"Where do you think you’re going?"
"You were paid," Alaric said, his voice a deadly low growl. "Stand aside."
Brinson’s grin widened. "Aye, we were paid. For the goods you ca for. But these lot?" He jerked his thumb at Emma, Sarah, Samion, and Jaefel. "They’re our property. Bought fair and square."
"Property?" Salviana spat, her whole body shaking with rage. "They are citizens of Wyfn-Garde! Loyal mbers of the House Velthorne!"
"They’re ours now!" one of the pirates barked. "Finders keepers!"
Lucius stepped forward, fangs peeking out ever so slightly. "I suggest you rethink this."
But then, another voice called out from the quarterdeck.
"Wait!" a scrawny pirate, who’d been rifling through so papers by a crate, yelped, running toward the captain. He was waving a crumpled parchnt above his head.
"What is it now, Riggs?" Brinson snapped impatiently.
Riggs, panting and red-faced, thrust the paper into Brinson’s hands. "Look! Look at the bounty!"
Brinson scanned it quickly, and his grin froze. His beady eyes widened.
"Oh, bloody hell."
The bounty sheet, official and sealed with a wax mark, showed a rough sketch of Alaric’s face. Next to it, descriptions matching the one and only Alaric, Salviana, Lucius, and even Jean and all the remaining third prince chambers workers.
Wanted: Third Prince of Wyfn-Garde and his Cohorts.
Cris Against the Crown.
Dead or Alive.
Reward: Fifty thousand gold pieces of wyfins.
The air shifted instantly.
The pirates, who just monts ago were uneasy about detaining royals, now saw gold.
Lots of it.
The circle around them tightened.
"Well, well," Brinson drawled, slowly rolling up the bounty notice and tucking it into his belt. "Seems fortune favors us today, boys. Forget the little paynt they gave us. We’ll be rich n!"
A roar of approval shook the deck.
Jess whimpered beside Jean, her face pale as chalk. Jean grabbed her hand protectively.
Alaric stood very, very still.
Lucius’s umbrella twitched subtly, a sign he was monts away from ripping soone’s throat out.
Salviana moved protectively in front of Emma and Sarah, who clung to her skirts.
"Stand down," Alaric warned, voice colder than the deepest sea trench. "You don’t know what you’re starting."
"Oh, but we do, Your Highness," Brinson said mockingly, bowing low with an exaggerated flourish. "We’re turning in your lot to the king himself. Dead or alive, your choice."
The pirates started advancing, weapons gleaming in the brightening light.
Lucius leaned toward Alaric and whispered, "We can’t negotiate our way out of this."
"No," Alaric agreed, flexing his hands. "We’ll fight."
"And then?" Jean hissed. "There’s a whole ship full of them!"
"Then we jump," Salviana said fiercely, determination etched into every line of her face. "We fight, and we jump."
Without another second’s hesitation, Alaric moved first.
In a blur of unnatural speed, he lunged forward, disarming the closest pirate and knocking him sprawling.
Lucius was right behind him, spinning his umbrella like a weapon and knocking guns out of hands with brutal precision.
Jess shrieked and ducked as Jean pulled her behind a barrel for cover.
Salviana snatched a sword from a fallen pirate and swung it with surprising grace, the blade flashing through the morning air.
Chaos erupted.
Gunfire cracked.
Swords clashed.
The ship’s deck rocked with the violence of the fight.
Emma, Sarah, Samion, and Jaefel, though weak, fought like cornered lions, using broken chains as whips, stones, and pure fury to defend themselves.
Brinson roared commands, but the so-called "royals" fought like demons. Faster. Stronger. Smarter.
Lucius elbowed a man so hard he flipped over the railing with a scream. Alaric slamd two pirates’ heads together with a sickening thunk.
Salviana parried a blade and shoved the attacker overboard with a boot to the chest.
"Now!" Alaric shouted. "To the side!"
They fought their way to the ship’s edge, muscles burning, lungs heaving.
"Jump!" Salviana yelled.
One by one, they threw themselves overboard.
The icy sea swallowed them instantly.
Bullets zipped overhead, missing by inches. Shouts echoed behind them.
The cold was a brutal shock, but the adrenaline kept them moving. They kicked and swam furiously away from the ship, the salty water stinging their eyes and mouths.
Behind them, Brinson scread in frustration, ordering the cannons prepared, but it was too late. In the chaos, in the open sea, they were too small, too fast, too desperate.
When they finally surfaced far enough away, clinging to bits of floating wood and hauling one another up, Salviana gasped and laughed hysterically through the water dripping from her face.
"We’re alive!" Jean whooped, splashing water.
"Barely," Lucius muttered grimly, but even he looked a little amused.
Emma and Sarah coughed weakly, but they were alive. Samion and Jaefel clung fiercely to the wreckage, bloodied but determined.
Alaric swam close to Salviana, brushing wet strands of red hair from her face. "You were brilliant," he said hoarsely.
She bead at him, her cheeks pink despite the cold.
The pirate ship grew smaller in the distance, still a frenzy of confusion and anger.
They had escaped.
But now ca the next problem,
They were stranded in the middle of the sea.
The little rowboat they’d rented to approach the pirate ship bobbed a short distance away, miraculously untouched by the chaos.
"There!" Jess shrieked, pointing with a shaking finger.
Without hesitation, they kicked through the waves toward it, hearts hamring in their chests.
"Won first!" Alaric barked over the crashing surf, shoving the boat closer.
Salviana, Jean, Emma, Sarah, and Jess scrambled over the sides, soaking wet and trembling, piling into the tiny craft.
It imdiately tilted under their combined weight, groaning dangerously.
"Shit," Lucius muttered, holding the side and eyeing how low the boat was dipping. "No more space."
Jaefel tried to clamber in after them, but Alaric grabbed the knight’s collar and hauled him back.
"No room," he gritted. "You’ll sink it."
The five won huddled together, drenched and breathing hard, clutching the sides to steady themselves. The little boat rocked violently with every small wave.
"That’s it," Lucius said grimly. "We’ll have to swim beside it."
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