Pirate Princess

Chapter 20: Conversations

Ezra stood high up in the Crows Nest. The wind cooled her face and tried to lift the heavy braids away from her neck as the sea far below made the young woman sway with every gentle, incoming swell. The sun had been down for over a candle now and the stars were beginning to make their glittery début. Ezra closed her eyes and breathed the salty night air, felt the rocking of the waves, then finally lifted her lids and tilted her chin up to gaze at the constellations. There was the Chariot off in the east, just rising. To the north was the Queen, and to the right of her was the Warrior. In the south, the Snow Bringers were beginning to creep over the horizon to warn that cold weather was on its way. And straight up above her was the Axis Star that would stay in the same spot, night after night, the star that sailors used to guide their ships by.

Ezra breathed in so deeply her lungs felt as if they'd burst. She held the breath in. She let it slip out. If only she could stay up there forever. There were no worries up in the Crow's Nest, surrounded by nothing but stars and the sound of the tide pushing back in. Down on deck there was Caelron always aggravating her, crewmen who wanted to be back on land having a good time and royal Commanders who were waiting on word from the Prince before they made a plan. And, worst of all, there was the sense of uselessness she felt in the waiting. She could do nothing until Commander Keriam and the others had heard from Rider, if they ever heard from him again at all. Nothing was certain at this point. Nothing was sure.

She missed Willem.

Ezra's throat closed up, and she shut her eyes against the sudden itching. It didn't do any good. Hot tears slipped past her lashes and her breath choked out in a soft sob. She missed him so much. Even with the lies, and his messing about on Tourmaline with the whores, Ezra missed her man. He had been her first and her only. They had had a ringless marriage for almost two years, and he had promised her that as soon as he found the right time, they'd make it official. If he were here now, he would probably climb up to the Nest to talk and joke with her to make her feel better. If she were on deck, he would come up behind her and slip his arms around her waist, lean his head down into her neck, and tell her that she was the best thing to happen to the world since air. He'd wrap her up in his big arms, kiss her dizzy, and then they'd go back to their room and he'd make her forget all about whatever was making her crazy. But he couldn't do that any more.

"Why?" She hiccupped softly. Ezra tilted her head up to address the stars. "Why? It's not fair, and you know it. You bloody well know it, and I hate you for it."

A long while passed before she was all cried out. A longer while passed before she slung her legs over the low railing of the Crow's Nest and climbed down the rigging. The familiar roughness of hemp rope scraped her palms and the soles of her bare feet, and the wood of the deck steadied her when she jumped the last few feet. Her boots and stockings waited by the mainmast where she had laid them, and she trusted that no one had put anything slimy in them while she hadn't been looking.

Ezra sat down with her back to the mast while she pulled her stockings back on, and her boots over those. There were footsteps all around her as the crew wandered back and forth restlessly across the deck, but one pace of footfall tightened the muscles in Ezra's shoulders.

"I was wondering where you had gone off to, Ezranya."

" 'Lo, Caelron," she said. "Kept yourself out of trouble today, I hope. Don't want to be hearin' from any of my crew that you were underfoot."

"Really, Ezra, I've been on ships long enough to know what needs to be done, and how."

Was it her imagination, or had he sounded snappy? She could only hope he would get so annoyed with her that he would leave her alone completely. She wouldn't bet too much of her purchase on it, but she could most definitely hope.

Ezra looked up at her fellow captain as she tugged her left boot back onto her foot. "So what do you want, Caelron? I'm in no mood for any of your indecent behavior."

"You seemed…out of sorts today," he answered. A smile brightened his mouth. "It was as if you were a bird with a broken wing—you wanted to fly, but something wouldn't let you. Speaking of things that weigh you down," his smile changed to a teasing smirk, "where's your First Mate?"

Ezra frowned up at Caelron. If he had noticed her mood, and Rider's absence, who else had noticed? What did they think? How was she going to explain it?

"None of your floggin' concern, Caelron."

She got to her feet and stalked off. Caelron followed. "My dear, you are truly no good at lying."

