1 The Night Arrival

On a quiet summer night, a ship floated like a deadly predator under the light of the full moon. It was moving along the shore just far enough away it wouldn't be noticed. The eyes of the crew onboard were bright and searching for prey.

With tall grey-black sails and no lanterns lit, the pirate ship The Black Tide was nearly impossible to see. It glided silently through the water save for the creaking and groaning of the wood as the waves pushed against it and the flutter of the sails from the salty breeze.

Like a hunter about to strike, the men were rigid and alert, eyes flashing with reflected moonlight. They needed to find fresh prey and they needed it badly. So badly in fact that their Captain had made the call to let them hunt this close to shore despite how incredibly risky it was. They were out of options though. There was damage to their hull and the last few months had not been profitable...

And now there was something even worse driving their Captain to make desperate choices.

While the pirates manned their posts, on the lookout and hoping for luck, down below decks their Captain was anxiously pacing.

And what a Captain she was.

Captain Ilona Black was the oldest daughter of the Pirate King himself. She had been born aboard this very ship when her father had been its captain and now it had become her responsibility. It had taken her a long time to earn it and in the end, it hadn't been her father who had given her the position, but her mother.

Anja Maria Wolf had taken over being the Captain of The Black Tide when Ilona's father had gotten himself a bigger and better ship. Then recently when Anja had decided she had spent enough of her life being in charge and she turned the ship over to her daughter. She'd stayed aboard as a member of the crew though.

The new Captain was thrilled but she knew it was a test. Her father had already given several of her younger brothers their own ships but not her. The Pirate King was clear that he thought his daughter was too short-tempered and impulsive to Captain her own ship. Ilona had never thought it was fair he judged her so harshly for those traits since she'd inherited them directly from him.

She also hated that she had proven him right so quickly.

Pacing back and forth in the Captain's cabin, Ilona Black bit at one of her nails. It was a nasty habit her mother had always hated but she couldn't seem to stop herself. Besides, her father had said if she didn't have nails then that was one less thing she had to worry about scraping the dirt from.

She had ordered all the lights on the ship be out except for the lamps in the lower decks. It was important they were as close to invisible as they could get if they were going to be successful in finding a target. Besides if they did, it was important no one found out it was them because her father would not approve.

The Pirate King had a large estate very close by where he lived with his family as well as his men and their families. It was a small village to itself. He would not like it if he learned his daughter had let her men loot another ship so close to their home. Part of the reason the pirates were able to live on this land peacefully is the Pirate King made sure they didn't cause trouble for the locals.

Ilona was desperate though. She had made a terrible mistake and now she had to find a way to fix it. Unfortunately, one of the only ways she knew how was with money. In order to get money, she would have to get things to sell, and in order to get those things, they would have to do what they did best.

Piracy.

She would have preferred to be out on the open ocean looking for a trading ship to capture but they had damaged the hull of their ship during one of their last attacks and now the patches were no longer holding. It was actually a miracle they had managed to make it this far at all. That was why as soon as she saw the coastline Ilona had had her men set course for it.

Now they had been traveling for days however and hadn't had any luck at all. That was why she had made the desperate call to douse the lights and try to take whatever they could find before they reached home.

She had hoped her mother might comment on her idea or at least tell her privately whether she agreed with it or not. Anja had been holding strong to her word to not interfere though so Ilona could only give the orders and hope they were right.

Part of Ilona wanted to be angry with her mother for not helping her more with the decisions but she knew that wasn't fair. Anja had given her command of this ship so she could finally be a Captain all on her own instead of ever having to take orders.

Besides, after the terrible mistake the Captain had made, she knew her mother was just staying quiet right now because she was so upset. The guilt of that knowledge weighed heavily on Ilona.

A knock came at her cabin door then, making her jump. She hurried to her desk and, in an attempt to seem nonchalant, crossed her booted ankles. Feeling she looked properly in command, she called for the person at the door to come forward.

When the door opened the Captain felt a twinge of nervousness. Pierce Vane, her dirty and rat-looking quartermaster came strolling in, closing the door behind him. He moved to the high back, worn leather chairs in front of her desk and dropped down into one, one leg hooked over the arm.

"What is it Pierce?" she asked, flipping through some papers on her desk just to make herself look busy.

The middle-aged man curled one side of his lip as he looked her up and down in the unsettling way that he loved to do. His eyes moved over her long, flowing, dark brown hair to her chocolate-colored eyes under long black lashes. When his gaze went to her plump, rosy lips he licked his own which made Ilona cringe.

"What is it?" she demanded louder now, "Why are you disturbing me?"

His beady little dark eyes moved back to hers, a flash of annoyance crossing over them.

"We're not going to find anything like this. We need to patch the ship, restock our supplies, and get back to the open ocean as soon as we can."

"It's not up to you," Ilona said, not looking up at him.

Pierce Vane had been a gunner for her father and then a Quartermaster for her mother. He had pirated with them for almost as long as Ilona had been alive. Maybe it was because he'd seen her grow up that he was questioning nearly every order she gave now.

"Of course Captain," he said smoothly although she could've sworn she heard a hint of sarcasm with the last word, "Well I just thought I would give you my opinion. It's completely up to you on whether you want to heed it or not."

"Thank you," she said evenly, before setting the papers aside and turning to face him. "Was there something else?"

"I don't believe so," he said, his voice deep, getting to his feet, "Although I suppose I haven't apologized yet for what happened and I thought I should. I'm sorry that your..."

"Thank you," Ilona snapped quickly, cutting him off before he could bring up the thing she was working so hard to put from her mind. The reason they were in this mess, to begin with.

Captain Ilona was about to send him from her cabin when suddenly an urgent knocking came at the door. Pierce called for them to come in and Ilona had to bite her lip. She was the Captain and this was her Cabin. She was the only one who should be allowing anyone in.

Since she couldn't prove that he was doing anything to purposely undermine her though she couldn't say anything. At least not yet. Besides she was working hard to keep her temper in check so she didn't give her father anything else to be angry with her about.

"Captain!" her Second Mate exclaimed breathlessly when he burst into the room, "We think we have something."

Ilona's eyes went wide and she looked at him hopefully. "Alright, Penny what is it?"

"We spotted a bonfire on the top of a cliff nearby. There's a huge manor behind it and stairs carved into the cliff-face so we can get to it from the beach and raid it."

"A manor house?" Ilona asked and wracked her mind to try to remember if her father was friends with any of the people in these parts.

"I think we should do it," Pierce smiled a wicked grin with his cold eyes, "We're pirates after all. High time we get to go back to some piracy."

Ilona rubbed a temple, "But a manor house?"

"Who cares?" Pierce shook his head, "Gold is gold. I don't care where we find it."

Ilona looked between the two men who were eagerly waiting to have an answer. She wished she could discuss it with her mother but she knew this was another chance for her to try to prove herself again.

"Alright," she sighed, "Lead a crew to shore. Take the manor house."