It is the mark of a great strategist to be able to adapt to changing circumstances, even if weeks of meticulously thought-out plans must be thrown to the wayside. Victory at all costs

  -Excerpt from ‘Ten Laws of the Sea’, author unknown

  Rose, Daniel, and Jason stood on the wooden pier, staring at the ridiculous ship that floated at the end. The only sounds that could be heard were the crashing of the waves and the occasional screech of a seagull high above the beach.

  Everyn stood in front of them, flanked by his guards who both nodded at the vessel in appreciation while his expression rapidly morphed from one of self satisfaction to confusion and then disappointment. “This is the finest vessel in all of the Emerlan Isle!” he exclaimed after no one broke the silence.

  “Everyn, do you remember when we spoke about staying under the radar and striking when Minenblum least expect it?” Rose asked, peeling her gaze from the gold trimmed, three decked galleon and let it fall heavily on the prince.

  “You have to admit, Rose, it is a magnificent ship,” Daniel said, passion burning behind his eyes as he pulled out his notebook and started scrawling.

  “It’s probably worth more than our whole damn village was,” Jason muttered, a conflicted expression on his face.

  “You are both correct, but your opinions on the matter are irrelevant in the face of the real issue. This ship is utterly unsuited for our purposes. I knew you were a pompous showboat, Everyn, but I didn’t believe you were a fool too,” she sighed, turning on her heels and striding back to the beach.

  “Your Highness, ignore her. It’s a magnificent ship,” Daniel repeated, his praise falling on deaf ears.

  Everyn groaned.

  “Was Rose always this domineering?” Jason asked as he finally peeled his wide eyes away from the towering ship.

  “Yes, you just spent most of our childhood too obsessed with yourself to notice,” Daniel retorted, earning himself a punch on the arm.

  “Well, if she says it’s too much, I suppose we must find a new vessel,” Everyn said, snapping his fingers as he followed after her.

  His two guards followed suit with Daniel and Jason trailing after them, sharing an amused glance.

  “Having said that however, there is a qualitative difference between bossing around a bunch of village kids and having the crown prince of your home nation follow you around like a puppy,” Daniel chuckled.

  ***

  Everyn had arranged for the ostentatious ship to dock away from any of the settlements on the Emerlan Isle as they’d planned, so that the group could make a quiet departure. Unfortunately, now that they were left with a ship far too gaudy and lacking in stealth for said plans, being nowhere near a town was hampering their attempts to find a more suitable ship.

  Rose had vanished after storming off, despite Everyn’s best efforts to keep up with her. He’d given up the search after a few hours and was currently sitting on the beach while staring out to sea dejectedly.

  His guards stood watch, with Daniel and Jason playing tic-tac-toe in the sand while catching up. Daniel was particularly interested in how Jason had ended up leading a troupe of bandits, while Jason wanted to know how things were going for the survivors of the invasion.

  Everyn suddenly stood up and kicked a cloud of sand into the air. “This is ridiculous. Every moment we waste here is a moment that Minenblum could be drawing closer to another invasion. What is that girl playing at!?”

  “Well perhaps if a certain pampered prince had managed to source us a suitable ship instead of that ugly, glaringly obvious mess, I might not have had to figure out a solution on the fly,” Rose retorted, staring at the crown prince with disdain as she dumped a huge pile of trees onto the sand.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  A giant cloud of sand flew into the air and the beach trembled at the impact. Daniel and Jason leapt away at the sudden entrance and subsequent deposit of tree trunks, their recent game of tic-tac-toe abandoned and destroyed.

  “I can see how the ship might not have been suited to our purposes, but how exactly are a bunch of trees going to help?” Everyn snapped in reply, waving at her gift.

  “Well, we have among us a shipwright in training and four big, strong men that he can boss around. It shouldn’t take long to whip up a better ship. We can always steal one from the Minenblum navy if it turns out to be a pile of crap.”

