> Article I
>
> Every person in the brotherhood is family and shall be treated as such.
>
> No carousing wit the fairer members, be it mothers, or sisters, without their consent.
>
> Each member has an equal voice and the right to parley, if they’ve being wronged, or treated unjustly.
>
>
>
>
>
> -
>
> The Articles
>
> Presumably Lord Reinut’s instructions for the members of the Brotherhood of Gentlemen,
>
> According to the strictly adhered to Pirate Code.
>
> (Herein Article I, paragraphs 1-3)
>
> Unknown date, before the start of the New Calendar
>
>
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Princess Elsanne Eikenaar
‘Jade Eyes’
Fair Anne Burton
If the heir is fake
Part II
(A Queen prancing about…)
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> In the end of Spring, the year one and ninety of the new calendar, Prince Nout that had kept the mauled remnants of the First Foot trapped in Sadofort, after smashing through the Duchy’s defenses the previous summer, collapsed in his tent stricken by the corrosive illness he carried since his heroics at Esterlam’s Crevice.
>
> His men seeing the comatose famed general remain unresponsive, retreated from their positions towards Rida in a desperate attempt to save his life. They left a thin screen behind and used the Khan’s chariots to make the return trip as fast as they could. Once the first officers departed, the whole force did.
>
> It was an unfortunate setback that was just about to blacken the Khan’s successful for the most part two year campaign. Prince Atpa, Nout’s younger brother, unaware of his fate had finally decided to move under the scorching hot sun. The reasons for delaying his assault on the fort, while given in his war memoirs, sounds hollow today given his later actions. Atpa wanted Sadofort’s guard thoroughly demoralized and weakened. He managed all that for sure, but he could have attacked much earlier. Atpa was a very cautious, as much as cunning commander and not a fool.
>
> His inaction, largely glossed over these days, allowed the trapped soldiers inside Sadofort to survive long enough for Sir Robert Van Durren -now commanding all units of the expeditionary force- to act. The late Lord Joep’s firstborn and effectively the Baron of Badum, decided to break out by striking the weakened Prince Nout’s holding force. It was more a heroic last punch than an exodus, but when the mixed force of the remnants of the First Foot, joined by the garrison of Sadofort reached the Cofol lines near the Queen’s Oasis they realized the road was open.
>
> The Queen’s Oasis second battle was a mere skirmish.
>
> Sir Robert gathered his men –along the five hundred strong garrison from Sadofort- as much supplies they could muster from the ruined Prince’s Nout’s abandoned camp and marched southeast away from the pursuing Atpa’s cavalry. The Issirs and Lorians from Raoz marched into the desert. This force of almost three thousand men, two thousand soldiers and a thousand civilians, eight hundred animals and two hundred wagons were ill prepared for what they were about to face.
>
> The horrific three and a half month journey through the desert would kill one in two men, women, children, or animals, from hunger and the absence of water. While the guides and the desert-familiar locals knew the paths and the water holes, there wasn’t enough for everyone.
>
> Lord Robert would come out of the desert at the end of summer and fall on the well-drilled marching force from Scaldingport under his old friend Sir Gust De Weer. It was a small miracle more than thirty unlucky scouts weren’t killed in the initial shock and violence that had exploded when they made contact on the road to Tirifort.
>
> Sir Gust had defied the King’s Council initial orders to march on Rida and threaten Prince Sahand’s main army’s supply lines -the Heir to the Khanate had moved to Altarin to block the Second Foot’s advance- and opted instead to smash through to Eikenport whatever the cost and secure Princess Elsanne.
>
> The whereabouts of the Princess were a complete mystery, as no one had seen her since Riverdor. While Lord Ruud would paint a different picture later, this must have been all pre-agreed, the orders given in advance to the rather straightforward Sir Gust by the cunning old Lord of Scaldingport, who cynically lay the blame for the change in strategy to his ‘romantic’ son.
>
> Lord Robert upon learning what had happened, it was the first time in a year that news had reached him, ordered Sir Gust to turn around and assist him against Atpa’s Army of the Desert. The only force the Khan had relatively close to Rida. Unsurprisingly the young noble wanted to avenge the death of his father the previous year.
