Pirates is three years old

It’s three years since I published The Princelings and the Pirates.  That was book 2 and I’m now working on book 7!  I know a few readers are rushing to keep up, and it’s all the more helpful since the first book went on free sale, as Pirates’ sales picked up beautifully in 2014.

The Princelings and the Pirates is where Fred meets Kira for the first time.  Kira is kidnapped from her home castle, Dimerie, and Fred rescues her from Castle Marsh.  How their love blossoms is part of the adventure in the Princelings and the Lost City.  It’s not really a romance, though – except I love the way Fred does that cool thing of pretending he doesn’t care when he has to sort out the mystery.  Yes, Fred, we read you – ok!

The rest of the series is really about the way life in the realms changes, partly due to the inventions George is involved with, but also other reasons, like commercial developments and power struggles.  Will they be able to meet the commitment Lupin, Fred, George and Victor were involved in making to Hugo, Lord Mariusz, at the end of Book 1?  Time will tell!

Fred’s Yuletide Escape 10 – Solstice Eve

This is the final part of Fred’s Yuletide Escape.  Chapters average 1000 words. If you missed the start, you can find it here.

King Fred of Marsh decided to take off for a little adventure before his Yuletide duties start. He planned to spend the night at the Inn of the Seventh Happiness, however, he was kidnapped and driven off to a pirate encampment, where the pirate captain told him they want amnesty and a home of their own, and sent a ransom demand to Castles Buckmore and Marsh. Fred took advantage of a storm to run off, and met his brother George, who was looking for him in his flying machine.  They lifted off just as the pirates came over the hill chasing them, and went back to Castle Buckmore to work out a solution.  Now read the final part…

Chapter 10: Solstice Eve

George circled the field twice as Fred pointed over his shoulder to tell him where to go. They were both well wrapped up against the cold of the open cockpit, having stowed the lightest members of the 25th Rifle Brigade in the passenger cabin.  George made his final approach to his choice of landing area and touched down lightly, taxiing to the end of the field to leave space for Pippin, who was flying one of Lupin’s machines right behind him.  Lupin, Haggis of the Rifle Brigade and Frankie, an ex-pirate from Castle Marsh, climbed out of the second machine and they joined the others at the field boundary.

“They said they’d meet us here,” Fred said to the others.  “I hope we’ve got it right.”

Haggis was already touring the edge of the wood, looking out for danger.  His men had gone in different directions, making sure they hadn’t been drawn into a trap.  The 25th had been attached to Castle Marsh for some years now, and rarely got round to any soldiering, although they did get called for training exercises once a year. As Fred watched them, he was sure they were enjoying themselves.  He felt sick to the stomach, hoping he wasn’t going to be captured again.  It was too close to Solstice now, and he didn’t want to ruin his daughter’s birthday party the day after.

A group of pirates appeared at the edge of the forest.

“Are we going to parley here or do you want to sit by our fire?” the Cap’n asked genially.

“Let’s just do it here,” Lupin replied, waving his hand at Pippin, who brought out a large wicker basket from the freight compartment of the machine, and started unpacking a picnic.

“Oh my, well, I don’t mind if I do,” said the Cap’n.  “Name’s Bones.  And you are Prince Lupin, very pleased to meet you.”  He shook the Prince’s hand vigorously.  Fred smirked as he saw Lupin’s half-concealed reaction.

Once settled, Pippin handed round food and drink, and Prince Lupin outlined some of the ideas they had discussed for a permanent home for the pirates.  “What the other kings will want to know, before they will support me in this venture,” he said, “is what you propose to do about working with the rest of us in the realms, to maintain law and order and live peaceably together.”

“Peaceably, yes, I think we’re all for that,” replied the Cap’n. “I mean, what does everyone else do to live peaceably without getting bored?”

“Well, I’m always busy,” said Lupin, sighing.  “Fred has his Natural Philosophy to keep him busy. Vexstein have their brewery, Palatine have their Seat of Learning and other ventures.  Dimerie has the winery of course.  All sorts of different things.”

“And what about the kings council?  Would we be part of that?”

“You’d have to earn your place, show you were serious about honest living, that sort of thing.  We could sort out the details once we agree where you’re going to go.  Have you seen a castle you want to renovate?”

“We want to be on the coast, of course.  And somewhere with some good dark places in the basement.”

