Pirate Princess (4 page)

He nodded his head. “Every day you work with him I will work with you. Mind you it might not be the same day since I have quite a few things to attend to as King and Dragon, but I will keep my word and you can keep a tally if you want to.”

I couldn’t respond. It was something I had wanted to do for as long as I had been here. Jared was the greatest fighter alive and if he taught me I knew I could become the greatest female fighter, possibly even the first female Dragon once he stepped down.

“Look at that, she’s too excited to talk,” Griffin teased. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her speechless before.”

I glared at Griffin and then turned to Faxon. “We can start tomorrow,” I told him, “But you can’t use me for experiments.”

He groaned. “Poor sport. No one here likes to let me have any fun.”

Platters of food were brought out and we took our servings. The adults talked with each other as old friends and left me out of their conversation. I didn’t mind, I was the only child who lived in the castle since Jared and Esmeralda were never able to have kids and they often forgot I was there or at least forgot to include me in the conversations.

I looked at the four adults in front of me that made up the Order of Elders. The Order of Elders was in charge of ensuring everything went smoothly in the Kingdom and deciding on courses of action in times of war. Crilan had two groups within the military, the King’s Steel and the Queen’s Fire. The Queen’s Fire was made up of two tiers, Minor Mages which had five ranks: Apprentice, Journeyman, Conjurer, Warlock, and Master, and Senior Mages which had two ranks: High Mage and Arch Mage. The King’s Steel consisted of six ranks: Recruit, Trainee, Warrior, Commander, Chief, and Dragon. There were four Commanders, one Chief, and one Dragon at any given time. The Order of Elders consisted of the Chief and Dragon of the King’s Steel and the High Mage and Arch Mage of the Queen’s Fire. This was an odd period because Esmeralda and Faxon were both Arch Mage rank, but since there was normally only one in each rank they decided to have both Arch Mages in the Order of Elders instead of one Arch Mage and one High Mage. The High Mage seemed more than happy to be left alone to his own devices and let Faxon and Esmeralda make decisions without him since he preferred solitude. Could I become a High Mage or even Chief?

“So, are you ever going to tell me your secret?” Griffin asked me quietly, leaning over so that only I could hear him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, taking another bite of my eggs.

“I won’t tell your secret unless it is something that could potentially hurt you,” he said, “I’m great at keeping secrets.” As a spymaster I was sure he had many secrets he kept from others.

“I don’t have any secrets,” I said. What did he know? Had I let something slip?

“Well, whenever you feel like telling me, I am here and will listen,” he said, then turned and joined in the conversation with the other adults.

Suddenly my appetite was gone. I sat for another few minutes so he wouldn’t know that it was him that had caused my urge to leave. “May I be excused?” I asked loudly to get their attention.

They all stopped talking and turned to look at me. I hated when they all stared at me at the same time. The weight of the stares of the Order of Elders was more than most people could handle, but luckily I had six years of daily exposure so it was getting easier to endure.

“Sure. Are you feeling alright?” Esmeralda asked me. I usually stayed and listened to them talk to catch up on the current affairs in the kingdom.

“I’m not feeling well,” I said. I stood up and bowed to them. “Thank you.”

I felt their eyes on me all the way out of the room, but I didn’t care. I went to my room and flopped backwards onto my bed. Keeping secrets and running a double life was difficult. I had to make sure that I was careful around Griffin and with Faxon during his tutoring. I hoped Faxon wouldn’t be able to See my secrets or something like that. I couldn’t bear the thought of Griffin attacking my Father.

I took my boots off and pulled a blanket up over myself as I stared out the window that faced the sea. What was dad doing? I wondered if he even looked the same. I bet he wouldn’t even recognize me. Okay, he would since I looked just like my mother and aunt, the only reason she hadn’t doubted for a moment who I was when I first came here.

Someone knocked on my door. “Enter,” I said without moving.

My bed dipped as someone sat on the edge of it. “How are you feeling?” Esmeralda asked.

I sighed and felt my body shaking and tears falling down my eyes. “I miss my dad,” I admitted to her.

