The Pirate's Legacy: New Identities

Prologue: The Prodigal Son

"Close the windows, Lucy. There is going to be rain tonight."

The small family waited as the serving maid shut the glass doors on the gathering storm outside. The tension in the foyer was unbearable. Lucy's nervousness and awkwardness at being a witness to her master's family tribulation threatened to suffocate her. Once her task was completed, only the sound of her mistress's suppressed tears disrupted the deafening silence. With eyes lowered, Lucy turned around and bowed—first to her master and mistress standing in front of the staircase and then to their last surviving son in front of the main door—before she scurried out of the foyer.

Cecil refocused his attention on the well-dressed young man standing across the foyer with eyes cast down to the wooden floor. Cicero had arrived at his parents' manor home in Hesper uninvited, just when Cecil and his wife Selene were about to retire for the night.

Cecil narrowed his dark green eyes. He tightened his grip around the hilt of the sword belted at his waist. "How long have I until the Guard comes for me?"

A low, muffled moan escaped from Selene's trembling lips. She pressed shaking fingers to her mouth.

Cicero raised his bright green eyes and answered, "You have until dawn."

Cecil cursed and shook his graying head. "Is he at the head of all this?" he shouted.

Before Cicero could answer, his mother cried out. Both he and his father were taken aback as she stumbled toward him.

"My son, my son," gasped Selene as she fell in his arms. "I beg you to intercede with the queen on your father's behalf—"

"Enough!" said Cecil. He strode forward and yanked Selene out of Cicero's wooden embrace. "I will not have my honor torn to shreds by groveling for a pardon from that vile who—"

"Careful what you utter, Father," warned Cicero. His eyes went immediately to the number of shadows which the braziers couldn't reach, expecting one of the queen's spies to stare back at him.

"Father? You condescend to call me that title?"

Selene's anguished cries grew louder. She clung to Cecil, beseeching him to take back his words. "He is our son! He is our flesh and blood, my lord. I beg of you, we must stay together—"

"He is no longer a son of mine!" Cecil declared.

Cicero turned his eyes on his mother, his mouth pressed in a grim line. "The queen is sparing you, Mother," he reassured her in a stiff voice. "Fear not for your safety."

Cecil shook an angry fist at Cicero. "She murdered the King Regent—gods of Tarym safeguard his soul—and then she had Emelia murdered. Have you no shame for lying at her feet like a lapdog?"

As his mother wailed, a tremor moved over Cicero's face at the mention of Em. He lowered his head so that his wild hair covered his guilty eyes. "The queen had nothing to do with Em's disappearance, Father," he said. " 'Twas my doing." His mother gasped, and he lifted his eyes to meet his parents' bewildered expressions. With as few words as possible, Cicero confessed to kidnapping the second princess after seeing for himself how the queen had killed Arturus Quiesco. Selene sank to the ground as he explained how he'd given Em over to a pirate, figuring it was better than hiding her somewhere in Tarym where the queen's spies could find her. He didn't mention Helena and the visions She had given him.

"I found her in Politicka last year while I was on my way to deliver the queen's message to the High Council. She was with the pirates when I found her," Cicero finished. He dared not mention that the pirates he'd found Em among were men of the infamous Dread Pirate Robin. Even now, he couldn't keep thoughts of what that monster had done to her from plaguing his mind.