Nadine Book 4

55. Land Pirates

All the tables are leaving.

I poke my head in the servant carriage. "Do we have everyone? Is anyone missing?"

"We're here. Minus 1 necklace. I don't know where it went."

"It's fine. I'll have you another made. Is the painter out?"

"Yes. He's in the next carriage."

I run up to the next carriage and open the door. It's the painter with a bunch of paintings. A couple more servants are in there with him.

I step back. "Servants and painter are out."

Tye runs over. "Everyone's out."

I look at the boys. "We can't let them go back without an escort. I can ride with the servants."

Tye crosses his arms and raises his eyebrows.

Dipak puts his hand up to shut him up. "They might attack the carriages baby. You are right about that. You can fly above them with me, if you want. I'm going to stay high and watch."

I nod fast.

"If anyone attacks, you have to go straight back to the castle and let your dad know to move troops."

"Ok I will."

"I want a dragon in every carriage. The one in the front and back are empty. Put a dragon in those too."

In the end, we have 5 carriages. Two are empty. Marcus, Dracul, Tre, Tye, and Kane are in the carriages. Me and Dipak fly above them. We watch for anything. Any troops. Any dragons. Any muggers. Anything weird.

I get bored flying slow after an hour. I dip down and land on the roof of the last carriage. I turn to my human form and Tre comes up and sits with me.

"What's wrong baby?"

"It's boring flying slow."

"Lay down and watch the stars with me." We watch Dipak flying in circles. Then we see a big fireball come out of nowhere. It is dark and we can't see well. But there should not have been a fireball there.

"Tell the others something is up baby. Go."

"We should see if Dipak was calling for us. I don't see him."

"He's black baby. We can't see him well. Tell the other dragons to get up on the roofs."

"Fine."

I stick my head in the carriage from the roof. "Some things up. Get on the roof."

Kane about jumps out of his skin. "Alright. Stop doing that. And kill the fires. Go invisible."

I go carriage to carriage and kill the fires and tell them to get on the roofs. Tre is gone.

I bounce back to Kane. "Tre and Dipak are gone now."

"Tell Dracul and go home now."

I go back up to the front carriage and Dracul is standing on it. "Tre and Dipak are both gone now."

"Take Thora and go home. As fast as you can. Have your dad send the troops."

I poke my head in the carriage. "Thora you in here?"

"Yes."

"Climb to the roof. We're leaving."

She stands up and the carriage stops. Me and Dracul go flying forward. I land with the driver. Dipak and Tre are in the middle of the road sword fighting with phoenix people.

Dracul lands and yells, "HAULT." Really loud. He pushes me. "Go, now."

Thora jumps onto me. I take off fast.

We're in Dipak's office in 2 minutes. Everyone from the ball, that is a dragon, is sitting around the conference table. "THEY ARE UNDER ATTACK. SEND TROOPS."

Every single person at the table stands up and takes off. Most of them jump out the window. Daddy sounds the alarm and runs out to give orders to the guards. Momma goes out after him. I don't know where she goes.

Me and Thora sit in our seats. I feel for the bonds. They are fine.

"YOUR HAIR IS WIND BLOWN. It's standing straight up."

She feels it and then laughs. Tre comes in. "It's over baby. We're going to take the castle now. If you 2 want to come and search with us, give us an hour first."

I give him a hug. "Thank you for telling me Tre."

He takes the veil off me. "I know you worry baby." He gives me a hug and kisses my head. "I'll come back in 1 hour for you." He jumps out the window.

"I don't want to search in a ball gown."

"Me either. Let's go change. And I'll fix my hair."

"You know, we're like land pirates."

"I definitely got the hair for it tonight. Let's dress like pirates."

We take off running.

About 40 minutes later, we emerge with the pirate dress and overcoat. The boots and socks. We're both carrying our hats and scarves. We also have swords on us.

"We always look good." I nod, and we go up to Dipak's office.

Frode, Daddy, and Bud are there now. I guess the carriages got back.

They stare at us for a minute. Then Frode shakes his head and goes back to his paper. Me and Thora pick 2 random seats side by side and do each other's hair. Then we put the scarves and hats on.

Bud points at us. "LAND PIRATES."

Daddy smiles. "Yes, I can see that now that you said it."

Frode nods. "I see it now too. The hat does it."

Tre comes in and stares. "Pirates?"

Thora smiles. "Land pirates."

He makes a door. "Frode, it's clear, you can come do the vault now."

We step into the Phoenix castle king's office. It's like every other king's office I've seen.

They stare at us. Dipak takes his glasses out of his pocket and puts them on his face. Then he takes them off and puts them back in his pocket.

Frode looks around. "Land pirates."

Dipak stands up. "Castle is ours. It's clear. But still have your guard up. Don't go places alone. Take what you want. Search for stuff that is better than ours."

I empty the money drawer into my pocket. "Why do none of you ever think to empty that?"

Tre winks. "Because someone keeps ours empty."

I smile. "I'm a good pirate."

Me and Thora go right to the royal home. We go into the closet and find the jewelry. She doesn't have as much. But what she does have is pretty.

"I like the morning room. We can go through it easily and don't have to worry about it getting smashed by something big."

We check every room through our fingers. We throw any money we find in Dipaks' office. Jewelry to the morning room. We check behind the paintings on the walls. No hidden wall areas here. We find the princess's room and take her jewelry. There isn't anything that great.

We find about 50k total.

"I don't think they had much money."