  Rose smirked at Daniel as she spoke, his jaw dropping as he realised what she intended. Jason had a look of constipated puzzlement on his face while the guards seemed ready to explode.

  “I would hardly say ‘in training’. More of an ambitious long term goal,” sighed Daniel

  “There’s no time like the present to start learning. You came with me because you wanted experience. You’re getting exactly what I promised and now you’re complaining?”

  “I suppose so. I can at least use one of the designs that I borrowed and modified from the shipwright’s manual. We just need it to sail fast and be unassuming, right?”

  “Sounds like a dream vessel to me,” Rose said, clapping him on the back and giving him an encouraging thumbs up. “I’ll strip the logs, you just tell this lazy bunch what to do. You’re the boss until this is done, Danny.”

  ***

  Despite his modest attitude and constant complaints that he was in over his head, Daniel managed to direct the group as they put together a medium sized caravel. In order to make it fit to sail, they had needed to tear the sails and rigging from the gaudy ship that Everyn had originally arranged for them.

  The crown prince had protested strongly at first, but Rose’s insistence and fierce glares eventually forced him into submission. His brazen guards had continued to argue the matter and throw the king’s name about, but that was hardly a deterrent to Rose.

  The once magnificent ship lay gutted at the end of the pier, while their hastily created vessel was ready to depart the moment they decided on a name. A decision which was taking far longer than it needed to.

  “I refuse to step foot on a vessel bearing such an awful name! It would bring shame to me as a man and to my family. How can you even suggest such a thing with a straight face?” Everyn snarled at Jason, who stood there with dumb unawareness on his face.

  Daniel placed a supportive hand on his shoulder. “For what it's worth, I thought it was a decent suggestion. If the prince is this adamant though, we should just go with his idea. We don’t want to delay after all, isn’t that right, Your Highness?”

  Rose stepped in to end the argument before it could drag on any further. She was in charge of this expedition, so she would have the final word. The discussion only happened so that the boys could believe they had some say in the ship’s name.

  “All of you suck at naming things,” she chuckled, stepping onto the ship and swinging around the mast. “She’s going to be called Silent End. Now get on board so we can set sail, the lot of you.”

  She immediately began setting up the ropes and sails, expertly weaving her way through the rigging as the rest of them watched on in confusion. When she was halfway done and none of them had moved, Rose came to an awful realisation.

  “None of you have any idea how to sail, do you?”

  “Nope,” Jason confidently replied.

  “A fishing boat maybe, but not this,” Daniel sighed.

  “Of course, I’ve read plenty of books on the subj-” Everyn began, but was cut off by Rose as she raised a hand.

  “That’s a no, then,” she groaned, rubbing her temple. “Well, I should be able to manage by myself if I show you some basics. Daniel, you built this thing. How can you not know how to sail it!?”

  He shrugged. “I told you. Ambitious long term goal.”

  To Rose’s great surprise, the two sharpest thorns in her side stepped out from behind the prince and boarded the ship first. The larger of the guards coughed and looked sheepish as he spoke up for the first time.

  “Actually, we know how to sail. It is part of the training for any new recruit entering the Emerlan Army.”

  “Damn big guy, way to surprise a girl. Maybe after all this is done I might not refer to you as tall annoying guard and short annoying guard in my head. Let’s get this beauty out to sea before that grumpy looking old guy comes down here and starts complaining,” she replied with a devious smirk.

  As Rose walked over to the rudder to familiarise herself with it, the two guards shared an incredulous look. “I’m not that short…” muttered the short one.

  “You’ll get used to her. Eventually,” Daniel chuckled as the rest of the group stepped onto Silent End.

  “Has she always been this…” the tall guard began.

  “Yup! Rose has always been an annoying whelp, since the day she came out the womb,” Jason interrupted, then yelped as a coin smacked into his head hard enough to draw blood. “It’s those navy bastards I feel sorry for. At least she doesn’t have an incentive to kill us.”

  “Yet,” Everyn muttered under his breath.