Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns (38 page)

"You got past my mother's guard?" said Tomas. "Really?"

"I mean, it was just a tiny little nick, less than what she gave me," said Miya, touching her cheek, "and then she disarmed me—like REALLY disarmed me, my sword went flying into the water."

"What?" Tomas's face fell. "So that sword ... so you ... you lost—"

"Of course not. Dad. How could you even think that," said Miya. "I dove straight in after it and swam down until I thought I'd explode, but I got it back."

"Good on ye, girl," said Heartless Jon. He glanced at Lily. "Ye'd have to have a heart made of stone not to respect that."

"But even so ... she wouldn't help. She wanted me to join her crew, to forget about Clover Island. But of course, I couldn't! I could never!"

"Of course you couldn't," said Tomas, quietly. He looked at his wife, and reached out to take hold of her hand as he saw the look in her eyes.

"So then ... then I guess we just came back. I mean, we HAD to come back. And just in time, because all this was happening ... and I should have come back sooner, we could have, I don't know ... done something." Miya was silent a moment, looking down at her hands. Then she smiled up at her family. "But I'm here now."

"You certainly are," said Tomas.

"And I'm going to fight. Because I'm strong, and I'm quick, and I'm smart, and there's no way I'm standing at the back while Badger Pete or ANYONE tries to stomp all over my home. And you can try to stop me if you like, but if you lock me in my room I'll kick the door down even if it means breaking my foot, and if you tie me up I'll chew through the ropes even if it makes my gums bleed, and if you put me at the top of a tower I'll jump down even if that breaks my legs—I'll drag myself along until my fingers snap and all my fingernails come off and I'll wield my sword with my teeth if I have to."

"Let's not get over-dramatic," said Tomas.

"And grotesque," added Lily.

"Son," Heartless Jon said quietly to Tomas. "Could I have a little word with ye? You too, Lilith, know we've never seen eye to eye exactly but I got something important ye should hear. Kids, would ye be so kind as to give us older types a few minutes alone?"

Miya looked at him a few seconds, then at her parents, then she nodded.

"Fine," she said. She turned and walked towards the door, pausing as she passed her grandfather.

"You'd better not sell me out," she hissed at him, before leaving. Sola followed her out of the room, closing the door behind.

"No," he said, as Miya instantly went to listen at the door. "This is not for you to hear."

"But—"

"Even so."

"Hey, you didn't even wait for me to say anything, that 'even so' just now didn't make any sense!"

"Even so."

Miya glared at her brother a moment. "You're dangerous," she said. "You don't argue fair."

"I feel that they'll be talking for some time," said Sola. "Let's take a walk."

"In the rain?"

"I like the rain. Don't you like the rain?"

"I'm not AFRAID of it, if that's what you're implying."

"I'm not."

"Well, maybe we can go sit in the gazebo out there," said Miya. "Geez, it's really pouring down."

They ran for the gazebo, which was near the edge of the cliff overlooking Blackport and the harbour.

"Phew!" Miya said, as she reached the shelter. "Now THIS is rain! Could you please light that lantern up there?"

Sola did so as Miya shook some of the rain out of her hair.

"What do you think they're talking about?" she asked Sola, as a dim glow lit up the gazebo.

"You."

"I know that, but what?"

"If they want you to know, they will tell you later."

"You're not all that much help sometimes, you know that?"

"Sorry."

They looked out from the gazebo, but the rain and the darkness made it impossible to see far—they could make out the port below, but not much of the harbour. However, perhaps in an attempt at psychological warfare, perhaps simply to stop them from running into each other, the ships of Badger Pete's navy each had a bright lamp aboard, clearly seen through the rain.

"It looks like so many," said Miya.

"It is so many."

"I know, but ... maybe I should just go. Just go, right now. Take one of our corvettes, smash through all those little ships in front, ram right into Badger Pete's big ugly frigate out there, jump on board and ... and ..."

"Put your sword through his heart?"

"Well ... no, I guess not." Miya sighed. "It's hard being good sometimes."

"Perhaps harder to be bad."

"I dunno."

"To look back, and know that even though you won, it was the wrong way? That, I think, would be hard."

"Yeah, maybe."