>
> Without getting into the logistics, be it numbers (the two young leaders did have over four thousand soldiers and cavalry between them) or real strategic value of such an action, we must note here that a message arrived the next morning and put everything into perspective. Eventually making the chasm between the two allies and longtime friends deepen even more.
-
Jasi had taken one look on Elsanne’s gloomy face and realized something was wrong. He made to rise from his chair, but she stopped him placing her small hand on his shoulder.
“We shall speak later,” she told him.
Elsanne turned to the expecting pirate Captain next, after taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “You spoke of a counter offer Captain Fleet. A compromise.”
Van Fleet frowned and glanced at the man that was with him earlier. Apparently there was another unseen entrance to the backroom. The Issir with the cracked, horrifically scarred face nodded. The exchange swift, but it deepened the frown on the Captain’s face.
“We can give you passage to Lord’s Burrow,” he finally rustled looking at Elsanne. “It’s a safe place for those allied with the brotherhood. Somewhere to stay, without fear until something better can be arranged.”
“I see,” Elsanne said. “Thank you Captain. I’ll take your offer, but I’d like a small favor.”
Van Fleet pushed back on his chair. “Name it Anne. You can speak freely here.”
Well, we are about to put that to the test, she thought. Elsanne felt numb, as if she was in a dream, or a nightmare. One she didn’t know how to get out of.
“I want to speak with the man from Kaltha.”
Van Fleet cast his eyes on Mutiny Carter, visibly not pleased.
“It appears I was hasty in me praise earlier Carter,” he grunted. “Is this some kind of elaborate scheme, I just can’t see? Why, I be feelin’ stupidly left out and we’re not even quiffing lass, if the good sister pardon me words.”
“I used it to explain yer reasoning Captain,” Mutiny retorted. “What’s happening there seemed relevant?”
“Did it now?” Van Fleet snorted, not convinced. “Why would she care? I wish Dawson was here, so we can all be further enlightened on the finer details. This all seems very mysterious to the plain folk given the timing.”
“Anne, why is this important?” Jasi asked fearing the deal may fall apart.
“Yes Anne, why is it?” The Captain asked.
“Is my request so challenging?” She countered bravely. “You could just refuse dear sir.”
“Eh, I feel yer making me appear unreasonable my lass,” Van Fleet muttered. “I’m trying to help ye, but your requests are anything but simple.”
Ah, she thought her mind finally working again.
“Why?” Elsanne asked him point blank. “Is he dead?”
“Anne!” Jasi blurted anxiously.
Van Fleet sighed and glanced at the scarred pirate.
“Salty? How about givin’ me a line here?”
“He can talk,” the man replied.
“Well, since mister Reed is givin’ us his assurances about the man’s condition, we can resolve this unpleasant impasse. I swear I feel like I’m walkin’ on eggs here,” Van Fleet complained. “And I haven’t smelled omelet in a week. Come to think of it an’ grasping at the bloody opportunity, why haven’t I Burton?” He asked the tavern keeper.
“The bank’s mercenaries have cornered the market,” he replied. “There are not enough chicks for the demand. Given the choice between payin’ customers an’ the other kind, most venues opt for the former.”
“Here then, the veil is lifted and now we know.”
“Captain, I’d like an answer,” Elsanne cut in as politely as she could.
Van Fleet smacked his lips and turned to a guarded Elsanne. “You can talk with him. He’s been roughed up a bit, since I found his reasoning lacking substance.”
“How bad is it?” Elsanne asked him frowning.
“Better to focus on how lucky he is,” Van Fleet replied truthfully. “If ye haven’t asked for him, Salty had my blessings to feed him to the pigs. There as well, we don’t have enough fodder for the demand.”
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The door behind the fake large barrel led to a basement. ‘Salty’ Reed opened it for her and stepped aside. Elsanne followed by Jasi holding a candle holder walked down the few steps, the walls wet and mouldy. She paused for her eyes to get accustomed to the sinister surroundings, the place under Burton’s tavern a torture room with two open cells. One of them occupied. Elsanne walked towards the man sitting in a short stall holding her breath.
The aged Issir turned his bald head hearing her approaching worried, face illuminated by a torch on the wall. He’d a swollen right eye and blood on his dirty black robes, one of his naked feet covered in gory bandages and missing a couple of toes, but Elsanne recognized him immediately and paused in shock, heart in her throat.
