Wow, I think that was the quickest I've ever posted a new chapter. Under an hour! I'm on a roll today... :-)
Po hit the floor with a thud, winced, and opened his eyes. His head was all foggy and he couldn't think straight, but physically he felt fine. Which was odd, considering that he was lying on a rocking, bare wooden floor. From the way the room was tipping he suspected that he was on a boat. The room around him was bare apart from a low table set with a plate of stale food and a cup of water and an only slightly higher ship's hammock which he appeared to have fallen out of. He sat up and rubbed his head. What the heck was going on? Everything was blank from when that woman... That woman. Panther. He scrambled to his feet and rushed to the door of his cell. Outside, through the window in his door, was a narrow corridor with a hole in the ceiling and a ladder emerging through it. He sensed no one on his level - the rooms on either side of him were empty – but someone was directly above him, and thinking about him. The feel of the person's mind was funny, as was her thoughts towards him. A mixture of guilt, curiosity, hostility and protectiveness. The person made her way along towards the ladder and began climbing down. To anyone watching it would have seemed like a pair of feet suddenly appeared through the ceiling, followed by a body, but of course Po saw none of this, not that the eyes of the person coming down were as red and brown as the colours of a Robin. He sensed every hair on her head, but none of its colour or how it would appear to others. Robin – for it was her – came and opened the door to Po's cell and stepped in. Po immediately moved to Tackle her to the floor, but as soon as he got within a foot of her he smelt that sickly sweet stuff that had knocked him out and his head began to spin. He backed away.
"You don't like my concoctions Lord Prince?" enquired Robin. "I don't blame you. It's a pity you've only experienced the unpleasant ones. I assure you they can be quite lovely. When I choose."
"Why have you come?" asked Po.
He was surprised when Robin sounded slightly ashamed. "To see how my potion worked" she admitted. "You're the first person who's actually had the full blast of it, and I wanted to see if it had any after0effects that I needed to iron out."
"Apart from my head being all foggy none" Po was surprised to hear himself say. Why was he telling her anything.
"Ooh really?" she asked excitedly. "I was worried I'd but too much poppy in. It can sometimes give people really weird dreams and hallucinations..."
"No, no hallucinations" he assured her. He was honestly shocked to find that he liked this girl. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Robin" she answered, then wondered whether she shouldn't have told him. Anyway, it was too late now.
"Robin and Panther" mused Po. "Some odd names you've got going on."
"We're all named after animals" explained Robin. "My eyes look like the colours of a Robin, and Panther..." suddenly she stopped short. "I'm not supposed to say anything, I'm sorry. I've got to go" she said, then she was gone. Po sighed. Who were these people?
Some time later he was woken by the sound of someone knocking on his door. He sat up groggily. He supposed he must have fallen asleep again, for he was sitting curled up on the floor by the door. He stood up.
"I'm awake" he said, and a man entered the cell. He was a monster of a man – huge arms and legs and Po guessed that even he'd be challenged in a fight against this man.
"I'm to take you up on deck" he grunted, taking hold of Po by the arms before Po had time to move. He was fast as well as strong, and in his recently-drugged condition Po was in no state to argue.
The man dragged him up several ladders and onto the deck of the ship. Panther, Viper and Robin watched Po emerge with Boar holding him by the arms, and Robin winced on his behalf. For some reason, since drugging him she felt some odd responsibility to make sure that he was all right.
"Prince Greening" said Viper silkily, gliding forward. "Welcome to the 'Speckled Dolphin'. You may recognise it. It used to be one of your brother's ships, did it not? Or rather, it used to be used by your brother. Until last night, when we so happily chanced to meet its Captain on his return from the tavern. We decided that it was time he took a well deserved retirement and relieved him of his ship, did we not my friends?" His 'friends' didn't say anything.
"What do you want with me?" asked Po.
"Well, Prince, my companions and I are all Gracelings. All of us were hated by our peers and ejected from society by our respective lands. We, or rather I, formed a group, a band of Gracelings. Any Graceling we came across we recruited, unless of course they did not wish to join us."
"What has this to do with me?" spat Po.
"Well, you, Lord Prince, are the exception to this rule. You are a Graceling, yet you are a Prince. You are not ridiculed, you are not trodden upon by your country-men. You are a Lienid Prince. This is why we need you. Your country, Lienid, is the only kingdom of the seven that does not treat Gracelings like vermin, yet you refuse to intercede on other Gracelings' behalf. You let the cruelty that is extended towards Gracelings in the other six Kingdoms continue unchecked." Po hung his head it was true, what could he say? But Viper was not finished. "We will demand from King Ror that he creates a unit of his men, perhaps of his army, that will travel around the Kingdoms and right the wrongs done to Gracelings. And how better to make our point that by taking Lienid's very own Graceling prince?" Po looked up.
"You think that kidnapping me will make my Father feel compassion and sympathy to your cause?" he spat. But Viper only smiled and shook his head.
"No, I don't. But I believe that I have someone who will. You have met Panther, have you not?" Panther looked up sharply. Clearly this part of the plan had not been revealed to her.
"Commander?" she said. "What do you mean...?" Viper ignored her.
"Panther has felt the injustice towards Graceling keenly, have you not Panther? But you may not know her by that name Prince Greening, Po. You may know her by her original name... Lady Maylin."
Po gasped. His head jerked up, his blind eyes fixed on Panther, or Maylin as he now knew her to be. His Grace assessed her features – her eyes, her nose, the set of her shoulders... And that familiar feel of her mind, and how her voice sounded like Kayla. Something slotted into place.
"Maylin?" he whispered. "My niece, Maylin?"
Panther looked at him with horror. "Your niece?" she spat.
"Oh but it's true my dearest" said Viper smoothly. "Po, greet your brother Skye's youngest daughter, Princess Maylin of Lienid."