by G. Bailey
Escape the Sea
Saved by Pirates
G. Bailey
Contents
Escape the Sea
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Copyright
Map
Description
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Also by G. Bailey
Links
27. -
28. -
Winter’s War
Excerpt from Izzy’s Beginning
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29. -
30. -
31. -
Copyright
© Copyright 2017 by G. Bailey.
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, bands, and/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Description
Seven towns. Seven seas. The seven council. The seven words every person lives by.
The sea is lost, pirates are death.
Cassandra should have been killed at birth, like all the other children who have powers like her. The changed ones.
The ones who started the war, lost the seas, and killed millions with their gifts.
Lucky for Cassandra, her father is on the council. One of the seven rulers of her large town and has kept her hidden her entire life.
When she is seen for the first time, she has no choice but to run, and the only place she can go is to the sea.
To the pirates and a certain death.
At least, that is what she thinks. When she meets six handsome pirates and they take her on board their ship, she learns about a whole new world.
If only she can protect her heart when they all desire to own it.
This is a reverse harem trilogy.
For all the people that dream of pirates, mermaids, dragons, and magic.
This is for you, because I dream about them too.
Prologue
I stand on the edge of the cliff, holding the blood-covered crown. The crown we fought so long to get. The crown that will win the war. I glance around at the men I love, each one of them I would die for. My pirates are fighting around me on the battlefield, keeping me alive as I face the king alone. This was always the plan, the only one that would work. The ground shakes as more screams fill the night. I can’t look away from the king to see if anyone I know is dying. If anyone I love is.
Everything we have fought for has led us to this moment, and I won’t let them down.
We don’t say any words to each other, words are not needed. He knew this was coming, and the war around us is proof. The king started this, not me. I was chosen to stop this.
“You will never save the seas,” the king sneers at me after a long silence between us.
“I don’t need to. The Sea God will save us all,” I say, my voice loud as the wind howls, and lightning fills the skies.
“What did you promise him in return?” he shouts back at me. I look the king over, remembering every cruel thing he has done to me, the people he has taken from me, and the deaths he has caused.
“Your death,” I say and lift the crown, placing it on my head.
1
Cassandra
“Name the seven islands of Calais,” Miss Drone orders me, like I haven’t been taught them my whole life. Every week, she asks me these questions. I will never see any other island than the one I am stuck on, so I don’t see the point in knowing all their names.
“Onaya, Twogan, Thron, Foten, Fiaten, Sixa, and Sevten,” I answer. It’s like someone has counted to seven, and named an island after each number.
“Who rules all the islands?” she asks as she reads the paper I wrote for her this week. It’s filled with my opinions on the last book she gave me to read, a book about the seven seas.
“King Dragon and his queen, Riah,” I answer. I almost want to add that the pirates own the waters, but I know she won’t like me saying that. It’s not worth the argument that would follow. The king ignores the pirates, and the pirates are said to ignore him. The king chose the seven families to rule each island after he took his throne, then he left us alone on the islands. We only see the king once a year when he visits all the islands with his queen. Well, I’ve never seen him, his queen, or his children. Only the seven council members get to see them.
There’s only one law the king regularly reminds everyone to follow: kill the changed ones, or he sends his guards to the island and kills them anyway.
“Tell me the final words you need to know,” she asks in her cold tone.
"Never go near the sea, never leave the walls. The sea is lost, pirates are death," I repeat back to my teacher. Miss Drone believes telling me the same thing every time I see her will make sure I understand her. She really has no idea. She nods like she thinks she’s done her job today. Those are always the words she says last to me, every week at the same time, the same hour. The same senseless rules.
My whole life is full of rules that mean nothing to me.
"Cassandra, are you listening to me?" Miss Drone asks in a sharp tone. I glance up from my seat, looking at her. I don’t know her first name. She never told me, and I never asked anyone to tell me. My father always calls her Miss Drone, and her daughter calls her Mother. Miss Drone has light-blonde hair that’s cut short, and she’s wearing an old dress, covered in holes. She is a widow from the poor side of the island. My father says she’s lucky, lucky not to be dead or on the streets, and that’s why she doesn’t tell anyone about me. That’s why she has taught me my whole life for the tiny amount of food my father gives her. I guess it’s because food is treasured here on Onaya, where we have little. People can’t leave, because the seas are full of pirates, and even if you did get to the other islands, they are in no better condition. No one can trade between the islands. The only way we know people are even alive on them is by talking to the couple of people who make it to our shore. They come looking for a home and food, but are sadly disappointed. We grow very little on our farms; the land is dying, and people don’t know why. It’s said to be like this on every island, and it gets worse every single year.
