The Rightful Queen

Tylen and the pirates bid the farm owners and Lily goodbye.

Maia provided them with a few herbal medicines she concocted as a show of their gratitude. Cleon also did a bit of hunting for them to have a lovely feast later. They didn't have the cooking skills to prepare one so this would have to do. Raz took the liberty of defeathering the birds Cleon caught. She also gutted the others. The couple could do it themselves but she also wanted to contribute.

The Prince, on the other hand, made a vow that if their farmhouse ever needed something. He'd be more than willing to help since Sir Hayden was a friend of his.

It wouldn't be appropriate to reveal his identity and so he resorted to using his best friend's reputation.

The four of them made their way towards the outskirts of town. It would be a day's worth of journey to cross the borders between Teralyn and Aurae if they had a carriage, an idea worth taking into consideration. It would also be difficult to pass through it undetected.

First, they'd need to traverse the heavily guarded walls around Teralyn.

Each kingdom covered half of the continent, their borders at the exact middle. They built roads and bridges to thin out the passage into narrow lines. One wide road would be difficult to handle, especially if people decided to cause a commotion. They also categorized them to keep track if the carts held goods for trading.

In between, a small terrain remained untouched. Most of the people banished from the kingdoms lived here. The underground also had a territory somewhere in it. They held secret passages in both kingdoms, allowing them to do any job they'd been hired for. Until now, none of the official knights found them—neither the passageway nor the hideouts.

The underground knew better. The reason they hadn't been able to because they had the backing of a few officials. They needed their services to carry out their dirty work.

\"How are we gonna cross the borders without getting Nyt recognized?\" Cleon asked. Both the legal and illegal paths would recognize the Prince's face. Teralyn's knights guarded their side of the trading routes and the people of the underground were hunting for him.

Also, their missions mostly centered around Teralyn. They didn't need to cross borders before.

Maia clapped a hand on his shoulder, \"Relax. There's a way.\"

They reached the docks. Several ships and boats were in port, moored to posts. A lot of boats liked to negotiate with both kingdoms. Some sea creatures were more dominant in Teralyn's that Aurae would like to cater to. The reverse also happened since Aurae had a lot of mollusks. They passed by angry traders, yelling at each other. Another ship had their load carried out to land.

Raz and Maia walked side by side to a dock where a single-masted vessel anchored. Several sailors bustled on its deck, pulling up fishing nets and filling up cases with the catches from small fishing boats.

One of them supervised the others by the lay-board, the piece of wood connecting the ship to the dock. He had a white beard and a few fine lines. His tan skin stood out from the white tunic and brown breeches. His black boots reached up to his knees.

\"Fine morning today, good man\" Raz greeted from the end of the lay-board.

The sailor glanced over his shoulder. His eyebrows raised at the sight of the pirate. It had been a while since he'd seen the familiar face. There had been a time when a couple of rouges ambushed their boats to steal the fish. The officials from the two kingdoms took too long to take action. Their boss decided to send a letter to the Phantom Pirates instead.

\"Fine morning to ya, lad\" his gruff voice greeted back. He had been quite skeptical when he first met the infamous Rash of the Sea. The pirate didn't have enough meat in his bones.

\"Are you in need of any crew for your trip to Aurae?\"

Tylen gaped at Raz. Was this their only way to cross the borders? Asking sailors if they could hire them for a day? Who would let strangers into their ship without question?

\"Had any experience as strikers now?\" The sailor asked.

Maia smiled next to Raz, \"The seas always had a way to provide for the needs of those who travel its waters.\"

\"You catch a lot now, do ya?\"

\"If aid is what you seek, we shall fulfill to the best of our capabilities\" Raz answered.

\"No need for that, lad. If ya work for this crew, it's us who should pay ya\" the sailor explained, \"Come aboard, me hearties!\"

He gestured an outstretched hand towards the deck of their ship. Raz led the way, followed by Maia. Tylen climbed next while Cleon took the rear. They passed by the rest of the crew, bowing in greeting. The sailor walked next to them, stirring them towards a cabin.