She moved up next to me and pulled my head into her lap so she could stroke my hair. “I know. It’s been a long time since you have seen him and I’m sure he misses you as well. I wish we knew where he was so that we could take you to visit him.”

“I don’t mean to make you think that I’m not happy here,” I told her as I tried to pull myself back together.

“Shh,” she said, “I know what you mean. When your mother and I were young our father went off to fight a war in a far away kingdom. We didn’t see him for years and even though we had each other it was still tough.”

I lay with my head in her lap in silence for a little bit and then wiped my eyes and sat up. “Okay, enough moping,” I said.

She smiled and asked, “Do you want to go on a trip?”

“A trip without the purpose of ending or starting a battle?” I asked. We’d never gone on a trip that didn’t involve battles before.

“Yes. We are going to visit Markleville,” she told me.

“Markleville is that city on the far side of the Kingdom that’s right on the ocean with the busy port, isn’t it?” I asked her. “The busiest port in our Kingdom?”

She nodded her head. “We’re going to stay there for a few months.”

“Months?!” I asked in shock.

“Yes. So, pack your bag so that you will be ready tomorrow to set out. It’s a two day ride.”

“Why the sudden need to go there?” I asked her suspiciously.

“We’ve been planning the trip for a while and were going to tell you at breakfast, but you left before we could,” she said, “We used to do this every year, but we haven’t gone since the year before you arrived. We decided it’s time to go again.”

“What about school?” I asked.

“Jared will be training you for fighting, Faxon will train you for magic, and Griffin will be teaching you about politics.”

“They’re all coming with us?” I asked suddenly nervous.

“Of course, the Order of Elders always goes together on this trip. Oh and your friend Natalie just rode up,” she said as she stood to leave.

I put my boots back on and hurried outside to meet her. Natalie was the daughter of one of the farmers whose fields I passed by on my trips to the docks and we had formed a friendship soon after I arrived. Natalie was already off of her horse and when I walked out of the doors she hugged me. “Tilia!” she said excitedly. Natalie was the same height as me, but extremely tanned from all of her time in the sun in the fields. Her hair was brown with blonde streaks from the sun exposure as well.

“Natalie! What are you doing here today?” I asked as I returned her hug.

“Dad let me have the day off from chores so I wanted to come see you,” she said with a bright smile. She was always so cheerful and happy.

“Well you have great timing. Come on; let’s go to the arena so we can watch the trainees while we talk.” She loved watching people learning to fight, but refused to learn herself. I had tried to convince her several times and offered to teach her privately, but she still refused. I think it was because her father was old fashioned and felt a woman shouldn’t fight.

She followed me around the castle and asked, “How was your morning ride?”

“Great,” I said with a smile, “I bought a bracelet for Queen Esmeralda as a gift for raising me.”

“That’s so sweet,” she said and then lightly punched my arm, “I knew you weren’t all tough on the inside.”

We laughed together and then had to be quiet as we entered the training area and climbed up on the fence that encircled the sand arena to watch the trainees.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” she asked me in a whisper.

“I was just informed that we are leaving for a trip tomorrow,” I whispered back.

“To Markleville?” she guessed.

“How’d you know?” I asked in shock.

“It’s a trip they used to take a lot,” she said, “My dad said he figured they were going soon.”

“Oh, well yes we are going to be gone a few months,” I told her.

“Oh,” she whispered.

I nudged her shoulder and said, “I’ll be back, just not for a couple months.”

“You better not forget me,” she said.

I rolled my eyes. “As if I could ever forget you.”

“Princess Tilia,” Marcus, a Commander and the trainee instructed, called.

“Yes, sir?” I asked.

“Come down here. I need you to do a little demonstration,” he said.

The trainees stood in a line in front of him, this batch arrived just two nights ago and this was the first I had seen of them. They varied in ages from sixteen to twenty and were both boys and girls, although there were only three girls this year.

“Be right back,” I told Natalie. I climbed down and walked to Marcus and the trainees. “How can I help, sir?” I asked.

“I would like you to show them the proper way to throw a dagger,” he said.

