Dusk Sails

The prince was expected to arrive a month ago. Finally, a battered, black sail crested the sea's double-blue horizon.

Princess Cydonia sucked in and held her bated breath. She shouldn't have hope, but still, every day she waited. With her cerulean eyes locked on its white wake lines, she hoped the ship was not a mirage. Below her castle balcony, an observant herald cried out.

"High-ho! New arrival from the sea. Tengu corvette, commerce raider class!"

A black hull followed the shredded fabrics, kept together by a bent mast with more in common with a naked tree. The Tengu warship was dark all over, like a common swamp swan. Her double, reinforced hull hid away three sub-decks worth of black powder cannons, firework volleys, and artillery ballistas. Not to mention treasure troves buried beneath the crew quarters.

Despite every sign pointing to the contrary, the Tengu warship did not stimulate terror in her heart. Instead, Cydonia's heart fluttered with warmth. Fear was for the conquered, excitement was for the opportunistic.

Five times the princess saw those black sails cast over the State of Kobaru's capital harbor. Every single one came in peace. While Tengu warships were things of great violence and merchants of war, they performed many diplomatic and stately duties too.

On their first visit, they came as a fleet of seven vessels, cannons protruding. Only after raising their royal flag of black-and-maroon did they put Cydonia's heart at ease. Back then, her elderly father and two Kobaru queens hosted the officers into their court. Rather than war, the captains sought safe harbor between their faraway homeland and alien nations which protested their armed peace and commerce.

From then on, she began to call them ally. Cydonia followed her father King Wilhelm's example. If he considered them safe, so should she.

The Tengu crews were professional, large, and bold. The kind of men who conquered rogue city-states and put down devilish rebellions. They bought from Kobaru markets much food and entertainment, and exchanged large jewels and alien coins made from heavy platinum, nickel, and gold.

Compared to Kobaru vessels, they were bigger and meaner, but the message for the princess was one of protectionism. Like shepherd's wolves: frightful, dark dogs borne and tamed to protect horned sheep flocks against coyotes and wolves roaming the hinterlands at night. And to think, these wolfish vessels would soon belong to her...

Or they should, but this one came in under strange circumstance. The broken mast did not raise the Tengu royal flag, in fact the remaining masts and capes over the ship's hull and body were coated with royal colors. This maroon-and-black scheme was bolder, like they wanted to announce their Tengu allegiance with even greater certainty. It was like her crew was compensating for something despite their devastated shape.

Still, Cydonia didn't doubt the flag or its message of peace. Her heart fluttered because a chance remained an equal would come her way, and sweep her off her feet. Letter correspondences with the Orthodoxy Great Houses' Foreign Services Ministry promised a young prince from a middle house would come to the Kobaru Kingdom in a few months' time.

Cydonia's kingdom held customs compatible to the Tengu way of life. The marriage option now was more a matter of pragmatic necessity. Like the steam-wheeled tugboat drawing the Tengu warship into Kobaru's Harbor of Warm Petals, the scale between empire and kingdom were growing by the days and months. Her father was aging into his senility, his wives were dead or to old for children. Wilhelm lost two sons to internal rebellions, and his only daughter needed a husband to keep the dynasty alive. 

No low-born could fill the throne. This was the rule of monarchs, no one but a foreign prince would do. The herald called again, spying the ship's name in a spyglass. "High-ho! Tengu vessel, the Wolfish Drake approaches!"

'An appropriate name', Cydonia thought.

The princess dressed in a simple but form-fit, long dress with royal embroideries under a hardened, long coat. She left her balcony and reclaimed  the foil sword and scabbard from her mantle, belting it at her waist. Time to greet the Tengu sailors, and hopefully a Prince Charming. 

The letters called him 'Commitius.'

She hoped his blade and words proved more strategic, and sharper than the dark horse he arrived on. Cydonia whispered a Tengu principle for good luck: "Tengu serves as Tengu wills."

. . .

Chief Ponce coughed into a velvet handkerchief. The same one he washed through bucketed salt water at least a dozen times in the last three days left of their voyage. Commitius tried to not flinch, eyes locked on the sea rather than the sun-ward port city cresting the white waves.

"What's your name again, Boy?" The deck officer growled through his hoarse, bloody throat.

"Commitius, sir."

Ponce waved the ensign down. "Drop the sir. You're a prince, act like it. No more Ensign. No more Jabari Lemme. I didn't get myself sick just for you to get my ship torched at the pier."

"What if they look below deck..."

"We'll delay the boarding party to the second hold, just like we did when we passed the lighthouse and the Outer Harbor watch crew."

"But they'll ask to check our sea-keeping, and that means under the double hull and the interiors."

Ponce pulled his bloody scarf from his nose and gave the ensign a tired grin, "Now you're thinking with your noggin. Tell me, what would you do?"