“Why’s that?  You don’t want to keep people in dungeons, I hope.”

“No, we just like to feel safe and secure at various times,” he said, shooting a glance at Frankie.  “What about funds?  How much gold do we get?”

“Well, nobody really gets any gold these days,” Lupin said.  “It’s all done on paper, called credit.  I suggest you and your financial adviser have a couple of days at Buckmore with my steward Baden.  He can talk you through the system and you can make yourself happy that your funds will be secure.”

Cap’n Bones turned to Fred.  “Is this how it works for you?  How much have you got in funds?”

“I-I don’t rightly know,” stammered Fred.  “I’ve never thought about it.  Enough, I suppose, since nobody’s ever complained.”

“So, we have to find you a suitable castle,” said Lupin, steering the conversation back to what he wanted to cover. “Have you ever been to Castle Roc?”

Bones went to shake his head, but one of the others stepped forward and whispered in his ear.  He scratched his head thoughtfully.  “It’s just a ruin, though, isn’t it?”

“It can be rebuilt.  We’ll find people to help you, advise you.  Get your followers in there and everyone can lend a hand.  It’ll be no worse, even at the start, than living rough here.”

“Can you guarantee we’ll be left in peace?”

“If you want to live in peace, well, that’s all we want too.  We’ll visit socially, of course.  That would be a peaceable thing to do.”

Lupin wanted to give them a chance, but he didn’t want to leave them entirely unsupervised.

“Very well, then.  I accept!”  Bones put his hand forward to shake Lupin’s, and Lupin took it.  Fred smiled again as he watched Lupin cringe at the contact.  Lupin had a fastidious nature.

The rest of the parley consisted of eating and drinking.  The pirates started chatting to the soldiers, and Frankie came over to Fred and George.

“He’s up to something, you know.”

“I think we all think he is,” said Fred quietly.  “We just don’t know what.”

“It’ll be easier having them in one place,” added George.  “You never know, they might just fit in with the realms, after all, they’re a funny enough lot – take Smallweed and Colman, for example.”

Frankie shrugged.

Haggis was standing behind them.  “We’ll just have to keep alert,” he said.

“Thanks,” said Fred.  These were good people; he was glad they were part of Castle Marsh.  He suddenly realised he had all the advisers he needed at Marsh already: Frankie, Haggis, Jupiter, all with good common sense and a wide variety of experiences.  If only he could find a steward, his adventure would have been completely worthwhile.

“We’re done, then, I think,” said Lupin, coming over to them.

“Great, I can’t wait to get home,” grinned Fred.

“You’ve got to do your Solstice speech tomorrow,” George reminded him.

“Ah.”  Fred’s face fell.  At least he was going home.  Home to Kira.  Home to Castle Marsh, and to the Yuletide festivities.  He wondered if that narrator might turn up.  He climbed into the flying machine behind George, and started whistling a happy tune.  Then he started planning his speech.

He’d had enough adventure for one year.

THE END

(c) J M Pett 2013

That’s it for this year… don’t forget Dylan’s Yuletide Journey is free on Smashwords for all eReaders. Have a happy seasonal celebration and we’ll be back in the New Year with more stories, the new book Bravo Victor and new ideas!  Thank you for your support and good luck in 2014.

Fred’s Yuletide Escape 9 – A Place of Their Own

This is the ninth of ten parts of Fred’s Yuletide Escape.  Chapters average 1000 words, although this is the shortest at under 600 words. If you missed the start, you can find it here.

King Fred of Marsh has decided to take off for a little adventure before his Yuletide duties start. He planned to spend the night at the Inn of the Seventh Happiness, however,  he was kidnapped and driven off to a pirate encampment, where the pirate captain told him they want amnesty and a home of their own, and sent a ransom demand to Castles Buckmore and Marsh. Fred took advantage of a storm to run off, and met his brother George, who was looking for him in his flying machine.  They lifted off just as the pirates came over the hill chasing them.  Now read on…

Chapter 9: A place of their own

“You think we should give in to them?  I am surprised.”  Prince Lupin looked as astonished as he sounded.

“I don’t see it as giving in.  I think it makes sense.  They want a castle they can live in, make their own community.  We want to get rid of what some people consider a danger to law-abiding people.  Surely if they’ve at least got a base, we can start to rehabilitate them?”  Fred had done some thinking about the subject, despite his tiredness and distraction.

