"Almost anything is easier to get into than to get out of." –Agnes Allen
The Princess sat in the middle of her bunk, a sword across her knees. Carlinya and Galina sat on either side of her glancing up nervously at the sounds above them on deck. Tom and Cruz stood at each of the portholes, looking out and seeing nothing. Jess stood at the door, sword in hand. In the hall, outside the door, were five more guards with the prime directive of protecting the Princess. On deck the battle had already begun. Men were firing arrows at the three long-necked creatures surrounding the ship. There were screams and shouts above them and the pirates had not yet reached them.
"I can't see anything," Cruz said, his face pressed up against the glass.
"Me either," Tom agreed. As the words fell from his lips, a dark shape swept across their line of sight and moved away. Tom scrambled backwards, fumbling for his sword.
"Dragons," Cruz hissed.
"Let me see," the Princess said and scurried to the vacant porthole. Carlinya and Galina remained on the bunk, looking frightened. There were loud thumps overhead and the shape flashed by, going the other way. The Princess scrambled away from the tiny window with a gasp.
"They can't get us in here," Jess assured her. At least he hoped they couldn't. As far as dragons went, these creatures really didn't seem like the traditional dragons he'd seen in books. These were long-necked, looking more like waterborne dinosaurs than anything. Plesiosaurs if he remembered Aiden teaching him from pictures in a big book. A little bigger and a little more dragon-like, it seemed. On deck there was more thumping and a smell of smoke. "Can they breathe fire?" Jess wondered aloud.
"They are horrible monsters," Carlinya said. "Their eyes can paralyze a man and they can breathe flame." Jess nodded, interested. Carlinya had come from a family of seamen and he supposed she knew best. That explained the smoke, anyways.
"They're just animals," he muttered. "How do the pirates control them?"
"They must have a singer aboard," Carlinya replied. "Sea drake trainers use singing to control them. It's an ancient skill, passed down through families."
"Are the Guard able to fight them?"
"Captain Baines men are—they've driven off actual dragons. Drakes are considerably smaller." There was more shouting above, and screams, either of pain or fright. Tom pointed out the porthole.
"Here come the pirates," he said. The ship with the woman on the front hove into view and sidled up beside them, blocking their view. Tom shook his head. "Pirates on one side, dragons on the other. They definitely thought out this attack." Up on deck the sounds of battle increased.
"They're coming for you," Carlinya told the Princess worriedly. The Princess nodded and climbed back up onto the bunk, laying the sword across her knees.
"What do we do?" Cruz asked in a near-panic voice.
"We stay in here," Jess told him firmly. "Protect the Princess." There was the sound of a muffled explosion on deck. Grenados. They could hear the pirates yelling and the clanging ring of sword on sword. The boys ducked their heads and stared upward as if they could see what was happening on deck through the layers of wood. They held their swords at the ready as they had been taught. None of them had actually ever fought with a sword but they had all shown promise when the Royal Guard had taught them to spar. Jess had proven to be the most adept—which was why he was closest to the door. Whoever dared to enter the cabin unannounced risked a quick maiming by Jess's nervous sword. Above, there were more muffled explosions and screams. Outside, at the end of the hallway they heard the Guard engaging intruders. Jess, eyes wide, quickly scooted the room's only chair over to the door where he wedged it beneath the doorknob.
"For Berelain!" a Guard yelled in the hall and joined the battle taking place less than twenty feet away, by the sound. Jess licked his lips and checked the door's lock for the tenth time. He hoped the Guards in the hall could handle whatever was out there. The Captain had said that they were to guard the Princess but Jess was old enough to know that the Captain was politely keeping them safe and out of the way of the ensuing battle. They couldn't fight pirates—Tom could barely hold his sword.
Above them, the battle raged. Unconsciously they ringed the bunk, waiting to see what would happen next. Minutes passed. Five. Ten. Twenty, and still the commotion over their heads thundered. There were more skirmishes in the hall, and shouting.
Half an hour went by and they found themselves sitting on the edge of the bunk, swords lowered. The sounds overhead abated somewhat and Jess took a deep breath.
"Wonder who won?" he whispered after a while. In the hall there was another brief skirmish, then silence. After another minute, someone knocked on the door. Jess put a finger to his lips and indicated that they should remain silent. The doorknob turned slowly and jiggled.
"Should we blow it?" somebody said in the hall.
"An' risk harmin' the Princess? There's better ways," somebody else replied. The doorknob jiggled again. It turned a few times and there was a click as the lock disengaged. The doorknob knocked against the chair enough to allow a few grimy fingers to wrap themselves around the doorframe. "Somethin' propped up," the owner of the fingers said. The door thumped back and forth, but the chair stayed where it was.
