Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns (15 page)

With a sigh, Miya realised that she hadn't thought this one through at all. Probably Sola COULD have talked me out of it, she thought, as she started towards the steep staircase once more. Well, no sense in crying about it now, maybe I could sabotage something instead. If I could get to the rudder or maybe the masts—

Miya nearly yelped out loud when she almost walked into someone, putting her own hand over her mouth to stop herself. Panic turned to relief when she realised it was a northern islander.

"Oh thank goodness," she whispered, lowering her hand. "I didn't see you there for a moment—oh, so you all do that you-can't-see-me-I'm-standing-still thing? I thought it was just Sola's trick. Huh. Oh, anyway, I'm not here to attack you or anything, I'm a friend. Well, I was planning on blowing the powder keg, but then I realised there are like heaps of northern islanders on the ship, like too many to rescue, and also even though the 'real' crew are pirates I don't actually want to put them in any danger either, so I kind of figured that wouldn't be such a good thing to do. Oh, my name's Miya Black, by the way, I'm from Clover Island."

The northern islander stared at her a moment, then opened his mouth to shout:

"INTRUDER! INTRUDER ON BOARD!"

Miya's jaw dropped. She was too shocked to do anything for a second, then her survival instincts noticed she wasn't giving any instructions and told her legs to start working. She ran past the northern islander and towards the stairs as doors started to open around her and sleepy crew emerged, weapons at the ready. Miya dodged around one pirate and ducked under the clumsy grab of another before making it to the stairs, taking them two at a time and emerging onto the gun deck. She headed for the next set of stairs going up but was met with five pirates coming down, so she turned tail and ran for the stairs on the other end of the gun deck. These were clear and she flew up them, grabbing a lamp as she passed and throwing it down hard behind herself. It smashed and spread flaming oil onto the stairs, black smoke following Miya as she rounded the corner and came face-to-face with a pirate who looked almost as surprised as she was.

It was Miya who got the first hit in, kicking hard at the pirate with a defiant yell, catching him in the stomach. He grunted and swung his fist at Miya, but she swiftly leant back to dodge it.

"Bendy little wench," he growled as he pulled a knife out—which Miya promptly kicked out of his hand. His focus went to the flying weapon, allowing Miya to plant the heel of her boot squarely and solidly in his knee, sending him crashing to the deck howling in pain. She pushed past him, avoiding the grab he made for her leg and giving him a kick in the head for his pains, then charged through the door leading to the main deck.

These were Miya Black's thoughts immediately following this:

First: Wow, I just took down that guy in like three seconds without him even touching me.

Second: You idiot, don't think about the guy you just beat, focus on the guy you have to beat NEXT.

Third: What guy?

Fourth: Well, you can maybe take your pick from the dozen or so coming out of that door over there.

Fifth: Rats.

Miya drew her sword and gripped it tightly, looking around quickly as the massed pirates advanced on her. She figured she had three seconds, maybe four before they were on her, so she turned and ran up the stairs to the forecastle deck, which would at least mean they'd only be able to come at her two or three at a time. Ahead of her, at the prow, there was a direct, sharp drop to the ocean below, but even in the light of dawn it looked very cold and very uninviting. Miya looked back, saw that the pirates were at the base of the stairs now, looked down at the ocean again, sheathed her sword, then ran and jumped.

Shouts of surprise and anger rang out as Miya landed on the main deck, rolling with the impact, her scabbard poking into her ribs quite painfully. She forced herself onto her feet as quickly as she could, side aching, her head light. The pirates were behind her now but already coming at her again so she ran, stumbling just a little, leaping for the mast and scrabbling up, making it to the first crossbeam within seconds and pulling herself onto it, straightening and keeping her balance easily.

Miya took a breath.

Below the pirates were still coming at her, shouting and jeering. She noticed a few northern islanders at the back, weapons ready but obviously not eager to fight. For a moment Miya reconsidered aborting her mission—maybe I can't blow the keg but I can at least rescue some islanders!—but then her survival instincts kicked her in the head with an emphatic "What are you thinking, you fool, just worry about getting YOURSELF out of here!".

