Taken

A gravelly voice whispered from behind a palm tree, “I know who you are!”

Amaal startled. “Hannu, is that you?”

“Thought you could hide in plain sight, eh?”

“Hannu, stop, that’s not funny.

“But I know those green eyes!”

“Where are you, Hannu?”

“You’re coming with me!”

In a flash, a man jumped out of the darkness and wrapped his arms tightly around her. Amaal let out a brittle cry before he put his hand over her mouth and pulled her through the bushes and down a deserted goat path to a rowboat waiting on the shore. “I got her! I got her!” he whispered frantically to his partner in the boat.

“Well, get her in here!”

Amaal struggled to get away, but it was all she could do to breathe over the paw that covered her mouth with such force that she thought it would break her jaw. Her captor pulled her into the boat and held her in his grip while his partner rowed to the far side of the lagoon and Tondo’s ship. They bundled her aboard and sat her firmly on the deck in the dim yellow light of a solitary torch. Amaal’s eyes widened at what she saw. It looked as though the ship had passed through a violent storm. Uncoiled rope, rusted tools, and heaps of broken amphorae lay strewn haphazardly across the deck. Tondo’s men lay sprawled out and sleeping amid puddles of vomit and wine. The foul odors made Amaal gag.

The two kidnappers stood back and looked her over, clearly pleased with what they had accomplished. Amaal lowered her eyes to avoid their stares.

“Now, we wait for your people to come begging and see how much their queen is worth.”

            Amaal couldn’t make sense of their banter. Then, it dawned on her. She started to protest, but something told her to stop. These guys were deadly dangerous. Uru had testified to that terrifying fact. They had attempted to murder the captain of the Phoenix, and they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if they discovered she was not the Queen. The more she thought about it, the more dire her situation seemed. She couldn’t run, she couldn’t hide, she couldn’t scream for help or disappear into thin air. A wave of panic set in as, one by one, her senses shut down until only her breath remained, the momentary measure of her existence. She kept her gaze to the floor. With the breath came a tune, the Hymn to Ashtart, and with the tune came an idea: Hope lay not in what she could do but in who she could be. She straightened her spine, looked her captors in the eyes, and affected a privileged tone. “My people will be very unhappy when they discover that their queen has been abducted.”

            “Easy for them to get you back. Just hand over the treasure and we’ll deliver their queen—safe and sound.”

            “So, it’s treasure you’re after.”

            “And treasure we shall have!”

Amaal felt she needed to know their plan. Surely, they didn’t think they were just going to sail away with the treasure. After they got their hands on it, they might kill her anyway. What was murder to these pirates, especially so far from any magistrate who could bring them to justice? She folded her hands in her lap to stop them from shaking. It occurred to her that there was one person on board who might help her. Tilting her head slightly, she said, “Where is my cousin, Tondo, by the way?”

            “He’s…” The man hesitated. “…out of the way.”

She said, coolly, “Not dead, I hope.”

“Not dead…yet,” came the sinister reply.

She turned and looked into the face of another man. To her horror, she recognized him immediately as the one over whose head she had so powerfully leveled her flute case aboard the Phoenix. His eyes held the deadly stare of an animal poised to attack and kill.

“But he might be…if your people don’t do exactly as I tell them to do.”

His venomous tone sent a wave of dread through Amaal from her heart pounding in her chest to the tips of her fingers and toes. She pursed her lips, secretly imploring her tongue to gather saliva and the nerve to speak. She tried to sound confident and mildly irritated when she said, “My people do as I tell them to do. What is it you want?”

“An even trade: your weight in gold.”

Amaal had no idea how much treasure the fleet contained or whether, as the Tillerman had suggested, it held none at all. With nothing more to go on, she continued to conjure Elishat. “Is that all? I’d demand more if I were in your position. Ask for a ship while you’re at it. You’ve got a queen to trade, after all…”

They were interrupted by a fight at the other end of the vessel. The sinister man picked up the broken neck of an amphora and slung it.

“Shut up!” he shouted.

Distracted from their disagreement, they came to look at what had been brought aboard.

“So, you really did it,” one of them muttered.

“Ba’al be damned.”

“She’s a pretty little thing. I’d take her…”

“Lay one finger on her and I’ll cut off your hand,” the sinister man said.

So, Amaal noted silently, he wants to keep me alive.

“What’ll you get for her, Nunshin?” one asked.

“She’s a queen; we’ll go for everything they’ve got. Now, leave her alone before I kick you all to Mot.”

They did leave her alone, though not enough for her to make a break for the edge, jump into the water, and swim to the far shore. Her abductors sat nearby congratulating themselves for their success. Amaal shivered against the night air and tried to assess her situation. This guy, Nunshin, controls the ship. He holds the key to my survival, she concluded. So, what have they done with Tondo? Much to her surprise, her flute still hung like a quiver across her back. Why her kidnappers hadn’t taken it, she couldn’t imagine, and she didn’t have time to consider. Her thoughts bounced wildly from ship to shore and back again. She tried to guess how long it had been since she’d been taken, but it was hard to tell. Everything had happened so quickly. She noted that the moon was on the rise and watched where it appeared behind the ship’s rigging. At least she could use it to keep track of time.

Amaal counted three possible outcomes: escape, ransom, or rescue. She knew there was a fourth, but she didn’t want to think about that. Escape, for the moment, was impossible. Would Elishat ransom Amaal? Would the Queen surrender the treasure and with it the chance for a successful future? Unlikely. Would anyone come to rescue her? The Lieutenant might answer the call. He always had his hand on his dagger, and he definitely did not take kindly to Tondo and his pirate crew. On second thought, he’d probably only rescue the real queen, not an inconsequential girl who happened to have queenly green eyes. But, if the pirates were giving his beloved queen a royal headache, then, maybe. Admiral Bitias might agree to a rescue mission if only to protect his fleet and its cargo. And Barca? He would leave the decision up to the Queen. Thus, Amaal’s thoughts circled back to Elishat. It was confusing to think about the queen and think as her at the same time. Amaal wondered how long it would take for anyone to notice she was gone. She looked again at the moon. It had already moved a budge.

Amaal thought back to the moment of her abduction. Had she continued to the shore boats, Uru would have been waiting for her to go back to the Phoenix for the night. Smart, sensible, determined Uru. Amaal closed her eyes and sent a silent message across the lagoon, “Uru, please, get help. My life depends on you.”

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