Pirate Princess (55 page)

“Thanks.”

“As High Mage and having administered your test, I pronounce you Master Mage. Congratulations.”

That was it? I didn’t question Faxon because I knew I would have to face more creatures if I opened my mouth. So, I kept quiet and smiled happily. I didn’t think I was capable of smiling wider. Faxon began healing my arm and my family came down to congratulate me.

“It seems tonight we have quite a bit to celebrate,” Jared said.

“We do,” Esmeralda agreed, “First we should start with allowing everyone to get cleaned up. You all smell and are filthy,” she teased us.

“Next time I’ll make you fight in the tournament too,” Jared threatened her.

She laughed. “As if you could handle the competition.”

He snarled at her, but we could all tell he wasn’t serious. He lunged for her and she ran away laughing loudly. “Catch me if you can, old man!” she taunted him.

“Old?!” he yelled at her, “You are so in for it!” He ran faster, a sudden burst of speed putting him right behind her, but she lit his shirt on fire which made him stop to take it off.

“Ha!” she yelled as she ran away from him and towards the castle.

“Do they do this a lot?” Finn asked.

“Since we were teenagers,” Faxon mumbled.

“It’s cute,” I said, “They still love each other as much as when they were teenagers and tease each other all the time. It’s an example of love I hope to experience.”

Finn smirked at me, but said nothing.

“There, you’re all healed,” Faxon said.

I inspected my arm and asked, “Can you teach me some more healing spells? I’d like to be able to heal more than a scratch on other people.”

He nodded his head happily. I knew one of his joys was teaching me and I believed torturing me with strange practices that were supposed to help me learn spells better.

“I’ll meet you both at the castle for our celebration. I need to clean up as well,” Faxon explained as he frowned at his dirty clothes. “I didn’t even fight anything.”

A smile split my face as I watched my mentor walk away. Finally I was a Master!

“So, did you ask Jared for all those things?” Finn asked me with his hands in his pockets and a toe digging into the sand.

“No, he offered actually,” I admitted to him.

“I’m still in shock. It doesn’t seem real.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I’m still in shock myself.”

“We went from winning the festival to you claiming a Kingdom for yourself, Jared pardoning all pirates including your dad, and me becoming a Chief and engaged to the Pirate Princess.”

“It’s been an eventful week for sure,” I agreed. “Don’t forget that you won the tournament and beat Jared, The Dragon of Crilan. People are going to be talking about it for a very long time.”

“So, even though Jared really announced it,” Finn dropped down to one knee in front of me and held out a gorgeous diamond ring, “Will you marry me?”

I put the ring on and immediately said, “Yes!”

He stood up, wrapped me up inside of his arms and kissed me deeply. “I promise this one doesn’t have a spell on it.”

I smiled at him and said, “Luckily I can sense spelled items now so I would have known.”

“Dang,” he muttered.

I pushed his shoulder and he laughed.

“Well isn’t this a cute sight,” Marquez said with a slow clap.

Finn and I turned to face him, but I tried to act as though I wasn’t nervous that he had come back. “I was worried when you left, Prince Marquez, you looked ill.”

“I was ill,” he said seriously and glared at Finn. “How can a Kingdom with warriors and mages as strong as Crilan give in to pirates? And how can a King willingly allow the Princess to marry so
below
her?”

“Blood means nothing,” I said angrily, “I’ve met more awful royals than I have pirates. In fact I’m rather fond of pirates over royals.”

“When you’re screwing one that doesn’t surprise me,” he snapped.

Finn bristled, but I put a hand on his arm to still him. “What I do is none of your concern. What my Kingdom does in its own lands is also none of your concern. If you disagree and disapprove of our actions please feel free to leave and return to your own Kingdom,” I said calmly.

“I’ll leave as soon as I fix this Kingdom,” he said with an evil smirk.

“And how do you propose to do that?” I asked him evenly despite the fear that was beginning to grow.

He traced a symbol in the air and pulled out a small silver ball. “With this.”

“What is that?” Finn asked. He wrapped his arm around my waist and gripped my side tightly. I had a feeling I was about to experience Finn’s running first hand again.