"Yes, of course I am," I say. I fake a smile at her, and she relaxes in her seat. Miss Drone is terrified of me. Everyone that has ever been near me is. My father has only let me meet three people in my life. Him, Miss Drone, and her daughter, Everly. Everly keeps me from going insane with boredom, and Miss Drone teaches me things I apparently need to know. Like how the seas are lost, and everyone dies out there.
I don't know why I need to know anything when I can never leave my house, or the grounds surrounding it.
"Well then, I will be off. Everly will be over after school," she says as she stands
and walks towards the door. I wait until she shuts it before I walk towards the window.
I can see my whole town from this window. It's striking. The island is shaped like a foot, or that's how I like to think of it. The brown state house stretches like a line straight down the middle, towards my large house and the large acre that surrounds it. Our house is the biggest on the island because of who my father is–one of seven council members. They always get the best of everything.
There are three others houses on my row, but they are far smaller. I have been told there are three more on the other side of the island, too, the same size as the smaller ones next to ours. I don’t know why my father has the biggest house on the island, but he does. I only know what my father has told me. I know that they house the other council members and their families. The council makes all the decisions on the island, everything from enforcing the laws, to how much food they think people need to eat.
The people worship them and do anything they ask, because they give them food. They keep them safe and make sure that no pirates get into their town.
If only they knew about me, his secret, they wouldn’t love him like they do. My reflection shines back at me from the window. My brown hair is in waves around my face, with little feathers braided in and tiny plaits I've added when I've gotten bored. My hazel eyes match my hair, in my opinion making me look normal. The only thing that isn't normal is the upside-down, black triangle on my forehead.
My mark; the very thing that makes me hide. The very thing I wish I could get rid of, so I could have a normal life. A life where I could walk out of the house.
"Cassandra, come here," my father shouts up the stairs.
After one more glance at my reflection, I leave my room.
2
Cassandra
"I have to go away for three nights, Cassandra. I’m travelling to the other side of Onaya," my father says the second I walk into his office. The old decor matches the grumpy old man look my father gives me. My father’s once-brown hair is grey, and his beard is slowly matching. The room is stuffy and needs cleaning, like a lot of the house. I try to clean it, but he goes mad. The place is a shrine to my mother, and he doesn’t like anything changed in it. Everything is the same as when she died in childbirth, died giving my father me, his only child and one he has to hide. I know that my father cares for me, but he doesn’t know what to do with me anymore. He looks down at the piles of old, yellow rolls of parchment, his hands folded into tight fists. He doesn’t want to go and leave me here, I know that. My father is around fifty with a receding hair line and round stomach from all the food he eats, and his white shirt stretches to keep him in it. The only thing I think I inherited from him was my light-brown hair. My mother’s was black and her skin was darker than mine, or so I’ve been told. I’m very pale compared to my father’s tanned skin, but I believe it’s more from the lack of sunlight than what I was born with. I only get to go outside at night or late evening when no one is around.
"I will stay inside, and I’ll be fine," I say as I wave a hand at him and sit on the window seat instead of one of the spare chairs in the room. I have to sit close to the windows, because otherwise I feel trapped in here, or at least that’s what I tell myself. My father doesn't question my choice of seats like he used to. He hasn’t since I told him about feeling trapped in this house.
“I have never left you this long before, but now that you are eighteen, I believe you can be alone for a short amount of time,” he says and picks up a bowl of soup. I watch him eat it, wondering how many people in this town would kill for one hot meal like that when this is likely his fourth one today. My father could choose to eat less and give it to the worst off, but he wouldn’t. He thinks I eat as much as he does. I don’t. I hide my food and give it to Everly. She takes it to the people who need it on the poor side of town. Everly tells me how bad it is, how the people die from starvation or they go to the water. I’m not sure which is worse, but I only eat one meal a day because of it.