A couple of the pirates were climbing the mast now, but Miya politely discouraged them with a few well-aimed kicks. Not for the first time she silently thanked her father for her boots; they were steel-capped, and the heels were also lined with the metal, giving them that extra bit of weight that she physically lacked. However, as good as her boots were, Miya didn't think they'd be any help in getting out of her current situation; in effect she'd trapped herself, as climbing up here had given the pirates below time to surround her. She couldn't climb down and climbing up higher just meant further to jump down from. Even at this height she wasn't certain about landing without spraining something, or worse.

Well, anyway, no sense wasting an opportunity, she thought, as she kicked another climbing pirate in the head. She drew her knife and quickly cut a few nearby ropes, paused to discourage another pirate from climbing up with a kick to the cheek, then dragged the knife through a furled sail, putting a long tear in it. She was looking around for something else to wreck when a clear, strong voice called out:

"Just what do you think you're doing to my ship?"

The jeering and shouting from the pirates below stopped, all eyes turning to the owner of the voice, Miya no exception. It was a girl, maybe a little older than Miya, certainly taller, wearing black silk trousers and a white silk shirt, over which was a black sleeveless vest. She had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and wore a wide-brimmed black hat with a white feather stuck in it. At her side was an ornate cutlass scabbard, bejewelled and glittering in the early dawn light. She was, and Miya could barely force herself to admit this even within her own head, fairly beautiful. (Although if you were being very strictly critical you might say that her nose was a little—and just a little—on the large side.)

"Coming aboard without an invitation is hardly proper behaviour, but this savagery? One might believe you to be some manner of beast, rather than ... well, whatever you normally call yourself."

"I'm Miya Black of Clover Island," said Miya, drawing herself up proudly. "Princess Miya Black, actually."

"Oh, a PRINCESS! That's funny, I thought you had to have a kingdom to be a princess—these modern times, it's so difficult to keep up, don't you find?" The girl addressed the question to a big, bald, ridiculously scarred pirate nearby, who grunted in agreement. "You see? Devon agrees, and he's Algernian. You can't argue with an Algernian when it comes to fashions and trends. Of course, you do tend to find a lot of girls these days calling themselves 'princess' without any claim to that title at all, rather sad really."

"Clover Island IS a kingdom! My father is King Tomas Black, and my mother is Queen Lilith Black! You should remember those names well, because we're the ones that are going to beat you and your boss!"

"My 'boss'? And who would that be?"

"Badger Pete!" yelled Miya, drawing some laughter from the pirates below. "What's so funny?" she demanded.

"You said, what was it? 'King' Tomas? That would be your father?" the girl asked.

"Of course!"

"And he is your boss?"

"Of course not, no one's the boss of me!"

"Is that so? Well, no one's the boss of me, either," said the girl. "Oh, how rude, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Grace Morgon." She bowed elegantly. "You seem to know my father already, or of him at least, although I've been trying to get him to drop this ridiculous 'Badger Pete' moniker for some time. His real name is Peter Morgon."

"You're his daughter? He has a daughter?"

"Goodness, don't you catch on fast?" said Grace. She cocked her head to one side. "Clover Island, you said?"

"What of it?"

"Oh, nothing. It just has a nice ring, 'Clover Island'. Once all this is over, I may get Daddy to give it to me. Does it have any beaches?"

Miya remained silent, quietly fuming.

"Well, anyway, I must ask, what is royalty such as yourself doing all the way out here?" Grace's patronising tone took on a sharper edge: "How did you get aboard? Where's your ship?"

"No sign of anything out to sea," said one of the pirates, holding a spyglass to his eye. Miya smiled; thanks Mum, thanks Dad, great present.

"She must have anchored on the other side of the island and rowed around in a dinghy. Quite resourceful for a pretend princess from a no-name island in the middle of nowhere." Grace looked up at Miya a moment, her expression amused, then she smiled. "Why don't you come down?"

"Hah! Not bloody likely!"

"Perhaps I won't hurt you. Perhaps I'll invite you to tea."

"Perhaps you'll trip and fall upon your sword, and do the world a favour," said Miya. Grace's expression didn't change.

