Hi everyone!
I hope you all are being safe and taking care of yourselves (both physically and mentally) during this pandemic. Unfortunately, I have not had as much time to write lately, as my company has been working to produce chemicals for a Covid vaccine, and I have been working long hours. However, I am taking a vacation this week, and I am already working on the next chapter! Only 3-4 more left before the end!
Please feel free to private message me or leave reviews urging me to update. Your words motivate me more than anything else. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me in the last year asking about the status of the story. It means so much to me!
Hope you all enjoy! Let me know what you think!
Happy writing!
xTAx
X
Most of the merchant ships on the docks drew their anchor at sunrise, and Serious followed suit, hoping to camouflage themselves among the rest of the masses. At first, the ships moved through the water slowly in one giant formation. The vessels were so close that some crew members held conversations from different decks, sharing trade stories and jabs at the expense of the other sailors. Theo positioned Serious in between two larger merchant ships, each flying the bright yellow of the Staphirian national flag. As the distance between ship and land grew, as did the distances between the ships themselves. Security was more lenient leaving Staphiria, as the same guard ship that had stopped them previously waved them along without much of a second look. "I guess they're more worried about who's coming than who's going," Theo muttered to himself as he waved a friendly greeting to the patrolman. He couldn't help but release a long breath as the ship sailed further away from enemy territory.
Theo sailed toward the foggy horizon with a giant grin on his face. The fog was dense and thick with salt, dampening his hair and tunic. Theo sailed blindly, relishing the feel of the morning mist on his face. Now a little over an hour outside of port, he felt the tension in his chest release. They did it. Hoarding a runaway princess and a military deserter, they had managed to sneak into Staphirian waters, land on Staphirian soil, and make it back to the comfort of the free sea without any sort of trouble. Where would they go now? What other sort of adventure awaited them among the azure waves?
The fog began to clear, splashes of blue-sky dripping through the gray. As the bowsprit cleared the mist, Theo's heart stopped. Anchored before him were a dozen massive vessels, each flying the Staphirian flag and housing scores of soldiers on their decks, rifles pointed directly at Serious.
X
The small cabin slowly began to fill with the sunlight of dawn, casting in its glow images of dusty wooden trunks and turned over lager cups. The light reflected off the sharp metal of daggers and short swords and revolvers that had been spit shined to near glass. Aelita could hear the voice of her old housekeeper in her head A princess must always keep a tidy room. If this is the care you keep for your personal space, how would you keep the affairs of your country?
But she wasn't a princess anymore, and this wasn't a kingdom; it was a small cabin in the hull of a pirate ship. She was a member of a crew of smugglers and thieves, and they did not have housekeepers to demand they fold their clothes or mind the crumbs they spilled onto the carpet. They had no country to concern themselves with, only their fellow crew and their loot. Even in the murky underbelly of a pirate ship, Aelita felt she could breathe easier than she had in the open Staphirian airs.
Odd began to awake beside her, the sun beaming hot on his face through the portkey. He turned onto his side, throwing his arm across her middle and nuzzling his face into her neck. "I think we should just stay like this all day," he muttered into her skin.
"The captain will surely not be pleased. She'll drag me and you both by the hair if she must."
"Let her," he grumbled defiantly. "We should be well out of the port by now, so all there is to do is sail and look for work."
Aelita pushed herself into a sitting position, knocking a protesting Odd onto the hard cot. "I would like to see the sun. I've been confined to the hull for the better part of a week now, and I fear my skin may soon become translucent."
"Patience, love," Odd sat up beside her, resting his chin on her shoulder. "The further we get out to sea the safer it is for you to go top side. Besides, I hear translucent skin is all the rage these days."
Aelita rolled her eyes, jumping down from the top bunk and began slipping on her now dreadfully dirty silk slippers. Theo had awoken early to take his shift at the helm, and William must have followed suit, his bunk looking as though it had never been slept in. "I never saw Ulrich come in last night," Aelita noted. Though the lot didn't retire until the moon had already begun its descent, Ulrich had failed to make an appearance.
"No need to worry. I'm sure Yumi hung him from a tree somewhere and left him to die after discovering that he was following her. If the elements haven't gotten to him by now, I'm sure the wolves have."
"Did you hear Yumi return?" Aelita brushed off his ridiculous scenario, though a part of her worried that it could actually come to pass. "What if they ran into trouble?"
