Pirate Princess

Chapter 25: Accomplished

While the royal mages did their work, Ezra and Keriam kept the possessed pirates at bay. Ezra felt her strength seeping out of her weary arms as she hacked and slashed at her enemies, her knees quivered slightly in her boots. She didn't even want to think about how injured she was.

"Commander!" cried one of the mages, desperately trying to remain focused on his task while conversing. "Her shields are weakening. On my word, kill her!"

Keriam dispatched the last pirate he was dueling with an elbow smash to the nose, shattering bone. With Ezra instinctively moving to watch his back, he stood before Zirellia's trembling form in a defensive posture, his blade point two feet away from her heart. The magical symbols the royal mages had been continuously weaving in the air flared brightly at the instant the same mage yelled, "Now!"

Ezra risked a glance over her shoulder to watch the sorceress's death. Keriam seemed to move in slow motion. The smoke screen fizzled out and Zirellia's mortal body was defenseless. She hissed in a breath through bared teeth and hereyes flew wide open, filled with a burning anger that manifested itself in a screetch that drew every one of the Brotherhood not dead or dying to her side. One man surprised Keriam and threw him to the deck. His sword flew out of his grasp, clattering noisily on the deck. The mages immediately jumped in in an attempt to magically bind her.

Although she was being attacked from three fronts Zirellia was able to hold her own, engaging with one then another of the mages with ease. She might have been able to go on for quite some time, if the Crusader hadn't fired the deathblow cannon shot into the hull. Zirellia's concentration—as well as the concentration of the other mages—was broken. With a sharp cry of outrage, the sorceress clutched the railing for support as her ship rocked. With her broken concentration, so went whatever spell was on the Brotherhood. The pirates that had before been soley focused on killing, now seemed to realize that there was no hope of victory.

"Mistress Zirellia!" one shouted as he ran to the mage. He grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her away from the Remalnans. "Come! We are getting a boat, and we are getting out of here!"

"No!" she screamed. "My master will have your souls…!"

"Your master will have our souls if you're killed," he countered.

Zirellia shrieked, wordlessly, and then allowed herself to be led to the single life boat that the remaining pirates had launched. Ezra, Keriam, the mages, and several of the Remalnan naval sailors rushed to the side in time to see the boat hit the water. The sorceress glared up at them, her blind eye useless. She spoke words too soft to hear in the chaos, and then opened her mouth wide, tongue pointed to her chin. From her jaws seemed to spill a dense fog, and from the fog a demon's face rose up and forced them all back from the rail. When they looked again, the boat had disappeared.

Again, the ship tilted dangerously, but this time it didn't resettle. The Red Lantern was sinking. And it was still moored to the Valiant by the Raven's Claw in its railing. Ezra hissed a curse and made a quick break for the Valiant. "Everyone back home! We have to get off this thing before it takes us down with it!"

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Vidanric made full use of the height advantage provided by the horse against his opponents, swinging his blade with a ferocity that matched his steed's flailing, iron-shod hooves. The beast beneath him had already suffered nicks and cuts, bleeding from numerous wounds all over its body. It's rider was far more lucky, and as yet unharmed.

His movement had been severely hampered by the cavalcade of soldiers that had automatically fallen into the formation that best protected him. That extra line of defense, however, had not stopped a livid Edselvron from lashing out at him, ducking beneath the soldiers' swords. Vidanric was a skilled swordsman and horseman and easily defended himself against the pirate captain's vicious attack. But the hardy buccaneer was a superb fighter, as well, and fended off his various opponents with aplomb, completely focused on his quarry.

Edselvron did not know why he was dead set on killing the supremely confident commander. He just knew he had to. One of them was not leaving this makeshift battlefield alive. His men were outnumbered and he knew it, he also knew that they would fight to the end, for failure was not an option – neither was capture.

A crow's caw rang out in the air above the fighting men and women, its echo suspended for an instant, like the death knell. Edselvron looked up to see Zirellia's pet circling high above and called out to it.

"Curse 'em all!" he cried, his yell distorting the features in his craggy face.

The bird seemed to understand Edselvron's words, circling down towards the knot of soldiers surrounding the duelling Vidanric and Edselvron. Halfway through its descent, it flapped its dark wings with such an intensity that it nosedived, flying straight at Vidanric, its sharp beak intent on doing harm.