"I think you're right. I bet they had personal vaults here somewhere though. There's no village or bank. They had to store their stuff somewhere."

"I don't want to go to the dungeon."

"Me either. Let's go search the ballroom. Maybe other people left stuff leaving fast."

There is nothing of value in the ballroom.

Me and Thora walk down a hallway. It's lined with big paintings.

"Some of these are nice. I love this one of a horse running."

"That is nice. I love this one of the ocean. I want it. Help me AAAAAHHHHHH!"

Thora stops me from flying backwards.

"That damn painting flew open when I was holding it."

"Glad you liked that painting. We would never have found this." It's the entrance to a vault. Then we look down the hallway at all the paintings like this one.

"I'LL OPEN THEM THIS WAY." She takes off running, opening them as she goes.

I take off the other way and open them up. Then we come back to the middle. "We are the best damn pirates ever."

She smiles. "Yes we are. Do you know how to open them?"

"Not a clue."

"Maybe you should get the boys."

I connect both feathers.

"Hi sweetheart."

"Me and Thora found vaults."

"WHERE."

"DO NOT MAKE US DEAF TRE."

"Sorry."

"In the hallway by the ballroom."

"What hallway baby?"

"The one we're standing in."

"What floor are you on?"

"The one with the ballroom."

10 minutes pass.

"Sweetheart, no one can find you. We are around the ballroom. Tell us exactly where you are."

Thora starts screaming. "IN THE HALLWAY BY THE BALLROOM DIPAK."

"Go back to the ballroom girls."

"Ok."

We go in the ballroom. Everyone is staring at us. "WHAT? THEY ARE IN THIS HALLWAY."

Tye blinks. "Babydoll, you walked through the wall. How did you know that was there?"

"I thought it was a door."

Thora shrugs her shoulders. "I guess we were searching and went in without thinking. NO IT IS A DOOR. I SEE IT FROM THIS DIRECTION. I SEE A DOOR."

I stand by her. "It's a door. Made to appear like a wall."

Omar smirks. "Hidden in plain sight. Nothing magical to make anyone suspect anything, and you can only see it from the direction where the girls are."

I scratch my head. "I'm not sure if I would have put this door in the ballroom for anyone to find."

"That was easy to find."

Dipak laughs. "Well, not when you're searching for it." He leads us in.

"This is going to take a few hours."

Tre and Tye search the hall with their swords.

"There should be a list of combinations somewhere. Did anyone see anything like that?"

"Maybe we could just blow them apart with magic."

"Worth a shot."

"NO. You could blow the building apart. You don't know how deep or secure these are. You could also disable the whole thing, so we could never get it open. Let's get 1 open and see what we actually have."

"DOOR."

"Did you know there was a door, sweetheart?"

I shake my head.

Frode and Dracul start working on the first vault.

"It was clear. Found the combination list though."

"That was a really stupid place to keep that."

Dipak nods. "Door was hidden down there too. It was the king's office. Those 2 are clearing it."

I take off.

The boys are going through the desk and everything.

"Can you give these to Dipak baby? They are the castle plans."

I give him the plans. "These are empty. But they are opening with the default combinations. I don't think anyone was using them."

Thora stretches. "There were only 6 advisor apartments being used."

"And there's like 30 vaults here."

"Why would they have so many vaults made?"

"This castle isn't as fun."

"Keep going babydoll. Never know when you'll find something. And they have the whole side of vaults open now. You can search the walls. We can search inside the doors."

We keep going.

30 minutes later,

"They found gold finally. Must have got to the vaults being used."

She smiles. "Let's go see how much they got."

I take off and run right into the suit of armor. The sword on it moves, and the wall opens up.

Thora screams "DOOR."

The door gets pushed open from the other side and a man jumps out. He puts a sword right threw my chest. I know he was aiming for my heart. But he missed it.

I fall backwards.

Kane jumps over me and right into the hidden room. Dipak is right behind him.

"Thora get this thing out of me."

She pulls it straight out as Omar screams "NO."

"That's much better, thank you."

Tye and Tre try to scoop me up at the same time. In the end, they leave me on the ground and cuddle with me. They are crying and kissing me.

Then Dipak drops to his knees. He leans down and kisses my head.

I look at Thora. "Am I dead?"

"No. But they might cuddle you to death. Come on. Move boys. Let her get up."

I try to sit up and lay back down. "Whose got healing?"

Tye puts his hands on me. "I can't." Then he starts sobbing and lays down beside me.

Kane comes roaming out covered in blood. "Kane need healed. Not feeling pleasant."

He grabs the skin down by my knees. Then my chest feels better.

"Thank you. I feel better."

Thora points to the wall. "There might be another one on this side, hooked to that suit of armor man."

"What did she do to the first one to get it to open?"

"I ran right into it." The boys help me up. "I forgot it was there and bam. There it was."

Dipak nods. "Go stand beside Dracul down there."

"We're going to go find wine now."

"Ok. Take Dracul."

"And Marcus."

Tye grabs my hand. "I'll come too."

Dracul puts an eyebrow up. "You ok?"

"Going to find treasure elsewhere. Like in the ballroom kitchen."

Marcus gives me a double take. "What's there?"

Thora smirks. "The real treasure for pirates."

I take a step and nearly fall forward. I am sleepy all of a sudden.

"BOYS SOMETHING IS WRONG." Thora is staring at me.

Tye's arms wrap around me. So strong and warm.

"Where is that sword?"

"Omar ran off with it."

-Blackness-