Page 22 of Pirate Witch
“Fancy seeing you here. By the way, I found a human princess, and she hadchicken.”
ChapterEight
NILSA
Princess Amelia looks thinner than when I last saw her. Her grief has wasted away her frame, exaggerating her harsh bone structure and giving her a haunted look. I’ve only seen her once before, and that was back in Galmere, before my failed attempt to kill the Eagle.
Despite her obvious pain, she’s taken great care with her appearance. Her straw-coloured hair is soft, shiny, and braided back from her face, and her long, black dress is made of fine satin. Around her neck, she’s strung a simple pendant depicting both the moon and the sun, and her wrists are chained together with heavy, silver cuffs in front of her.
“She’s a prisoner?” I ask, eyeing her warily as Opal leaves her side and jumps into her customary place on my shoulders.
Unlike Sade, who oozes power and lethality like sex appeal, Amelia doesn’t look like she could hurt a fly. The cuffs are definitely overkill.
“An escapee,” Amelia corrects, her voice hoarse and whisper thin. “My aunt assumed I was the one who helped you get into the palace. She condemned me to the Claw at the same time as you, and we haven’t managed to find a mage strong enough to remove my cuffs.”
Sade waves the human princess forward with a flick of her hands, and Amelia almost falls into the chair on the vampire queen’s other side.
“Thanks to the Princess, we know about the Mortal Cure.” Sade spits the last words. “And we know that your men are responsible for ferrying the ingredients to the Eagle.”
“Which Itoldyou Valorean would never do voluntarily,” Cirio insists.
“They’ve been trapped by the bargain for years,” I explain. “They have no choice but to obey her.”
“She still has two leviathans, a powerful mage, a legendary fae mercenary, and a vampire gladiator at her disposal.” Sade grimaces.
I blink at the ‘legendary fae mercenary’ comment.
“That’s why she’s come,” Cirio pockets the letter. “According to Val, they’ve found a way to break their bargain.”
“Unheard of,” Sade dismisses.
“No, but itisuntested,” I admit. “I have two friends who should be joining us soon. We think they’ve found a way to break the bargain, but it’ll be dangerous. We need to keep them contained while they work the spell.” I take a breath and meet both of their gazes. “That’s where you come in, if you choose to help us.”
“Lass, Val’s family to me,” Cirio says, his expression deadly serious. “You’ve got my help whether you want it or not.”
“The Eagle has ordered them to kill me,” I explain. “So they’ll be coming here as fast as they can. When they get here, we need to find a way to keep all five of them locked up while Elsie and Reva work the spell.”
“What is this spell?” Sade demands. “If it’s so easy to break a bargain, we’d have heard of it by now.”
I shake my head. “It’snoteasy. They have to stay near to death for long enough to fool the bargain into thinking theyaredead. Elsie is a Solar and Reva is a Lunar; between the two of them, they should be able to hold them on the border between this world and the next. I won’t lie... there’s every chance it won’t work—that they’ll die—but they’ve decided this is what they want.”
I look away, staring at the horizon with dread. “Elsie and Reva are powerful. Itwillwork.” I send out a tiny prayer to the Goddess as I say it. “Once they’re free, they’ll be able to help me kill the Queen.”
“It’s impossible,” Amelia whispers. “She’s too powerful, and she has the Mage High Councillor and the Alchemist on her side just waiting for you to try something. You won’t get close enough to attempt it.”
My eyebrows rise. “Everyone said I wouldn’t make it past the palace wall, as well, and I would’ve succeeded if not for your nephew walking in.”
“A child?” Sade snorts. “You let one child get in the way of ridding the world of that evil bitch?”
I level my best glare at her next. “I don’t traumatise children. My Goddess demands death, not the innocence of babies.”
“Your sense of morality is admirable, but they won’t stay innocent for long in that family,” Cirio mutters. “According to the Princess, the Eagle has a fondness for familicide.”
“Our aunt had our parents—her own brother—murdered,” Amelia admits, but I’m not surprised. Petra told me the same thing. “And there are rumours that she killed her own mother as well. My sister—Annette—and I lived under her thumb for so long, and we drank the cure because we didn’t know any better. How can you believe that a system is corrupt if you’re raised to live on the benefits that same corruption reaps?” She gives a tiny little scoff, picking at the edge of her cuffs. “Our aunt raised us and kept us ignorant of everything. She was so protective, and we always thought it was because she’d lost so much of her family. Now I realise it was just another method of control.”
That’s no excuse, and my lack of sympathy must show on my face because Amelia pales further. “We never knew what went into the cure. It wasn’t until my sister had Ruby and Kyle and our aunt got too insistent about making them drink it that Annette started to ask questions. She was the one who discovered exactly what the Alchemist used to create the potion. When I found out, I threw up. We tried to stop drinking it, but our aunt had her guards force it down our throats.”
At least I know that’s true. I saw as much when I snuck into the palace.