“What if they just use it to regroup, then attack everyone around them, return to their pirate ways,” asked George.

“Well, we won’t have to chase them all over the countryside like we are at present,” replied Fred.

The six people present considered that.  Baden got up to refresh their glasses while the others thought.

“Do we need to make them think they’ve won a hard-fought battle over this?”  The way Lady Nimrod asked questions turned them into suggestions.

“How could we manage the funding, though?” asked Nerys, Queen of Buckmore, Lupin’s wife, and Kira’s sister.

Fred shifted in his seat.  “I know we don’t have that much standing in security, but I feel Marsh has to be involved in this to some extent.  It was Ludo who brought this mess on the realms in the first place.”

“Oh, I expect they’d have found someone else if Ludo hadn’t been around, Fred.  You shouldn’t take this on yourself.”

“I’ve never been much good at this business of the castles having security to support their communities,” George said, “ but I think my royalties from the strawberry juice power plant have made a big difference to Marsh, haven’t they?” he said, looking at Prince Lupin, who looked at Baden.

“Well, yes, George.  It’s a steady stream of credits, even though it’s relatively small.  It has big potential in relation to Marsh’s other securities.” Baden said.

“Could I apportion some of that to the pirates’ new castle?  Would that make a difference?”

“That’s very generous of you George, but I don’t think it’s necessary,” said Lupin.

“What if all the castles gave a small amount of security to the venture,” said Fred.  “I think it’s called a levy, or something.  Then everyone would share the cost of setting it up, and it wouldn’t be a burden on any one castle.  We all share the problem.”

“Do you think the Kings’ Council would agree?”  Lupin was more than sceptical, but he kept his tone light.

Fred looked glum.  “Only if you persuaded them,” he admitted.

“But if I’m willing to give up some of my royalties – if you’re ok with that, Fred, since it’s Marsh earnings – well, wouldn’t it set an example.”  George was encouraging. “Surely enough would come in, even if not all.  We could establish the castle and sort the rest out later.”

“Like whether they have representation on the Kings’ Council,” suggested Nimrod.

“It would make sense,” said Fred. “It would make it interesting, too!”

Fred, George and Nimrod laughed, Baden and Lupin looked thoughtful.

“When did we last establish a new castle?” asked Nerys.

“Miles, of course, at Fortune,” Lupin told her.  Miles was Nerys’s brother.

“No, before that.  Miles was in the line of succession, even if it was the female side.  This wouldn‘t have that precedent,” she said.

Everyone fell silent.  There hadn’t been a castle established in their lifetimes, possibly not even in their parents’ lifetimes.

“Well, it sounds like an opportunity to me,” said Nimrod.

(c) J M Pett 2013

Come back for the final part tomorrow, Saturday.  Can it all be sorted out before Solstice?

Fred’s Yuletide Escape 8 – Riders of the Storm

This is the eighth of ten parts of Fred’s Yuletide Escape.  Chapters average 1000 words. If you missed the start, you can find it here.

King Fred of Marsh has decided to take off for a little adventure before his Yuletide duties start. After visiting his neighbours at Castle Wash, he planned to spend the night at the Inn of the Seventh Happiness. However,  he was kidnapped and driven off to a pirate encampment, where the pirate captain told him they want amnesty and a home of their own, but has not revealed that he has sent a ransom demand to Castles Buckmore and Marsh. Fred has taken advantage of a storm to run off.

Chapter 8: Riders of the Storm

Fred skidded to a halt at the edge of the wood and held onto a tree, his sides heaving.  He’d run far too far and he was out of condition.  It was time to rest.  Surely the pirates wouldn’t follow him all this way, in this wind and rain?  He could just about make out the land ahead in the gloom – a wide expanse of close-cropped meadow, a strip of wood to one side, and more wood on the other side.  He couldn’t make out what the object in the strip of wood was.  It didn’t look like a tree, but it was made of wood.  It had branches coming out parallel to the ground, and a third sticking into the woods.  Eventually his tired brain made sense of it.  He limped over, and confirmed his suspicions.

“Hello brother!  You look tired and wet!”  George opened the little passenger cabin at the front of his flying machine and manhandled Fred into it.

