"An infallible method of conciliating a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured."
--Konrad Adenauer
"Let me out," Matt growled at Jess through the bars of the brig below deck. He had given the boy back his glasses, but shook his head at him otherwise. Matt grabbed the bars and glared at him. "You Smalltree boys are all the same," he snarled. "Got it in for us!"
"Tom doesn't want to let you out either, Matt," Jess told him flatly. In fact, Tom was up on deck avoiding Matt and his anger at their decision to leave him in the brig.
"You probably have him locked up somewhere else," Matt spat. Jess sighed and shook his head, feeling a headache coming on. Although they were friends, the rivalry between their families was well known. In this case, though, the rivalry was unfounded.
"You turned into a giant lizard," Jess told him irritably. "We don't know when—or if—it will happen again. You were with the Princess when it happened. You could have killed her. You're in here for safety. Hers, and yours."
"I never—"he began, but Jess never heard the rest as he turned and mounted the stairs back up to the deck. The Princess was waiting for him and pounced on him the moment he stepped foot onto the deck. He sighed again as she stopped him by grabbing his arm.
"Is he well?" she asked him worriedly.
"He's not a lizard anymore, if that's what you mean," he told her. "But he's pretty mad about being locked up." The Princess nodded mutely. She did not disagree with the motion to keep Matt in the brig. Neither would she go see him, frightened that he might become the lizard-thing again. Only Jess and Cruz had seen him since, and thus, faced his righteous anger. There were two of the Royal Guard posted on either side of the doorway leading to the brig to monitor his condition. Jess wracked his brain, trying to come up with a reason why Matt had become a giant lizard. Likely, it had something to do with his disappearance in the forest. Aiden had said he remembered nothing of the time when they had been captured by the pig-things to waking up outside the castle. Jess remembered the dead pig-things in the forest more recently—could a giant lizard have done all that damage? And what about Aiden and Annie? Where were they when Matt became a giant lizard? Unless they were turning into giant lizards as well? He wondered, not for the first time, what was going on in Berelain.
"Will we just… leave him… in the brig?" the Princess asked him.
"There's something you'd rather do with him?"
"No! I just… is there anything I can do for him?"
"It's okay to go talk to him, just, you know, keep your distance."
"A Princess does not visit the brig," someone said behind him. He found Galina and Carlinya standing on his other side. Carlinya had said "brig" as if she couldn't stand the taste of the word in her mouth.
"Well, maybe it's better if you stay away anyway. It could be you making him change like that," he said. The Princess gasped and slapped him soundly across the face. He took a step back and glared at her. The Princess glared back with her icy blue eyes.
"How dare you suggest--," she began, raising her hand for another slap. He reached out and caught her wrist firmly in his right hand. She stopped when she saw his eyes—gray-blue like storm clouds, and angry.
"Go see him, or don't go, I don't care," he growled. "Leave me out of it." He let go of her wrist and walked away, heading for the bow. Cruz was waiting for him, his face looking worried. "What?"
"I'm not sure—maybe your eyesight is better than mine. Let's go up and you take a look."
"What is it?"
"On the other ship," he said pointing to the stern. "They're flying a flag—I think it's a skull and crossbones."
Jess could see it clearly fluttering atop the other ship's mast. The ship was closer now, trying to overtake them, but with no real rush as of yet. It was a black flag with skull and crossbones, just like Cruz said.
"That ship was in the harbor when we left Berelain," Tom said beside him. "I'm sure of it. It's got a naked lady on the front of the ship."
"Then it saw us when we left," Cruz said from his other side. "It must know we're not carrying any gold or anything."
"We got something better than gold," Jess said putting the spyglass down. "We've got the Princess on board."
"But we've got fifty Royal Guards plus a crew of probably twenty. That boat only had like twenty guys on its crew, itself. They can't mean to fight us, can they?" Tom picked up the spyglass and trained it on the following ship.
"Wow," Cruz murmured. "Pirates."
"I don't know. Maybe they have cannons," Jess said and then frowned. "This is a medieval world. Have cannons even been invented?"
"There's none on this ship—so maybe not." Cruz shook his head. "Twenty versus seventy. Are they really going to attack us?"
"I hope not. Have you told the Captain?"
"No. We only just saw it. We wanted your opinion before we said anything."
"That ship will be here in an hour," he sighed. "We better tell the Captain."
The Captain took the news while standing at the stern, peering at the ship with a spyglass. The stony faced man said nothing for a while, staring sourly at the ship. Captain Baines had been a seaman for over twenty years and was not a fan of pirates. Talos, the Captain of the Royal Guard, stood beside him, arms crossed over his chest.