"I never lied, Caelron," she snapped. "I was raised that lyin' was an act of cowardice, and I'm no coward. I just said that it was none of your concern where my First Mate is. And I'll thank you to cut it with the badly hidden innuendos. There is nothing between me and Rider."

"'Rider' now, is it?"

"Shut it, Caelron!"

"Captain?"

Ezra stopped and turned toward the voice that had interrupted her argument. Keriam stood at the hatch to the lower decks. She could barely see his face, but the mustache and neatly trimmed goatee against pale skin gave him away. She was fairly sure that he was frowning.

"What's wrong?"

"We've gotten word back from, erm, Rider, Captain," Keriam answered. "You should come."

Ezra made a quick pace over to the hatch and stepped down before she realized that, once again, Caelron had acted like her little puppy and followed her. It was Keriam that held his arm out and stopped Caelron. "Just the Captain, actually. I'm sure she'll let everyone know what's happening as soon as she thinks fit to do so." Caelron, surprisingly, fell back. Ezra smiled as she continued down the stairs. She could get used to having Keriam on board.

Once the hatch was shut behind the young Commander, Ezra turned in the glowglobe - lit hallway to see Keriam's eyes when he gave her the bad news. "So, what's the word with our spy, then?"

To her surprise, Keriam smiled cheerfully. "I lied, Captain. There's been no new letter since this evening before dinner."

Ezra's mouth dropped and she let loose a string of confused gibberish. "Then…then what was that?"

"When I came up, I saw our guest pestering you and I decided to ride to your rescue. Now," he offered her his arm, "would you like to join the other Commanders and myself in a game of cards as we while away our time before the next transaction with our Prince?"

Ezra laughed out loud and took his arm. "Lead the way."

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Alec did not see the mysterious Zirellia Ianthe until he had finished retying every knot on deck near noon the next day. He was thoroughly disgusted with himself for ever having the insane idea that becoming part of the crew of the Brotherhood would help him glean information that would help in the attack. He was even beginning to think that Captain Ezra's plan to simply sail out of Tourmaline and wait until the Brotherhood was within shooting range, then let loose and fire was the better course of action after all.

The sun beat down on his shirt-back and Alec went to the water barrel for a drink. He lifted the ladle to his dry mouth and tilted it back. What didn't go past his lips, dribbled down his chin and neck. Alec was using the back of his hand to wipe away the rivulets of water from his face when he saw the strange woman emerge from the hatch to the lower decks. She left the darkness below and made her way under the bright sun to the front of the ship, where the bowsprit pointed west.

Intrigued, Alec approached the elegant lady at the bow cautiously, unsure why such a refined creature would be on a ship manned by pirates. This was hardly the place for delicate young ladies, and Zirellia Ianthe seemed to fit that pattern from her pale-blonde curls piled into a bun to the hem of her dress—a soft pink one today.

"G'day, my lady," he greeted her softly so as not to startle her.

She looked over her right shoulder in order to see him with her good eye and again the deep blue of them caught him. Her faint smile and nod to return his greeting was polite, but committed to nothing. Alec felt as if part of his home life had been transplanted here, and the contrast to what he saw around him jarred him. He felt that he had a better grasp of the etiquette required.

"Sleep well?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you. Your name is…Rider, yes?" she asked, still speaking over her shoulder.

"Aye, my lady."

She smiled and turned around fully to face him. "Rider. It is nice to see you again. I was sorry we didn't get a chance to speak more last night before they pulled you away to do more chores."

"It's what I'm here for, I s'pose." He shrugged.

"Still," she persisted, "I am sorry."

When she didn't say anything else, Alec tried a new approach—something, he hoped, that Rider would do, and not think twice about. He was going to ask her a direct question. "I hope I don't seem forward, Lady Zirellia, but…" he searched for a polite way to phrase his question, but remembered the role he played. Rider wouldn't know a polite way to ask… "Well, my lady, what are you doing with a bunch of pirates?"

Her light brows lifted and her pretty pink lips parted to take in a soft gasp. "My, you are bold."

