The Underground Witch (Incenaga Trilogy) (14 page)

“Everything will be fine,” she whispered.

“Pirates don’t take prisoners,” O’fin said, trembling.

“Sure they do. We’ll lay low, and when the time is right, we’ll join them.
”

O’fin shook his head.

“We’ll show them how hard we can work. And then we’ll get off at the next port.”

O’fin shook his head harder. “You don’t understand. Pirates don’t like women and children aboard their ships. Ever. They’ll kill us before they’ll ever let us set foot aboard the
ir ship.”

Emmeline
swallowed and held O’fin closer. Who was she to argue with O’fin? The only experience she had with pirates was from books. O’fin had lived on the seas his entire life. Albeit, that consisted of only nine years, but it was nine more years experience than she had. If he said they would kill them, then she believed him.

“
I think this crate is empty,” she whispered. “We’ll hide inside until it’s safe for us to come out.”

She lifted the corner of the
overturned crate and slipped under after O’fin. Even with their knees pressed to their chests and their chins on their knees, there wasn’t much room left to move. With her shoulders pressed against the sides of the crate, Emmeline worried her dress might show through the gaps in the wooden slats. So she tucked herself into a tighter ball, hoping it would be enough.

“This way we can still
watch all the excitement,” Emmeline whispered, trying to make light of their situation.

O’fin
nodded and pressed his face against the open gaps for a better look.

A thunderous boom filled the
distant sky followed by a deep whistle of a cannon ball slicing through the air toward them. It fell with a harmless splash just shy of its target. A plume of smoke rose from the pirate ship.

“Load the
cannons,” Tiergan ordered. He lifted the eyeglass again and cursed under his breath.

“Fire!”

The blast of cannons sent a shudder through the ship. Smoke spewed from the gun ports, filling the air like thick fog. Emmeline coughed as the sting of gunpowder reached her nose. Perhaps it would have been better if she had taken O’fin below deck. A hush settled over the ship as everyone seemed to hold their breath, listening for the drop of the cannon ball.

Splash.

Tiergan’s marksman had missed the pirates. Smoke clung to the ship, and just as Emmeline wondered if they would get another clear shot at the pirates, a stiff breeze cleared the view. Another round of cannon shot from the pirate ship, this time meeting its mark and tearing into the canvas of the main sails. Within seconds another four-pounder followed and crashed into the mizzen mast. With two well-placed shots, the pirates had crippled Tiergan’s ship.

“She’s dead in the water!” a sailor shouted from above.

“We’re all dead in the water!” another shouted.

Tiergan raised his pistol
toward the sailor and Emmeline squeezed her eyes shut, cringing against the inevitable thud of a body falling to the deck. Once again, another victim would pay for Tiergan’s short temper. But several seconds passed and the only sound she heard was water lapping up against the hull. She opened her eyes to see Tiergan lower his arm.

“Ready your weapons
,” he said through his teeth. “This will be a close range fight.”

The offending sailor scrambled further up the riggings while several soldiers stood with slack jaws.

“Move!” Tiergan yelled.

The
soldiers jumped to action and all the while, the pirates closed in. Three hundred yards. Two Hundred. One Hundred. Both ships exploded with the crack of musket shot, gunpowder filling the air as round after round shot toward the opposing ship. Emmeline pushed O’fin to the ground and held her body over him. She ducked her head against O’fin’s back, tensed for whatever might penetrate their crate. The air popped and boomed like a thousand doors slamming shut over and over.

Emmeli
ne raised her head just as several grappling hooks launched through the air from the pirate ship and gouged into the deck in front of them. Each hook had a rope thicker than her arm attached to it and a pirate at the end of it. Before the sailors could saw them loose, the pirates had pulled the two ships together with a thundering crash.

Swarms
of pirates boarded their ship like ants attacking an insect. With confidence pounding into each of their steps, they fired pistols and swung cutlasses. But their confidence wavered for just a moment as they were met with armed soldiers rather than the simple sailors of a merchant ship. Nonetheless, they fought with ferocity and a hunger for blood. The sailors fought side by side with the soldiers, sharing the same purpose for the first time. Anguished screams arose from every direction as the clash of steel against steel intensified. Even Mahlon had been pulled into the fray, his sword slashing through air and flesh.

P
eppered with holes, the crate afforded Emmeline a clear view of the fight. Demyan worked through the horde of pirates with frightening speed. Pirates fell dead at his feet even before they were aware of their opponent. His shrewd method proved quick and decisive without a single drop of sweat escaping his brow.

O’fin
clung to Emmeline. “They are going to kill us.”

Emmeline pressed his head against her shoulder. “Hush. I’ll take care of you.”

She didn’t care if she vowed to never use a flame. She would do all in her power to protect O’fin, including using the power she had come to despise. She scanned the pirate ship, but could see nothing more than a battle brutal enough to chill anyone’s blood. As far as she could tell, no flame burned on its deck.

A
pair of pirate boots jumped onto the crate, threatening to crush it, and them, into pieces. The wooden box shook as the pirate seemed to dance the rhythm of battle. His cutlass swung left and right as if he were acting in a play and not eliminating opponents every few seconds. His grin widened with each new death.

Emmeline
tightened her hold on O’fin and pressed her hands against the top of his head, hoping to protect him should the crate buckle under the pirate’s weight. The wood creaked and moaned and then finally gave way. The far side buckled first and the pirate sailed toward the broken mast, his sword circling madly as he fought to regain his balance. He caught his footing within a step or two and glanced back. A smile spread across his sun-worn face.