“Yes?” the man asked looking at the emotional young woman. “Who are…?”
“Oh, my allgods,” Elsanne gasped and walked to him. “Sigurd, what have they done to you?”
Sigurd blinked recognizing her and made to stand, but she stopped him hugging his thin shoulders.
“Elsanne… my fair Princess. Ah, Oras black heart,” Sigurd murmured in disbelief. “How?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Elsanne sniffled hugging him desperately. “I’m going to get you out of this awful place!”
“Is the Prince here?” Sigurd asked pulling away equally moved, but alarmed. “Ah, how you’ve grown Princess. By gods I thought I’ll never see you again.”
“He’s not,” Elsanne replied and wiped her eyes, with a glance at Jasi who was standing a couple of meters away, a guarded expression on his face. “It’s been a while,” she added shyly.
“It has,” Sigurd agreed and tried to stand again, this time managing it unsteadily. “I’ve tried to stop them from taking you. I’ve failed your grace.”
“Leave the past be Sigurd, what happened to my brother?” She asked quickly.
Kaltha’s Minister of the Interior and Master of Silence grimaced and looked desperate for a moment, before catching himself. “The Realm cracked,” he finally said. “Everything is going to come crashing down unless we move fast.”
“Speak to me old friend,” Elsanne asked. She’d have known Lord Bach for all her life, the man had been appointed by her late father in the last years of his reign.
“They tried to kill him in the tower,” Sigurd recalled with a haunted look. “Brazenly and with disregard to any decency, or compassion, they used the pregnant Queen to lure him in,” he clenched his chin hard, the failure to protect her brother gnawing at him. “He can’t talk Princess, the King is all but gone.”
A pale Elsanne nodded, then overwhelmed took a step back and out of the small cell to breathe.
“Have a seat Anne,” Jasi told her worried.
“It’s all right Jasi,” she murmured.
“Who is he?” Sigurd asked and stepped out of his cell as well with difficulty.
“A friend,” Elsanne replied. “What happened to Nienke Sigurd?”
Lord Bach licked his thin dark lips slowly thinking about it. “No one knows Princess. Lord Est Ravn ordered Sir Shane to protect her during the chaos of the assassination attempt. According to him Sir Shane took the Queen away, but was attacked en route and cut down protecting her. Lots of bodies at the scene, but no knight. At any rate and unfortunately, the Queen perished as well giving birth, the good knight’s efforts wasted.”
“I knew about poor Nienke. Where’s the baby?” Elsanne croaked. “Allgods I can’t believe the Priest Knight of Midlanor has fallen as well.”
“None of this is confirmed Princess,” Sigurd grunted a little forcefully and she frowned snapping out of her wells of grief. “The knight is gone, the Queen removed from the city and her body buried with no neutral witnesses, or the Palace’s Dottore seal. The baby delivered in the dark and now at the hands of Lord Est Ravn in Midlanor.”
“Isn’t that a good thing, all things considered?” Elsanne queried.
“Princess, there is no way the Queen delivered amidst the carnage of the attack,” Sigurd grunted his face hardening. “The baby couldn’t have survived the long journey on horseback. It never left its mother’s womb! Lord Anker is lying about it and about the gender as well in the unlikely occasion a miracle happened.”
“How do you know?”
“Nienke was sure it was a girl,” Sigurd replied harshly. “She confined it to the Dottore. I trust the man.”
Luckless Nienke shouldn’t have apparently.
“That’s not enough,” Elsanne gasped and regarded him tensely.
“But it is,” Sigurd argued sternly and returned her scowl standing up straighter. Despite not being as tall as she remembered him, she felt apprehensive in his presence. Old habits were difficult to break.
Elsanne gulped down and stared at her leather boots. Her legs looked long in the tight pants, as if they belonged to someone else.
Everything seemed wrong and out of place.
“The Council is divided,” she murmured.
“The Council is at war,” Sigurd countered and made to touch her arm, but she pulled away. The man sighed and cast his eyes on the nervous Jasi. “Lord Anker declared the baby the King’s Heir, but Lords had already declared for you.”
“Was that you?” she asked him.