Commitius rubbed his forehead to push back the inevitable headache which came with Dusk exposure. The young man answered slowly, focusing between the ebbs and flows of his migraine.

"We would... Report our ship lost in the storm, with several men suffering extreme light sensitivity, and severe sea sickness for which the doctor ordered the lowest deck be isolated. Due to the least motion and most darkness?"

"Excellent, but there's more to it."

"Like?" Commitius mumbled, annoyed by another extended lecture.

"Only one of us will leave this ship today. That's you. The rest of us will contend to our fate."

The young man did a double take, "Why? I thought you would come with me."

"Of course not. I will meet the entourage but the rest is up to you. My men are the incubator, and you... You will deliver the final blow, the first sneeze of plague if you like."

"I... Of course, but how will you get the plague into the city?"

Commitius clutched his empty micro flask, glinting in the sunlight with leftover, dried-up Dusk residue. Meanwhile, the small pouch of Rebel Plum roots he received would only restrain the visible symptoms for another 72 hours.

Three days to enter Kobaru's Inner Court.

"It's better you don't know. But you must be the trigger. Infect the girl, infect the father. Once the Marines knock on our door... What's left of us will spread it to the inspectors and into the streets. Like desperate rats..."

Ponce's voice trailed down to a whisper. His dark eyes trailed a Kobaru Marine who nodded at the ensign and senior deck officer, none the wiser. To wash any doubts, Commitius called out to the Kobaru warrior. "Guard, how long until we make landfall?"

The marine looked up at the sun then the urban port. "My Prince, I would say fifteen minutes."

"Thank you," Commitius confirmed, turning back to his mentor of three months. "This it? Any more wisdom or cruel lessons to teach me?"

Ponce shook his head, coughing again into his woolen scarf. "Don't make me laugh. It hurts too much. This is it, everything is on you."

The fifteen minutes flew by like a blur as a bright castle loomed over the Wolfen Drake. The half hour of ground crews pulling double duty to moor the corvette dragged on much too long. Commitius had to crush two impulses to step in and tell the rigging-men to correct their knots.

When the greeting trumpets played, Commitius marched down the ship gangway and froze on the spot. A pair of bejeweled, sparkling blue eyes stared back. Dark princess curls, a green dress, and a sword at her side. It was a measured look made for friendships, or allies maybe. However, the wildness in her eyes suggested a predator.

Chief Ponce had to push the boy forward. He whispered with a kick of the shins, "Come on, no squid legs now. Greet her. Peck on the hand."

Commitius approached, touching solid ground for the first time in three months. He ignored the functional shipwreck behind him as warned by Ponce. Be royalty, be regal.

The herald called, "Sir Commitius of House Boneworth, Great Raider of the Greater Lazarus Port."

The prince gulped. That last note, he was just a rigging apprentice on that campaign. He never fired rounds from a cannon or drew his blade. He reached the princess who extended an ungloved wrist. He took it, and kissed her hand quick. An awkward touch, their eyes flickered at each other but didn't lock, retreating into the nose ridges.

The King Wilhelm chuckled in his tired, wizardly way. He hid beneath a large, ornate cloak except for his visible crown. Maybe he did not appreciate the sunlight.

Commitius's eyes returned to the daughter, he tried speaking. "Greet-greetings, your Highness. I hear many wondrous things of you."

She performed a curtsy before answering. "The honor is mine, Prince Commitius."

The young man flinched at the still-unfamiliar name, an action which went unnoticed to the curious girl. "To me, as well... Princess Cyd?"

 "Cydonia..." The girl drawled out, a hint of disappointment clouding her eyes. Commitius unceremoniously glared back at Ponce who never left the gangway. The officer grinned back behind his handkerchief.

The fake prince tried the practiced, pickup line he came up with in the mirror. "Oh, I know... I was just trying to find an affectionate way to call you... Mine..."

Cydonia's pale cheeks reddened as she shook her head with a soft smirk.

"Alright, you might do." The princess unclipped the sword and scabbard from her waistline. She grabbed the prince's hand and slow-guided him up the steps from the port, passing with a nod to her father.

Turning back to Commitius again, vulnerable, blue eyes met confused brown ones. "You're sheepish, but I might like that."

Commitius frowned. "Do tell?"

The princess raised her sword as the bronze scabbard glinted in the morning light. "First, I need to see if your swordplay is worth mine."

Another ache curled over Commitius's forehead but he fought to not react. He nodded with a heavy smile, "Lead the way, Cyd."

Cydonia smirked again.

Ponce watched the pair wander off, knowing his responsibilities to the greeting party were still unfinished. He watched the King, his guard, and the rest of their port staff. Finally, he wandered down the gangway himself as master of his ship.

Behind his handkerchief he mumbled to no one, "Tengu's will is in motion. Enjoy your last days in paradise, Ensign."