Fred stretched out over two seats, as he was too tired to arrange his limbs properly in one, and smiled lazily. “And here you are all cosy and warm.  Got anything to eat?”

George reached over him to a locker at the back of the cabin.  He pulled out a couple of sticks of something, wrapped in paper, and handed one to Fred.  The pair of them munched contentedly for a few minutes.

“How long have you been here, then?” asked Fred.

“I saw the storm coming and turned around to try to get home before it.  It was faster than me, though, so I saw this field and the woods, and decided that would give me as much shelter as anywhere.  I got down and managed to lash the wings and tail to the trees before the wind really got bad.”

“Couldn’t you have left it in the open?”

“I didn’t know how gusty the wind was going to be.  It could lift it up and dash it into the trees.  The tail’s lifted a couple of times even so.”

“I’d have worried about a tree coming down on it.”

“Yes, it’s risk,” agreed George.  “But being blown over in open ground without being fully pegged down was a certainty.”

“When can we leave?”

George squinted at the sky.  “Not too long now, I should think.  The wind’s lower and the clouds are clearing.  Better get up while there’s still light.  Good thing you’re here, really.  It was going to be difficult to get it out again single handed.”

“How did you get it in?”

“A good push and lifting up stuff to help it through.  Pulling it out would have been harder.  Did you come far to join me?”

“Maybe half an hour at a run.”

“That’s impressive!  No wonder you were limping.”

“I now see the wisdom of Lupin’s early morning running regime.  Maybe I shall take it up.”

“I suppose you’ll want me to join you?”  George looked gloomy.

“It’s always more fun with two,” Fred grinned.  George switched from gloom to grin.  He’d been teasing as much as anything.

“The pirates let you go then?” he asked.

“How did you know about the pirates?”

“Kira, Lupin, Baden and I have been discussing the ransom demand for you all day.  I was checking out what happened at Seven H and came this way on an inkling.”

“I’m glad you did.  Is Kira ok?  What was the ransom?”

“Kira’s fine.  Worried, of course.  Have they asked you about anything?”

“No, I had a chat with their leader, the Cap’n, about them wanting to settle down.  I thought it was strange when he didn’t pick up on any of my suggestions.  I didn’t even realise I was a hostage till earlier today.  What does he really want?”

“He says they want a castle of their own, fully funded.”

“Oh, I see.  I didn’t really cotton on to that bit.  I was trying to find places they could go and live and fit in.  Like the others, Frankie and so on.  They don’t want to be with Frankie for some reason.”

“Hmm,” said George, looking at the sky again.  He opened the cabin door and poked his nose out.  “I think we could risk it.  We don’t know how far they might be behind you.”

“True,” said Fred, struggling to his feet and getting out of the warm cabin.  “What do you want me to do?”

George unlashed the tail from the tree, and then they each untied a wing and pulled the little flying machine forward.  Every now and then George yelled at Fred to stop, and he nipped around the machine and cleared away some brambles or branches that were impeding the wheels or the floats that hung about them.  George’s plane landed on ground or water equally well.  Once it was on the grass, George told Fred how to wheel it round into position for take-off.  Fred held the machine steady while George did some overall checks, then climbed into his cockpit and prepared to leave.

“Hold on tight!” he called down to Fred, “and as soon as I wave, let go.  It’ll start moving, so jump in quick!”

Fred held on to the wing as George started up the propellers.  He could feel the machine trying to jump forward, like some excitable animal.  George waved at him, he let go, and leapt into the passenger cabin, sprawling full length and twisting round to close the cabin door.  His eyes looked straight at a line of people coming over the hill towards them.

“Go, George!” he cried, quite unnecessarily, since George had been ahead of him, and had been timing the engine speeds so he could get away with minimum warm-up.

The flying machine leapt forward, heedless of the pirates streaming down the hill.  They scattered as the flying machine lifted off the ground just as it reached them, skimming a few bandanna-clad heads.

“I hope they haven’t got guns,” George spoke down the communication tube.

Whether they did or not, the little machine was out of range before they thought of using them.

“I know you’d rather go home,” said George, a few minutes into the flight, “but I think we’d better go and sort this out with Lupin, don’t you think?”

There was no answer.  George peered through the hatch into the passenger cabin and smiled.  Fred was fast asleep.

(c) J M Pett 2013

 

Next episode is on FRIDAY, not Saturday, so don’t miss it!