Held Captive by My Desires

Chapter 1

She'd been told to hide, and stay hidden. That had been Katara's first thought as well after the noise had drawn her up to the deck and she'd seen what was causing the commotion. It wasn't the captain who'd given her the order, though. He'd been nothing but confident that he could lose the ship bearing down on them. He'd even laughed about it and shaken his fist at the Jolly Roger flying from the attacking ship's mainmast, which was visible now to the naked eye. His enthusiasm-and dare she say delight?-had certainly relieved her mind. Until the first mate pulled her aside and told her to hide.

Unlike the captain, Jet Dobs didn't appear easer for the upcoming confrontation. His complexion as white as the extra sails being swiftly hosted by the crew, he hadn't been gentle about shoving her towards the stairs.

"Use on of the empty food barrels in the hold. There are many of them now. With any luck, the pirates won't open more than one or two, and finding them empty, they'll move on. I'll warn your servant to hide as go! And no matter what you hear, don't leave the hold until someone whose voice you recognize comes for you."

He hadn't said until he came fore her. His panice was infectious, his roughness surprising. Her arm was probably bruised where he'd gripped it. It was such a change from the courteous way he had treated her when the journey began. He'd nearly been courting her, or so it had seemed, though that was unlikely. He was in his early thirties and she was barely out of the schoolroom. It was just his deferential manner, his gentle tone of voice, and the inordinate amount of attention he'd paid her during the three weeks since they'd left the north pole, that gave her the impression he liked her more than he should.

He'd managed to intill his own fear in her, though, and she'd raced towards the bowels of the ship. It was easy to find the food barrels Jet had spoken of, nearly all of them empty, now that they were nearing their destination on ember island. Another few days they would have sailed into the St. Sozen harbor in Grenada, her father's last known whereabout, and she could have begun her search for him.

Hakoda Ice was not a man she knew well, though all her memories of him were fond ones, but he was all she had now that her mother had died. While she'd never once doubted that he loved her, he had never lived at home with her for any length of time. A month, maybe a few months at a time, and, one year, an entire summer- but then several years would pass without a visit form him. Hakoda was captain of his own merchantmen with very profitable trade routes in the earth kingdom. He sent money and extravagant presents, but rarely did he bring himself home.

He'd tried to move his family closer to where he worked, but Kya, Katara's Mother, wouldn't even consider it. The North Pole had been her home all of her life. She had no family left there, but all her friends were there, as well as everything she valued, and she had never approved of Hakoda's seafaring occupation anyway. Trade. She'd always spoken the word in disgust. She had enough aristocracy in her ancestry, even if she bore no title herself, to look down on anyone in trade, even her own husband.

It's a wonder they'd ever married. They certainly didn't seem to like each other much when they were together. And Katara would never, ever mention to him that his long absences had led Kya to take a... Well she couldn't even bring herself to think the words, much less say it. She was so embarrassed by her own conclusions. But Bato Swift had been a regular visitor to their two story cottage on the outskirts of the main village in The North Pole during the last several years, and Kya had behaved like a young schoolgirl whenever he was in town.

When he'd stopped coming around andthey heard rumors that he was courting an heiress in the capital, Katara's mother had undergone a remarkable change. Overnight, she turned into a bitter woman, hating the world and everything in it, crying over a man who wasn't even hers.

Whether he had made Kya promises, whether Kya had intended to divorce her husband, no one knew, but her heart seemed to have broken when Bato turned his attention to another woman. She had all the signs of a woman betrayed, when she took sick in early spring and her condition had worsened, She'd made no effort to recover from it, ignoring her healer's advice and barely eating.

