Touched By A Dragon

Chapter 33: Discovered

“So captain, where we be gettin this fine ship?" Asked Tiffany, the young pirate run away that showed outstanding skill in both blade and ropes. 
“Family docks, there’s a lot of ships there. All I need is access to it and the location.” Lillianna sighed. 
“You ain’t from around these parts are you?” Asked Clover.
“It shows?” 
“Yeah, you speak funny, like a D’Angelo but more important like. Plus everyone round here knows where D’Angelo docks are, your brother is dearin someone ta try an take one a his ships.” Clover said.
“Clover! Enough! Stop speaking the name!” Her sister Lydia hissed, glancing up at Lillianna.
“Why are you afraid to speak the name?” Lillianna asked.
“We ain’t stupid. We know who you are. You talk funny, you have a bodyguard, you’re trying to get across the Currents and you’re promising us a huge fortune there. Sides they’ve put up posters...Princess.” 
Lillianna gulped and mentally prepared to jump over board, thankful that her mother thought she should know how to swim and hired someone to teach her. She didn’t know about Talon though.
“Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha! Relax Princess, you still robbed Kings Cloaks and showed them men their place. Sides no point in robin  you since you ain’t got no coin. An you promised us gold when we get to your palace. I ear the bounty you’re going for is enough to set the four of us up for life.” Lydia finished.
“So I’m a wanted girl then? How much am I going for?” Lillianna asked.
Alena opened a leather shoulder bag and pulled out a piece of parchment. On it read...Wanted Alive. Princess Lillianna Ravenswood of Dane, 10,000,000 knots. 
Lillianna grabbed the poster in shock.
“A hundred thousand Knots, but that’s....that’s more than father has in the treasury! The kingdom will be bankrupt! The people will suffer the most!”
“Well I guess that’s what you’re worth to him. The king may be rich but he is a parent and he is willing to destroy his empire to get you back, Princess. It has been four years.” Alana sighed, longingly.
“Four years?” Lillianna whispered to herself in shock. 
“How’d you get out?” Clover interrupted, expectant admiration shining in her eyes.
Lillianna shook her head, trying to fuscous on the present. Then she threw a sideways glance at Talon before Lydia interrupted. 
“It doesn’t matter how Clover, the important question is how much gold she can give us without her people suffering and how we are going to split it.”
Lillianna raised an eyebrow in a sceptical look.
“We may be pirates that love gold but I for one know what it’s like to live rough.” Lydia continued, catching Lillianna’s stare.
“Well I think there’s about twenty thousand and seventy knots in the treasury that Father put aside for me and another forty thousand and forty that he put aside for my sisters. So that’s split four ways is….”
Lillianna counted silently on her fingers. 
Tiffany sighed and muttered “…fifteen thousand and twenty seven knots and fifty chrums each.”
All the girls stared at her open mouthed. Tiffany shrugged.
“My father worked in the treasury but the Queen fired him after the king died. I had a pretty good education but had to drop out and find ways of making knots. He um, died soon after. But with the money well make I can go back to school and maybe get a good job.”
Lillianna made a mental note to give her study in the palace and a job soon after. Before she followed Clover to the D’ Angelo docks. Lydia hastened her pace and caught up with her energetic sister’s bounds and Lillianna’s determined strides. 
“So, Aurora what’s the plan?” She asked.
Lillianna smiled at Lydia’s awareness and replied,
“Trust me on this one. I know what I’m doing.”
Lydia stopped walking, shocked. Lillianna stopped with her. 
“So you expect me, a pirate, to just truest you?”
“Yes, either that or you can walk.”
Lydia sighed and hastened her pace to catch up to Clover.
Soon they had arrived. The D’ Angelo docks where absolutely massive, like nothing Lillianna had ever seen before, but that wasn’t saying much. A huge section of blue lake had been covered with boats of every size and shape. There where metal barred walls surrounding the docks and stone towers with guards stationed at every turn. This thing was like a fortress for nobles not a dock for boats. 
Lillianna just smiled at it.
“This should be fun.” She grinned.
The girls stared at her like she was crazy. Lillianna just walked around to one of the towers and knocked on the door very loudly. A panel oped up and a guard’s face came into view. 