Odd joined her on the floor, grabbing a tunic from his trunk and throwing it over his head. "Yumi is more than capable of taking care of herself. Maybe she found her mom and set up camp somewhere and talked all night. You must assume the positive, or this lifestyle will drive you to insanity. Besides, I doubt Theo would have actually set sail without her. That would have left me in charge, and there's not a bloody soul on this boat that wants that."
A shout from above deck interrupted them, followed by heavy footsteps down the stairs. "What about positivity?" Aelita chimed, but Odd didn't hesitate to retort, grabbing his weapons belt and running for the door.
Theo stood outside Yumi's quarters, pounding on the door frantically. Yumi appeared in the doorway moments later, her appearance disheveled as if she were awoken by the noise. Theo did not wait for a greeting, "Staphirian ships. Dozens of them. Maybe more," he said between gasps of breath.
Yumi pointed to Aelita, "below board now. Everyone else, on deck." She reached inside to grab her hat and weapons belt before running up the rickety stairs. Odd ran into the captain's quarters but stopped just in the doorframe. Aelita followed right behind, and nearly stumbled into him at the sight of Ulrich already moving the bed aside to reveal the mismatched wooden plank.
He looked up and met their gaze, glaring as if daring Odd to ask why he had spent the night in the captain's quarters. He removed the plank, offering Aelita a hand to lower her into the tight space first. Odd gave her a quick kiss to her cheek. "And here I thought we had the only forbidden romance on the ship. People are always so quick to jump on the bandwagon."
Ulrich gave Odd an unfriendly jester, the grin on his face diluting the malice of the expression, before following Aelita into the dark.
X
It wasn't long after the entire crew was settled on the deck that the bridges from two large Staphirian vessels thudded onto Serious. Soldiers flooded the space, spanning the entire perimeter of the deck, rifles raised. A man descended the plank with thunderous footsteps, his broad chest adorned with a ridiculous amount of ribbons and medals. Following close behind him was a much thinner man, his dress tunic spotless and his round spectacles set upon an unblemished face. "Search the entire ship. Tear every board apart if you must," the large man commanded.
"Excuse me," Yumi stepped forward. "We are in undeclared territory. Regardless, you have no probable cause to search my ship."
"The only probable cause I need is the intelligence that the Princess of Staphiria is on this vessel. As for undeclared territory, all the sea belongs to his majesty and his navy. If you don't like it, take it up with the gallows."
Yumi growled as soldiers rushed to the stairs to no doubt destroy her ship from the inside out. Several began climbing the bird's nest, while others knocked their rifles along the planks of the deck, no doubt listening for any hollowed spaces. "You waste your time and mine. I am the only female on this ship, least of all a princess."
As the words left her mouth, a scream was heard from below decks, and Odd's heart stopped in his chest. He watched as Yumi went rigid, yet her face showed no signs of guilt or fear. He could hear the distant sound of a struggle, and it took every ounce of strength in his blood not to rush to the stairs, to shoot every man who dared put a hand on Aelita.
Moments later, a group of soldiers arrived back on deck, three of them corralling a struggling Aelita between them. Two others had a firm grip on Ulrich's arms, but he did not struggle. Instead he moved as if walking through mud, his eyes glazed and his mouth in a hard line.
"Aelita, my love!" the thin man exclaimed, running to her. Aelita flinched beneath his touch as he cupped her face in his hands, and Odd's heart dropped in his chest. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you? I have laid awake countless nights dreaming of rescuing you at last. My god, you are so thin," the young lord rambled. So, this was the betrothed she had fled from. Handsome in his own right, but much too formal for Odd's own liking. His love and concern seemed genuine, but he could see Aelita stiffen as he wrapped his arms around her. As innocent as his intentions may be, Odd wanted nothing more than to march up to the blond boy and give his face its first black eye.
"It seems that your truth has revealed itself, captain," the Naval commander hissed the title as if it were a joke. "Not that it matters, but how do you suppose the missing princess came to be in the underbelly of your ship?"
Yumi made brief eye contact with Ulrich, and Odd could see the pain in that glance. An unspoken agreement, no doubt. Odd expected Yumi to regale the story that was: Aelita fleeing a loveless engagement followed by her loyal soldier, seeking passage on a harmless merchant vessel. Instead, however, Yumi held her chin high, taking a confident step toward the commander, separating herself from the anxious crew behind her. "She came to be on the ship because I abducted her from her bed and imprisoned her."
