Kieran had, for the sake of safety, tied the life boat as far away from the north gate as he had dared. Cinnia thought he had exaggerated safety a little bit too much as she desperately wished she had any other shoes than her thin slippers to run in. Several small ferns and twigs tore at her exposed ankles and feet as she ran. She panted heavily as she struggled to keep up with Kieran and Adorno. The sound of water washing on a shore caught her attention, "Are we--are we close yet?" Cinnia forced the words out from between each breath.
"Yeah--yeah, we can stop here." Kieran said, stopping to lean on a nearby tree as he tried to control his ragged breathing. A sash, brown from dirt and grime, had been tied around the trunk of the tree. Kieran yanked on one end of the sash and the knot was undone. He folded it messily and stuffed it in a pocket.
Adorno sat down on a boulder and spat into a small patch of grass between his feet, "Damn, you'd think being a pirate would help you stay in shape, eh?"
Cinnia sat down near the trunk of a tree as neither she nor Kieran answered him, for Kieran had already recovered and started searching for the life-boat. He approached the shore, disappearing between the bushes and trees. She could hear him rooting around among the greenery. Adorno was still heaving and Cinnia's sides hurt from cramping. She leaned down to rub her sore ankle carefully. Her feet were numb from the chill of the weather and her stomach grumbled greedily. Her patience had grown thin and all she wanted now was a warm meal and a comfortable bed.
She stood up and brushed off the dirt from her pants. Behind her, she could hear Adorno following her example. Still breathing heavily, she followed the sound of Kieran's searching, only to find him scaling the shore, lifting brushwood and ferns. The shore consisted of a small sandbank, divided from other portions of the waterside by boulders and impassable ferns that grew wildly in all directions.
"Need help?" Adorno asked, stealing the words right out of Cinnia's mouth.
"Sure," Kieran said over his shoulder.
Adorno hurried over to search through the ferns on the other side of the secluded beach. When Cinnia believed he was out of ear shot, she awkwardly moved towards Kieran. She stood there for a moment, watching his arms and back move as they moved branches and leaves around. She didn’t know how to do this. How to talk to a man she . . . liked. Liked? It sounded awfully childish in Cinnia’s head when she described her potential feelings like that. Cinnia could, if she wanted, disarm a mediocre man in under a minute. Yes, she assumed she could even kill if she so needed to. But talk to a man romantically? Wasn’t that what women were supposed to do?
Playing man, in a man’s world, Cinnia thought as her jaw clenched in annoyance with herself.
She mentally slapped her own will back into place and raised her hand. What do I do? Just put my hand on his shoulder? Just tap him? Damn you Cinnia, it’s just Kieran, she thought. Ignoring her own cowardice and the heat that inched its way up her neck to her cheeks, she gently tapped Kieran on the shoulder blade. Kieran’s head turned immediately, “Yeah? Is something wrong? Should I do something?” He asked, his eyes roamed over her body, as if to look for some kind of problem.
“Damn it Kieran, I can take care of myself. There was something. . .I wanted to talk about.” She said nervously, suddenly feeling as if all of her stubborn nerve that she constantly tried to show off escaped her.
Kieran dropped the handful of branches and turned his entire body towards her. “What?” He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, trying to hide his uneasiness at the fact that they were wasting valuable time.
“This might not be a good time actually. How about we talk once we’re back on the ship?” Cinnia said quickly, not sure whether she was relieved with postponing it all, or angry at the fact that she would have to talk to him about it later.
Kieran looked at her suspiciously, “Cinnia, what?”
Cinnia began, “Well I—“
“Here it is!” Adorno said loudly a few metres away. He stood, lifting up a large, fallen branch, covered in not-yet dying leaves, “Damn, you hid it well.”
Kieran looked from Adorno back to Cinnia, seemingly trying to decide whether or not to encourage Cinnia to continue. After a short moment, he said quietly, “We’ll talk on the ship. Now, come on, we have to hurry.” He grabbed Cinnia’s hand and pulled her along to the life boat. Before untying the worn-down rope that had kept the boat near the shore, he glanced up at the sky worryingly. The sun had set completely at this point. Half of the moon shone down on them mercifully. Fortunately, the sky was nearly completely devoid of clouds, allowing the natural light to guide them on their way.
“You have the ring, right, Cinnia?” Adorno asked before getting in the boat.
Having grown accustomed to the feel of the ring, Cinnia’s left hand unconsciously went to her right to make sure. There, on her middle finger sat the ring, still cold to the touch. “Yeah,”
“Good,”
Adorno settled in the front of the life boat, along with a blanket and lantern. Kieran helped Cinnia get in the middle, after which he followed. There were only two paddles in the boat. After a short argument of who would row—which Cinnia lost—Kieran and Adorno set off in the direction Kieran remembered the ship had last been.
Kieran had mentioned the trip would take approximately half an hour. Captain Gambara had made sure to anchor the boat as far off shore as the length of the chains holding the anchor itself would allow, just for the sake of safety. Now, Cinnia knew from whom Kieran got his excessive need for safety from. The smooth rhythm of the lifeboat’s swaying dazed Cinnia. The water was unnaturally still. Other than the sound of ores breaking and being raised from the water surface, the air held certain noiselessness. It just about lulled Cinnia to a sleep.
To distract herself from sleep, Cinnia directed her attention towards the ring. She noticed the bluish hues were still changing calmly, as if to match the current state of the part of the ocean they were in. Royal blue shifted to a near-violet, which then shifted into a vibrant cornflower blue. The stone, she noticed, gave off a stronger glow now than what it had in the Assembly Hall. Cinnia wasn’t sure whether it was because there had been stronger light sources in the Assembly Hall, or whether it was because the ring was now closer to the ocean. Despite her mild disbelief in magic, something told her it was the latter. There was something supernatural about the ring. It didn’t feel manmade. It scared her, and she wished they would arrive at the boat as quickly as possible so that Captain Gambara could take over.
