Page 20 of Vengeance of the Pirate Queen

“Hush. We’ll talk in my quarters. I’m going to write Alosa back first so no one need worry any longer.”

I turn my back on her and return up top. Dimella is feeding and watering the bird. I pass them by and scratch out a hasty note from within my quarters.

Foundher.What would you like done now?

—Sorinda

I attach it to the bird. Without further prompting, it takes off in flight, returning to Queen’s Keep. Yano birds are highly valued on the seas. They’re excellent navigators, capable of finding ships on the water, and they can travel great distances without tiring. They also don’t utter a note of sound, which makes them excellent for sending secret messages.

“Did you find her?” Dimella asks when the bird is out of sight.

Roslyn makes her appearance on the main deck before I need to answer. She’s shuffling her feet, glaring at the ground as she walks, and fiddling with a knife in her fingers. Her blond locks are filthy from just one night in the hold.

I point to the door to my rooms, and Roslyn doesn’t look at anyone as she lets herself inside.

“Anything I can help with?” Dimella asks.

“I’ve got this.”

Roslyn is an unusual child. She’s a seven-year-old pirate who’s grown up around pirates. She knows how to think, act, and—unfortunately—talk like one. Really, it’s like talking to a tiny adult sometimes.

“What were you thinking?” I ask when I get the door shut.

She’s standing in front of my bed, arms crossed defiantly over her chest. “I had no choice but to sneak aboard the ship, Sorinda!”

Oh, but I want to reprimand her, to tell her how stupid and unsafe that was. She likely has no idea where we’re going or what we’re doing. This was beyond foolish.

Instead, I have a feeling this will go much smoother if I let her say everything she wants to first.

“Explain,” I say.

“Ever since I was shot, Papa won’t let me do anything! I’m not allowed to sail with crews; I can’t walk the keep by myself. Sometimes, I think he’d like to oversee me taking a piss!”

“Language,” I say.

“Sorry, but he won’t leave me alone. The only thing he does is continue my knife lessons. That’s it. What’s the point of practicing if I’m never allowed to do anything? How am I supposed to be useful to Alosa if Papa forbids it? Ihadto sneak aboard. It was the only way to stop me from dying of boredom.”

I open my mouth to speak, but she continues. “I don’t need you to tell me he loves me. I don’t need you to tell me that he almost lost me, so he’s scared of something else bad happening to me. I already know all this. What I need are ideas for how I can have my life back. I’m bored out of my mind, Sorinda. I need this. Please don’t send me back to the keep!”

I close my eyes briefly, remembering that moment when Tylon shot her. The bullet grazed her head, but it managed to hit in such a way that blood oozed all over Alosa’s brig. We thought the shot killed her instantly at the time. I was ready to wring Tylon’s neck myself, but Wallov beat me to it.

Losing anyone is awful, but a child? Roslyn’s my friend and crewmate just as much as anyone else, yet it would be so much worse if anything happened to her.

It sounds like Wallov is coddling her for the sake of his sanity.

“This journey is very dangerous,” I say. “We’re intentionally headed for trouble. This was the wrong vessel to sneak aboard, Roslyn. You’re seven. You—”

“I’m basically eight!”

She’s over six months away from eight, but I’m not about to argue the point.

“I sent word to Alosa that I found you. Your fate is in her hands now.”

Roslyn groans. “Alosa’s just as bad as Papa. She takes his word as law instead of making use of me as one of her crew! I’m a pirate, Sorinda. I need to be a pirate!”

Any earlier anger or irritation I might have had toward Roslyn for sneaking aboard my ship vanishes. Because I can see exactly where she’s coming from. She’s being forced to be idle, and that would drive anyone insane. I understand why she did it, and though I don’t agree with her decision, she’s going to get enough of a punishment from Alosa and Wallov without me adding to it.

My voice is neutral as ever as I say, “No one gets free passage on my vessel. If you expect food in your belly and a bunk at night, then you had best be prepared to work for it. To the crow’s nest with you.”

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