They were silent a moment. Miya sat down on one of the gazebo's seats, Sola remained standing.

"Perhaps that is why our grandfather came," said Sola, after a while.

"What, because he's bad?"

"Because he wants to be good."

Miya thought about this a moment.

"I know he's done bad stuff," she said. "I kind of ... some of it I don't want to hear about, don't even want to think about. Some of the stories ... even if they're only half-true ... I mean, I always thought they sounded amazing and exciting, even the bad stuff was kind of ... you know. And, actually, sometimes it IS amazing and exciting. I think about duelling Badtooth all the time, and fighting off those thugs, and I've NEVER felt ANYTHING like how I felt when I was duelling with my grandmother ... I wouldn't change any of it. I wouldn't trade the adventures for anything."

"Even when you got hurt?"

"Almost especially then! Look at this scar!" said Miya, pointing to the one on her cheek. "I've wanted a scar on my face since I was seven! I know it's just a little one, but still ... it shows I've done something. It shows I've had an adventure, that I duelled with a master swordswoman and lived to tell the tale."

"A lot of pirates don't live," said Sola. "The stories are filled with those that fell."

"I know ... and I wouldn't—I mean, I don't think I'd want to be a pirate, not like in the old stories. Fighting to the death and looting and pillaging and hurting people that don't deserve to be hurt, there's got to be a better way. Dad's right, there's no need for that kind of pirate in this world. Those pirates that are out there ... frankly, they're not doing it properly," said Miya, a little huffily. "But I know that my kind of pirate, the kind Dad was ... brave, adventurous, freedom-loving ... noble," she said, grinning at herself, "the kind of pirate that fights for what they believe in—for their families, and their homes, and the people they care about, and for what they know is
right
... there has to be a place for that kind of pirate. Doesn't there?"

"I think that for you, the world will be forced to make a place," said Sola.

"Well ... thanks, Sola," said Miya, smiling up at her brother. "What a good thing to say."

"Because if it doesn't, you will make a great mess as you tear a place open for yourself."

"That wasn't quite so good."

"Miya!"

Miya jumped to her feet and turned, a smile instantly lighting up her face.

"Penny!"

"I'm so glad you're all right," said Penny, as she leapt into the shelter of the gazebo and embraced her friend. "I just heard from Midge that you escaped—"

"I didn't escape, I was never kidnapped, I—oh, forget it, I'm happy you're okay!"

"Hi Sola!" said Penny, releasing Miya and smiling at him. "I'm glad you're still in one piece too."

Sola nodded at Penny.

"I love how quiet he is," said Penny. "So different to his sibling."

"Hey!"

"Hey yourself, for not telling me that you were back!" said Penny.

"I ... I'm sorry," said Miya. "I was busy, there were fires and then the raiders, and then Dad coming back, I—"

"I'm just teasing you, I know all about the Trials and Tribulations of Miya Black. I am your best friend, after all. You're like a little hurricane, you know? All these troubles whirling up around you."

"I am not! I am NOT a little hurricane! Sola, am I a little hurricane?"

"More a tornado," he said, smiling. "Very destructive over a small area."

"And he's so funny," laughed Penny.

"Great, now my brother and my best friend gang up on me. This is just perfect. I should never have let you meet Penny, that was a terrible idea."

"Come here," said Penny, grabbing Miya in another hug. "You know what it is, it's that you just make it too easy."

"Not on purpose!" protested Miya.

"Princess!"

Miya struggled out of Penny's hug to look past her. Charles Sharpe was hobbling up the path towards them.

"Chuck!" called Miya. "Come in out of the rain!"

Charles limped into the gazebo, and smiled awkwardly at Miya.

"How's your leg?" she asked him.

"It's, uh, fine," Charles said. "Um, hello Penny. Hello, um ..."

"Sola. My brother," said Miya. Sola nodded at Charles.

"A pleasure to meet you," said Sola.

"V-very nice to meet you too. Uh, Mi—Princess Black, I have a message—"

"Why are you delivering messages with your leg like that?" asked Penny. Charles blushed a little.

"I, uh, volunteered, it's for your father—"

"He's presently occupied," said Miya. "I'll pass it along to him. What is it?"