In the distance, the shape of The Night Marauder grew, and Kieran sighed with relief. The large ship appeared ghostly in the soft moon shine. “Adorno, light the lantern, will you? Hold it up to catch their attention.” Kieran said, breaking the pressing silence.
Adorno laid the ore across the boat so it rested on the edges. He leaned down and opened the lantern, pulling out a dry matchbox. After a short moment, he had managed to set light to the aging twine and oil inside. He twisted his body and handed Cinnia the lantern, “You’ll hold it up, ok? We need them to see us.”
“I’ve got it,” Cinnia said, raising her tired arms to hold the lantern above her head. Adorno and Kieran continued to row, looking up at the ship expectantly, and waiting for a sign of being acknowledged. Suddenly, the quiet echo of someone yelling something from the crow’s nest brought life to the deck below. Figures appeared the ledge of the ship to see the small life boat approaching. They shouted to one another and to Cinnia, Kieran and Adorno, but their words were just about inaudible to the three of them.
After a few minutes, they arrived at the side of the large boat. Several pirates had climbed down the side of the climbing net to meet them. Pirates screamed questions at them as they watched from the deck above. As some of the pirates helped the three climb up the net, others attached hooks to the life boat in order to pull it up to deck level. Cinnia heaved herself over the ledge just seconds before Adorno and Kieran did. Captain Gambara stood in the middle of the deck with his arms crossed as a small circle of curious pirates looked at the three expectantly. Quartermaster Derane stood behind him quietly, his eyes burning into Cinnia with suspicion.
Cinnia quickly removed the ring and held it firmly in her right hand. She suddenly felt as though her legs were made of lead. Her energy dropped and her tiredness intensified. Avoiding Derane’s glare, she approached Gambara with a smile. His eyes shone with curiosity, but his expression hid it well. “Well?” He asked gruffly.
“I have the ring right here,” She said, dropping it into Gambara’s outstretched hand.
Gambara brought the ring up to eye level, pinching the band between a large thumb and forefinger. He examined the ring, and seemed satisfied with what he saw—he must have seen the rippling hues of blue. The pirates watched intently as the tension in the air grew. With a swift motion, Gambara slipped the ring on his forefinger—the ring seemed to fit even him. After a moment, Gambara smiled in victory. He looked at Cinnia, “Looks like we’ll be taking over a part of the Northern Sea.”
The pirates around them erupted into cheers and hollers. Gambara stepped forward and placed a large hand on her shoulder, “Ye did great. Ye really are a pirate, aren’t ye?” He smiled a warm, rare smile and left Cinnia with a feeling of pride and success blossoming warmly in her chest. He greeted Adorno similarly, who smiled proudly, and then said something quietly to Kieran, making even him smile at his father’s words. Someone placed an arm—though Cinnia would have assumed it was a leg if she hadn’t seen the dark hand—around Cinnia’s shoulders. She turned her gaze up towards whoever it was, and came face to face with a grinning Diesel. “Ye did it. Ye can’t be a bad pirate. I mean, sneaking int’ the Royal Assembly Hall o’ Raelith and stealin’ a ring from one o’ the most well known men in this world can’t be an easy task, can it?” He said hoarsely and squeezed her shoulders. Cinnia swore she could hear one of her bones crack at the pressure. Before she could say anything else, he lifted her up by the waist, as if she weighed nothing more than a barrel of apples, and placed her, sitting upright, on to his shoulders.
“Cinnia, a woman, yet a pirate!” His voice boomed across the deck.
The watching pirates hollered, agreeing.
“Listen up, everyone.” Gambara said, and the deck grew silent at once. “I know ‘tis late, but we simply need t’ celebrate this success. We are a safe distance away from neighbouring cities. And besides, if an alarm would be raised due t’ our presence, we always have the upper hand,” He said and raised his right hand to show off the ring on his finger.
The pirates cheered again. Cinnia still didn’t know what the ring did, but Gambara seemed confident enough. That too, scared Cinnia. She wasn’t used to . . . magic? “How about ye three go clean yerselves up.” Gambara said, patting Adorno on the back. The three murmured their agreements and headed off in the direction of the sleeping quarters.
* * *
“You go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.” Cinnia told Kieran and Adorno. Adorno nodded and hurried on up while Kieran hesitated. He had tried to get Cinnia to tell him what was bothering her, but she had finally managed to reassure him that she would tell him later, and that this simply wasn’t a good time. “I’ll be right behind you, Kieran.” She said again, echoing what she had said first. Kieran gave in and walked up the narrow stairway. Cinnia turned back to her bed. Where is it? She thought to herself desperately as she lifted her pillow and blankets. Hadn’t she placed the pendant in under her pillow? With a lump in her throat, she got on her knees to look under the bed. The pendant had been her only proof of being this supposed Captain Seavey’s daughter . . . as well as the only connection to her mother that she had left. She heard footsteps descending the stairs and assumed it was Kieran. With a hopeless sigh she sat back on her feet and brushed off the dust from her pant legs. Just as she was about to tell Kieran she was coming, the man said huskily, “Looking for this?”
She twisted her head so quickly that it hurt her neck. There stood Derane, clutching the pendant’s chain in a closed fist. His knuckles were white from the intensity of his grip, and his faced was twisted into a glaring grimace.
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Note: Hello! I would just like to say that I recently read through some of the earlier chapters and nearly died at all the unforgivable mistakes. I will soon have to edit (and trust me, there will be a lot of editing to do)