“Your Grace is the gods choice, unblemished from mysteries and of undisputed lineage,” Sigurd insisted. “A baby delivered in mystery and with no witnesses could be anyone, I made that clear to anyone with ears. No fake heir will sit the throne Princess. I shan’t have it.”
“You don’t have the Van Durrens, or the Est Ravns. The Van de Aesst shall side with Lord Anker and Lord Vanzon will follow, which means the Crulls will as well. They can’t do otherwise. The De Weers have never gone against the throne—”
“You are the throne!” Sigurd snapped before catching himself and took a big breath to stabilize his weak legs. “Lord Vanzon is dead, his line all but wiped out and an O’ Dargan rules in Krankenhall,” Sigurd said tiredly and Elsanne blinked not expecting the turn of events. “The Crulls are in big trouble as the ‘Bloody Tiger’ has been waging war on them for two years. A right mess.”
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“Regia has attacked us?” Elsanne gasped. What happened to the realm? She wondered horrified.
“Lucius fights for himself and King Jeremy rules in Regia with a Crow for a wife, but allow me to finish Princess,” Sigurd explained with a grimace. “Lord Ruud declined Lord Anker’s offer and the Van Oords of Castalor followed his lead. The Lakelords, no one with half-a-brain can trust and that leaves the Van Durrens of Riverdor and Badum. Well Lord Joep is dead, his son trapped on Eplas and the old Lord of Riverdor is very slow to make decisions. Not with your brother still living. Some would call it loyalty, but I think it’s foolish though useful. Lord Anker’s alliance is thin.”
“Yet, you are here,” Elsanne said and pushed her white curls away from her cold face. There was a chill inside the basement that reeked of sweat, mold and rat excrement.
“The people rose up after the priests declared the king had been gravely injured,” Sigurd elucidated.
“Why would you… go on,” Elsanne murmured, a little frustrated.
“By the laws of succession and in the absence of a will after the untimely demise of Prince Kasper, I proposed his Royal sister should take the Wyvern Throne and took it to a vote in the Council the same day.”
“You didn’t know about Nienke’s fate yet,” Elsanne noticed.
“I took a guess. Lord Anker did the same.”
“You’ve made Lord Anker your enemy.”
“I did,” came Sigurd’s determined reply. “Scaldingport, Castalor, Tollor and Pascor, voted aye like I had. Caspo O’ Bor, Midlanor and Kelholt voted for a baby no one knows if it exists. Badum had no one present, Krakenhall’s Duchess declared independence and abstained. The Crulls are probably up to their necks in mud, or dead, so they couldn’t answer in time.”
You didn’t give them any time.
“Lord Anker lost the vote,” Elsanne murmured and bit her lip. “It’s in his rights to ask for another.”
“Semantics,” Sigurd retorted. “I had the news spread the next day. People in Issir’s Eagle thought your claim was just Princess. The word will spread soon enough. Unfortunately Lord Anker is a sore loser.”
“What happened?”
“He sent an army to the capital to ensure the King’s health,” Sigurd replied with a grimace. “I ordered the Royal Guard to close the gates on them and raised the alarm. The Mayor asked Lord Anker to remove his troops beyond the Red Bridge or else.”
Elsanne gasped and clasped her heart, her shirt constricting suddenly.
“Lord Anker would never retreat,” she murmured realizing what had happened. “Why are you here Sigurd?”
-
> That same summer, the year one and ninety of the new Calendar, parts of the Second Foot reached Kaltha’s capital and joined a large force of soldiers of the Order of the Golden Spears led by their new commander Sir Albert Kosters. The man had been promoted in Sir Shane’s place. This large force remained outside the sturdy walls as the large city’s Mayor Remus De Hond refused them entry unless they surrendered their weapons.
>
> Lord Anker, present at the meeting held over the Red Bridge refused citing it was ‘the gravest of insults’ and called the mayor a dog lacking his manhood parts amongst other colorful epithets. The Mayor took the insult to heart and ordered the Commander of the Royal Guard Sir Kobus Van Eunen to close the city and prepare to remove fuming Lord Anker by force.
>
> Nothing happened for two days, as attacking the city with the men he had was deemed impossible by its defenders and with no navy to block the ports, it all appeared like pointless posturing by the livid Lord of Midlanor. It was the first of many false assumptions, as in the third day Lord Anker ordered the Second Foot to force its way inside the capital.