"My apologies, my lady," Alec amended quickly. "You don't have to answer. I was just curious. People've always said t'was my worst habit."

He started to back away, conscious of the fact that he had offended her. She might be some sort of prisoner here, for whatever purpose. Perhaps what she had been through was too horrible for her to speak about, especially to a complete stranger. What had possessed Alec to even ask her, he couldn't say. "Very sorry, my lady, to have bothered you. I'll just be goin' then."

"No, don't," she called to him. "Please stay. You…are new on board, yes? I have memorized the faces of the other crewmembers, but I do not know your face, Rider. Have you just signed on?"

Alec stopped his retreat along the suddenly deserted deck. He nodded. "Y—aye. I convinced the Captain to let me sign on when I heard him talkin' 'bout takin' Remalna. I sailed for them a whiles back, before they threw me out." Alec stopped, fearing that he might have said too much. It may look suspicious if he kept babbling.

"Ah! Revenge." Lady Zirellia nodded as though this made perfect sense. "I know about the desire for revenge against those that do you a wrong. So then, Rider, you want to make the Remalnans pay for their untimely discharge of your services. Is that all?"

"Well, I want the money, of course." He shrugged. What did Ezranya call it? "The purchase," he added. "Gold does a lot to persuade a man, and I heard that the Brotherhood brings in a goodly amount of purchase. The last ship I was on hardly managed to get me a fistful of coin in months."

"You are very correct, Rider," Zirellia said, her smile back in place. "Gold is quite the incentive. But I never answered your question, did I?"

"My…? Oh!" He had honestly forgotten that he had asked her anything. Better keep your head about you, he cautioned himself.

"Remember? You asked me what I was doing aboard a pirate ship." She strolled over to Alec's side, her attention on the fingers she slid along the rail as she moved closer to him. "It is rather a long story, Rider. I…I am not certain that I should tell it to you, since you are now a part of the Brotherhood."

From the corners of his eyes he checked, once again, to see if there was even one other crewman on deck. There seemed to be no one, as far as he could tell. "Is it something bad they've done to you?" he asked quietly, on the off chance that someone might overhear.

Her chin dipped to her chest before she looked up to stare into his face with her good eye. The deep blue was swimming with tears. "Bad? No, Rider, not bad. Not to me, anyway. My family, however…."

Alec quietly waited for her to continue, but her emotions seemed to have chocked the words in her throat. He opened his mouth to tell her that she could simply discontinue her tale. "My lady, I—"

"Please," she interrupted, "there are no titles aboard this ship, except that of captain and the mates. Here I am simply Zirellia, and I would be pleased if you would address me as such, Rider."

"V-very well. I was only going to say that if the story pained you, you didn't have to finish. It's really none of my business, anyhow."

"Rider, that is honorable of you. Has anyone ever told you that you are a very honorable man?" Alec shook his head and could quite honestly tell her that no one had ever called Rider an honorable man before. "Well, you are. No one else here has ever held such regard for my feelings. But that is not the reason I hesitated to go on. I hesitated because, as I said, you are part of the Brotherhood now. Surely your first loyalty must be to them, regardless of my troubles."

"My la—er, Zirellia," Alec corrected himself, "my loyalty to the crew would not stand if they harmed such a lady as yourself."

Lady Zirellia bestowed her smile upon the Prince again, and he felt his face begin to heat. "Sweet Rider." She stepped nearer still and turned her whole head so that she could see to each end of the deck. When she spoke again, her voice was low. "Can I trust you?"

"Of course."

Her smile widened when there was no hesitation to his answer. She took Alec by the arm and led him to the stern of the ship, at the very back so that they would be able to see anyone who chanced to come their way. "Since you are new here, and have not had the time to form strong ties with the crew, you must be the best choice to tell my secret to. It…it is my family, you see…. They…they've been taken as hostages by the captain."

"But, why?"

"Because of what I can do," she said softly before turning her face away from him.

Alec was beginning to sense something awful had happened to this young woman. He experienced a strange, sudden burst of protectiveness and sympathy. "He's holding your parents because you can do something for him? What?"

