Nobody Likes Fairytale Pirates (47 page)

“Hey!”  Ransom snapped her fingers
in front of his face.  “We don’t have time for your melodramatic bullshit,
right now!”  She resumed her pacing.  “Come on!”

“Well, surrender is out.”  He
thought aloud.  “They didn’t come all this way for prisoners.”

“You
don’t
want to be an
Adithian prisoner anyway, trust me.  My job involved coming up with
all
sorts
of sick shit to do to prisoners.” 

“I liked ‘The Woeboat.’”  He said
softly.  “That was positively demented.”

“Thank you.  I was proud of that
one.”  She nodded, her pacing getting more agitated.  “You know what?  Fuck
it.”  She decided, turning to face him again.  “We grew up in the toughest
kingdoms this world has to offer.  Fighting our whole lives.  Warriors. 
Killers.  Monsters.  They took my eyes.  They beat you half to death.  But they
left us alive.  I think it’s time we made them
pay
for that mistake.”  Her
normally unemotional voice was now an angry snarl.  “You
don’t
start a
war with an Adithian and a man from the Grizzwood and then let them live.  If
you
ever
want to spend another night without fear, you’d better make
pretty goddamned sure they’re dead.”

“I think that’s their plan.”  He
agreed calmly.  “They’ve come to finish it.”

“Not if we finish
them
.  I
didn’t come all this way just to get my family killed.”  She shook her head
again.  “I
didn’t
come all this way to get killed by the same
sonsabitches that have been trying to kill me my whole life!”

“I don’t see how…”  He began.

“Are you beaten?”  She snapped,
interrupting him.

“Huh?”

“Are you beaten?”  She grabbed his
lapels and shook him.  “
Are you ready to admit that they win?
”

“I don’t see a way out of this,
Dove.”  He tried to pull her closer.  “I think this is…”

She yanked away from him, unwilling
to be comforted about the inevitable.  “She…
I,
” she pointed at herself,
“
I
was once the best archer in the world, Uriah. 
A mean fucking
bitch
.”  She shoved him backwards.  “I’ve still got some fight in me.  How
about you?”

He considered that for a moment.  “One
last time.”

She rapidly passed her hand back
and forth between them.  “You and me.”

He shook his head warningly.  “Wasn’t
enough before.”

“We lost because we didn’t fight
together.”  She paused.  “And, you know, because I shot you with that arrowed
dipped in poison and all.”

“Yeah.”  He did a double-take, just
processing that.  “…wait, what?”

“Forget it.  Not important.”  She
waved off his question.  “Separately, we can hold our own for a while.  We can
put up a good fight.  But we’re damaged, imperfect people.  Alone, we couldn’t
do it.  There were too many and neither of us was strong enough.”  She put her
hand on his chest again.  “But we’ve always been stronger when we go together. 
Because together-- you protecting me and me protecting you-- we are the most
dangerous thing this world has ever seen, Uriah.  And I’m telling you right
now… you and me?”  She pointed at the door.  “
We can kill every goddamned
one of them
.”

The noise outside got louder as the
men found something to use as a battering ram.

Uriah’s eyes narrowed at the door,
feeling his anger return.  “What’s mine
isn’t
theirs.  And as long as
I’m breathing it never will be.”

“Good. 
There’s
my Captain.” 
She agreed.  “My sentiments exactly.  I’m with you, Uriah.  To the end and
after.”  She took his hand.  “I’ll
always
be with you.”

He pulled her closer, wrapping his
arms around her.  “Listen,” He swallowed, “I know I don’t have a good track
record.  I’m a longshot.  I’m a pirate and not even an especially good one. 
And the only time you ever needed me, I failed you.  Completely.  If I could
take that back or switch places with you so that I suffered what you suffered,
I would gladly do so.  I’d cut out my eyes and give them to you right now if I
could.  I’ve… I’ve failed even at that though.” 

“We agreed you’d shut up about
that.”  Her face was pressed against his chest.  “Remember?”

