Magic and Shadows: A Collection of YA Fantasy and Paranormal Romances

by T. M. Franklin

  The prince smiled at her, an arch in his brow. “Now, why would we do that? We need the lamp, don’t we?”

  She went to reply, but as she stopped herself, her eyes widened. It finally clicked. Phillip’s confident smile should have been the giveaway, and she was surprised she hadn’t seen it from the beginning: His choice of harbour, the way he bragged about his bag full of fairy gold. Then, there was the way he fought off the men to draw attention to himself, when he later revealed his identity as a fairy prince and introduced her as the queen. This was the plan. Esther Anna viewed the prince in a different light now as she laughed. His plan was admittedly genius as much as it was crazy.

  Phillip had made as much noise as possible to attract the attention of pirates. In that part of the harbour, the pirate who frequented it the most happened to be the one they were after. They were followed…it was all going according to plan. After all this time, they weren’t in search of the pirate. They were bait, luring the pirate to them all along! He looked at Esther Anna and tried to decipher her expression, but it was unreadable, aside from a slight hint of approval and awe in her eyes. Finally, they were on the same page.

  She nodded and he ran to the helm.

  “Keep her steady, don’t make it too easy for them.” Phillip commanded, and the man steering nodded obediently.

  The pirates appeared out of the mist, with a ship that far outweighed the Marry Finny Fine. They knew they didn’t even stand a chance…they were going to be captured.

  Phillip quickly went to the captain and paid him in excess, which made the man’s eyes go wide in surprise at the sight of the fairy gold. The amount was enough to cover him for life. Many thanks were given to the prince, as the man fell to his knees, but the prince helped him back up and gave his final order.

  The white flag was pulled up to notify them of their surrender. Everyone stood with their arms raised above their heads, as they waited for the captain to come aboard. The pirates whooped in victory and they aligned the boats to board the Marry Finny Fine. Underlings came first, several men coming through with a haughty air only to size up the crew with intimidating grandeur.

  Phillip pulled Esther Anna close beside him, with the others in the crew a bit behind them. If things went his way, as swimmingly as his plan was executed, they would have no use for the boat or its crew, and simply take them, the royals, the people worth more coin.

  “Captain on deck!” One of the pirates yelled, baring his yellow teeth and bleeding gums with a proud smile.

  A figure rope-boarded, swinging over from the other ship, and landed with a heavy thud.

  Esther Anna and Phillip both gasped. This was the infamous pirate captain? After all the stories they’d heard, they weren’t prepared for this. He wasn’t what they’d expected. He was a she. As Phillip looked, he could tell that she was no ordinary woman. Both human women he had met in a while turned out to both be extraordinary, though in their own way.

  The woman approached the prince and queen, walking with the confidence and ease of someone in her element. Raids were second nature to her and she was incredibly good at it. She stood at an impressive height for a woman, and the men on board gawked at her in awe, though that awe was mixed with a cowering fear of her power.

  After removing her hat, she shook her hair free of sand and sea salt. Then, she smiled. “Hello.” She said.

  The captain was mesmerizing; a pretty woman with blonde hair kissed by the sun, and her blue eyes as brilliant as the sea. Her demeanour hinted of a rage that lie hidden beneath the surface, though she seemed friendly now. The captain sauntered towards them with a gait that only a captain could bear, and her boots clicked against the wood of the sea-worn deck. She smacked her lips once she reached the royals and she grinned at the man who seemed adamant about keeping the woman and the rest of the Marry Finny Fine behind him. “Prince Phillip, I presume? Then that would make you…Queen Esther Anna Lapointe, is that right?”

  “Yes, that’s right.” Esther Anna responded, staring at her defiantly.

  Phillip smirked, proud at the queen’s courage.

  “I’m Captain Michelle of Vanderbeck.” The flaxen-haired pirate bowed with a flourish. “I’m here to officially inform you that your ship has been captured by my vessel. Though, I have no business with your men. You see, I’m going to take the queen and the prince aboard my ship. You surrendered quickly, and that’s a good thing. For me…” She grinned, “But if any of you got delusions of grandeur, you’d to well to stop yourselves now from interfering with my plans. Or mark my words, the action you take will be your last.”