>
> The decent sized army moved to engage, bringing up machines and ladders, but the city’s defenders –the City Guard numbering around three thousand reinforced by the Royal Guard’s around five thousand first-rate soldiers- rushed to the walls and bombarded the gathering engineers of the Second Foot with volley after volley from the tall thick walls. It was a massacre and a one sided affair doomed to failure and an hour later Lord Anker’s mauled forces retreated.
>
> The rest of the day was spent with the jubilant citizens having a laugh at the powerful Lord’s expense, mocking his shell-shocked soldiers gathering their crushed dead hidden behind parapets and then the euphoric defenders relaxed for the coming night, when it became apparent their attackers had cowered and were going to keep their distance.
>
> But they didn’t.
>
> In the dead of night, in the third day of Issir’s Eagle siege, Uher’s ‘Light of Justice’ fell upon the massive North Gates facing Chinos River turning the night into day according to survivors. Divine miracle or not, the explosion had been so great it incinerated the six meters high steel-reinforced double gates, melted the portcullis and ripped a huge part of the adjoining walls out. Boulders, masonry and ten houses of the guard disappeared. Metal wrapped and a fire started so suddenly it caught the city by surprise. By the time the defenders realized what was going on the Second Foot and soldiers of the Golden Spears had stormed the city.
>
> A proud Reinut had vowed when he’d finished work on the walls near the end of his reign that no enemy would ever breach his Capital’s tall fortifications. ‘My Issirs storm walls and burn fools down’, he boasted to his old lieutenants and Captains, every one one of them he’d made a lord and rich beyond their wildest dreams.
>
> The Great Reinut was right on both his boasts that day. No foreigner stormed the walls of Issir’s Eagle and no foreigner set it alight. His own people did.
>
> With the fire spreading and the two armies clashing in the streets of the waking up in horror capital, things took a turn for the worse for both sides trapped in the inferno. The Second Foot got blocked before the massive White Tower by Sir Kobus second in command Sir Jan Duis, the narrow streets helping the gathering defenders. Unfortunately the City Guard had rushed to douse the fires and stop them from spreading towards the city’s center through the Old Market’s timber buildings.
>
> Civilians, women and children tried to help them in this great struggle that history should have regarded with more consideration. Not all didactic tales must reflect men at war. It must have been riddled with scenes worthy of many a plays, as from nobles to beggars, all castes of society mixed in with buckets, shovels or their bare hands fought valiantly with the flames.
>
> Calamity befalls those disregarding the past and its unnamed true heroes.
>
> While all this drama unfolded, the robed soldiers of the Golden Spears flanked the bulk of the Mayor’s inner city defense and marched towards the palace grounds from the east killing everything that moved. Such was the carnage that it would take days for city’s authorities to pick up the rotting bodies, the priests of Uher showing no mercy. Tales of atrocities and terrible events quickly spread throughout the Kingdom. People exploding, or melting away. Houses collapsing as if made out of cards and baleful shadowy figures that wielded Uher’s power indiscriminately.
>
> The Mayor realizing the cost in human lives and despite Sir Kobus vehemently objecting, as he was slowly but surely winning the battle inside the city, decided to ask for terms from Lord Anker. Eight hours after the assault had started it ended with the Royal Guard retreating and leaving the immobilized King behind.
>
> Famed Sir Kobus, who would have probably won the battle against the cornered Second Foot and then turn against the lesser skilled and spread about Golden Spears fanatics, refused to abandon the King and took his own life falling on his sword, passing command of the strong, fast retreating towards the friendly City of Colle force, to Sir Jan Duis commonly referred to as Jan ‘The Tall’.
>
> Lord Anker gained the half-ruined capital with brute force, but his actions angered most people living under the Red Bridge border, the ‘Mid Bridge’ at Chinos River, splitting the great Kingdom in two and would make even his closest allies apprehensive of him. While few dared speak against the powerful Grand Duke of Midlanor, many turned their wrath and bitterness for the mayhem at the capital on the barely a couple months old then Antoon the Third.