"Are you in there, Miss Oh-so-pretty, your majesty?" the other voice called to them through the crack in the door. "Come on and open this door."
"We're getting in there somehow, precious. You want us kind and gentle or full out angry for havin' to bust down the door? Your choice, precious, but we will be getting in there." The door strained in its frame as the pirates pushed against it. Jess wiped sweat out of his eyes. For a while there was only the grunts of the sailors pushing the door. Something clumped down the hall and stopped just outside. The pirates immediately stopped pushing and murmured to whoever had stopped outside the door.
"Is the brat inside?" came the rough voice of the newcomer.
"She won't answer but we know she's in there," one of the pirates replied. Jess glanced at the Princess. She was biting her lip, eyes wide with fear.
"Princess?" came the rough voice. "If you open this door I can guarantee no harm will befall you. As Captain of the Windraker, I give you my word. Allow us to conduct you aboard our faster ship and we will take you wherever you need to go. I'm afraid the only place this ship is going is to the bottom of the sea."
The Princess drew in a sharp breath and swallowed. "What of the Captain?" she called out.
"Already aboard the Windraker… as a guest. He will be put ashore at the nearest port."
"And my Guard?"
"Those that yet live are my guests as well, with the same deal. Join over or be put ashore. Just open the door."
"What do you want with me?"
"For now only to put you safely aboard my ship."
"And after?"
"We can discuss it aboard my ship, Princess."
"What if I decline?"
"You will not. You will open this door."
"No," she said defiantly. There was only silence beyond the door for a minute. Then, the rough voice chuckled cruelly.
"Break it down," it said. Something hammered the door once, twice, and on the third it cracked in two pieces and fell inward. The owner of the rough voice stepped through the doorway.
He was tall—over six feet with long black hair pulled into a loose ponytail. Long mustaches framed his smiling mouth. He was dressed in a silk shirt of white and slacks tucked into his only boot—his other leg ended in a wooden peg from the knee down. Behind him, two pirates rushed in, brandishing cutlasses. There were more out in the hall.
Jess brought his sword up and the nearest pirate chuckled.
"I am Captain Agelmar of the Windraker," the mustachioed man said spreading his arms in welcome. "Take the Princess and her handmaidens aboard the ship, Mr. Kitt."
"What about these boys?" the one addressed as Mr. Kitt asked him.
"Throw them in the brig and let them stew awhile," the Captain grinned. "Then we'll see."
"Aye-aye, Cap'n."
In the brig of the other ship, the Guard left alive were all badly beaten, as were Captain Baine's crew. The Captain himself was chained to the mast up on deck. Jess, Cruz, and Tom looked around for Matt and noticed he was not among the prisoners. They caught sight of him on deck standing off to one side with the other men who had been in the brig of their ship. Of course—the first pirate recruits usually came from the ship's brigs. They saw him only briefly, looking startled as they were marched below decks to the brigs.
The Princess had watched them go worriedly. What became of her they didn't know locked up as they were. She had not been chained, nor had Carlinya and Galina, only prodded gently toward the cabins above deck. It was she who had demanded that Jess, Cruz, and Tom drop their weapons so they were not harmed, telling them "this was fated to happen." Jess wondered about this and what was also fated to happen according to the Princess. She had mentioned it before when she had met them in the forest at their overturned carriage. If she knew they were going to end up as prisoners on a pirate ship that certainly qualified as need-to-know information. How were they going to get free? The Princess' family could pay whatever ransom these pirates laid down, no doubt, but where did that leave Aiden who was counting on them to find insulin or at least a way home?
"Matt is still free," Tom said coming to stand near Jess at the iron bars of the brig. Jess nodded.
"They'll make him a pirate," Cruz said on his other side. "He might be able to get us out of here."
"The Captain has his eyes on us," Jess warned him. "We were with the Princess, remember."
"I'm his brother," Tom stated.
"You don't look anything alike," Jess scoffed. "The same thing would happen if it was Aiden out there. They wouldn't believe we're brothers. Besides, what would a pirate clan really do with a bunch of teenagers?"
"We were with the Princess," Cruz said quietly. "IF they think there's something between us and the Princess, well…" He left the thought unspoken. Their imaginations ran potential outcomes through their heads, none of them good. Jess rapped on the bars in frustration.
"Well, as long as Matt isn't locked up there's a chance," he said after a while. "There's only one thing we can do now."
"What's that?" Cruz asked him.
"Wait and watch," he replied. "Watch and wait."