Alaraec found his father fighting to stay atop his horse while fending of assault from both land and air, man and bird. The soldiers around the king were a mingling chaos, fighting off other pirates while trying to eject Edselvron from their protective circle.

Running into the fray, Alec yelled for the horsemen to move their mounts out of the way. "Get away from the king!" The fighting circle or pirates and soldiers seemed to pause for a moment as both parties eyed him suspiciously.

"Alec!" exclaimed Vidanric in relief, glancing at his son through the disintegrating wall of men and horse between them, making known the true identity of this scruffy 'pirate' to the soldiers around him.

That second of confusion for the pirates was all Alec needed to send one of his retrieved daggers in its deadly flight towards Edselvron's heart. The second dagger flew wide of its intended target – the crow. The bird flapped about erratically in attempt to regain balance, and abandoned it's assault on Vidanric. It seemed to glare balefully at Alec for a moment with its one good eye, hovering up above them. Suddenly, it let out a screech that could have been interpreted as anger or despair, and flew off in the general direction of the Red Lantern ignoring the fighting that re-ensued below it.

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The sound of barking alerted Ezra to the shape of a dog that had finally made its way on deck. Ash was warning off a crow that had flown in from shore and now tried to land on the railing of the Red Lantern. Ezra cursed silently and rushed for the dog. She cut the head off of the distracted crow quickly and watched its body and severed head disintegrate into clumps of ashes that fell into the water.

That was odd, she thought, too distracted to give it its due credence. Then she knelt by the dog and hoped that the smell of blood didn't cover up her own scent so badly that the animal wouldn't know her. "Come on, Ash," she said. "It's me. You know me."

Ash whined in bewilderment, but finally allowed Ezra to pet him. "Good boy. Now c'mon back with me!" Together they ran for the last of the planks that connected the Valiant to the Red Lantern.

The few Brotherhood members that were left tried desperately to make it to their own lifeboats, or they hitched across the planks with their attackers, willing to take their chances in enemy hands. The royally issued sailors had their hands on one or two prisoners who they thought might be able to provide useful information when they were interrogated, but other than those few—no more than seven in all—the faction of Brotherhood of the Damned aboard the Red Lantern was destroyed.

A hand landed on Ezra's shoulder as she watched the other ship sink, and she had her sword up and ready before she recognized the body it was part of belonged to Keriam. Luckily, he hadn't dropped his sword yet, and he had quick reflexes and training that had honed them, so he was able to block the thrust before it did any damage. It did Ezra no credit that it was a sloppy attack and she had been caught off guard. As soon as she recognized Keriam, she let out a huge breath and let her arm go limp.

"Nice to see you," she said.

"Likewise. I came to tell you that Caelron would like a word on the other side of the deck."

Ezra craned her neck to look at the starboard side where the Crusader slipped passed in the dark. She could make out Caelron's form as he called out orders to his men. With a last groan, she sheathed her blade and made her way across the deck to face him.

The man was cleaner than anyone aboard her own ship, she noted sourly. "What now?"

"I just wanted to wish you farewell, Ezranya!" he called back to her. "My men and I don't feel the need to slosh around here and wait for the Crown to haul us in. We'll take our chances out on the water, but thank you all the same."

"You're going?"

"Yes." The sun had well and truly set. Not even a thick, reminiscent blue provided light to see his face, but Ezra thought she might have just been able to make out the expression of regret. "One day I hope to see you on the waves again."

She had nothing to say to that, nothing to assure him or ease the pain of her exile. Instead, she waved him off and watched as the Crusader sailed away from another grand adventure. She almost wished she still hated Caelron. It would have made her feel better.

"Where are they going, Captain?"

Ezra slipped her thumbs into the sword belt at her hips and leaned back against the rail to face the three Commanders. "They're off. They did their part, and Caelron's not about to let his crew get dry-docked like mine is. And no chasin' after them! They were a help, and there's no repaying that with trying to turn them in, got it?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Keriam answered for the group. Ezra was tired, so her perceptiveness wasn't up to standard, but she was fairly certain she heard a smile in that man's voice.