“What do we ‘ave here?” he said
as his gaze fell upon Emmeline.

It had been three weeks since Erick had seen Emmeline. Three weeks of agony. Three weeks of waiting to hear word of her safety. The wedding linens had been folded, the silver stored, and the flowers thrown out. The cakes and endless amounts of food went wasted. And the music had been silenced.

The servants grieved with him. Not only did they miss the vivacity Emmeline brought to the palace, they missed her laughter and calming smile. They murmured about her disappearance when they thought he couldn’t hear, carrying on about a luster they
claimed to have disappeared from his eyes the day she left. And how he never laughed anymore. Never smiled.

The servants tried to cheer him in their own ways. The cook
s served him the finest meals, never complaining when they went untouched. And the maids added sweet perfume to his bed sheets and feathers to his pillows. But he never slept. He noticed their efforts, and appreciated every gesture, but how could he let go of a love like the one he’d shared with Emmeline. How could he forget? As much as he wished it would soothe his ache, food and sleep could do nothing for him. His only hope was for time itself to dull the pain.

There were some who did not believe she left on her own accord. They were few in number
and only among the servants who knew of her true identity as an Incenaga. They knew the constant danger she lived in and they knew the power she could control. According to them, she had been taken. Nothing else could explain her sudden disappearance. But of all those who believed this, none expressed it as strongly as Erick’s father, the King.

“You are a fool not to go after her,” the King repeated during a visit from his son.
“If I wasn’t blind, I’d have gone to search for her myself. Never mind my health and absent army, I would have found a way.”

Erick had requested the army remain near Volarcus to search
for the man who sent the letter. Despite Emmeline no longer needing his protection, Erick wanted to fish out the man who had threatened her, and the army claiming to be able to overtake Dolmerti.

“I’m no fool,” Erick replied.

“Well, for such an intelligent man, I’m surprised you haven’t come to the same conclusion as half this palace.”

“
A handful of servants and you? That doesn’t amount to half the palace.”

“I count for at least a couple hundred opinions.”

Erick paced to the window. “She didn’t want me.”

“How can you say such a thing? I am beginning to think
you
are the blind man in this room. She visited me more times than I can count and each time she couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful my son was. Erick did this, Erick did that. You were all she could speak of. Perhaps I’ll dispatch my own men to search for her. You may be blind to the obvious, but I am not.”

Erick ignored his father’s ranting. He wouldn’t send anyone to search for Emmeline because deep down he
knew Emmeline had left him. She wasn’t taken. Erick knew all along that he didn’t deserve her.

“We only knew each other for a few short months
,” Erick said. “She lived her entire life in Pamizak and over the course of a few weeks everything she had known had been taken from her and turned upside down. Everything moved too fast for her. I should have given her more time before we married.”

“Most men and women of royal birth do not know who they
will wed before they say ‘I do.’ You two had plenty of time to find love with one another. And you did.”

“She may be of royal birth, but she did not live a royal life.
This life of responsibility, nonexistent privacy, and constant propriety was too much for her.”

“Did she say that?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know it was too much for her?”

“Because before me, she lived on a little farm without a single care in the world.  Nothing like the high profile life I have thrown her into.”

“Has she ever told you she wanted to return to Pamizak?”

Erick hesitated, thinking back on all the conversations they shared and all the times she spoke with a faraway look in her eye. “Well, no, but she said she missed the simpler times, when we had more time together.”

“And when you were spending this time together, how often were you in the
peaceful forests of Pamizak visiting quaint little farms?”

“Never. But you are missing the point.”

“No, son.
You
are missing the point. She wasn’t talking about her life as a farmer’s daughter. She was expressing a desire to spend more time with you. You know how women are, son. They never come right out and say what they want. They like to make us work for the answers.”

“Emmeline isn’t like that.”

“Perhaps not, but for someone who claimed to be able to read her every expression, you seemed to have misread your entire relationship. She is in danger, son. I know it.”

“I refuse to believe that! Any moment a messenger will
burst through that door and tell me she is safe in Pamizak. Any moment I’ll receive a letter from her father telling me she is in his care. I have to believe that.”

“If it lets you sleep at night.”

“I don’t sleep!” Erick stormed out of his father’s quarters. The old man had gone senile. He was wrong, along with his couple hundred opinions. Erick knew Emmeline surpassed him in every way. Her beauty alone made him look dull and boring. But add her gentility and compassion and he wasn’t worthy to stand in her shadow, let alone by her side. He knew this. Why couldn’t anyone else see it as well?

He rushed out of the palace and into the surrounding the forest. Normally
at this time of year he would have enjoyed the quiet beauty of the falling leaves, but he couldn’t enjoy anything anymore. Stumbling down the steep hillside, he didn’t pay much attention to anything. It wasn’t until he reached the riverbed that his senses awoke. The water rushed past him in a roar and he wanted to scream and match the deafening roar of the river. He wanted to run as swiftly as it flowed and disappear around the bend. It would be so easy to let the current sweep him away.

Erick stepped into the water and waded to the middle. The water reached above his knees, swirling around his legs
. The current surged, threatening to pull him under as it pushed and pulled, coaxing him to move or join the flow. Hundreds of leaves floated past in a carefree display of color, unaffected by the freezing water carrying them downstream. Only Erick felt the sting of cold.