He started to reach for a dagger, but I held up my hand. “I’ve got mine.” The male trainees whispered to each other, but I ignored them. I walked to the line in the sand and faced the target at the other end of the arena that had already been set up for the day’s lessons. It was a pretty far target even for a skilled dagger thrower, but they often pushed the trainees well beyond normal limits. You had to be great to rise in the ranks of the King’s Steel so that you could defend the Kingdom. I pulled a dagger from the hidden place I kept them on my wrists and flipped it in the air as I judged the distance. I held the dagger in front of me, drew my hand back, and threw it. It turned end over end and the tip buried into the center target.

“I bet she can’t do that again,” one of the trainees sneered.

I looked at Marcus. He waved his hand, “Please, feel free to show them your skills.”

“Can I borrow a few more daggers?” I asked him, “I only keep two on me.”

He handed me four more daggers and stepped back. “Now you will see a true knife handler.”

“She’s a child and not even part of the King’s Steel,” one of the guys said.

“I’m sixteen and I was trained by one of the best…” I bit my tongue as I was about to say pirates, “Chiefs alive.” I held the four daggers in my left hand and my second dagger in my right hand. I faced the targets and then turned around to face the trainees, the targets at my back now.

“Right, like she’ll hit anything without looking at them,” the guy scoffed.

I smiled at him and tossed the daggers one by one over my shoulder without turning around or breaking eye contact with him. The guy’s face changed from a cocky sneer to shock. I turned around and was happy to see all of the daggers in the center of each of the targets. I walked to each target, took the daggers out, and then handed Marcus’ daggers back to him.

“Thank you, Tilia. Now, as you can see it just takes practice and desire to become a great dagger thrower and to climb the ranks in the King’s Steel.”

I climbed up and took my seat back next to Natalie who was beaming proudly. “You showed him!” she said with a laugh. I shrugged and she asked, “Have you heard about Jax’s recent move?”

Jax was a famous pirate in this kingdom and the first female pirate in decades. I was her biggest fan. “No, what happened?” I asked, faking ignorance since I had heard this morning.

“She stole treasure from two other pirates and no one saw her during the heist either time. She’s like a ghost,” she said excitedly.

“She’s pretty amazing,” I said with a smile.

“She’s also a bandit,” Tran said below us. Tran was one of the stable boys and he hated pirates.

“She steals from other pirates. I’m surprised you care about that.” I said to him.

“You’re too obsessed with her to think clearly,” he accused. “A pirate is a pirate.”

I waved away his comment and we watched quietly as the trainees attempted to hit the targets with their daggers. Many fell short and those that did hit the target usually hit it with the wrong side of the dagger.

“How did you become so good with the dagger?” Tran asked me while watching the trainees.

“Lots of practice. Whenever I was bored I would just take out a dagger and practice throwing it at a target. When that got too boring I would make the targets harder, farther, or set up multiple at once,” I admitted.

We watched the trainees a while longer and then Natalie decided to head home. I went to my room and started packing. I didn’t want to leave my most prized possessions behind so I decided to pack them as well. I put the necklace my father had given me on, tucked the picture of my mother I had stolen from my father’s room into a book so it wouldn’t wrinkle or get torn, and put my sword and daggers on top of the bag so I could strap them on when it was time to leave. I ran my fingers over my necklace and wished I had known my mother. She had died when I was three from a terrible illness that had no cure. Dad used to tell me about her and things she used to do with me, but as I got older and his heart grew darker without her, he stopped mentioning her. He tried to hide it, but I could tell that he had closed himself off from love, except for me. Now that I was gone, he was probably sealing his heart up tight to keep it from being hurt again.

Someone knocked on my door and I opened it to find Faxon standing on the other side waiting for me with a wide smile. “Ready to start?” he asked me.

“Now?” I asked in shock. “I thought we were going to start tomorrow?”

“No time like the present. Come on,” he beckoned, turned and headed down the hallway. I grabbed my daggers and sword and secured them as I raced after him, down the stairs, and out the back door. He walked to the apple orchard and leaned back against one of the trees. Today he wore black breeches and a black shirt that was opened at the top so you could see just the beginnings of his muscular chest. How many women swooned over him when he walked by? How many women had heart attacks when they saw Faxon and Jared side by side?