He ignored that.  “I’ve lost this
fight hundreds of times, Ransom.  I act it out every free moment I have.  Relive
it every time I close my eyes.  A nightmare I’ve repeated every night for the
last five years.  But today… I swear to you on whatever is left of my soul, they
won’t so much as fucking
touch you
.” 

“Ditto.”  She said softly, her
voice tight.

“If…if the worst happens though,
and I fail again… that means I’m dead.”  He began to softly pet her hair.  “But
I want you to know that I love you.  More than I could ever possibly say.  And
that death won’t change that.”  He swallowed the lump in his throat.  “I’ll see
you again.  I don’t know how or when… but I’ll see you again.”

She wiped the tears from her face. 
“It’s a date, pirate.”

He began to arrange things in the
back corner of the room, with an easy sightline to the door.  He gathered all
the arrows he could find and pressed an ancient looking Adithian recurve bow
into her hand.  “The last time I used a bow, I shot myself in the foot with
it.”  He admitted.  “Don’t lau…”

He couldn’t even finish the word
before she started to howl in nervous laughter.  “How did you even manage
that?”

“It’s a gift.”  He put his arm
around her waist, guiding her hands and the bow.  “Center of the door.  That’s
a kill shot.”  He told her, his breath on her ear.  “You got it?”

“Aye.”  She nodded.  “I got it.”  There
was an especially loud sound from outside and a large section of the door fell
away.  The men would be through in seconds.  “How do you kill an army, Uriah?” 

“One man at a time.”  He twirled
his swords, getting used to their weight.  “You handle the flanks, I’ll meet
them in the middle.  Kill anything that doesn’t sound like me.  If you’re not
sure, shoot anyway.”

She tilted her head to the side,
then gestured to the other sides of the building.  “They’ve got us surrounded
now.”

He smiled in anticipation.  “Those
poor bastards.”

She started to laugh again.

He turned to face her.  “I’m
honored to have called you my friend, Ransom.  Princess, pirate, or castaway. 
Thank you for being the love of my life and the only person I’ve ever counted
on.”

“You’re so negative.”  She made a
face.  “We’re going to win this, you know.”

“Might not.” 

“Might not.”  She shrugged.  “But we’ll
go together.  And I’d rather die with you than live without you.”

“Not an especially empowering
statement.”

“Well, not to sound like the poor little
homicidal girl, but my life before you was pretty shitty.  Without you, I’m
apparently some kind of evil sadistic madwoman, Uriah.  Like… my mother and I
got along
great
until she decided I was too pretty.  And I don’t want to
go back to that.  My life… the life I
want
… would be over without you anyway.” 
She firmed her jaw.  “So, yes.  I’d rather make the empowered decision to end
it right now.”

“My life was really, really shitty
before meeting you too.”  He admitted.

“Excellent.  One more thing we have
in common.  We both live or we both die.”  She held out her hand.  “Agreed?”

“Go team.”  He slapped her offered
palm.  “…but try not to shoot me, please.” 

“No promises.  You’re kind of an
idiot and this is the perfect opportunity to be rid of you.”

“I just…”  He pulled her closer
into what would probably be their last kiss, silently cursing himself for
wasting so much time.  He’d let his stupid fear of losing her get in the way. 
And now he was going to lose her and there simply wasn’t enough time.  “I’m so sorry
I messed this up for us and we never got a chance.”

“We will.”  She breathed.  “One way
or the other.”

He kissed her deeper, his lips
moving over hers with a desperate intensity, trying to claim a lifetime’s worth
of kisses which were now being stolen from him.

She made a soft hum of pleasure
which made him forget all about the men outside who would butcher them both in
a moment.

“I love you so much…”  He mumbled,
his hand tangling in her hair.  “I don’t want it to end.”

Another large section of the door
gave way, startling him from his paradise.

He swore softly, trying to tear his
mouth from hers.  It was possibly the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his
life.  It just didn’t seem right.  All he wanted was her.  And people kept
trying to take her away from him.

The shouting outside got louder,
the men recognizing that the battle would soon begin.

He let out a long breath.  “Today
is the day.”  He breathed softly.  “At long last… today is the day.”

“Huh?”