“This, Scum, is the only way to fix this wretched kingdom. It’s an ultra portable incendiary device.”

A bomb.

“Blowing us up won’t fix anything,” I told him. I rubbed the ring Faxon had given me and repeatedly thought about the current situation. I could kill Marquez, but I didn’t know how to handle the bomb. I could try to create a protection barrier around me and Finn, but I had no idea how large of an explosion the bomb would create.

“The world does not revolve around you, Princess. This bomb isn’t for you two. I could care less what you mongrels do. No, this is for a much better purpose.” He smiled at me and offered, “Marry me and I won’t use this.”

“I’ll take my chances with the bomb,” I said with what I sure was disgust on my face.

“Oh did I say it’s a bomb? I apologize, what I meant to say was this is a magical expunger.”

“What?”

“It will remove everyone’s ability to perform magic.
Permanently
.”

That couldn’t be real. There was no way that could exist.

“You’ll take away your magic as well,” I reminded him.

“As my father said, ‘Sacrifices must be made.’”

Now I understood. “Your father sent you here to take away our Arch Mages’ magic in an attempt to weaken us and give him a chance to overthrow our Kingdom,” I guessed.

Marquez clapped his hands. “Well done, Princess. You really aren’t all brawn.”

“You do realize who the King is, right?” Finn asked him in a tone that implied Marquez was absolutely stupid.

“Why our Kingdom?” I asked him to keep him talking. “Why not one of the other smaller ones first?”

“Because you would come save them,” he told me with a scoff.

“You won’t defeat our Kingdom,” I told him outright and took a step away from Finn and towards Marquez. “We are just as strong without magic.”

“You think you are, but we will see once I release this.” He blew me a kiss. “Come talk to me tomorrow, alone, and we can discuss my proposal further,” he said with a smile. Before Finn could reach him, Marquez teleported.

“Dammit,” Finn cursed. “I should have grabbed him sooner, but I didn’t want him setting that off with you near it.”

Faxon ran towards us and I felt myself shaking. A magic expunger? How did they even create it? Was it just a hoax? Just a bluff?

“What happened?” he asked us.

Finn explained the situation and as soon as we finished Faxon blew up the stands behind us and started yelling curses.

“This is
very bad
,” I told Finn quietly. My skin felt sweaty and my head started to feel light headed.

“Why do you say that now?”

“He wouldn’t be so angry if it weren’t possible,” I explained. Which meant that the possibility of us losing our magic was very real. “Faxon, what’s the blast radius of that thing?”

“It will wipe out the entire Kingdom!” he screamed.

“Hey! Stop yelling and focus!” I screamed at him.

He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “I have been trying to locate the Kingdom who was creating this for a decade,” he snarled. “They successfully completed experiments on Kingdoms in far away waters.”

“We have to find him,” Finn said.

“He could be anywhere,” Faxon grumbled.

“We need to update Jared and Esmeralda,” I ordered them. “Let’s head to the castle and decide our course of action with them.”

Faxon nodded his head and together the three of us headed towards the castle. Finn linked our hands and squeezed it reassuringly. So much for celebrating.

We walked into the main hall and then walked to the dining room where they were talking happily. As soon as they saw us their smiles disappeared.

“What happened?” Jared asked.

“The Prince of Drimla has threatened Crilan with a magical expunger,” I said from a mouth that felt dry as a desert.

Esmeralda’s eyes widened so much that I worried they might pop out of her head. “What?” She looked at Faxon. “Could they really have it?”

“They’re a small Kingdom and although I investigated them, I didn’t stay there very long.”

Jared stood and began pacing back and forth. “If they really do have it and use it, it would be catastrophic. The Kingdom would fly into a state of panic and chaos.”

“How can we stop it?” Esmeralda asked Faxon.

“Is there a way to contain the blast?” I asked.

“The only option would be to teleport the device, but he could activate it from a far corner of the Kingdom and it would still affect us.”

“I don’t think he’ll do that,” I commented.

Everyone looked at me.

“Why not?” Jared asked.

“He’s dramatic. He likes having this power. Why would he tell us about it and not use it? Why not use it and attack us during the chaos? He likes knowing that he has the power and he will flaunt it in front of us again.”