When she looked back up at him, her blind eye was like clouded glass, and the bright blue one was brimming with tears. A single drop fell from her blue eye and slid down her cheek as her full bottom lip trembled with repressed emotion. Alaraec watched her with an overwhelming sense of helplessness coupled with an underlying pity for her predicament. Zirellia's perfect heart-shaped face was still upturned towards his and he could feel her warm breath ease out against him, her lips now slightly parted in soundless plea. Plea for what? He wondered.

Zirellia obviously saw his lack of initiative, so she took his hand and placed it against her tear-stained cheek, eyes drifting close as she nuzzled his palm. Alec stood rooted with shock for a moment, feeling a tingling sensation begin in his palm and travel up his arm before yanking his hand back most forcefully. "My lady!" he exclaimed, belatedly recalling that Rider would have most probably taken advantage of the situation and offered Zirellia a shoulder to cry on.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with a delicate silk handkerchief. "I'd thought…" she trailed off, waving her hands before her, exuding an aura of vulnerability.

Alec watched her for a moment from beneath lowered lashes before giving a quick glance around to ensure that they still had their privacy. Strangely enough, there was no one on deck save the two of them. "I'm willin' to lend you a listenin' ear should you need one, Zirellia," he murmured.

"But not comfort?" she questioned almost dryly, her tears now a thing of the past. Alec felt a sense of déjà vu settle over him. Had he not instinctively offered 'comfort' to Ezra a while back? True, it had only been an arm about her shoulders—almost brotherly—but, the idea of comforting Zirellia, however, had not crossed his mind at all. He hardly knew her, and, besides, she needed help, not comfort, he rationalized.

Outwardly, he just gave her what he hoped passed off as an embarrassed grin in response to her question. "I'm but a cabin boy Zirellia. Here you are dressed befittin' the station of a grand lady. I didn't think someone of your rank would be desirous of the attentions of a mere cabin boy, much less the comfort he could provide." He shrugged his shoulders and took a small, sheepish step backwards, thinking that the explanation would satisfy her. It did.

She smiled a sad smile, once again the beautiful, serene young woman that she was. "No matter. Didn't you want to know what I could do?" He nodded. "I can do many things," she continued, "things you wouldn't even think possible. I can create fire, rage storms and bring hail amongst others. Are you impressed? Do you like me?" she asked out of the blue.

He laughed, attempting to disguise his nervousness and discomfort. "Um, yes. And, I doubt that you'd require any special powers to make anyone like you, Zirellia. You're a beautiful woman. Beauty attracts attention."

"A beautiful blind woman, Rider," she corrected him, her tone changing just slightly. "Always blind. Is that why you do not desire me, Rider? Like all the other men on this ship? Does my blindness scare you? Does it diminish my beauty?" she stepped in towards him like a predator backing its prey into a corner and he involuntarily took a step back.

"No, Zirellia. I desire you for a friend. I want to help you if I can. Your blindness does not scare me in fact, it makes you all the more intriguing to me," he said, wanting to placate her, to banish her doubts.

"You lie," she accused bitterly. Then she turned from him and stepped away.

His hand shot out to grasp her arm, halting her in mid-stride. "I do not." Alaraec felt that Zirellia played an important role in the course of future events. He didn't bother trying to explain it—magic ran in his family, so he tallied it up to belated intuition meeting ability to read people. He knew that he had to gain her trust to know more.

"Prove it," she shot back in a low voice, blue eye glittering dangerously.

"How?"

"Any ideas?"

Alec stared at her not knowing what kind of response was warranted. "Quite a few, actually," he replied, forcing himself back into character. "But for all I know you could be the Captain's daughter and he'll kill me if I so much as touch you."

"If you do not desire me just say it," she replied, almost losing her composure. "Do not accuse me of being a liar."

"I'm sorry. That did not come out quite as I had intended it to. It's just that I don't believe one such as yourself to be lacking in suitors. And," he continued with a new thought occurred to him, "if you are indeed capable of the magic you claim to possess, you should be able to save your family and escape the Brotherhood."

