Chapter 23 — The Ships
By sunrise, the entire harbor knew that Princess Amara had been found.
People gathered along the waterfront hoping to see her. Merchants abandoned warehouses, sailors invented reasons to remain on deck, and children climbed barrels and fences for a better view of the diplomatic vessel from Azania.
Amara wanted none of it.
She stood at an upstairs window with Alexander, watching the growing crowd.
“This is ridiculous.”
“You are a missing princess who returned from the dead,” Alexander said. “People are curious.”
“I was never dead.”
“They didn't know that.”
Amara looked at the crowd. “I preferred when nobody believed me.”
Alexander smiled. “Yesterday you were offended.”
“I reserve the right to be dissatisfied with both situations.”
“That sounds familiar.”
A cannon sounded from the harbor entrance.
Alexander turned toward the sea.
A second vessel had appeared.
It carried the same royal colors.
Amara moved closer to the window.
“That wasn't expected.”
Another cannon answered from the first ship.
The newcomer entered the harbor slowly, sailors standing in formation along its deck.
Then another set of sails appeared behind it.
Alexander stared.
“Three?”
Amara's expression became serious.
“My father.”
“What about him?”
“He is angry.”
Alexander looked at the three ships.
“I had gathered that.”
By midmorning, three ships had become five.
The harbor stopped functioning.
Cargo remained on docks. Fishing boats moved aside. Harbor officials rushed from one problem to another as five foreign vessels took positions in the water.
Soldiers in royal colors lined the decks.
They were not dressed for ceremony.
They carried weapons.
Alexander's military instincts immediately took over. He studied the ships, their positions, the disciplined movement of the men aboard them.
“This isn't merely a rescue mission.”
“No,” Amara said.
“What did your father send?”
“A warning.”
“To Rourke?”
“To everyone.”
Alexander looked at her.
Amara's face contained a mixture of love and resignation.
“My father does not react calmly when someone harms his family.”
“That may be the first thing about him I understand completely.”
She looked at Alexander.
He realized what he had said.
Neither commented.
Minister Okoro arrived soon afterward.
He entered carrying several sealed documents and appeared considerably more concerned than he had the previous day.
“Your Royal Highness, three additional vessels arrived during the night.”
“I noticed.”
“Your father sent them after receiving information that you might still be alive.”
“And the soldiers?”
“For your protection.”
Alexander raised an eyebrow.
Okoro acknowledged the skepticism.
“And for other purposes.”
“What other purposes?” Amara asked.
The diplomat hesitated.
That was enough.
“My father wants Rourke.”
“Yes.”
“Alive?”
“Preferably.”
Alexander almost smiled at the final word.
Amara did not.
“This cannot become uncontrolled revenge.”
“It will not,” Okoro assured her. “The King wants those responsible identified, arrested, and brought before the appropriate authorities.”
“Everyone involved?”
“Everyone we can find.”
Amara nodded.
That was what she wanted.
Not revenge for a princess.
Justice for everyone Rourke's network had harmed.
The three of them went down to the waterfront.
The reaction was immediate.
People moved aside as Amara approached.
Alexander noticed how differently she carried herself now.
She was still the woman who argued with him over horses and stole blankets during storms, but something else had returned.
Authority.
She acknowledged the officers with a small nod and walked toward the dock without hesitation.
A royal commander came ashore.
He stopped before Amara and bowed.
For one moment his discipline nearly failed.
“Princess.”
“General.”
“We thought we had lost you.”
“So did I.”
The man swallowed his emotion.
“Your father ordered us to search every port necessary.”
“How many men?”
“Enough.”
Amara looked at the five ships.
“That is not a number.”
Alexander smiled.
The general glanced toward him, clearly wondering who this foreign officer was who found the situation amusing.
“Nearly four hundred, Your Royal Highness.”
Alexander stopped smiling.
“Four hundred?”
Amara sighed.
“I told you my father was angry.”
The general explained that other agents were searching along separate routes. Messages had been sent to governments, merchants, and military authorities. Anyone associated with Rourke was being identified.
Then he produced a list.
Alexander recognized several names.
Briggs was among them.
So were two men connected to the pirate attack.
“This network is larger than we thought,” Alexander said.
The general nodded. “Much larger.”
Amara took the list.
“How many victims?”
“We don't know.”
That answer disturbed her more than anything else.
She folded the paper.
“Then we find out.”
The general bowed. “Yes, Princess.”
Alexander watched her.
Only weeks earlier, Amara had been standing in his study refusing to sit because he had ordered her to.
Now hundreds of soldiers waited for her instructions.
Strangely, he found the first situation more intimidating.
Word spread through the port that the African ships carried royal troops.
The curiosity of the morning became silence.
Crowds lined the waterfront as soldiers appeared on the decks in disciplined rows.
Five ships.
Hundreds of men.
Royal banners moving above them.
The entire harbor watched.
Somewhere among those people, Alexander knew, would be informants.
Perhaps men connected to Rourke himself.
That was precisely the message King Adisa intended them to see.
His daughter had been found.
And he had come for everyone responsible.
Amara stood at the end of the dock with Alexander beside her.
“You were right,” he said.
“About what?”
“Your father really would tear the world apart looking for you.”
A faint smile appeared.
“I warned Rourke.”
“He should have listened.”
“He laughed.”
“I suspect he isn't laughing now.”
That evening, the five ships remained illuminated in the harbor.
Alexander found Amara alone on a balcony overlooking them.
“You should be celebrating.”
“I am.”
“You don't look like it.”
She rested her hands on the railing.
“My family knows I'm alive. I can go home. I have dreamed about this every night.”
“But?”
Amara looked toward him.
“But everything has changed.”
Alexander understood.
Home was waiting across the ocean.
So was her family, her title, and the life stolen from her.
But another life had begun here.
A life neither of them had expected.
“When do you sail?” he asked.
“Soon.”
The word hung painfully between them.
Alexander nodded.
He would not ask her to stay.
He had promised himself that.
Amara moved closer.
“You're doing it again.”
“What?”
“Pretending you don't care.”
“I care.”
“Then say it.”
Alexander looked at the five royal ships.
“I don't want you to leave.”
Amara's eyes softened.
“But you won't ask me to stay.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you spent months fighting for the right to choose your own life. I won't become the man who takes that choice away.”
Amara reached for his hand.
Below them, five ships waited to carry her home.
Hundreds of soldiers had crossed the sea to find a princess.
The entire port had stopped to watch their arrival.
Yet Amara looked only at Alexander.
For the first time since her kidnapping, she had the power to choose where she belonged.
And that choice was becoming harder with every passing day.