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jolly sailor bold
chapter four , golden eyes

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        "WHERE IS HE?"

Mira's jaw clenched and unclenched as her golden eyes landed upon the sight below them; looking over the square where the slavetraders had assembled. Her nostrils flared as she attempted to stomach the anger she felt at the sound of their jeering and cackling.

"They haven't brought him out yet." Tirian grumbled, from where he crouched beside the blonde bandit.

The crook had been stationed on the rooftop since long before dawn, and clearly the long hours that had past him since had caused his mood to foul considerably.

Zardeenah and Mira had agreed to meet him at eleven bells by which time the auction would have been in full swing — however, they had been delayed somewhat in their attempt to secure the sale of Vengeance. The buyer was unwillingly to provide them with the ten thousand gold pieces they'd asked of him, but after a very convincing sales pitch — and maybe a dagger to the throat — he'd come around and agreed to the price.

Their plan had accelerated somewhat when walking by the harbour, the two women — in the company of Aravis and Corin — had witnessed a major task force living the Narnian ship they planned on infiltrating. The party's activity remained a mystery however Zardeenah quickly theorised that such a quantity of sailors must be abandoning the ship in the event of a rescue mission.

Mira decided to take the ex-convict's word for it. If the ship had been effectively abandoned, time would be of the essence. The captain instructed the mother and the son to quickly board the galleon with as many of their few possessions as they could, while evading detection, and the remaining bandits would join them aboard before it set sail.

      So while Mira tensely watched the auction in search of Shasta, her eyes were also scanning for the prospective captive Narnians.

       "Who do you suppose are their captives?" She turned to Tirian in a hushed tone; after all, having been once a Narnian himself, he'd be more inclined to recognise one of his own.

        "The girl — look at what she's wearing."

       Mira followed the crook's gaze to a young girl with auburn coloured hair, who was shackled to a nearby wall awaiting auction. If the blonde squinted she could make out faint freckles dusting the girl's features and an expression of intense worry playing on her lips.

        "That's a fine silk shirt if I've ever seen one." Tirian mumbled, evidencing his claim before squaring his jaw. "She'll fetch a good price."

        "The boy, as well?" Mira asked quietly, noticing the boy sat by the girl who was wearing clothes the blonde had never even seen before.

        Tirian gave a sharp nod.

        "Where are the Narnians?" Zardeenah chimed in, her voice flat as always, her dark eyes scanning members of the crowd assembled before the auction.

       Tirian straightened up a little, before leaning forward and pointing out the various figures dotted around the crowd. All of them had their features obscured with large cloaks or head scarves; they had the slave traders surrounded. Mira couldn't help but smirk.

       "That'll be one hell of a fight when they strike." She muttered, her eyes glimmering excitedly as a smirk played on her lips.

        "Doubt you'll be running from it." Tirian chuckled heartily, sparing the woman beside him a knowing glance.

        "And miss the chance to slit the throat of a slave trader?" The captain responded, pursing her lips. "Oh, Tirian, you know me so well."

        The crook shot her half of a smile before tearing his eyes away from her and fixing his gaze on the back of a hood that stood near the front of the crowd.

       "That's Drinian, that is." The man all but growled, his nostrils flaring as Mira followed his gaze to the hood.

       All the bandits had heard stories of Captain Drinian of the Narnian navy — or Telmarine, as it had been in the days when Tirian had trained. The captain had trained alongside Tirian and the latter had considered him his closest friend. That was until his so-called friend had played righteous, and got Tirian kicked out of the navy.

        Mira felt Tirian's betrayal deep in her bones, and felt her own jaw begin to clench. However, she fought the emotion upon seeing Tirian's hand move toward the sword on his hip.

        "They're doing the same thing, we are, Tirian." She said gently, shooting him a warning look. "They're just taking back what's theirs."

       She wasn't about to have their whole operation blown by Tirian's mad attempt at seeking vengeance.

         "Only difference is we'll have their ship by sun down, but the morals are the same." She shrugged nonchalantly, as she leant forward her eyes, fixing on the scene playing before her once more.

        "Loosely."

        "You're one to talk." Mira scoffed at Zardeenah's uncharacteristic interjection, at which the woman merely rolled her eyes.

