Voyage (Book 1 of The Pirate, The Professor And The Princess)

Dead of the Night, The Chapter Eight

She had stopped struggling by now.

Rae was glad she had stopped struggling because otherwise Rae would've had to use her sword and things got ugly when she used her sword. Besides, she didn't want to harm the princess, or they wouldn't get the desired ransom from the King and Queen if their daughter had a missing limb or eye.

Ermes had pointed this thing out when Rae had been suggesting chopping off a finger to establish their dominance.

She had to listen to him because she always did.

After that, they had continued dragging Ligh away from her motel, not talking at all, not even in whispers so as to not draw any attention to them. Rae had noticed Ligh's babysitter there too, and she was sure that the moment the babysitter realised that Ligh was missing, she would wake up the whole town with her alarmed sirens. And then the police will be after them.

So it was necessary to get Ligh away as soon as possible.

Once they are safely back on the ship, they would make a change in the plans and start sail immediately without staying around for dawn; for everyone knew how it was not wise for the thief to stay in the same area once the thievery had been performed.

"It's anytime now," Rae breathed, stealing a glance at the motel situated a few meters away from them now, and getting farther and farther with each pull she did on Ligh's upper body. "The police might come anytime."
Ermes nodded, and they began working their feet faster.

The dockyard wasn't very far away now and Rae could see the shadow of the ship against the silvery night whenever she looked back. The ship was as big as the trade ones docked on this shore of the trading centre, and Rae was proud to call it hers.

She longed to be back on the deck so they could step off the foreign land. Almost all the people Rae had met had complained about the ocean being unwelcoming and terrific and making them seasick. Whenever Rae got seasick, however, it happened to be in the same sense the others got homesick, not the other way around. She figured this was reason enough to love both faces of oceans: the calm blue waves and the monstrous frightening ones.

"Almost there," Ermes said, sounding a little out of breath and Rae shot him a look.

Just as she thought that this task of kidnapping Ligh and carrying her away had been far too easy, she heard sirens. Loud and sharp bells rose up from the epicenter and travelled across the town at the speed of lightning-or faster yet, the speed of rumors.

Over Ermes' shoulder, she saw lights illuminating every window of the high-rising windows of the motel, as if the Princess' babysitter was getting all the rooms checked, thinking that the Princess must be hiding in there somewhere to play a highly practical joke on her. Rae understood this completely. With the way the Princess was behaving back inside the cloth shop, it was quite obvious that she was careless and didn't think before doing or saying something stupid. If Rae had had to step into the babysitter's shoes and take a guess where Ligh could be, the first thought in her mind would've undoubtedly been that Ligh had gone somewhere without telling her, and now she just had to search for long enough to come across her.

Obviously, the trickle of fear at the possibility of Princess Ligh getting kidnapped would've invaded her thoughts much later. Rae hoped that the Princess' babysitter was a mindless idiot and thus, wouldn't doubt anything remotely true until it was too late.

Rae and Ermes had by now arrived at the unofficial entrance of the dockyard from where they had been let in by bribing an officer and from where they'll go out now by bribing the same officer. Just for safe measure, Rae grabbed the jute sack Ermes found her from some loaded cart, and she stuffed the Princess inside the bag. Ermes winced at the dreadful crack that came from within when Ligh couldn't fit inside, and so Rae had to push the body in forcefully. Rae didn't think twice about it. Maybe a knuckle popped or something.

"Okay, now we need to hurry," she said, picking up Ligh with a grunt. Ermes dropped some coins in the outstretched hand of the corrupt officer, and Rae didn't fail to notice how the man looked at the bag in her arms with suspicion.

Rae quickly hurried inside, and Ermes followed.

Their ship was docked at the very end of the queue, partly hidden behind the rocky mountain cliff. Staying close to the corners, they shuffled over to the ship, and Ermes took a deep breath in, only to give a loud bird call. On its cue, a crew member leaned over the wooden boards while at the same time a ladder came hurtling down.

Then a crew member climbed down and looked greedily at the sack on Rae's arms.

Gold?" He asked, lending her a hand, and Rae nodded thankful to get the burden off herself. The man grabbed Princess Ligh, paused for a second and then frowned slightly. "Is this really gold?"

Since he was just standing there and contemplating whether this was gold or not, Rae got irritated. "We don't have time to waste," she snapped at him.

"Aw, it's not gold." He muttered a curse but didn't argue with Rae over the fact that she brought a human shaped thing to the ship and not a looted bag of gold. He started up the makeshift ladder. Getting the Princess up was difficult for him, Rae noticed, since the Princess was dead weight and the ladder was hard to climb. Rae still hoped he wouldn't drop her. Because then, it would come right down on her face. She started climbing the ladder after him and Ermes followed.

Behind them the village was starting to wake up to the sound of commotion originating from that one motel. The bag with Princess Ligh inside was flung carelessly to the floor and the man carrying her slumped on the ground, panting. Rae looked at his exhaustion and told him that he shouldn't have been the one to be eager enough to come down.

"Prepare to sail," Rae commanded the moment she jumped onto the deck.

At her command, the whole ship awoke to life. Crew members and sailors who were until now trying to get maybe just a wink of sleep, now shot up on their feet and saluted. The masts were lifted and the mooring lines withdrawn from the dock. A thickset anchor was pulled up from the seabed. Rae wiped sweat from her bow and walked to the captain's cabin.

"Head for the Seas of Ishyamil," she said, turning to look at the sailor. "We should not come within the reach of Gontas." He nodded as he took hold of the wheel.

When Rae walked back onto the deck, she joined Ermes and nodded towards the unconscious figure hugging the floor. "Tie her up."

Then she stood against the wooden rails and stared across the town as more and more of it was left shaken up by the growing turmoil. The citizens would be woken from deep slumber and be asked to walk out, still in their night dresses, sleepy and confused as the police demanded to search their homes. No one building, house or shop looked like it was going to be left untouched. Everyone feared what a long night it would be. Everyone wondered what was actually up.

Everyone except the hushed crew members of that one pirate ship, silently and smartly making its sail from the dock of Gontas before anyone could put two and two together.

Rae smirked in triumph, glancing back at the figure that slumped secured against the mast pole when Ermes had finished tying her up. He shared a sly grin with Rae.

The Princess Ligh of Gontas had been stolen in the dead of the night.