Katara was heartsick herself, having to watch her mother's decline. She might not have approved of her mother's obsession with Bato, or her unwillingness to try harder to save her marriage, but she still loved her mother deeply, and had done everrything she could think of to cheer her up. She'd filled her mother's room with flowers that she scoured the neighborhood for, read to her mother aloud, even insisted their housekeeper, Suki, spend a good portion of her day visiting with her, since she was such a chatty woman, and usually quite funny in her remarks. Suki had been with them several years at that point. In her Mid-Twenties with bright red hair, vivid purple eyes, and red lips, she was opinionated, outspoken, and not all awed by aristocrats. She was also a very caring woman, and had taken to Katara's family as if they were her own.

Katara had thought her efforts were working, that her mother's will to live was returning. Her mother had even started to eat again and stopped mentioning Bato. so Katara was devastated when her mother passed away in the middle of the night. "Pined away" was Katara's personal conclusion, she'd been on the mend from her illness, though she would never mention that to her father. But her mother's death left Katara feeling utterly alone.

Although she'd been left a lot of money, since Kya had been quite well-to-do herself from a family inheritance, Katara wouldn't see any of that money until she reached maturity at the age of twenty-one, and that was a long way off. Her father did send funds regularly, and there was a household money that would last quite a while, but she'd just turned 18.

She was also going to be turned over to a guardian. Kya's solicitor, Pakku, had mentioned it at the reading of the will. In her grief, she hadn't really paid attention , but when she'd been given the name, she was appalled. The man was a philanderer and everyone knew it. The rumors were that he chased his maids all over his house, and he'd even pinched Katara's bottom once at a garden party, when she'd been only fifteen!

A Guardian, and he in particular, wouldn't do a'tall. She had one parent living. She merely needed to find him, and so she set out to do just that. She'd had to conquer a few fears first, of sailing half way around the world, of leaving behind everything she was familiar with. She'd nearly changed her mind twice. But in the end, she'd felt she had no choice. And at least, Suki had agreed to go with her.

The trip had gone very well, much better than she'd anticipated. No one had questioned her traveling with just her servant. She was under the captain's protection, after all, at least for the duration, and she had implied her father would be meeting her when they docked, just a small lie to keep any concerns at bay.

Now, thinking about her father and finding him kept her current fears in check for only a short while. Her legs had fallen asleep, curled into the barrel as she was. She'd no trouble getting all of herself inot the container. She wasn't a big woman at only five-four, and was slender of frame. A splinter had pierced her back, though, when she'd scrunched down into the crate just before she'd pulled the lid back over it, and there was no way to reach it even if she had the room to try.

And she was partly in shock that it was even possible for a ship to fly a Jolly Roger in this day and age. Pirates were supposed to be extinct. She had thought they had all been routed in the last century, either pardoned or hung. Sailing the warm Ember Island waters was supposed to be as safe as walking down a Northern water tribe street. If she hadn't been certain of that, she never would have booked passage to this side of the world. And yet, she'd seen the pirate flag with her own eyes.

There was a tight knot of fear in her belly, which was also empty and adding to her discomfort. She'd missed breakfast, practicing her water bending, and had intended to remedy that at lunch, but the pirate ship had arrived before lunch was served, and now it was hours later. At least, it seemed like she'd been cramped in the barrel that long, there was no indication of what was going on topside.

She had to assume they were staying far ahead of the pirate ship, but if they had lost the other vessel, wouldn't Jet have come to tell her so? Suddenly a blast shook the entire ship, and another, and more, all exceedingly loud. THere were more indications that a batter had begun, the smell of gun smoke from the fired cannons that seeped into the hold, the raucous yells, even a few screams, and then, a long while later, the horrible silence.

It was impossible to determine who had won the battle. It was nerve-wracking. As time passed, her fear grew. She'd be screaming soon, she was sure. In fact, she didn't know how she'd managed not to succumb to that urge already. If they had won the day, wouldn't Jet have shown up by now? Unless he was wounded and hadn't told anyone where she was. Unless he was dead. Did she dare leave her hiding place to find out?

But what if the pirates had won? What did Pirates do with captured ships? Sink them? Keep them to sell or man them with their own crew? and their current crew and passangers? Kill them all? The scream was bubbling up in her throat when the lid was torn off of her barrel.