"They were in the harbor when we left," he said to Baines. "Surely they saw her Highness come aboard."
"That would have to be it," Baines growled. "There's no gold on this ship." The Princess stood at the stern as well and shook her head. Her handmaidens stood behind her, looking worried.
"Surely they are not after me," she said. "I am the Daughter-heir."
"I wouldn't put kidnapping and ransom beneath filthy pirates, Highness," Talos assured her. "But surely we outnumber them—would they risk attack?"
"If they saw the Princess come aboard, surely they saw the Royal Guard board as well," Baines said. "Regardless, they will be on us within the hour. Could be they have a problem, but with that flag flying I'd say their intentions are not good. Watch and wait is all we can do. If they attack, we'll engage them, but they won't give in easy. My men have all fought pirates, but we'll let the Royal Guard take charge if there's a firefight."
"Firefight?" Jess said, confused. "I thought cannons haven't been invented?" They all looked at him, equally confused.
"What is a… cannon?" the Princess asked him.
"A ball of, um, iron filled with gunpowder," he explained. "Wait, do you know what gunpowder is? Do you know what a gun is?"
"A gunna is a sack for carrying your belongings…" the Princess tried.
"No, this stuff explodes."
"You mean a grenado?" Baines ventured. The word was similar to 'grenade', but Jess shrugged. Baines waved a sailor over. "Bring us some grenados from the armory," he told him and the sailor scurried below decks. The Captain made a shape with his hands the size of a softball. "Grenados are made of steel packed with fire powder. You light the fuse, toss them and BANG—they explode."
"Yeah, fire powder," Cruz nodded. "Cannonballs are full of fire powder." He held his hands out and mimed a round shape about the size of a head. "About this big."
"They're fired out of an iron tube—a cannon," Jess said and sketched with his hands the shape of a cannon. Everyone but the other two boys blinked at him uncomprehendingly. "They do a lot of damage. There are pirates in our world and they have cannons." He grinned sheepishly. "I guess if they don't have them here we don't have to worry, right?"
"Grenados are bad enough," the Captain said as the sailor reappeared and handed him a sack that looked to be full of metal softballs with long fuses hanging from each. "Destructive."
Jess hefted one. "Yeah. These are like miniature cannonballs," he said.
"They'll be sure to have them," Baines assured him. "And cutlasses and axes—and bow and arrow. But we won't know until we're closer."
"My men have good swords and bows as well," Talos said. "We'll be ready."
"What about the Princess?" Jess asked handing the grenado back. The Captain passed the sack back to the sailor that had brought them.
"Locked in her room below decks, away from prying eyes," Talos said firmly. "I'd be honored if you boys were with her to protect her Highness, if that is all right." He looked at the Princess and she nodded. Jess frowned. Talos was in a way keeping them safe below decks with the Princess. Jess wasn't sure he wanted to fight the pirates anyway—he had visions of catching a grenado as its fuse disappeared inside. That would not be good.
"What about Matt?" Tom asked.
"He will be safe in the brig," Talos told him, "I assure you." He turned to the Princess and offered his arm. "If you please, Milady, you must go below decks. You will be safe from these pirate brigands, never fear." The Princess nodded glumly and took his arm. He led her away, handmaidens in tow. Jess shook his head as he stared out at the ship closing the distance.
"They would risk their lives to kidnap the Princess?" he said skeptically. Cruz joined him at the rail and scowled.
"They must have a secret weapon or something," he said. "They saw how many guards came aboard, didn't they? They had to have…"
"I know. Something doesn't feel right." The ship was close enough to see the flag with the naked eye, now. The Royal Guard were on the deck watching and waiting.
"You lads better get below deck," the Captain said. "Things are liable to get ugly." Jess ignored him, suddenly fumbling the spyglass from his belt. He was sure he had seen something moving to either side of the ship. He peered through the spyglass, twisting it to focus.
"There's something—"he began before his view centered on what was moving. It appeared to be something with a snake-like head perched atop a long, sinuous neck. As he watched, it opened its mouth to roar and he caught a glimpse of a mouth packed with teeth the length of his finger. Just below the surface of the water, a muscular body swam with great flippers.
"Sea drakes!" the Captain yelled. "Pikes and harpoons, men! They got at least two of them, maybe more." Sailors moved around them, taking up short spears. The Royal Guard readied their bows. "They must have a Singer aboard! Battle stations, men!"
"Dragons," Cruz said, full of awe. "Sea dragons."
"You want to fight one?" Jess asked him.
"No."
"Me either. Let's go protect the Princess." As he tucked the spyglass back into his belt, he saw a third creature swim into view. They were moving faster than the other ship, catching up to them. Jess shuddered and hoped fifty Royal Guards would be enough.