The crew was deadly silent. Theo's face did little to hide the surprise he felt, his mouth hanging open slightly. William stood stiff next to him, his hands in fists at his sides. Leonard had began crying instantly, but kept his sobs silent. Odd could hear nothing but the ringing in his ears as his blood began pumping very, very fast. The commander also seemed taken aback by the blatant confession. "And the soldier? Was he a part of your plan as well?"
"A minor inconvenience, but he proved to be useful in other capacities." Odd didn't think he imagined Ulrich sinking further into himself, fighting the urge to step forward and deny everything she said. "I threatened the rest of my crew to keep quiet about their presence and to not ask any questions. Their compliance only comes from the threats I gave. Leave this ship and its crew to the sea; I can promise you will never see these sails in Staphiria again. Take me as your lone prisoner. I will take whatever punishment the crown thinks fits the crime."
"Yumi, what are you doing?" Aelita shrieked. She turned toward Ulrich, "say something! Tell them this is all a lie."
Ulrich starred at Yumi, whose eyes refused to leave the Naval commander's. He made as if to speak, but closed his mouth quickly, reverting his gaze to the boards beneath his feet. Odd saw Yumi's jaw twitch, the only sign of acknowledgement she had given.
He couldn't take this anymore.
"It was I who kidnapped the princess. It should be me in chains," Odd stepped forward, standing tall next to Yumi.
"He's lying. He's simply trying to protect his captain," Yumi said, her eyes unmoving from the naval officer, but Odd could hear the slight quiver in her voice. He knew that if they were to make it out of this ordeal alive, she would surely see him hung from the mast for this. He didn't care; he couldn't watch her sacrifice herself. He couldn't sit idly by on her ship while she was left to rot or hang from the gallows with no one to mourn her. The thought in itself was enough to make his stomach drop. If the ending of this grand adventure was death, then they would do it together, as they had done everything else their entire lives.
"Her room was in the Northernmost tower," he began before he could be interrupted. "I entered through the window to the kitchens, ran up two flights of stairs, and through two white double doors with handles in the shape of a solar eclipse. I distracted the guards with what I thought was a pretty poor imitation of Elizabeth Delmas, but they were too tired and/or stupid to tell the difference. My intention was to kill the princess in her bed, but I thought her use better as a hostage than a corpse."
"He's lying! I came willingly!" Aelita objected.
"Get the princess inside; she's gone into hysterics," the commander ordered. "I have no time to debate who is at fault here. See these two chained in the hold. They will be taken straight to the bastille to await the gallows."
"Don't you lay a finger on them!" Aelita screamed, thrashing against the soldiers trying to carry her aboard. "As the Princess of Staphiria I command you to let myself and the rest of this crew go."
"Aelita, darling, it is okay. You're safe now," Jeremie attempted to soothe.
"Do not touch me!" she snarled, her eyes full of fire. "I left Staphiria on my own, found refuge on this ship, and was treated with nothing but kindness and respect. I even fell in love," she locked eyes with Odd at that, a plea for help. A plea he could not answer, as desperately as he wanted to. As much as he wanted to run to her and leap over the edge of the ship and swim to the nearest spec of land so that they could live the rest of their days together, he knew he couldn't. This was a dangerous game they had played, and he knew the only outcome that saw to her safety also saw to his own death.
"I said take her away," the commander growled. "And get these two pieces of filth in chains at once."
X
As soon as her feet hit the Staphirian ship and the princess was out of sight, Yumi was knocked down, beaten, and dragged below decks. She had not seen Odd or where they took him, but she could hear his grunts as he undoubtably received the same treatment. Her worry for his safety barely eclipsed the guttural anger she felt at him for stepping forward. Her blood was all that was demanded, yet he blindly accepted responsibility for the kidnapping, and for what: to impress Aelita? If the princess had her way, Yumi did not doubt for a second that she would have chosen to stay on Serious and grow old with Odd for the rest of their days, so what was he trying to prove? Serious was a Della-Robbia ship, and she needed a Della-Robbia captain. The thought of Odd dying on the decks of a Staphirian vessel sent her stomach into knots.