>
> The big lords beyond that border and the occupied capital would turn their eyes to the West and the long lost Princess of Kaltha with renewed determination. No one acted though as the most powerful of them, the ‘Old Crow’, ancient Lord of Scaldingport Ruud De Weer kept his cards close to his chest. He did send the bulk of Scaldingport’s forces to block the bridges and the approaches to Riverdor, while Castalor acting as his proxy dispatched everything they had to Colle, where the remnants of the aggrieved Royal Guard resided.
>
> In a bizarre inexplicable turn of events, Kaltha had gutted itself out right when the Khan’s war effort had appeared to crumple. Unbeknownst to all of them that summer prolonged the war for years and gave the menacing ruler beyond the Pale Mountains the time he needed.
>
> About three hundred soldiers from each side perished in the brief siege of Issir’s Eagle. Plus two hundred and sixty engineers. That was it. The number of civilians though, men, women and children lost in the city that burned for two more days are still unknown today, with estimates ranging from the low three thousand dead, to the firsthand account of Mayor De Hond’s son, the famed Issir Historian Marc De Hond that raises the number to a heart-stopping thirty percent of the city burned with the casualties standing at ten percent. In a city numbering close to a hundred thousand souls that was a devastating number.
>
> The casualties telling of what had transpired.
>
>
-
“Good grief,” Jasi gasped horrified at Lord Bach’s account of the events. Elsanne who had closed her eyes stunned at the information Sigurd had revealed, wrapped her arms to her chest and remained silent for a long contemplating moment.
A part of her wished she’d stayed back in Dia ignorant of everything and sad for her mundane life.
The other parts urged her to do something.
“How did you leave?”
“A merchant came from Colle looking for new markets,” Sigurd replied and pressed a finger under his swollen bloodshot eye with a grimace of pain. “Apparently Zilan have appeared in Wetull again.”
“They have,” Elsanne said.
“I know,” Sigurd clenched his jaw. “I knew for years. Your brother knew as well. All this we did to keep the three Kingdoms together.”
“How? We can’t keep our own people from killing each other Sigurd.”
“Lord Anker is responsible for that your Grace,” Sigurd said. “The moment you return to Jelin, his illegitimate claim dies and everything will be normal again.”
“There’s a war with the Khan,” Elsanne started glaring at him. “Another with Lord Anker who I doubt will just decide to give his blessing to my claim and Sir Lucius playing soldiers in the North! How is this normal Sigurd?”
“Lucius lost the throne to his brother, it’s not my concern whether he’ll succeed or not. What he’s doing shall bring him against everyone,” Sigurd replied. “But you, your Grace, must be on a boat for Jelin as soon as possible, before the Prince realizes you’re missing.”
“How do you know that?”
“I took a guess,” Sigurd repeated. “He must be a fool to allow you to leave his hold.”
“He didn’t,” Elsanne snapped.
“Is there an heir?” Sigurd asked and she blushed.
“No children for the Prince,” Jasi intervened. “He had his own troubles to put his mind to it and had his attention split anyway.”
Sigurd frowned and glanced at the flushed Elsanne unsure.
“Eh,” was all she managed to say.
“Prince Radin has another wife,” Jasi ratted her out, the shame revealed for all to see.
“That’s great news,” Sigurd said appearing unbothered. What? “A child would have given him a claim and weakened our position. Lord Anker’s main argument will boil down to this anyway.”
“Sigurd!” Elsanne hissed. “I’m still married to the Prince!”
“That’s irrelevant. You’re not a common woman Princess, but an asset of Kaltha,” Sigurd countered and she frowned feeling insulted. “As soon as you produce an heir we will legitimize him, even better we’ll just annul the marriage right away. Was there a ceremony?”
“No,” Elsanne murmured uncomfortable. “They don’t really do it, given the number of wives they can have.”
“Good-good,” Sigurd retorted very pleased. Elsanne couldn’t see a slither of goodness in it and she seethed in silence. “It worked out for us.”
How is any of this working?
“I’m not sure…” Elsanne griped, before pausing to ask. “Can we use the merchant to return?”
“No, we can’t, but another will come.”
“The pirates can get us to Lord’s Burrow.”
“Where’s that?” Sigurd asked a little confused.
“It’s a hidden pirate port,” Elsanne blurted out.
“We can’t lose time Princess,” Sigurd protested. “They might keep you there. They can’t be trusted!”
Eh, she thought. They are the only ones that helped me without expecting something from me.
