Princess of Gold

Chapter 1 - Mandel

Mandel knew he was dreaming, yet somewhere between sleep and waking all he could see was the knife. He had watched it slice through the captain and now it replayed in his mind, an endless cycle. The knife's arc, the captain's surprise and how only he could have seen the shock and pain on her face.
Her face, the captain, his closest friend,
Callium Silant, daughter of the most feared pirate ever, and a terror in her own right. Her image cleaved in two by a slender dagger. Feared pirate, weakened casualty, a Leader strong and fierce, a young woman soaked in blood.
But now all he could see was the blade slicing through her, shock echoing through his head, the blood soaking through the white shirt, blood black in the moonlight, stumbling, a monolith falling, a hand soaked in blood, eyes rolling into her head, falling falling...

He felt something prod his arm, a line to the surface. He woke breathing heavily like he had been drowning.
"They're awake,"
Mandel blinked sleep from his eyes. Processing the situation, he was in his hammock, the ship was quieter than normal, the ropes and boards creaked but even the night crew's normal noise was subdued, everyone else was asleep, someone was snoring softly in the dark and he couldn't hear any reason that he shouldn't have been asleep.
Then he saw it,
Two luminous eyes were watching him in the low lamp light, the interruption of his nightmares was none other than an imp, or more realistically his fellow crew member, Electra.
Electra was part of the crew, she was friendly, enough, for someone who rarely left their cabin unless something blew up. With her soot stained features and somewhat eclectic appearance, she barely looked the same species let alone the same gender as the girl imprisoned below deck. She had looked like a doll, all slight limbs and soft hair. She had looked like an idol of legend. A night in the ship's cell probably would have changed that.
A beat of silence, then a hiss.
"They're awake,"
"Wait what, both?" "Is Cal awake?"
Electra raised the remainder of an eyebrow. Voice rough, like one who had inhaled too many dangerous substances, because she probably had.

"Yeah, ya tool, why else would I be here?" She was putting less effort into stifling her voice "I've been trying to stitch that moron up all night," she was more indignant than ever "I'm no healer though. Just so you know." "Seeing it'll be your problem soon." "you're like the only one Captain would leave all this to,"
She gestured at the dark room of swaying hammocks and crates. It was dark and it still smelled like the smuggled fruit of a few weeks ago. It was his home and so was Callium.
"Electra, she is not going to die,"
"Tell yourself that, big boy, I'm almost convinced,"
"Electra," he said voice tense.
She rolled her eyes.

Blinking balefully he followed her below deck, the second level was for storage but tonight had been repurposed into two hasty cells, the door to one was closed, but in the second Mandel saw a familiar figure.
The captain had arrived before him, somehow, whilst severely injured, and supposedly being watched and guarded.
It was still a welcome sight though, until Callium turned to face him, revealing the bandages holding her up, and that they were still leaking blood.
"Finally, I've been waiting for," turning to the pirate next to her, "how long?" She muttered.
Mandel had a moment of recognition; Wiccan the newest member of the regular crew, the 'freed' sailor barely old enough to leave his mother let alone become a pirate. Mandel tried to give him a reassuring smile, it was clear he was terrified of his captain.
"A quarter of an hourglass captain."
"A quarter of an hour Mandel, did your really need that much beauty sleep?"
"Ha ha, glad to see that you're alive," Mandel couldn't help smiling a bit, concern slightly less obvious in his face.
"is she awake in there?" Electra had to climb onto a crate to see over either Callium or Mandel's shoulders
"Almost; she's stirring." Callium tsked under her breath, She wasn't so fond of their newest prisoner.

There was a soft voice singing quietly in the next cell, Mandel was the first to hear it, then a slam like a body thrown against a wall.
Then silence.
Everyone on high alert, Mandel could hear Electra's sharp breaths and Cal's muttered curses. Then the sound of human nails on wood.
"Oh good he's letting us know he's still here, honestly-" said Callium "I had almost forgotten about him." His gut dropped, he also had nearly forgotten about their other captive.

The princess eyes twitched slightly and Callium gave a grunt of delight, she couldn't pull the same trick twice. Looming over her Callum looked like a giant, not as tall or as broad as Mandel but something dark inside her was being revealed, as she looked over the dainty princess in disgust. She took a step forward ready to give the girl a nightmare to remember, and then flinched, letting out a barely audible hiss as the wound's pain attacked her.
It was like talking the blow himself, to see his closest friend suffer like this, she almost stopped him but as Electra and the guard sat her down she didn't complain.
The princess was beautiful, that Mandel could see, but as he approached her it really shook him how young she looked. They all knew that she was nineteen, her home country Altanan had made it very clear, and her father, the illustrious emperor had been boasting of a marriage alliance, not that anything had happened. Her skin was dark, a rich brown, it filled Mandel with a sharp homesickness, they had been raised in completely different worlds but he could see her as a friend or cousin, searing itself into his mind with an urge to protect her. But he wasn't just that simple little boy anymore, he was a pirate, and a good one at that.
His alliance was to something else now.

Would his father be proud of him now? Standing over a kidnapped princess, remorseless and dangerous? A criminal but for the right reasons? Was that a twinge of regret? He knew that it was part of something much greater, probably, the prophecy wasn't exactly clear, and if he was being honest with himself, he didn't understand Callium's obsession with it. But he trusted her judgement, he had known her the longest, and she hadn't let him down yet.
The Princess stretched awake; bird-like. Mandle had heard that she had eyes of gold, and that 24 carats ran through her blood, but curious as he was, in the dark all he could see was that both eyes were rimmed with feathery lashes that fluttered like wings, eyes not yet comprehending the situation. She looked so gentle and yet, as she remembered herself the look she gave him made something inside himself shiver, then it was gone, a terrified girl barely more than a child. It still made Mandel's blood run cold, this princess was not to be underestimated.
Hands cuffed she could still command the room, even only dressed in a disheveled nightgown, curly hair wild and twisted up with straw, and an ever so classy bruise across her face.
There was fire behind those eyes.
Callum just laughed, no mortal glare could unsettle her, and she had just been stabbed.
With a caged fury she tested her shackles, and lunged forwards, but she was restrained and harmless. She crumpled again at his feet, he could almost see her in a different light, almost hesitating he just pushed his family's faces down.
Somewhere in the distance the ship's bell rang a deathly toll, the princess could wait, Mandel had a job to do.