       A few minutes of silence passed between the three of them as the auction proceeded, all the while the disguised Narnians made no indication of launching an attack. Mira was beginning to get impatient.

        "They're certainly taking their time to strike, aren't they?" She muttered, begin to fiddle with the handle of her sword. "What are they waiting for?"

        "I suspect those two aren't the only ones they're rescuing." Tirian responded at the same volume, as a small smirk crept into his features and he nudged her shoulder. "Look."

        The crook nodded in the direction of one of the towers across the square — although over the rooftops, the distance could be covered in seconds — where a cell door had opened and four prisoners were being escorted.

        The first, a man dressed in a loose burgundy shirt and shoulder length dark hair, even from afar a smirk crept onto Mira's lips — handsome. A younger man followed behind him with a shorter hair and a lighter shirt, then an older man dressed in beige and finally, the conniving young man they'd been waiting for.

       Mira shot a glance at the crook beside her and saw a wicked smile on his features. She knew he could never be so happy to see Shasta, so therefore his glee had to stem from another conclusion; that being just who their fellow bandit had been jailed up with.

        "I see Shasta's made friends with the Narnians." Mira smirked, exchanging knowing glances with her two companions. "Oh, it's too perfect."

       "They're ready." Tirian cut in after a moment, suddenly standing up straight, upon noticing the Narnians in the crowd adjust their stances.

       "I'll take care of Shasta." Mira instructed, her eyes fixing on the group across the square, before looking back at her companion. "You two can go fight some slave trader scum."

       "Oh, that's music to my ears." Zardeenah chuckled, as she withdrew a dark piece of fabric from her pocket while the blonde and the crook did the same.

       "Just get back to the galleon before they do." Their captain reminded them as she secured her eye mask around her head, and adjusted it so as to not obscure her vision.

       "Aye, aye captain." Tirian smirked, as the three shared one final glances, all having donned their masks before quickly separating to find their targets.

***

"WE'LL TAKE THEM ALL off your hands!" Reepicheep's sudden cry filled the square, as it was followed by the flourishing of capes as the Narnian troops revealed themselves.

"For Narnia!"

The once calm square broke out into a frenzy of shouting and chaos, as the Narnians drew their swords and set about attacking the slave traders and freeing their own.

The guards leading the four men out of the tower hesitated for a moment, their eyebrows furrowing as their gazes fell on the chaos encompassing the square.

That was until a sharp melodic whistle filled their ears and snatched their attention away from the square. Even the two Kings, Lord and jewel thief found themselves momentarily entranced by the sound.

"Up here, boys."

The tone that spoke was as smooth as honey and laced with a light chuckle, but as the men looked up they were only met with a blur.

With her sword drawn, Mira descended from the rooftops, her mask still tightly fastened around her head as she collided with one of guards, and in a few quick movements pushing him over the stone wall, leaving him to fall into the chaos of the square.

In another flash, her sword sliced through the bonds that were tied around Shasta's hands, freeing him to fight alongside her.

After marvelling momentarily at the sudden action of the mystery woman, Caspian and Edmund also leapt into action beginning to attack their own guards, their hands still tied.

Twirling her sword in her grasp, Mira swung at the guard attempting to restrain the older gentleman and landed a well aimed strike into his abdomen. With a pained groan, the guard sunk to the floor. The older man spared her a grateful nod before moving away as she seized the sword from the guard's belt and throwing it to Shasta.

Scanning the scene around her for a moment, she spotted the two Narnians fighting side by side. The younger of the two had managed to slip free of his bonds, however the older — the more handsome, she mentally remarked — had chains around his wrists, restricting his movements.

"Hey, kid!" The blonde bandit called in the younger man's direction, surprised at how suddenly she captured his attention. "Catch!"

She thrust her sword into their air and launched it at him, covering the few metres that separated their fights.

Edmund caught the sword by the handle with ease, and shot the blonde a grateful look as he began duelling the guard before him.

"Get the keys!"

Mira's attention was captured by the older man she rescued moment prior, who had claimed a chain of keys from a fallen guard's belt and had tossed them in the air.