Yumi sat in a heap in the corner of her cell, clutching her ribs and trying to ignore the taunts form the Staphirian guardsmen. Apparently, they had never seen a woman before, let alone had one in close enough proximity to talk to, because they were clearly absent during their mothers' lessons on etiquette. They called her whore and prodded her with questions that would make even the filthiest of pirates blush. What would their queen say if she heard such language?
She distracted herself by surveying every inch of the makeshift cell they had created for her. Iron bars thick enough to keep cattle at bay surrounded the small area, the floor coated in mud and hay and an aroma that could only be human piss. She hadn't been given any water or even a bucket to relieve herself in. The rest of the room was fairly bare and held even less room than her cage. Two guards stood outside the bars, armed with military grade rifles and the smirk of arrogance. There was only one exit point from the room, no portkey or grate to glimpse the outside world. Even if she did have her pistols and her body wasn't broken, the circumstances seemed too great for even the captain of Serious to overcome.
A series of voices could be heard barely through the thick wooden door. The guard who was keeping watch in the corridor gave two sharp knocks. "Vacate the room," he demanded.
The two jeering guards straightened, giving her one last up and down before turning to leave through the tiny door. Without their chiding, Yumi could hear more clearly the conversation in the hall.
"What? You mean to visit the whore?" one of the men asked.
"There's just something I need to do. Some closure." Ulrich's voice was tight, but it was undeniably his. Yumi's heart clenched in her chest, pushing herself to her feet despite the searing pain in her side.
"A little role reversal, huh?" a different voice said. "Stern, you dog. We'll be just outside if the harlot tries to pull any tricks on you."
The door opened, and Yumi had to hide the shock at the man in front of her. It had hardly been an hour since her capture, but Ulrich looked like days had passed. He was already clad in standard military dress, his face clean shaven, and his hair washed and styled back. Despite his tidy appearance, he seemed pale and weak, so unlike the liveliness she had seen from him just this morning.
He kept his back straight as he bolted the door behind him, but immediately ran to her as soon as the lock clicked. His clean hands grasped her filthy ones between the bars in a grip so tight Yumi briefly thought he might break her fingers.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
This close, she could see the swollen rings around his eyes, evidence of tears he must have shed in private. "I've seen better days," she admitted, fighting her own tears that threatened to spill.
"I wanted to step forward; I wanted to defend you-"
"You did exactly what we agreed upon," she said, releasing one of her hands from his to cup his face. "This is how it has to end. We both knew this day would come eventually."
"I'll get you out. I'll kill every last one of them if it means freeing you."
"Your first duty is to Aelita," she said the words softly. If there was one thing stronger than Ulrich's stubbornness, it was his honor. Though that honor had shifted from his country to his crew, one thing always remained the same. "It is your duty to protect her. You cannot leave her to chase some hopeless pirate girl."
"My first duty is to protect the ones that I love." His eyes were sharp, unmoving. He gripped the hand that held his face, lacing their fingers together. "That includes you."
Yumi swallowed the lump that had risen in her throat, but she had to be strong. Her duty called for the same sort of sacrifice. "I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, Ulrich: mistakes that I knew I would need to atone for at some point in my life. Part of me wished maybe judgement would come when my body was taken by the sea, but if this is how it is supposed to be then let it be. I let vengeance for my family and my country ravage my heart. If I had not been so weak, then we would have never been in this situation-"
"And I would have never met you," Ulrich interrupted, "or Odd or Theo. They are my family. You are my family. I will die a thousand deaths before I see you hanged."
A tear finally slipped from Yumi's onyx eyes, and she let it fall. She knew she didn't deserve a love so devout and pure. She didn't deserve anything but what lie waiting for her on the shore. And he deserved better than the heart break that came from loving someone so damaged and doomed.
She heard the distant shouts from above, preparations to dock. "We don't have much time, Ulrich. But I have one last request from you."
"Anything," he said, and she knew he meant it.
"Do not live your life around the dream we could have had," the words came out as a soft whisper as she felt her chest threaten to cave in. "Do not spend your days mourning the love of a girl who never had a chance to give you what you wanted. Leave Staphiria and find who you are. Whether it be on a ship like Serious or in the fields of Kadic, do what makes you happy and stop sacrificing yourself for everyone else. Forget about me. Please."
He opened his mouth to respond when a sharp knock sounded, jolting them apart. "We are docking, Stern. The commander needs you on deck."
Ulrich paused at the door, starring at her with such a profound sadness. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but swiftly opened the door and was gone.