"I was just thinking," she said, that sharp edge from before returning to her voice, "that we have a lot in common, perhaps a lot to talk about. You know, in a way, I'm a princess as well. My father is a pirate king, after all. Well," said Grace, with a little laugh that set Miya's teeth on edge, "I suppose you could call me a 'pirate princess'."

"Girl," said Miya, forcing all the contempt she could muster into her words, "you don't even know what a princess is. My mother would chew you up and spit you out, and she'd do it so nicely you probably wouldn't even realise what a fool she'd made of you."

"Oh your
mother
. Your
mother
would deal with me. Well, little lost no-name princess, out here in the real world we don't go crying to our
mothers
. We deal with things ourselves."

"Believe me," said Miya, "I would love to deal with you myself."

Grace and Miya glared at each other for a long moment, then Grace laughed again.

"Oh, but let's not be silly," she said. "After all, you're my guest! This is MY ship, after all. Quite nice, isn't she? Would you like to know her name?"

"Would you like to know what my boot tastes like?"

"The Boundaries None. Quite poetic, no?"

"The Boundaries None," Miya repeated. "Does that refer to ... to your lack of boundaries regarding ... uh ..."

"Should we all go away, come back once you've thought of some suitably biting repartee?" Grace asked, drawing laughter from her crew. Miya scowled at her. What made it worse is that privately, very privately, she thought it was a good name for a ship.

"And the name of YOUR ship? Assuming, of course, that you have one."

"The Black Swan," said Miya proudly.

"Oh, the Black Swan, how ... nice. Did you name it yourself? Or did your mother help you think of that?"

Grace laughed once more—Miya couldn't quite put her finger on it, it seemed like it should be a pretty laugh, a pleasant laugh, the kind of laugh you hear and think "That must be a lovely girl, to have such a nice laugh", but every time Miya heard it her palms itched and she longed to slug Grace's smug little smile right off her face. Miya watched as one of Grace's crew approached her, telling her something in a low voice. Grace frowned.

"Well now THIS is interesting," she said. "I've just been told that you came aboard with the intention of sinking my ship. Something about blowing the powder keg? Well, I'm not sure what passes for civilised behaviour in the odd little backwater you come from, but in the circles I frequent we would consider that something of a faux pas."

"I wasn't going to blow the powder keg," said Miya.

"Weren't you? Then why come aboard? Simply to gaze upon the most beautiful and splendid captain in these waters? One couldn't blame you, after all I have many admirers and you're at such an impressionable age—"

"Oh, my first intentions were to sink this ship. But you have northern islanders, captured slaves amongst your crew, and likely their families secured somewhere on board too."

"Ah, and so you decided, no, I cannot sink this ship, I would not have the blood of innocents on my hands. For myself and my crew, of course, you spared not a thought."

"I did so! Of course I wouldn't want ... shut up!"

"Oh, so you WERE concerned about myself and my fellow pirates? Goodness, how
noble
of you. I assume that the wretched little dinghy we found clinging to the side of my beautiful ship like a sea louse is yours? No need to answer, after all, who else could it belong to?"

Grace looked up at Miya, amused, as Miya scowled down at her.

"I'm a great believer in fairness," Grace said, after a moment. "Fairness, and balance—two rather important concepts, don't you agree?"

Miya was silent, glaring down at Grace, who smiled sweetly back at her.

"And I think it would be both fair and balanced that since your intention was to sink MY ship, that I should sink yours."

Grace nodded to one of her crew, who gave a signal to someone Miya couldn't see. Miya ran along the crossbeam to see two of Grace's crew standing on the stern deck, hacking at her dinghy with axes, quickly tearing a large hole in the bottom. Miya gritted her teeth and tried to stop the tears from coming to her eyes, but she felt her cheeks become wet as Grace's crew tossed the boat she'd learned to row in into the ocean, watched them laugh as it spun madly in the water, like final pathetic death throes before it sank beneath the surface and disappeared from sight.

"Oh my ... oh, this is too good. Are you
crying
? Are you actually crying, my poor lost little princess? Over a wretched, worn-out dinghy?" Grace laughed again, this time not prettily at all, a long, deep, mean laugh, her crew joining in. Miya stared at her, watched her laughing, wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve and sniffed, just once.