The Pirate Queen

Chapter 24

Possible trigger warnings: blood, violence, kidnapping. It's a sad tale, but it's Erics. 

There was nothing remarkable about the night Cordelia von Wilhelm died, but Eric could remember it vividly. The sky was clear, the weather cool, but instead of music floating up to Eric's bedroom window, it was screams and explosions.

A day and a half earlier, a fleet of pirates had tried to lay siege to Romee but pure luck of having half their naval fleet in port meant that there was a blockade there to stop them. A blockade that was slowly failing. 

Christian and his councilors were either locked in the war room or down at the docks, struggling to find a way to get the pirates to leave before their capital was reduced to nothing but rubble. Eric and Cordelia had been stationed in the highest part of the castle, safe and protected by two dozen guards. Eric knew something terrible was happening, that his parents were stressed beyond belief, but Cordelia still smiled at him and kissed his cheek, so surely the world wasn't really ending. If he closed his eyes, the canon fire looked like fireworks and that was much easier for young Eric to deal with. 

He and Cordelia had been up reading in his parent's bedroom at his bedtime, a story about a young knight fighting a dragon to save his town from doom. Christian was on the other side of the castle locked in the war room, trying to find a new solution to their persistent and deadly problem. Earlier that afternoon he'd seen the messenger hawks, almost every single one, take flight over the brawling in the search for aid. Eric, he remembered even now, had wanted to fly with them. 

But he was locked in his parents bedroom, nestled in soft blankets and his mother's warm arms that she smelled like vanilla and red wine. She'd spilled some on her skirts at dinner, and while she'd changed into a nightgown since then, the scent lingered on her skin and breath, but he didn't mind. It was comforting, laying with her in the night. Up here they could pretend everything was fine. They were safe, and his father was the knight defending them all from the dragon. 

"Guppy, it's time for you to get some sleep, okay?" 

Eric jerked awake in her arms and tried protesting, wanting to stay up to make sure his father came back to bed too, but she was already blowing out candles and turning down the lanterns. Cordelia set the book on the nightstand and kissed his forehead. 

"Where are you going?" he asked, clutching the blankets tight in his fist. A massive book outside rattled the windowpanes and he jumped, shaking lightly in fear. 

But Cordelia smiled at him, and part of that fear eased away. "I'm just going to check on your father, Guppy. I'll be right back." 

So she left, leaving the bedroom door open just a crack so some light would flood into the room and he wouldn't feel so alone. 

Despite his best efforts to stay awake and wait, he fell asleep and woke up to screaming and shouting. He heard bodies slamming against the walls in the hallway, the screech of swords clashing, but so young he didn't understand what was going on. No way to understand who it was that opened the bedroom door wielding a sword dripping with blood, shouting for the King but finding Eric instead. 

"Well, what do we have here?" The man sneered, stepping into the room like a shadow of death. "The little prince in his parent's bed?" 

Eric fumbled with the lantern, turning the light up as high as it would go to see a face straight from one of his storybooks. A villain stepped right out of the pages and into his life. Scarred and pockmarked skin, a snarl for a smile, and a beard caked with blood with nothing but cold, black murder in his eyes.

He couldn't remember what was said after that, and now he thinks they were speaking another language eight-year-old Eric hadn't learned yet. Instead, he'd grabbed his storybook and clutched it over his chest like a shield, just how Christian had taught him. Always protect the heart, the King said, it's the most vulnerable part of your body.