Charles swallowed, then cleared his throat.

"It's Badger Pete," he said. "H-he's here, on the docks. He w-wants to parley."

It was still dark and raining hard as the Black family made their way down to the docks, torches hissing and sizzling as fat raindrops hit them. Heartless Jon had decided not to come—"Always hated parleying, bloody waste of time if ye ask me"—and Sola had also chosen not to attend, for reasons he kept to himself. So, the group that went to parley ended up being Tomas, Lilith, and (at her firm insistence) Miya (despite some feelings of trepidation from everyone else).

Because of the rain it was hard to see more than a few metres away, so it wasn't until they reached the pier where Badger Pete was standing that they could see who he'd brought along—Miya assumed they were his lieutenants; on the left a slim, dark man with dangerous eyes, on the right a calm-looking woman with angular features and strikingly red hair beneath a tricorn hat. As they got a little closer Miya realised there was another person with Pete also.

"
Grace
," she growled. Her father glanced down at her.

"This is a parley, Miya. Not a time to be settling scores or picking fights—we're trying to avoid fighting here."

"She hurt my ship, Dad."

"Regardless of that, this is for the island. Be civil," said Tomas, as they stopped a few metres from where Pete's group was standing. Badger Pete had on shiny black boots, black trousers, and a black jacket over a white shirt—the same as his daughter and the two others with him, almost like a uniform. Pete wore no hat over his short blonde hair, although Grace had on the same wide-brimmed one that Miya had seen her in previously; Miya was somehow gratified to see how limp and sodden the rain had made the white feather stuck in it.

Before speaking, Pete looked Tomas up and down, glanced at Miya, then examined Lily long and hard.

"Lovely weather in this part of the world," he said, finally, as the rain pelted down with no sign of stopping. When Tomas made no reply, Badger Pete went on. "I believe you know me as Badger Pete, although my daughter prefers that I introduce myself as Peter Morgon."

Still getting no reply from Tomas, Pete grinned and continued. "Perhaps I should introduce my associates," he said, "Mr Mulligan and Ms O'Toole—"

"We've met," said Tomas. He glanced at the two in turn. "Darkeye," he said, nodding to the man. "Steel," he said, nodding to the woman.

Miya looked up at her father, but he didn't speak further.

"Ah?" said Badger Pete. He looked at Tomas a moment, then smiled again. "They won't be talking much at this meeting. But if you've met them before then maybe you'll know why I'm standing here on, forgive me, hostile ground with only two crew as backup. But I forget myself—also with me is, of course, my lovely daughter, Grace Morgon."

"Shall we get straight to business, Badger?" asked Tomas. "I was under the impression that this was a parley."

"Quite so," said Badger Pete. He grinned. "I have something of a proposal for you, Mr Black."

"We're listening."

"Nice little family you've got here," said Badger Pete. "Believe it or not, I know the importance of family. My daughter here's the pride of my life, much as I imagine your wee girl there is yours."

Tomas narrowed his eyes very slightly.

"We're listening," he repeated, his voice hard.

"I was thinking, sitting out there in my big old ship, what a waste this all is. Never mind the fact that we're just sitting around in the rain, waiting for a break in the clouds so we can all start shooting at each other again—"

"Speak for yourself," snapped Miya. Tomas glanced down at her and shook his head slightly, and Miya frowned, annoyed at herself. Grace gave her a very superior look, and it was all Miya could do not to leap at her then and there.

"In any case," said Pete, "I was thinking, there are a lot of islands in this archipelago, plenty to go around, and you must yearn for something more than this place—"

"There's your first problem," said Tomas.

"Oh? And what's that?" asked Pete.

"You only know what it is to take."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" said Grace, before scowling as her father frowned at her. Miya did her best imitation of the look Grace had directed at her seconds earlier, and was rewarded with a venomous glare.

"I'm a little confused at your choice of words there," said Pete. He shifted his weight a little. "I'm just a simple pirate boss. Could you maybe explain a little clearer?"

"You think me to be like you," said Tomas. He looked at his wife and his daughter before turning back to Badger Pete. "But I've learnt to build. Taking holds no appeal for me now."