Chapter 96 #2
Verdalis paid his respects to the Amberlian king and queen, promised he would come to Rosamund’s next wedding, whenever that might be, and bade Dirk a special farewell before retrieving Lucerion from Festus and rising into the air.
Their mission complete, the crew of the Tula made for their hovering ship.
“Wait, you can’t just leave,” the king protested. “Millie, sweetheart, we need you.”
“Amberly needs me more,” she replied simply. “And I can only serve our country if I’m not tied down to that.” She pointed to the ornate throne behind him.
“So, what?” the queen demanded. “You’re just going to gallivant about on the wind like a pirate? How will you even fund your ventures? If you abdicate, you forfeit your inheritance.”
“If you’ll permit me to send a servant to my rooms, they’ll discover my pocket money in a chest in the wall behind the bookcase. I’ve saved about a thousand gold marks over the years. That should get us by for some time.”
Bradley couldn’t stop the smile spreading from one ear to the other. He’d underestimated the princess’s commitment from the very beginning, but she had planned for this outcome for years. Not only had her dream finally come to fruition, it had the foundation to keep building upon itself.
“Plus you’ll have all the rubies I, uh, liberated from Leighton,” Dirk said. “They’re all in their dressers in the Tula’s treasure hold. Figured you’d have better use for them than if I stuck them back in the mine.”
“Gold and rubies aside, how does you being a pirate help this realm?” the king asked.
Amberly did not have pirates, but it did have bandits, despite the country ranking first in the Continent Careers’ job satisfaction and mental health polls for the last five decades, and they were a source of never-ending headaches for the king.
He refused to add his beloved daughter to his daily list of Grievances That Need Attending To.
“Like this.” Millie waved to a corner of the throne room, and Lord Robert Matcha emerged from behind his wall of Evertea guards.
The king and queen of Amberly maintained neutral expressions as the son of their most persistent adversary presented himself before them and bowed.
Of course a representative of Evertea had been invited to the Amberlian wedding—that was just good manners—but they could have gone the whole evening happily without acknowledging this presence.
Standing side by side, the youngsters produced two copies of the same treaty, each certified by the notary stationed at the marines post in Pierpont.
“Ever since the Duchy of Evertea rebelled and seceded from Amberly, the threat of invasion has hung like a building storm over the duchy,” the young lord explained.
“My father suspects that if he allows Amberly trade access along the Tea Road, you will just use the opportunity to seize what you lost centuries ago.”
“Since you two will never agree,” Millie continued, “Bobby and I—”
Lord Matcha cleared his throat and smoothed down his full mustache with a pointed look.
“Lord Matcha,” she corrected, “and I took it upon ourselves to create our own treaty. As you know, Lord Matcha was appointed Warden of the Tea Road earlier this spring. As such, he has authority to manage it how he pleases, including who uses it and how he protects it.”
Millie thrust her copy of the treaty into her parents’ hands.
“This copy is for you. The Warden will grant you trade access to the sea to expand the Amberlian export business for a small tax. As a pirate, I will raid, pillage, and otherwise harass to my heart’s content anyone who endangers the Tea Road or our vessels at sea.
Anyone. Should Amberly invade or Evertea forces attack, I will show no quarter to either. ”
The king and queen abandoned the treaty to weigh the threat in their daughter’s voice. They found her expression to be that of a sharp-eyed hawk—focused and unwavering. Their gaze cut to the patina pirate galleon floating in their throne room, specifically to Mutineer Millie’s flag.
The tulip and cutlass, and the stem overlapping the blade. Compassion before force. But both equally represented.
“And if everyone minds their manners, then all will be well,” she chirped.
“You know Evertea has almost been at war with the Silverwald elves for the last ten years,” the queen stressed. “Not everyone will be minding their manners when the tension finally breaks.”
“Not for another five years, I think,” Lord Matcha piped up.
The queen glared at him, and the young Warden of the Tea Road gulped.
“All the manners will be minded when they see my ship,” Millie replied. “It’s not just a fabulous lady pirate captain they’ll have to deal with, but a grand master sorcerer, a dragon, a scrappy hedge knight, a brilliant gnome, and the finest pickpocket in the entire continent.”
“And what about me?” Prince Henri sputtered from his birdcage.
“You and your misogyny are going home,” Millie told him. She turned back to her parents with a grin. “I’ll be back for birthdays and all the major holidays, of course. Love you muchly.”
She kissed each of their stunned cheeks, hugged Rosamund, extracted Duchess from her arms, and commanded her crew to board. Bradley finished shaking hands with Olabeus and gravitated to Millie’s side to slide his arm around her waist and give her a squeeze.
“You were magnificent.” He would save his kisses for when they were alone in their cabin. For now, he leaned closer to murmur, “So you’re sure about this?”
Beyond the yellow sails of her magnificent ship, the great wide world beckoned with promises of adventure and perhaps more than a little trouble. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.” She lifted a single finger. “The One in Ten.”
This time, Bradley didn’t restrain himself. He kissed the tip of that finger, sure and swift. Then he thumped his staff against the ground with a flash of purple light. “Archmaster.”
Dirk swirled around them with a white shimmer coursing down his scales. “The greatest blue luck dragon you ever did see.”
Their futures decided, the three boarded the Tula to transform their dreams into realities.
With her hands perched on her youngest daughter’s shoulders and the treaty curled into a scroll in his fist, the Amberlian queen and king watched as their eldest daughter and her court weighed anchor and floated away into the night sky.
When the pirate galleon was the size of a penny against the moon, they finally looked at each other and shrugged in mutual agreement.
This was just a phase. Mildred would abandon the pirate lifestyle and return to the fold eventually. Until that day, they would focus on ensuring there was a happy, healthy, and prosperous country for her to come home to.
And no more engagements for Rosamund until she was at least fifty.