“Lighter than what I am made of, More of me is hidden than is seen, I am the bane of the mariner, A tooth within the sea. Speak my name,” It said gruffly.
“Ice,” Lillianna replied straight after.
“I am bound to a vessel, I travel back and forth, and I have been around but can never be run free. What am I?”
“Blood,” she answered straight away.
“I am in heat but not cold, I am not new but never old. I am in thunder but disappear in rain. I am not good to drink but I am on the table. What am I?
“Honestly who wrote these? The answer is T. And tell whoever is making the riddles to think of better ones. I mean how is the letter T related to the ocean?” 
The man smiled but it did not touch his eyes. “Ah you must be Miss Aurora, your reputation precedes you. Your father said you where probably going to come here. Your ships ready.”
Lillianna pretended she knew what was going on and decided to just go with it.
“Good, can someone please take me to it?” She said, though it sounded more like a command than a question.
The man slid the panel shut and a moment later the wooden door squeaked and swang open. A tall, lanky man stood behind it. He had a crooked nose and his face was coated heavily with soot. He wore a faded blue coat with torn trousers and black boots. He looked old and wrinkled but smiled when he saw Lillianna at full length.
“W-William… is that you?” Lillianna asked, clearly shocked.
“Eye lass, it be me, my how you’ve grown. But you be very far from home, tis dangerous in these lands. What would you be doing here?”
“I was taken but I managed to escape and I’m trying to get back home. I hear the Eastern currents are dangerous and a huge ship is needed to cross them.” She explained.
“Ah, your father told me you might come here to try and take a ship so I decided to help you out a bit, but when you get to Eastern Dane you have to send me the money for the boat or Alessandro and Valentina will have my head. They’re the children of Antonio D’ Angelo, they run this dock.” He warned. 
“Thanks William, you’ve done a lot for me already. Now where’s this ship?”
“Now, now, young Miss, you best mind your language or else your Father will put you back into lessons.” He joked.
Lillianna sighed and rolled her eyes before hurrying after William and gesturing for the other girls to follow.
“William was my father’s chief trader, he used to bring in things from other lands for him and stories of those lands for me.” Lillianna explained to the girls. 
“Yeah, and speaking of your Father you might want to practice your speech or your Father will be less happy to see you.” He smirked. 
“Oh my dear William, pardon my intrusion but I do beg to differ.” She replied poshly, hiding a proud grin.
“Well, well, look who matured into a perfect picture of royalty,” William laughed. “Just around here.”
They turned their heads to where William gestured and saw a huge ship. Dark oak board planks bound the ship together, ten huge tapestry sails, cannons lining the boat and the D’ Angelo flag hung from the top of the sails. Lillianna looked at her small crew.
“Do you reckon we can sail it through the Eastern Currents?” She asked.
The girls looked at each other, uncertain until Lydia spoke.
“I think we can probably sail it until we reach Death Sea then, well, as good as we are we would need a crew of about twenty more, ‘specially with those sails.”
Lillianna thought for a moment before turning to William.
“Do you have a piece of parchment, ink, quill and bird?”
“This aint the castle Princess, but I think Valentina has some ink and parchment in her office. You can get a bird at the market place.”
“Thank you again, William. Can you keep the ship here for a while? I’m just going to write to someone before we leave.”
William looked slightly confused but decided to go along with it. He just shrugged and pointed towards Valentina’s office which was at the top of one of the guard towers. Then, promising to see her soon, he made his leave.
“I love a challenge,” she whispered, looking up at the heavily guarded tower. 
“Why do we even need ink and parchment?” Clover asked.
“…Because I need to send a message to some friends who definitely will be able to help us.”
“Why not just write to your Father and tell him to send a ship or something?” Tiffany Interrupted.
“(Because this book would already be finished lol) Birds are not exactly the most reliable and safe way to communicate. What if someone else gets the letter or it gets lost? Or what f it falls into the wrong hands and them someone would know where I was and would probably try to kill me.”
“Then why are you sending this letter?”
“The recipient will know that I’m sending a bird and will meet it half way. Can we go now?”