She was looking at him with an odd glint in her eye. Was it appraisal?

She blinked and the glint was gone. "Things are far more complicated than that, dear Rider." She closed her eyes for a moment as if deep in thought. When she reopened them she said with conviction, "Captain Edselvron isn't my father, and I intend to claim one of those…ideas." She turned her back to him and glided away. "'Til we meet again, my brave Rider," she called over her shoulder.

Alec stared after her retreating back. He had hit a nerve with the voicing of his opinions with regards to her lack of suitors and the magic she supposedly possessed. But what was the nerve sensitive to? He shook his head to clear it and smiled wryly as the old adage of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire flitted into his mind. He had escaped the heated bickering with Ezra only to meet Zirellia and become tangled in attempted seduction. While both women were argumentative when their ends didn't come about, that there the similarity ended.

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A/N: Another dimension to Zirellia is revealed! We hope this raises some questions with regards to her character. We spent eons discussing her history, motives and possible future, and all this over email! No easy feat I tell you. Tell us what you think about her so far, your own theories etc.

As I've mentioned to Sheyana over MSN/Yahoo Chat, PP will be coming to an end soon. We can see it in the horizon. The epilogue is pretty much in the bag – at least, thought process wise. We've got the cute, fluffy, re-unification scene and the farewell scene pretty much down pat. Or at least I do.

EG has been exceptionally busy this past week and will be so for another week, so she has yet to edit chapter 22 (that I wrote!) or reply to my numerous emails. I run that girl ragged I tell you. Let's give her a break! While she's busy though and till she replies, I'll be working on my long-forgotten fic Heart Duel! To those of you who have yet to notice, I've just updated it with chapter 17! Forgive the shameless self-promotion. I know it's been a long while, but I also know that there are those of you who still want to read it right? Please do read it and REVIEW as well!

Lastly, we have provided you guys with a pronunciation guide to our character names and places.

Pronunciation Guide:

Ezranya ehz-RUN-yah

Alaraec eh-LER-wreck

Caelron cay-EL-ron

Fyn FIN

Dita DEE-tah

Thanyl Keriam tha-NIAL kee-RI-um

Stamford STAM-ferd

Nerone NUH-rone

Zirellia Zee-RAY-lia

Tourmaline Tor-MAH-leen

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Thanks to all Reviewers:

Windsurf: Your review was nice and long! We do try to describe our settings but certainly in not much detail since they're on the sea most of the time. Also, we figured everyone already has their impressions of Athanarel through CCD so there was no need to elaborate. However, as and when we make this an original, you can be sure that there'll be more descriptive scenes and embellishments! Glad you liked the added pizzazz, we weren't sure on what to do with this part of the fic in the beginning, but all the spying thing came to me one day, EG liked it so we used it! Once again, thanks for reading this fic and especially for reading it in order.

OneSassyPickle: With regards to where our protagonists are headed for romance, well, what do you think? No, I haven't given up completely on HD, I've just updated it!

SoccerFreak2516: Good guess! We can't have a smooth-going relationship now, can we? Not that their relastionship is far from tumultuous at the moment. You have to tell us to keep up the good work so that we know we're still maintaining our writing standards or achieving higher ones.

Sheyana: You're the only one who asked for the Pronunciation Guide but we put it up for everyone anyway! What do you think of Zirellia now?

Alcapacien: I know the answer to the "Is he gonna fall in love with Zirellia" question you seem to be asking, but I can't give you a definite answer for obvious reasons. She's not a goddess just a mage and whether or not she exposes him waits to be seen.

Trina-k, Wake-Robin, BrownEyedAthena: Thanks for reviewing but you guys should write longer reviews, seriously! Any comments, ways to improve, anything?

P.S Please check out my first ever fic Heart Duel, that suffered due to my 8-month-long writer's block. Review it after reading! I want to see how many people are still interested in it, because that'll affect the duration of time it takes for the next chap to come – if it comes at all, and the amount of time I spend on it as compared to PP. I'll keep writing though. I want to see it completed by May.)

REVIEW!

FS&EG