It was a small village.

Lecia wasn’t even on our map. Judging by what I could see from the deck, there couldn’t be more than thirty buildings. According to the few pirates that were smart enough to surrender, there were less than a hundred people there. There were only around a dozen pirates in the village, with the rest being workers that they’d brought in to run things while they were out on voyages. They only had the two ships, one now that the other had sank.

A few people came out to meet us as we docked, there were a few with weapons, but as soon as my brother jumped onto the dock, they quickly surrendered.

“You’re coming with me.” Starna tapped me on the arm as she walked past me.

I turned from where I had been leaning on the railing. “What?”

The mage jumped down onto the dock. “Your captain said I had to take an escort and you’re going to stand out the least.”

I vaulted over the edge and landed next to her. “What are we looking for?”

“I am looking for ingredients to make a cure for the princess.” Her blue eyes narrowed as she scowled. “You’re looking for trouble.”

“Trouble. Gotcha.” I rested my hand on the hilt of my sword. “I can do that.”

The brunette shook her head and started walking towards the village. She led me to the large building that was closest to the docks.

Wizz and Phleck were going through the rows of crates, boxes, and baskets. I could tell by scanning over the room that was so large that the Bane could fit inside that most of it was junk. These pirates might have had two ships, but they hadn’t been stockpiling a lot of wealth.

Starna was trying to find their herbs and potion ingredients, which left me to poke around in the torn equipment, ruined grain, and waterlogged papers. I wasn’t sure why I had been assigned to guard Starna if Wizz and Phlek were here too, but it gave me something to do while Garm tried to find things to fix the ship.

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I heard the tanned woman sigh. “There’s nothing here that I can use.”

“Maybe there’s a store in town?” I fell in step behind her as she headed for the exit.

She stopped long enough to turn around and glare at me before she continued heading towards the ship.

I didn’t need words for what that look meant. We were in a pirate base. Anything that was of value would be in the warehouse.

Instead of going back to the ship, she turned and walked towards the forest that was just outside of town. I could hear chopping sounds coming from the woods and had a feeling I knew what was going on.

Vin and Garm were working on converting wood that our aquatic team had collected into parts that we could use on our ship.

“You find what you need?” My father wiped his brow with the back of his hand.

“There’s nothing in there I can use.” Starna gestured at the scavenged parts. “How long is it going to take to get those on your ship?”

The Dwarf looked at the small pile of wood, then out at the sea. The longboats were missing, being taken to hold the wood that my crewmates were stripping off of the sunken ship.

“It’ll be a few days at least before we can start patching her up. Maybe a week before we can sail again.” Garm looked over at the trees. “Green wood’s not the best to use for a mast, but if they can’t get the one off the other ship, we’ll have to make do until we can get it properly replaced.”

“Alessa can’t wait a week before we start moving again.” Starna pointed at the Wind’s Shadow, the ship we had confiscated. “You said you’d send me to Crylus if the ingredients weren’t here. I need to leave as soon as I can.”

My father took a deep breath and nodded. “I’ll tell Storbek to get ready. You’ll be on your way within the hour.”

The young mage’s face lit up for a second. “Thank you.” She gave him a little bow, then turned and headed back to the port.

“What are you doing, lad?” My father slapped me between the shoulders. “You’re her shadow when she’s not on the ship. Go!”

I hurried after my charge. I’d assumed since she was going back to the ship, she’d be fine on her own, but I needed to take her protection more seriously. I wasn’t going to let something happen to her like it had to the Princess.