"Shall I give the order to take us in to shore, Captain?" he asked. "We need to meet up with His Highness and His Majesty and see how they have fared in the battle."

Oh yeah. Rider. "Take us in, Keriam. Rider and I still need to have us a little chat."

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Alaraec stepped from out of the healers' tent out onto the soft sand. The sky was peppered with bright stars, and the wind blew pleasantly off the ocean to help clean away the scent of spilled blood. The soldiers were still carrying the bodies of the pirates down to the beach from inside the walls of Sakhino to the pyre they had built. Alec put a tentative hand to his side where the stitches were, and started off to find his father and learn what was being done with the captives, and what the plan was from here on out. He found Vidanric and several of the higher-ranking officers farther down the beach. They watched as the five ships sailed closer to shore, and several rowboats were dropped so that the captains and commanders of each could come ashore.

The King looked up at Alec when he came into view. He gave his son an approving nod, and a faint smile in welcome. "How are you, then? Patched up?"

"Yes. The healer said not to bend deeply or strain myself for about two weeks," Alec answered. "I'll be fine. You?"

"A damned crow gave me a scratch on the cheek." Danric replied absently, his injury already forgotten. "We were just discussing the likely time it will take for the citizens of the city to be able to move back into their homes. We had to evacuate them in a rush, so obviously they were unable to take much. They will be eager to get home, and we simply do not have the supplies here to accommodate this many people for an extended time."

Alaraec understood, and fell into conversation with the other men and women easily.

Ezra's skiff rasped against the sand as it came close to shore. She didn't bother with waiting until it was on the beach, though, and neither did Ash. They both jumped out when the water was only at Ezra's shin and waded forward. The dog took off running as soon as he was able, and Ezra searched up the beach in the direction he was headed until she found the long blond braid she was looking for. Oh, she was so ready to hurt him.

"Rider!"

Alec looked away from his discussion with his father and the others to see the owner of the voice charging up the beach toward him. It was dark, but Ezra stalking angrily toward him was a sight he was already very familiar with. The smaller shape of Ash rushing toward him brought a smile to his face as easily as the sight of Ezra put him on his guard.

"Hello, boy!" Alec greeted his dog. "Good to see you. Good to see you, as well, Captain. You seem a bit upset."

"A bit. You hurt?" she asked, barely five strides away.

"I was stabbed," he informed her, straightening up again.

"Oh?" Two strides away. "That's a shame." She stopped right in front of him and swung her fist en route for his face.

Alec was glad for the years of training that took over his surprise at her actions. He blocked her incoming fist with his forearm and pressed it down in a circle so that he could grab her wrist. She tried with her left hand and he grabbed that one two. Ezra growled between her teeth and stepped into him. Alec was prepared for all manner of attack, except for the manner that Ezra chose.

She leaned in, tilted her head to the side and kissed him. It was soft and left enough room for Ezra to swipe across Alec's upper lip with the tip of her tongue. He was so surprised that he let her wrists drop and jerked slightly back from her. Ezra hauled back and hit him hard just on the side of his left eye. The momentum of her punch, added to his reaction to her kiss, tipped him backwards, and Ezra helped him fall with a swing of her leg that caught the back of his knee. The Prince went down hard on the sand, causing the stab wound in his side sent lightening bolts of pain up his side to halt his breath.

"Ah-ow!" Alec reached over and grabbed his side. "What…?"

Ash barked up at her, very offended at what she had just done to his master. The former pirates that had come ashore with Ezra, and even the Commanders, hung their heads down and tried to keep their laughter quiet. Ezra ignored both.

"You sneak off my boat without telling me what you're planning—coward—and you put yourself on the Brotherhood's ship. If they'd'a found you, lack wit, they woulda keelhauled your spyin' traitorous self. Do you even know what keelhauling is? That's when they tie your arms at one end of the boat, drop the line underneath, then pull you along the underside of the ship. Storm it! They probably woulda slit your belly first, just for the fun of seein' your innards get shredded on the barnacles on their underside! And all this, while you're my responsibility! Who would he—" she pointed to the King— "have strung up if you'd gone and gotten yourself killed, huh? Not your commanders, that's for damned sure! Me!"

