The Pirate's Legacy: New Identities

Chapter 30: Home No More

"Emelia, we cannot bring him with us."

"Because you don't trust him," said Em. "I do with my life. That should be enough for you."

"He is a spy," Leo hissed into his cousin's ear. He glanced at the person their argument revolved around.

Roger, Em suspected, most likely could hear every word that she and Leo fired at each other, but he and Diamante were concentrating on the task at hand at the front of the house. Em and Leo stood farther down the hallway from them. Dread Robin and the delegate were at work near the front door. In the pirate's hands was a sack full of gunpowder. He was crouched down with his back to the cousins, pouring the explosive mixture across the hallway in a thick line a few feet from the threshold. Ahead of him, Diamante held a large green wine bottle. He threw its contents all over the panel flooring and up the cream-colored walls nearest to the front door at the pirate's direction. The delegate made sure not to get himself or Roger wet.

Selene and Lucy were in the backyard with the horses, packed and ready to go. A handful of Hawks sympathizers were with the two women in order to provide the entire group cover for when they left the Leyal house and to stand guard and make sure their backdoor escape route wouldn't be blocked off by their arresters.

"His reliability is as good as the coin you've paid him. Whatever you're paying him," Leo added underneath his breath, "the Draconians and Annalyn are surely paying double."

Em reared her head back. "He is not a spy!" she insisted for the umpteenth time since they had gathered together before dawn. She noticed Diamante making his way back to them with the empty wine bottle. "Diamante is perfectly fine with who Dread Robin is!"

Leo grasped the young woman by the shoulders, veins pulsing at the neck. Em gasped. Roger shot up and spun toward Leo as the lieutenant shouted, "Emelia, listen to me for once in your life!"

"Leonce," a very familiar voice quipped from the doorway. "You know that is no way to speak to a lady. Now remove your filthy hands from her."

Leo, instead of releasing Em, forced her behind his back. The wine bottle slipped from Diamante's hands and broke into a thousand green pieces with a loud crash. Dread Robin threw the gunpowder sack to the far side of the hallway. He and the delegate moved to either side of Leo to help form a blockade between the unwelcome arrivals and the princess.

"I don't think you have weight to speak about chivalry," the lieutenant said. "At least I've never kidnapped a woman and handed her over to become a pirate's slave."

An ugly red flush appeared on Cicero's face as he stopped inside the threshold. He still had those same dark green eyes and wild blond hair, Em thought as she beheld her childhood best friend for the first time in a year. Yet he was far from the boy she once knew. Accompanying him was a dozen of the Queen's Guard. Annalyn's colors were splayed on sashes tied over one shoulder. Some of the soldiers filed into the house after Cicero. Every one of the new arrivals bore a bayonet rifle.

"Your brothers couldn't come along," Cicero told Leo after regaining his composure when he saw the four people in front of him eye the silver blades attached to the rifle muzzles. "But they, and your father, are very eager to see you again."

Leo scowled. "I'm sure they are."

Cicero's eyes fell on Em. The hard glint in his eyes softened. "Emelia." His voice meant to sound like a caress, but to the young woman, it made her skin crawl.

She glared from between Leo and Roger, but neither man allowed her to get any closer. "You may not address me with such familiarity, traitor," she said.

Cicero's expression darkened. "I have not betrayed you," he said. "Emelia, the ones betraying you are the ones keeping you from returning home."

"I don't have a home anymore, Cicero," Em said in a hard voice.