spark, which kept nagging me to ask more questions. I shoved the thoughts down and joined in on the conversation with a smile on my face. There would be plenty of time for self-doubt once we were home. It wasn’t fair of me to continue to ruin their days with my problems.
Chapter Three
“Are you certain that you won’t let me come?” Faxon asked me for the hundredth time that morning.
“I am going with Finn to visit my father. I do not need a guard with me. We are not going sailing or leaving Crilan.”
“I know, but I would just…”
I stopped him with a raised hand. “I know that you’re worried about my safety, but I am capable of protecting myself and Finn can run us to safety if it’s something I cannot handle.”
Faxon sighed loudly and looked up at the ceiling. “Fine.”
“Have you made any progress on the Drimla notes?” I asked him and folded a shirt before putting it in my bag.
“Yes and no. I still have zero idea who the seller of the devices was, but I did learn that they used all of the ones they had, except for the one Marquez had, during trials.”
I stopped folding another shirt and turned to Faxon. “They used them against their own people?”
“Their prisoners,” he explained. “And they took them to uninhabited islands.”
How terrible!
“They would tie the prisoners to trees at varying distances and then set off the device,” he continued.
“They used it to determine the range of the device,” I summarized.
Faxon beamed proudly. “Exactly.”
His normally beautiful hair was knotted and dirty and the skin under his eyes was darkening weekly.
“You should take a break too while I’m gone,” I suggested. “You’re looking worse every day.”
He scrunched his face up and said, “Thank you for poin
ting out my ugliness.”
I rolled my eyes at him and resumed packing. “You know darn well that you aren’t ugly, Faxon. Stop being nonsensical.”
“I guess you might be right. I have been rather tired lately,” he conceded.
“Faxon, why don’t you court women?” I asked softly without looking at him. I had been wondering this for quite some time, but aside from Esmeralda’s opinion that he didn’t want anyone to be close to him because of his enemies, I wondered what the truth was.
“I have enemies all over, Tilia. Enemies that will hurt or try to destroy anyone or anything that gives me joy. A wife would be a primary target for them. A pregnant wife would be vulnerable.”
“But you’re the strongest mage in existence! You could protect her.”
He looked at the ground and said, “I’ve learned that I am not as strong as I thought I was. I have failed you and you were hurt due to my inability to protect you.”
“What happened to me is not your fault,” I assured him.
“We never should have let you go to Marquez. I should have gone and obliterated the prince myself.”
I took his hand and whispered, “You can’t blame yourself for what Marquez did.”
“It’s not only that incident,” he snapped and then ran a hand through his hair.
“What else are you talking about? You saved my life and risked losing your magic to bring me home. There hasn’t been anything else that has happened that you could have prevented. You saved me when Griffin was deceiving Jared. I should be apologizing to you for making you save me.”
“I won’t let him harm you,” he growled. “I will do whatever I have to in order to keep you safe.”
“Him? Who?”
“Them,” he amended. “Whoever they may be.”
“You’re worrying yourself needlessly, which is making me worry for you. So now, we’re in this cycle of worry that has no end!” I said in exasperation and threw my hands up into the air.
He laughed and pulled my arms back down. “Point taken. I’ll stop worrying so much and take a break while you’re away.”
“Promise?” I asked with a glare.
“I promise.”
“Tilia,” Finn said. “Let’s go.” He looked down at Faxon and my joined hands and stared at Faxon silently.
Princess Triumvirate (Pirate Princess, # 2) Page 4