Vidanric defended himself on that point. "I would not have blamed you for the admittedly foolish and headstrong actions of my son, Mistress Fyn."

Ezra turned the fire of her glare onto the King. "First of all, I wasn't talking to you. Second of all, that's not the point!" She returned to Alec, still with his butt in the sand, flabbergasted and in some lingering pain. "The point is that it could have happened, and the Prince of Selfish Stupidity here wasn't thinking about that. Were you?"

"I…I am very sorry. You are right, I should have told you of my plans to your face," Alec replied. He thought that it was probably best just to agree with her, or Ezra might continue yelling at him at great length, and he would have liked to get up off the ground at some point that night. He had a feeling his wound would need to be re-stitched.

His acquiescence soothed Ezra's anger somewhat, and the exhaustion from the battle had begun to drag at her reserves. She didn't have the strength left to keep arguing. A pounding headache began to make its presence known at the top of her skull, and the queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach didn't bode well.

"Yes, well…at least you admit it," she said, and reached up to brush one of her braids back from her face. When her hand traveled by her nose, she caught a whiff of the blood that had seeped and dried into the cracks of the skin on her palm. She looked at her hand, still stained a little red, even though she had tried to wipe them off. Her stomach flopped over. "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go puke."

She stumbled off up the beach and over a little dune.

Costran strutted forward while the King and Commander Keriam helped Alaraec to his feet. "See? We warned ya she'd take a swing at ya eventually."

"Congratulations on your accurate assessment." Alec reached up to tentatively touch his eye. It's already swelling. Beautiful.

"Still, she didn't break your nose," Bear pointed out. "And I've gotta hand it to you, you've mastered what it takes some men decades to learn. With women folk, sometimes it's best to nod and agree."

"My son was always a fast learner," the King said.

Alec tried to take a deep breath in annoyance, but his wound complained that there would be none of that, so Alec had to settle for clearing his throat. "When do we head back to Athanarel?"

"At first light," his father answered. He turned to the Commanders. "Would one of you please inform the Captain, and tell the rest of her men on the ship to come ashore. We'll be heading back to the palace by land."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Keriam volunteered. He bowed, and went to find Ezra. He came upon her huddled over behind a large stand of rough beach grass. She held her long braids away from her face and tried to catch her breath. Keriam moved up beside her and took her thick hair in his hands. He tried not to breathe too deeply as he asked, "Are you feeling better?"

Ezra sniffled and brought her wrist up to wipe her nose and mouth with the cuff of her jacket. "Not much," she admitted. When she straightened up, Keriam let her hair swing free, but stepped closer to her side to offer his support. On that thought, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. He offered it to her with a smile, and she took the hanky to blow her nose. "Thank you. Throwing up is really one of my least favorite things to do."

"I completely understand," Keriam answered. He took the handkerchief back when she offered it, and tucked it back into his jacket pocket. Keriam then gently touched Ezra's arm above the elbow and indicated back down the beach where the rest of their party waited. She took the invitation and followed his lead to rejoin the rest of the company. "Now that that unpleasantness is through, I've come to relate to you the King's plans. He wishes to leave Sakhino by first light in the morning. We'll be making our way back to the palace by land, obviously. Once at Athanarel, I would not be surprised if you were given a few days to rest, and then you and your family shall receive a royal pardon."

"Well, that's just wonderful," Ezra muttered. "What's going to happen to the Valiant?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, the ship. What are they going to do with it?" she clarified.

"Oh." He followed her gaze out into the blackness of water and sky to where the dark shadow of the ship was moored. "I honestly don't know. Perhaps you should ask the King. We're almost to him, now."

"Your Majesty!" Ezra called out. Keriam winced at the lack of decorum she exhibited, but found that it was charming, nonetheless. The King didn't seem particularly fazed by the abruptness of her tone.

"Yes, Captain?"

"The Valiant…I was just wondering what you were going to do with her now that the mission's over."

The King smiled faintly. "The Valiant will be moored here in Sakhino for repairs. Then it will be sailed to the naval port near Mardgar, where you'd set sail. Once there, the navy will reissue it."

Ezra nodded. "She's a good ship." Once again, she looked out at her hulk in the bay, and added softly, "I hope her next captain treats her well."