Once all of them had been safely inside, the sailor said, \"Ya can stay here while we finish up the deck. I can't imagine what kind of job ya took to use our ship.\"

Raz chuckled, \"Nothing you need to be afraid of.\"

The sailor merely grunted in reply and left the pirates. They could hear him barking out orders, pushing the crew to work faster. Immediately, footsteps thudded above the deck. They also began moving at a fast pace.

\"Am I the only one feeling a bit lost?\" Cleon asked out loud.

\"How did you do that?\" Tylen added.

The sailor hadn't asked about their personal information. They merely had a few exchanges of words and already they had been taken in under their wing. On top of that, didn't they have a ship? Couldn't they ask the service of the other pirates?

\"Hm? Oh\" Maia replied. She leaned her back against a desk, smiling slightly, \"We talked in code. You could probably guess that 'are you in need of any crew for your trip to Aurae?' meant that Raz asked if we could board the ship.\"

\"Yes, I gathered that\" The Prince remarked, a crease between his eyebrows, \"What about the rest?\"

\"'Had any experience as strikers now?' was about why we needed it. Strikers are expert hunters that trap large fishes. In other words, he questioned if it was for a job like were we targeting a different kind of fish.\"

Such a code exists? Cleon wondered quietly. He had heard of other incidents but they had been more obvious than the one that just happened. Had there been other times he didn't notice were code?

\"And then? What about 'the seas always had a way to provide for the needs of those who travel its waters'?\" He cut in. Did Raz and Maia state a threat? Wrapped in a few carefully calculated words? Why else would the sailor agree easily?

\"That's simple. It meant 'yes, we need water transportation.' If you want a longer meaning, you could add 'And your vessel is just what we need.'\"

\"Amazing\" Tylen breathed out.

\"At the end, Raz offered to return the favor if they agreed but the sailor refused. Instead, he said it's them who were returning the favor after we helped them before\" Maia shrugged, peeking a smirk at Raz.

So it turned out to be something simple instead, the blue-haired thought. He checked around the cabin. It didn't have anything special like their Captain's. The space was barely enough to fit the five of them. It had one single bed with a thin mattress.

\"While we're here, we'll be helping out below deck. The knights rarely check on the people, they focus more on what the containers contain. If they ever come too near, just start lifting or moving boxes. Make sure they naturally hide your face\" Raz instructed them, \"We'll be there by tomorrow morning. The fish need to be fresh before they hand it to their buyers.\"

===

Hayden peeked out the window of the carriage. They had reached the outskirts of Aurae where a few villages lived. The houses in them were small and quaint, neatly arranged into rows. The streets were made of gray cobblestones that mostly fit one carriage.

Various people had stopped to glance at it as they passed by. An apple vendor walked around her stand to get a better look. Children on the streets stopped playing to stare. Mothers and daughters on their way to the market also did the same. Each of them enchanted by the gleaming carriage.

The Knight frowned. With Aurae's lack of royalty, it was no wonder why the people of the village found their presence bewitching. His sharp eyes took note of the state of their clothes. Most of them had worn out from time and the sun. They didn't have any luxury items on them. They lived a simple life. Yet, their sunken eyes and thin frames said otherwise.

He would bet his entire fortune that the parliament barely paid these people any attention.

If Ariene was indeed alive, how could she let these happen to her people? Her duty to them should come first. Alkas wasn't any better. Ever since she arrived, he hardly heard a word of her contribution for the betterment of the kingdom. Was she waiting for the coronation before taking action? As the current Crown Princess, she could coordinate with the parliament about it.

Hayden sighed. Then, there was Tylen.

Judging by the faces of the people, they knew who the carriage belonged to. Hope and optimism shined in their eyes as they gawked. For them, Tylen must be a hero. Not only would they have a Queen back but also they would have a King. They must have been waiting all this time—a chance for a change and hopefully for the betterment of the kingdom's future.

If only they knew that the savior they had been waiting for, left his duties to someone else and followed his own desires. If Aurae needed a hero, why couldn't Tylen step up instead of chasing memories?

The Knight knocked behind him.

\"Sir?\" An attendant answered through the closed window.

\"Please offer some food and gold to the people that bowed when we passed by,\" Hayden instructed curtly. It didn't amount to a lot. He had been fortunate to receive such blessings after he left a similar village. It would be the least he could do.