The Damned Princess

Chapter 8

"What should we do?"

"I don't know like...drape the shroud over it or something." The three of them were standing in the corner of a busy inn, the annoyingly blank scroll in front of them on the table. Casteel carefully covered it with the cheap shroud they had bought on the way. They waited a few minutes. 

"What's supposed to happen?" Tari questioned, squatting to see if the underneath had changed. 

"Beats me. Maybe Cas put the shroud on wrong." Casteel pinched her side at the comment and Lyria yelped, whacking him away. 

"Woahhhh keep the lovey dovey stuff until I'm at least a kilometre away please." Lyria grinned and winked, moving away from Casteel who frowned. 

Lyria pulled a scrap of leather from her wrist and tied back her hair in a messy ponytail. "What do we do now?" Tari shrugged and placed the shroud on the scroll in a new way. Nothing happened. 

"Maybe Lyria brought a shit shroud." 

"Oh fuck off Cas, who was it who insisted on buying a whole bar of soap just for his hair and spent all our money?" He gasped in mock horror, hands coming up to his hair. 

"Guys..." Tari said as realisation came to her. 

"You're just jealous that my hair is nicer than your's."

"Says who?" 

"Everyone." Casteel sniffed. 

"Guys!" 

"Yeah well I see some grey streaks coming through." Casteel pulled out his dagger and checked his reflection. 

"Jokes on you I have no grey hair." 

"You're so gullible."

"GUYS!" 

"What?" They said together. 

"I figured out why it's not working."

"Why didn't you say sooner?" The glare Tari sent Casteel's way would have made Lyria run for the hills. 

"It wasn't working because the map doesn't want a shroud, it wants a shroud!" Lyria frowned.

"I'm not following." 

"It meant a shroud on a ship! On a sailing boat, the shrouds are pieces of standing rigging which hold the mast up from side to side." Lyria's confused look cleared. 

"Tari you're a genius!" 

"I try." She said dryly. 

"Where do we get a boat though?" 

Tari blew a piece of dark hair out of her face."I already thought of that." She gestured with her head to where a group of obviously drunk men were sitting." One caught her looking and winked at her in what he probably thought was a sexy way. Tari rolled her eyes. 

"How do you know they're sailors?"

"The one in blue has a tattoo that says pirate life." 

"Ahhh."

"Right, let's go home." Lyria announced and stood up, moving towards them with Tari. Casteel eyed the drunk men and hurried after her. They stopped in front of the men, two peered up at them blearily, the other three too drunk to notice.

"We're in need of a boat. For one night. Name your price."

"Woahhh slow down sweetheart." One of them slurred, staring at blank space near her head.

"Do you have a ship?" Tari asked.

"Of course, I am the fearsome Captain Bloodbeard!" He announced proudly, though he looked about as fearsome as Fleetfoot's puppies had once first born. There was a loud bang, signally the man who had first spoken, banging his head on the table as he fell unconscious. Captain Bloodbeard seemed not to notice.