"I'll be sure to inform the next captain that you shall inflict vengeance if he doesn't," Keriam leaned in and promised her.

Ezra smirked up at him. "Why, thank you, Thanyl. Do that for me."

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A/N: We apologise for the late update! Thing is, we're both very busy at the moment. In fact, chapter 26 may take a while as well (it's half complete at the moment). If it'll make you feel any better though, EG has completed chapter 1 of "Gypsy Queen", the sequel to "Pirate Princess"; and the epilogue of PP is complete as well. It's the stuff in between this chapter and the epilogue that we've got to work on.

So bear with us and keep those reviews pouring in!

By the way, please check out my blog if you can. Thanks! The link is in my profile under 'Homepage'.

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Thanks to all Reviewers:

Gwendeleryn: No problemo! We're more than happy to be in a C2 community.

Cassie: I can't give anything away. What happens to Ez and Alec waits to be seen. No, she's not Oria. Oria has yet to make an appearance – we'll let you know when she does.

Rane Storm: According to a male reader/friend of mine, you can tell female from male authors by how they write, especially if the describe articles of clothing. EG and I do put in effort in coming up with nice ensembles for our characters – for our readers to visualize – so I'm glad you appreciate it!

I'm gonna try answer all your questions here so bear with me.

Alec is practically a spitting image of his father as far as I know. Mallinde is alive and well and living in the brothel plying her trade, she was just an on-the-way character and we don't intend to delve into her that much in this fic. Yes, Willem was Ezra's first everything. To find out what happens after "the fat lady sings", you'll have to keep on reading and reviewing.

I can't tell you anything about the proposal, but we're working on it! It'll probably have to be suitably romantic and quirky at the same time. Fyn's fine – sorry about not elaborating on the happenings at Athnarel very much, but we were trying to stay focused on the action. If this ever becomes an original, we might work more Athanarel stuff in. I would think Ezra misses Fyn and she could've communicated with her grandfather through Alec and his parents if she so chose but her pride probably wouldn't let her ask him for the favour. I'm pretty sure she'll recover, though whether or not Alec helps her dress the wound waits to be seen. I don't see her having a cat, especially for no reason at all but who knows?

Her powers are pretty limited. She isn't a mage by training and so far as we've discussed it, she knows what she knows from Dita. Basically small helpful spells like creating fire etc. Nothing big or fanciful like Zirellia. Thanks for the tip!

OneSassyPickle: Mel will be making a few more appearances. We still aren't sure how many chapters there'll be, this fic just seems to keep on growing!

Rubic-cube: Ezra's still confused or in denial about Alec. Let's just hope she works out her Alec-problem soon, yeah? I can't tell you whether we'll kill off Keriam – sorry!

Autumn Faery: Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments and compliments! They made our day! We'll NEVER get an overdose of reviews although we do suffer from a lack of them (regardless of how many we receive).

DarkWyvrn: That you are. Evil, that is. We don't exactly want to depend so much on magic in our battles because that'll detract from the realistic aspect of it. There has to be a balance after all. If everyone was blasted to smithereens, there'd be no one left to fight with. But we'll try to work in more carnage in the sequel – that one won't be as straightforward. Perhaps you could help us out by giving us some ideas?

Sining: Yeah, we realized the lapse too late. Gotta work that big kink out in the future. Details, details, details! Imminently hard to write. We're trying our best though. Hopefully this chapter was better.

Sheyana: Yes. The fire ball lapse. It slipped our minds! The battle's done! Hope you like.)

Darkjdeg: Wow, we're very honoured and flattered! We do intend to make this an original once we complete the sequel to this fic. Then we'll give both a complete overhaul with extra scenes and greater depth.

SoccerFreak2516: We'll be sad too but don't worry, there'll be the sequel to look forward to!

Selenes Song: It was my pleasure to help a fellow CCD fanfic writer.

Erkith: Thanks for taking the effort to review. is stupid sometimes. We didn't get any begging reviews although this chapter took a long time. Haha. The battle was pretty much how we'd wanted it to be – from 2 perspectives. The twice written chapter just created more scenarios that we could play with. I can't tell you what happens to Keriam, you'll have to wait and see. You're welcome.

REVIEW!

FS&EG