X
Jeremie leaned against the smooth wood of the corridor outside the room they had dedicated for the princess. Her cries had quieted, a result of the sedative they had been forced to administer. It broke his heart to see her in such a deranged state. She had been thrashing and cursing and speaking nonsense about her captors, that they were kind and innocent and should be let go. She must have went through some extensive trauma to have such delusions. He had read memoirs from soldiers taken prisoner during times of war, who had been tortured and psychologically damaged to the point of complete psychosis.
Yet as they drug her below decks, she kept screaming a name. Odd. A ridiculous name. Surely this wasn't the man she claimed to have fallen in love with. What sort of manipulation had he enacted to convince her that the torment she was experiencing was love? This woman was to be his wife, yet she called out for a filthy pirate: a criminal?
He pushed off from the wall, heading to the lower hold of the ship. He needed to meet this man, etch his face into his memory. He needed to imagine him hung from the gallows, a fate he would soon see come to fruition. He needed the prisoner to see him, the man who rescued Aelita from his clutches; the man who would marry her and father her children. He needed him to revel in his hopelessness, to fully realize the punishment he rightfully deserved.
The guards asked no questions as they stepped aside from the wooden door leading to his cell. Jeremie stormed through, and with one look the guards in the cell retreated into the hall.
The pirate was seated against the far end of the cage, his head hanging between his knees. His hair, which had once been spiked, now hung to his shoulders in damp tangles. A vicious cut ran across his cheek sending a river of blood down his face to drip from his chin onto the old floor. He didn't even raise his eyes, instead just starring at the dust on the ground in front of him.
Jeremie cleared his throat, but the boy did not lift his eyes. Instead, a hoarse voice said, "where is she?"
"Somewhere you'll never be able to touch her again," Jeremie straightened to make himself seem taller.
A dark chuckle rose from the prisoner. "You're so convinced that I'm the monster in this tale?"
"You stole a young woman from her bed and confined her to a filthy pirate ship for months. I would classify that as villainous."
"What difference is a pirate ship or a castle if you feel like a prisoner?" Odd raised his eyes to bore into Jeremie's, but Jeremie refused to cower from his glare.
"She is to be queen of the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. How can you even compare that to hiding beneath a ship's plank like a rat?"
"She was hiding from you," he spit. "That passage exists to hide our people from your people; those who chain others beneath tradition and expectations. She was hiding from the person you want her to be. Tell me, my lord, what is her favorite book? Who was her imaginary friend when she was a girl? What dreams inspire her passion and what nightmares haunt her waking hours?"
"We will have a lifetime together for me to learn all of these things," Jeremie said, though a pain twisted at his heart. He knew the answer to none of those questions.
"She is not a prize to be sold to the highest bidder. She is not a figure head to be gawked at or coddled to. She is a strong and capable woman, and all your people have done is smother the flame of who she truly is so that she may conform to the princess her people want her to be, who you want her to be."
"You don't know what you're talking about," his voice quieting, threatening to give away the storm raging in his head.
"I'm not saying she belongs to me. I know she is too good to be with someone like me. Too good for any man on this planet, yourself included. I care not if you imprison me for the rest of my days or hang me from the gallows tomorrow. All I care about is Aelita." His eyes dropped to the ground, the venom all but gone from his voice as he said, "her safety and happiness are the only things that I care about. If you can guarantee that she will never feel threatened or lost or alone, then I will not stand between the two of you. She deserves the world, and mine is entirely contingent on the sea and the unpredictability of its waves. I know you can provide for her in ways I could never dream, but I need you to promise to tend to her heart, to her soul, as well. She has the strongest will of any woman I have ever met, and she demands it to be nurtured, not stifled. Do not make her a prisoner without chains."
Jeremie's back had slouched, starring at a man clearly heartbroken. Perhaps the princess had not been delusional. Perhaps there did exist a love between the two. Perhaps there was more to the story of the rogue ship than he knew. He opened his mouth, but the words escaped him. He wanted to do all the things the pirate asked of him. He loved his betrothed, but what exactly was it he loved: the woman or the idea of who she was? Who she could be? Did he actually know the person he was promised to or had the prospect of marrying a woman of such beauty and status leave him so excited that he had not even considered that he knew nothing about her. Not truly. Not like the crumbled shell of a man before him did.
Before he could find his words, the ship gave a hard jerk. They had reached Staphiria.