“We might be able to catch him that way,” Finn said, “I could grab him before he teleports this time.”

“Or we could use me,” I offered.

“No,” Finn growled.

“What do you mean?” Esmeralda asked.

“He offered to marry me instead of using it,” I advised them since we hadn’t told Faxon that part.

“No,” Faxon said this time.

“I’m a Master Mage now,” I told him, “And I would be a Commander at least in the King’s Steel if Jared let us participate in both. I am more than capable of doing this.”

“Or he could take you, cause you to lose your magic, and then steal you away,” Jared said.

“I’m much stronger and more powerful now than I was when Priam took me.”

“There are a multitude of things that could go wrong,” Finn argued, “All of which could end very badly for you.”

“Finn, I know you don’t like the idea, but it’s a good idea. If I can convince him not to use it, convince him to take me back to Drimla, then I could steal the device while there and teleport back here.”

“Since when can you teleport?” Finn asked me. “And what other abilities are you hiding from me?”

“I’m not hiding them; I just haven’t had a chance to use them. If I just told you everything I can do now, you would accuse me of being a show off.”

“It’s a good idea,” Jared said softly, “Not that I like the idea of using you, Tilia, but if you could get him back to Drimla then we could save the kingdom.”

“What if he uses it on her while she is there? Or sailing there?” Finn asked. “She won’t have the ability to teleport if he takes her magic.”

“I can teleport there and find her with her ring if she doesn’t come back fast enough,” Faxon offered.

“It would be too late,” Finn argued.

“If I lose my magic, I lose it. I would rather one person loses it than the entire kingdom.”

“No,” Finn ordered.

“You can’t order me,” I told him.

“Technically he’s slightly higher rank than you,” Jared said, “Now that he’s Chief.”

“Shouldn’t he be Dragon?” Faxon asked with a smirk.

“He becomes Dragon when I step down or die,” Jared said with a snarl.

“The point is, I am going to do this because it is our best option,” I told them to get them back on point.

“Tilia, can I speak with you in private?” Finn asked me with a clenched jaw.

I sighed and followed him outside of the dining room. He walked to the ballroom and shoved open the doors and disappeared inside. I walked in and he spun around. “Stop trying to sacrifice yourself.”

“If there was another way, I would gladly do it.”

“What if you lose your magic?” he asked me. “You’ve been working so hard to learn more and pass this test and you just passed it!”

“I’m trying to be optimistic and assume I won’t lose my magic.”

“We just got engaged and you’re trying to leave,” he accused me.

I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly. “I’ll be back as soon as possible. I don’t want to spend a day away from you, but sometimes we must do things we don’t like.”

He pushed me back with a deep frown. “If you go with him, I won’t be able to help you. I won’t be able to save you.”

“Sometimes a damsel must save herself,” I whispered.

“The hero is supposed to save the damsel,” he argued.

“Not in Crilan. In Crilan the damsel can rescue herself.”

“I don’t like this.”

“I know.”

“I love you.”

“I know.”

He smirked and then hugged me tightly. “I’ll rip him apart if he hurts you.”

“Hey, maybe you can rescue me from a prison again,” I suggested with a wide smile.

“Not funny.”

“I’ll be okay. And if not, you can blow up Drimla.”

“Also not funny.”

“Come eat,” Faxon called out to us.

“How are you even going to find him?” Finn asked me.

“He’s meeting me tomorrow, remember?”

“You think he would actually show up?”

“If I’m alone, yes.”

“This is potential suicide.”

“If I can save the Kingdom, I have to try.”

“No matter what I say you’re just going to go through with this, aren’t you?”

I smiled and kissed his cheek, “Now you’re starting to really understand me.”

He sighed loudly and led the way back to the dining room silently. Despite our impending fight and possible loss of magic, my family acted as if nothing bad had happened. We discussed the wedding plans and celebrated both Finn and my new titles and then ate dessert. Finn and I excused ourselves from everyone else and sat on the railing of our balcony side by side, hand in hand.

It seemed like a life time ago when I first met him on this balcony and the brat had stolen my necklace. Now so much had changed and we had grown so close.