With her hands now free of a weapon, Mira caught them with ease. Shasta advanced on the soldier that was duelling with the younger Narnian so that he was forced to fight on two fronts, while the handsome Narnian had knocked his opponent's sword from his grasp and managed to tackle him over the wall just as Mira had done with the first guard.

An impressed smirk settled on her lips as she weaved her way through the other two sword fights and found herself standing opposite the handsome man.

"Guess you all needed to a lady to save the day, eh?" She quipped, as she fastened the key into the lock between his wrists and unlocked it with a satisfying click.

Caspian let out a breathless chuckle as his wrists were freed of weight of the shackles, and he marvelled at the figure before him. His eyes enraptured by the striking colour of her own; golden.

"So it seems." He replied, unable to tear his eyes from her own piercing ones; the rest of the world fading into quiet, the longer he looked.

At the sound of a loud crash, the King blinked himself out of his sudden daze and found his gaze following the sound to where one of the guards were attempting to escape the fight.

"They're getting away." He muttered at which the woman at his side merely chuckled.

"I don't think so."

A large rope hung from a nearby structure, and in a brief moment of very little deliberation, Mira let the keys fall from her grasp and she jumped up on the wall, seizing the rope in her grasp, and swung herself with full force in the direction of the escaping guard.

Her boots collided with the guard's chest and, with her gathered momentum, she sent him crashing through the trellis wall behind him, destroying the structure and sending splintered planks of wood flying through the air.

Caspian watched with a humoured smirk as Edmund rushed to his side, tossing the King a sword as he fixed his gaze on the same sight his friend watched.

"Who is she?" Edmund asked, his own gaze incredulously as they watched the woman stick her landing and run off in pursuit of another fight.

Caspian found himself breathless once more, as he twirled his own sword in grasp and she vanished out of sight.

"I have no idea."

Mira ducked out of sight with a humoured chuckle, as she crouched behind the fallen trellis, grinning at the sight of Shasta running towards her with two swords in his grasp.

"Friends with Narnians now, are we Shas?" Mira mused as he crouched down beside her, and placed a sword into her grasp.

"They're Narnians?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion at which the blonde nodded surely.

"Their ship is docked in the harbour." The captain confirmed, as another smirk crept onto her features. "Well, I say theirs."

"What are you plotting?" Shasta chuckled upon recognising the conniving glint in her golden eyes.

"Don't tell me a night in the cells had made you dim, Shas?" She retorted, her smirk never fading before she gave him a nonchalant shrug. "Corin wanted a bigger ship, I could hardly refuse him."

"So you're just planning to sneak aboard?"

"You make it sound as though it hasn't worked a thousand times." Mira chuckled at him, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, I might have another idea." Shasta said suddenly, his gaze darting over to the fight in the main square where the two Narnian men had joined the fight. "Surely, we play to our strengths if we had an ally on board."

"And do we have said ally?" Mira asked, her lips pursing in curiosity as her gaze followed his to the square, her eyes shimmering at the sight of the handsome man launching himself into another battle.

"You're looking right at him."

Mira tore her gaze from the Narnian man as a wide grin crept onto her lips at her friend's proposition.

"Oh, Shasta Tarkaan, I knew I kept you around for a reason." She grinned, patting his shoulder with a proud chuckle, before nodding in the direction of the fight. "Now go and be all righteous with your Narnians."

The thief rose to his feet, brandishing his sword and took a few steps before casting a glance back at the blonde.

"Thanks for coming to get me."

Mira only rolled her eyes however she couldn't fight the sympathetic smile that fought its way onto her lips.

"Don't get soppy about it." She shook her head, as Shasta shot her a mischievous smile before descending into the square.

Mira glanced at the sword in her grasp and grimaced slightly — it wasn't half as nice as the one she proudly fought with; the one she'd tossed to the kid who continued fighting with it in the square.

Her golden eyes glinted resolutely, as she slammed the sword in her hand into the ground beside her. She might have been planning on infiltrating their ship, but who could blame her when they had something of her own in their possession?

It was all an eye for an eye in the end.

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
i mean if a meet cute
ain't saving your lover
from being stabbed
by your mutual enemy,
i don't know what is

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