He ran his hand over his face,
trying to regain his composure after their kiss.  “I once promised you that one
day I’d show you who I am.”  He started forward, then looked back at her over
his shoulder.  “I think the day has come.”  She twirled his weapons.  “Blood
and Treasure, Dove.” 

“Blood and Treasure, Uriah.”

The door gave way and the horde of
men began streaming into the room, weapons drawn.

“Gentlemen…”  Uriah charged forward
to meet them.  “I’ve been expecting you for five years.”

****

In all the times in his life that
Ryle had dreamed of finding a building filled with gold, he had never really
imagined it going like this.

He ducked behind a column as
another contingent of Adithian soldiers raced by him, all headed somewhere.

Ryle had been busy trying to gather
up as much gold as he could, taking it to the only form of transportation he
could find, when the Adithians had arrived.  He wasn’t quite sure what they
wanted or why, but they were apparently willing to kill to get it.

They were probably here for
Ransom.  It seemed like a long way to travel just to kill one blind lady, but
the Adithians weren’t really known for being logical.  Plus, there seemed to be
a lot of familial rage boiling beneath the surface of the Adithian royal
family, and Ryle didn’t pretend to understand the particulars of their twisted
dynamic.  He’d always loved his own family beyond all reason.  But one by one
they’d been taken from him, leaving only his sister Taylor to save him from
being completely alone.  So the idea of having a bunch of family members and choosing
to kill them, was so utterly psychotic in his mind.

On the other hand, you could never
overlook the idea that someone might hate Uriah enough to track
him
over
hundreds of miles in an attempt to kill him.  That was also a very real
possibility, because the man was absolutely horrible and made enemies wherever
he went.

In either case, it was a bad
situation to be in.  But Ryle had been in a bad situation for over a decade now. 
He was used to it.  Most of his family had died, his country had been invaded,
all of his friends had been killed in the war…  Ryle’s life had prepared him
for the current situation quite well.  In fact, the only things in this world
he cared about were his sister and her new baby, neither of whom were here at
the moment.

So… to be honest… Ryle didn’t much
care if the men killed him or not.  He’d miss his remaining family, obviously. 
But Dom could take care of them better than Ryle could anyway.  Ryle wasn’t
really needed by the world anymore.  His place was gone.  His job was done.  He
was a relic of the time before The War of Gold and Silver.  When the world was
young.  And alive.

Not that he w
anted
to die,
just that death represented a far less terrifying prospect to him now than it
logically should.

The
logical
thing to do would
be to just walk away now and save himself.  The Adithians weren’t looking for
him, after all.  Getting involved in this would merely be asking for trouble. 
But again, it seemed sometimes that Ryle’s life wasn’t just asking for trouble,
it was
begging for it.

Besides, even if he could make it
down from the mountains, where would he go?  He didn’t know where he was and he
had no ship, even if he
could
sail it on his own.

He needed the pirates.

And it appeared that they needed
him.

Ryle was fairly capable in a fight,
but his wife and sister had always been in charge of strategy and planning. 
Mainly, Ryle had spent his life just standing around until Anna or Taylor told
him what to do.  But now Anna was dead and Taylor was off running a country…
and Ryle was kidnapped… which meant that he was on his own in this. 

He moved across the street, keeping
low and trying not to make noise as his boots trudged through the snow.

Unfortunately for him, the spot he
attempted to hide in was already occupied by an Adithian.  The man slashed at
Ryle with his sword, but Ryle jumped out of the way.  He grabbed the man’s
wrist before he could launch a second attack, then bashed his forehead into the
man’s nose.  The blow staggered the man backwards and made him release his grip
on his weapon.  Ryle brought the pummel of the stolen sword down on top of the
man’s head, knocking him out.

On the bright side though, Ryle was
now armed.

That had worked out quite well, all
told.  True, it hadn’t
actually
been his plan, but if it had, it would
have been a good one.

Noises came from behind him, as
more soldiers were running through the snowy streets of the lost city.

Ryle decided that fighting them
would be pointless, and he ran around the other side of the building. 

Directly into a second patrol of
soldiers.

He swore under his breath, trying
to decide what to do as the men looked up in alarm as he appeared in front of
them.