“I’m old enough to be alone for three days. You are rarely home these days, you’re always working. There isn’t much of a difference,” I tell him, my tone harsher than I usually speak to him.
He picks up on it. “A new attitude seems to have developed as well,” he tells me.
I look away and out the window, “I’m sorry–”
He cuts me off with his harsh words spoken with anger, “You should be. I saved you from being killed as a baby, hid you your entire life, and fed you, because I loved your mother. If she was here–” he snaps at me, throwing his bowl across the room. It smashes into the wall right next to me. I watch the red soup drip down the wall as the room goes silent.
I just turn and plaster on a fake smile, one I have become perfect at showing. My father has a temper, and it’s best to just be nice to him and let him calm down. “Father, I didn’t mean to–” I get out before he interrupts.
“I killed another man today, a gardener who saw you and was stupid enough to tell his family,” he tells me, and sickness fills my throat. I don’t say anything for a while, I just stare at him. I don’t want to know how he killed him, although he likely used a sword. We are one of the few families who have any swords, as it’s a sign of being well off. Also, no one would ever tell the council about an unusual killing. Everly says they always know it was one of them. They all have weapons like my father does.
“The family?” I ask, my voice betraying my emotions when it cracks.
“Also dead. No one can know about you, so don’t look at me like that,” my father snaps. I don’t respond as I look at the dated red rug on the floor. It has yellow designs drawn into it, and I trace the yellow circles with my eyes for a long time, the silence in the room deafening.
“The things I have done to keep you alive would haunt you, Cassandra. I only ask that you watch your tongue around me,” he says, and I nod, words leaving me. Everly told me of the people that go missing, I have everyone written down in a book upstairs. The ones I know about, anyway.
The guilt does haunt me. They died, because they knew I was alive.
“The king and his family are coming in two weeks. I need for you to behave while I work,” he says, and I nod. I knew they would be coming soon. I keep track of their visits on my calendar upstairs.
“Cassandra, leave me. I wish to be alone,” my father tells me, and I look up at his dark blue eyes, seeing the emptiness of them. How many men and women can you kill before it destroys you?
I stand and walk out of the office, not looking back at my father. I know he means well, but we are so different. How he sees people and life is different than how I do. Maybe it’s because I’m locked up in here, or maybe it’s because I spend all my time watching people from windows. Maybe he is just how men are, being that he is the only one I’ve ever spoken to.
The only one I will ever get to speak to if my life doesn’t change, and I know it never can, it never will.
3
Cassandra
“Cassy, where are you?” Everly’s voice shouts throughout the house. I move away from my place near the window in the kitchen as she bangs the door open. I smile when I see her head of blonde swirls as she slams into the room. Everly is the very meaning of happiness. She has a row of freckles on her nose and cheeks, bright sea-blue eyes, and is a little shorter than I am.
“That door is always getting stuck,” she huffs and straightens up. Everly is just as thin as me, but it isn’t by choice for her, and I hate that. No matter what life throws at her, she is always happy. I don’t know why I can’t be more like her. She walks straight over to me and throws her arms around me.
“You look sad. Why?” she asks as she leans back, her hands on my shoulders.
“Another argument with my father. He’s going away tonight,” I say, not wanting to tell her that he killed a family. I’m sure she will hear about it soon enough. Everly believes my father is a monster, and she isn’t wrong, not in my eyes. The names of the people he has
killed to keep my secret run through my mind. I know he never offers them a deal to save themselves. I’m sure some of them would have sworn not to say anything about me to save themselves and their families. Or gotten on a boat and left the island. My father could have made them leave.
“Ah, don’t take it to heart,” she waves a hand at me. Everly has on a dirty-white, long tunic, tied in the middle with a belt. She works in the fields just outside of town, where most of the food is grown. Everly tells me stories of the handsome men she works with, and they are all I ever seem to hear from her recently. I understand it. Well, the idea of love and attraction. I just have never had the chance to feel that way about a man. Turning eighteen yesterday didn’t change those thoughts.
“I know, Ev,” I say, and she grins. I pick up an apple from the side that I was going to eat and hand it to her. She doesn’t say anything but takes it with a nod. She can’t refuse food when she doesn’t know where the next meal comes from, and she has to work all day. Apples are rare, even for my father, but we have our own tree in the gardens.