She had started feeling like a furniture, a fine chair people were willing to fight each other for the chance to sit on. Thinking about it, made her feel even worse.
“I shall talk to them,” she decided. “See if they will let you go.”
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“Release him ye say,” Van Fleet grunted eyeing Lord Bach like a cockroach. Salty had brought him upstairs dragged by the collar. “I haven’t felt as dirty as I had talkin’ wit him and I’ve started out cleaning decks from fresh turds, if ye pardon me the expression lass.”
Elsanne frowned and looked at Mutiny Carter. The pirate woman rolled her eyes. She needed to lie, but her tongue felt heavy and clumsy in her mouth. Elsanne walked to the Captain’s desk, Van Fleet raising his brows surprised and filled a goblet with rum. She brought it to her mouth and took a generous gulp.
“Get her some water,” Burton ordered Sam the next moment, Elsanne’s coughing fit worse than his. “We may lose her for goodness sake!”
“I’m fine,” she croaked to reassure them, but no one believed her per usual.
“Ah, dear sister,” Van Fleet murmured looking at his maps.
“Do you mean that?” Elsanne asked him and he looked at her.
“A friend of the brotherhood is family,” the pirate Captain explained. “The Lord’s words.”
“Sister, mother,” Mutiny added with an encouraging smile.
“Daughter,” Burton said. “The lord’s word says it clearly. Article one, paragraph one my lass. Every person in the brotherhood is family and shall be treated as such.”
“Damn we be to Abrakas gullet, if we don’t answer the call,” Van Fleet agreed with a thin smile. “But you got to give us something.”
“Which Lord’s is that?” Elsanne asked them although she knew and Van Fleet seeing her expression sat down on his chair and sighed. He reached, got his sword belt over his head and placed it on the desk over the maps.
“My family got no title from the plunder,” he started sounding moved, which must have been a first as even Mutiny Carter was watching him with her mouth hanging open. “But the good Lord looked to give something to all, be it land or gold. Me great whatever grandfather, took a fancy at this blade and asked for it instead of land. In his mind, a buccaneer can’t stay on land for long, gold slips through one’s fingers, but a good blade shall serve ye next ye need to board a ship full of loot sort of speak.”
“Don’t tell them anything,” Sigurd hissed seeing her shaking.
“I’m not Anne,” Elsanne blurted out and Sigurd grabbed his head with both hands in despair. “I’m Elsanne Eikenaar, a Princess of Kaltha.”
“Kaltha has only the one,” Van Fleet said relieved, as if expecting it.
Duh, what are you mumbling there girl? Good grief!
“That’s true,” Elsanne agreed a little shy and thoroughly embarrassed from messing it up.
“Here is then Dawson’s reasoning,” the pirate captain added shaking his head. “For if the Lord’s own blood ain’t a member of the god-darn brotherhood, then I don’t fuckin’ know what is!”
“Hear-hear,” Mutiny cheered grinning and hugged her tightly, Elsanne grimacing but allowing it. “Sorry sister,” the woman chuckled and pulled away, adding conspiratorially. “Your grace.”
“Mister Sigurd,” Van Fleet said and got up. “Yer free to leave the premises.”
“You’ll always be Anne to us,” Burton told her giving her a goblet with water to wash her mouth. “A moniker earned shan’t be taken away.”
“Thank you,” Elsanne murmured, a little overwhelmed at their easy acceptance of her secret. Although undoubtedly most had it figure out already.
“The Princess must get to Kaltha posthaste,” Sigurd hissed cutting through the festive mood.
“Why would you want her there?” Van Fleet asked him, with a deep frown.
“What good is she in Lord’s Burrow?” Sigurd argued, hobbling forward. “Or here?”
“I give ye here,” Van Fleet replied eyeing him suspiciously. “Since the Prince may get ideas in his head though I doubt it. But Kaltha is in turmoil as I understand it.”
“People are waiting for her to arrive so they can move,” Sigurd snapped. “Tell him Princess.”
“Ahm, I have to stop people from killing each other captain. Things are not going well there.”
“That’s commendable Anne,” Van Fleet said. “But how are you going to do that? Being there you’ll be a prisoner again to yer allies lofty ambitions. Yer life in constant danger, amongst people that haven’t given a thought about ye up until now. Perhaps they’ve treated ye better afore that? Is that what you want?”