  None of the men moved. They were entranced by the way she spoke, with such a silky smooth with a tone that commanded every ear to listen.

  She clapped her hands. “Very well then!”

  As she turned to move, a sudden cry erupted from behind Phillip. One of his men rushed towards Captain Michelle, though no one from her crew made a step to stop him, and they simply watched as the gangly man lunged with his dagger aimed for her back. Michelle anticipated this and at the last second, she moved to the side and stretched out her foot. The man, unable to stop his forward motion, tripped over the foot and he fell face first on to the deck. Her men erupted in laughter. The man scrambled for a moment and finally rose to his feet, ashamed at his failed attack. Everyone assumed he would have taken that as a display of her mercy, but he bared his teeth and attacked again. This time, Michelle parried the attack and knocked his hand to the side. He stumbled into some of the men who were watching, but they pushed him back towards the captain. The man lunged at her once more. Michelle rolled her eyes, tired of the pathetic display. She caught his knife hand and twisted it, causing the man to drop the blade, and then she kicked his leg out from under him, which dropped him to one knee. She lifted her hand and delivered a blow to the side of his face and he fully collapsed, weak and defeated.

  Her men erupted in a cheer again.

  Phillip and Esther smiled in admiration. Ruthless pirate or not, the woman had skill.

  Michelle rolled her eyes and dropped to a knee beside her attacker. She took a handful of his collar and yanked him upward. “What’s gotten into you, hmm? Once wasn’t enough, you gotta try, try again?”

  “M-My friend. You killed my friend!” He sputtered, his face bleeding from the strike.

  She lifted her eyebrow and shook her head. “Oh, I’ve killed a lot of people my good man. You’ll get over it.” After one last glance at the pathetic man, she dropped him and stood upright. It was time to get back to her ship.

  “He was my best friend!” The man yelled after her, but she did well to ignore him.

  With one quick wave, her men grabbed Queen Esther Anna and the fairy Prince Phillip. They were tied up quickly and loaded onto the ship.

  The pirates were quite coordinated. When the captain gave them an order, they followed them strictly and to the letter. One could say she ran her ship with an iron fist, as it was not uncommon for her to fly into a rage and kill several of her men at a moment’s notice. Punishment didn’t come without warning, however, Captain Vanderbeck just hated repeating herself, and the men quickly learned that the best way to stay alive was to remain on her good side.

  The benefits of working with her far outweighed the drawbacks. She was the most prolific pirate in all the seven seas, as she had conducted raids throughout. The crew were all considered wealthy. They could easily settle down since they had pillaged and plundered more gold and rare artefacts than they could spend in their lifetime, but their lives were at sea and they were all drawn back to the adventure.

  Vanderbeck herself had initially started as a common crewman, working for an equally ruthless captain. One day, she lost her temper and challenged him to a duel. After the swords clashed, she stood triumphant over the dead body of her former captain. The men wasted no time in declaring her captain, and she led them to more success than any of them would have thought possible. Much of her life before she took to the sea had been shroud
ed in mystery, and there were endless speculations about her past. However, none ever dared to ask, as she avoided speaking about it altogether. Despite methods she’d enforced on her ship, she had shown a very strong dislike for tyrants, and had often led raids on ships owned by famous, tyrannical kings with the same goal in mind: to rid him of all his ill-acquired possessions onboard. After they divided the plunder, her men never knew what she did with the bulk of the gold. She said it was ‘kept in a good place’. No one questioned it, because they respected her. There were times her leadership would be tested, but they were easily silenced by her cunning and skill with a sword.

  Michelle whistled as she strolled across her ship, and her pet fluttered over and landed on her shoulder. Peggy, or “Peg” as most of the men called her, was a magical owl, as it had been given the power of speech by an ancient enchantment. As a side effect of the spell, Peggy seemed unaware to the fact that she was an owl. She preferred to be called a parrot, and in turn squawked as most parrots did, even though she could articulate quite well when she spoke up. Peggy was the light of the boat, and provided much needed entertainment.

  “New prisoners? Why wasn’t I told?” Peggy asked.

  Michelle laughed as she rubbed her pets back. “You were asleep Peggy. In fact, I was just on my way to tell you now, but once again, your keen observation beat me to it.”

  “Hmm captain, flattery will get you everywhere!” Peggy replied, honoured by the captain’s praise.

  “Yeah, that’s a good parrot. I’m on my way to see them now. Care to tag along?” She asked, and the bird eagerly nodded.

  Below deck, Prince Phillip was just returning to their prison cell. He wriggled out of his binds and quickly moved to assist the queen. Once they were free, he proceeded to take fairy form and left the area to search the entire ship for the Lamp of Light, including the captain’s personal quarters and various vaults he had located along the way. After a little while, Phillip returned and took human form once more and Esther Anna couldn’t help but notice how confused he appeared.

  “What’s wrong?” She asked, as she eagerly rushed over to him, “Did you find it?”

  He shook his head, a gravely look in his eye. It was supposed to be on this ship, or that’s what they’d been told, since the captain was the last known person in possession of the lamp.

  “I scoured the entire ship, Esther. The lamp is not here…” Phillip said with a heavy sigh. After all the planning and efforts, and getting captured, it felt unfair that they didn’t find the item in question. The plan had fallen through.

  “She was supposed to have the lamp, right?” Esther Anna asked, to which the prince nodded. “Well, doesn’t that mean she might know where it is? She’d obviously intelligent, I doubt she would let something as precious as the Lamp of Light slip away without keeping track of it, somehow…”

  Prince Phillip perked up. Esther Anna had a point, and he thought that the only way to get the knife was to get Michelle to reveal the whereabouts of the lamp. It was ambitious, and wasn’t going to be an easy task. They heard footsteps approaching and assumed captive position. They placed their hands behind their backs and the ropes placed loosely over them to provide the illusion of still being tied. The cell door locks slipped open, and the captain herself slipped inside. She looked at them with slight amusement, with her pet owl on her shoulder. She walked slowly and took a seat on a barrel in front of them.

  “Okay, I can’t take it anymore. Tell me.” She pointed between the two of them. “How did this happen?”

  Phillip and Esther Anna each looked at her with matching confusion.

  Michelle sighed, “How did the prince of the fairy kingdom, one of the most impossible to find places in the entire world and the fugitive queen of Tibethia who killed her husband, end up together? Oh, and please, don’t spare the details.”

  Phillip noted something she said: “Fugitive queen who is said to have killed…” He defended Esther Anna with conviction. Does she believe that Esther is guilty?

  “First things first.” Esther Anna cleared her throat, before fully explaining the details that the captain had requested. “I didn’t kill my husband; I was framed by the Princess Noelle. She’s a dark sorceress, corrupted by magic and vanity. She is the one killed her father and framed me for it. I don’t know why, other than a plan to take over the kingdoms herself. When I escaped Tibethia, I fell into an open entryway into the fairy kingdom and that’s how I met him. He read my memories and saw that I was telling the truth. He volunteered to help me stop the Princess and told me about the Lamp of Light, a magical artefact that can verify my innocence and prove irrefutably, that the princess is evil.”

  There was an unmistakeable flash in the captain’s eyes at the mention of the Lamp of Light. She was one of the few who knew the lamp’s whereabouts, and now this unlikely pair who had gone in search of it, were on her boat. Michelle sensed something strange was afoot. She wasn’t sure of what exactly, but she didn’t believe in coincidences. “So, what you mean to tell me is that, the young, sweet, and innocent Princess Noelle intends to take over the kingdoms?”

  Esther rolled her eyes. “Of course, she seems that way, but that’s a cover. I’m sure you’ve heard of the way she massacred families in front of members of the kingdom. She’s not as innocent as she seems, captain. Think about it.”