“People have died so she can assume the gilded throne!” Lord Bach blasted him and Salty turned to stare at him warningly.
“They would have died anyway,” Van Fleet replied calmly. “Way I see it, ‘em Lords shall fight it out come hell, or high water. You say it’s for her own good, but all I see is a prison from where she’ll never escape alive.”
Elsanne gulped down and stared at the seething Lord Bach.
“Princess you’ve worked for this your whole life,” Sigurd told her. “The time is now.”
“I haven’t,” she replied truthfully. “But apparently you have dear Sigurd. I know what you want from me. I shall not abandon the people, or Kaltha. But I want to be certain I’m fighting for a just cause.”
“Lord Anker is lying!” Sigurd growled, looking like a man that had just lost the world from under his feet. “You will throw this away?”
“I won’t,” Elsanne admonished him. “But I’ll make sure I know what I’m doing and who I’m fighting. I don’t want anyone dying in my name Sigurd, or without my knowledge. You can either help me, or you can dismiss yourself my old teacher.”
Sigurd ogled his working eye the other tearing up, his face drenched in sweat and breathing heavy. He glanced at the expecting pirates watching their exchange and saw no sympathy there. With a grimace of distaste Lord Bach nodded his bald head.
“I shall serve the future Queen of Kaltha,” he grunted, grinding his teeth. “Always and forever.”
“In that case,” Elsanne announced turning towards the sincere pirate Captain. “I shall remain in Eikenport for the time being.”
“We’ll have you out of here and to Lord’s Burrow at the first sign of trouble,” Honest Van Fleet reassured her and Mutiny Carter raised her arms and punched the air delighted at the turn of events.
“Haha! A bloody Queen prancing about in Lord’s Burrow! Who would’ve thunk it, right? Fuck, pass me that rum Fleet, throat’s gone dry from all the excitement!”
She poured herself a generous amount, gulped down some more straight from the bottle and then turned to a watching perturbed Elsanne.
“Have at it sister,” Mutiny beamed and tossed her the bottle. Elsanne caught it without spilling any and then looked about her unsure.
Eh, no thanks. My tongue is still burning.
“I don’t really want to have anymore?” she muttered embarrassed and Burton standing right next to her all proud cleared his throat.
“Pass it on to Sam then lass,” he urged her beaming, gold and silver teeth gleaming in his mouth. “It helps wit his cough, burns the phlegm away and if yer lookin’ to fool around it works alike a key, if yer getting me meaning.”
“Mister Burton!” Elsanne reproached him blushing and the tavern owner, part warehouse and part torture basement of sorts, stood back not expecting it, but recovered quickly and bowed his head chastised in a perfectly timed curtsy.
“Apologies, your Grace. Seems the wind be carried me away from safe shores.”
Given the circumstances Elsanne found his save worthy of lavish praise, so she forgave him.
Then passed the bottle to an expecting ‘Bronchitis Sam’ and that was the end of it.
-
> Lord Robert Van Durren upon learning the Council had voted for the King’s sister over his son agreed with Sir Gust for a lunge against the Forts and then Eikenport to put an end to this foolishness. With the capture of Kaltha's capital, if they managed to get their hands on the Princess, then the rebel Lords would have no other option but bending the knee to Antoon’s rightful heir. It was a decent plan given the favorable opportunity and had a good chance of succeeding but for a couple of minor reasons.
>
> The first being the whereabouts of the remaining Cofol forces that could have potentially frustrated a direct assault on the forts guarding the river approaches. The second was Sir Gust who surely found himself conflicted between not wanting to be branded a rebel on the losing side and the ‘Old Crow’s’ secret orders for the campaign.
>
> Perhaps even his personal ambitions.
>
> -
>
>
>
> Lord Sirio Veturius
>
> Circa 206 NC
>
> The Fall of Heroes
>
> Chapter IX
>
> (Sir Gust De Weer, Raven of Dawn,
>
> -Crows in the Desert-
>
> Volume II
>
> -Prelude to the Desert Forts Campaign-
>
> A trap at Whitebrick Fort, Sands of Cameltoe Peninsula,
>
> & a most unfortunate event
>
> Fall-early winter of 190 NC)