  Captain Michelle seemed thrown by this for a second, but she drifted into thought as she pondered the events that led them all here. It was easy to take the prince and the queen, both supposedly on the run. Did they surrender to her to leverage the size of her ship and her reach? Michelle played right into their trick. She looked at the prince, who was watching her, as if he seemed to know what she was thinking. Esther Anna mentioned he could read memories… She shifted in her seat, and placed a hand on her sword.

  The prince’s weapon had been confiscated, along with the pack which had contained fairy gold and a few dresses, when he was brought on board. He was unharmed, though Michelle couldn’t doubt for a second that he was extremely dangerous, as she’d heard of how he dispatched the men at the harbour.

  “Why should I believe you?” Michelle was fixated on the prince.

  Prince Phillip shrugged. “Honestly, you don’t have any reason to—I’m a fugitive and would say anything to be set free, right? I’m not only asking for my freedom, but also for the Lamp of Light. We know you know where it is, it’s why we’re on this ship in the first place.”

  Captain Michelle’s eyes twitched a bit at his confession. She knew it. They had been captured on purpose.

  Esther continued: “Captain, Noelle is evil. On top of everything I told you, I know for a fact that she intends to remain young forever. She uses a blood spell, performed with a special knife with a ruby hilt and strange symbols on it, too. She kills young, beautiful girls and bathes in their blood to maintain her youth and beauty. She intends to transfer her soul into the body of another victim before her marriage to Prince Hardy. If her plans are successful, we’re all doomed!”

  Captain Michelle was quiet. Something Esther Anna said had struck her. Special knife with ruby hilt. Could it be? She was no stranger to retrieval missions, as she’d fetched plenty of artefacts for those willing to pay a hefty price. Most of these items were ancient, with dark undertones and histories, but she carried out the task and rarely bothered with the details. The knife that Esther Anna described fit that criteria for a job she’d done before, and it seemed highly unlikely there would be two knives with those specifications. Coincidence…

  “Well, I believe her!” Peggy spoke up for the first time since they arrived.

  Esther Anna and Phillip jumped in surprise but managed to keep up the illusion of being tied.

  “She has my friend trapped in a mirror, and the girl she killed? Her spirit is trapped in here.” Esther Anna carefully lifted her hands to pull on the necklace that was tucked into her dress. “If you care at all about the fate of the kingdoms or the very seas you sail upon, you will b
elieve me.”

  Captain Michelle instantly recognized the necklace, and narrowed her eyes as she heard Esther Anna mention a mirror, another artefact that was fetched for the same mystery contractor.

  “This, too…” Prince Phillip said, as he revealed that his hands were no longer tied.

  Captain Michelle was on her feet instantly and her sword was drawn at the sight and when she looked over, she noticed Esther Anna wasn’t bound either.

  “We know the lamp is not here, but we know you know where it is. Please, tell us so that we can stop the evil princess!”

  Captain Michelle didn’t say anything. She eyed them warily as she backed out of the cell, making sure to lock the door behind her before she left.

  “We blew it.” Prince Phillip said for what must have been the millionth time. Phillip sighed deeply as he paced the small cell. Hours had passed since their confrontation with the captain and their dinners lay cold on the floor, since neither of them had an appetite. They both knew coming clean about their plan was a huge risk, as it was a longshot that the captain would decide to join them based on what they’d revealed. Their mission relied heavily on the captain turning over the location of the lamp, but now it seemed to be an impossible endeavour.

  Esther Anna sat quietly in a corner as she thought back over the conversation they’d had with the captain. She didn’t miss the look the captain gave her necklace when she showed it off It could have been an assumption, but was it recognition? Then, the knife seemed to strike a chord with her too. What does this mean?

  “I’m sorry…” Phillip said as he sat down beside her with a sigh. “I swore I’d get the lamp and clear your name but I have failed you.”

  Esther Anna turned and pulled him into her arms. She wasn’t about to let him take the blame for everything. “Phillip…It’s not your fault. You did your best. We did our best. Furthermore…”

  The door to the cell opened suddenly, and cut off Esther Anna in the middle of her speech. Captain Michelle walked in with Peggy standing proudly on her shoulder. She waved over to them. “Well, I would untie you, but you seem to have handled that yourselves. Come on. Let’s go.”