Read The Lost Prince for Free Online Page A

on me will leave it at my feet.”
    The two sailors paused a moment, then shared a laugh at Dean’s expense. They drew out their own blades and closed in on him. Dean stood his ground, waiting until they came close enough to strike. Once they did, he chose the man on the right and lunged forward with his sword, pushing him back. The sailor on the left swung his blade at Dean, but he ducked beneath its edge with time to spare. The sword sailed harmlessly over his head and lodged itself firmly in the mast. As the man tried to pry it loose, Dean delivered a kick to his stomach that knocked the man clean off the quarterdeck. Dean spun and pulled the sword free himself, then turned back toward his other attacker. Swinging both swords, Dean cut a wide swash through the air as he went atthe man. The sailor backpedaled and tripped on the tangled line Dean had just pulled on board. He fell hard on his backside, and Dean pressed his advantage.
    “Do you yield?” The tip of his cutlass was dangerously close to the man’s throat.
    The sailor nodded several times and scurried back like a frightened rat. Dean smiled as he shrank away. The man had taken him for an easy mark. Dean was nothing of the sort. You don’t last very long as a pirate spy if you can’t hold your own in a fight.
    “What’s the meaning of this?” the captain demanded. “Who do you think you are, boy?”
    Dean cleared his throat and recited the lines that Ronan had made him memorize. “My name is not important. What is important is the message I carry. As of this moment, your ship and its cargo are at the mercy of the pirate Gentleman Jim Harper. You might not believe it, but today is your lucky day. Gentleman Jim will gladly give quarter to any and all who lay down their arms and surrender. You can run up a white flag now, or wait until Gentleman Jim gets here, but it’s faster and more civilized if you surrender before he arrives. My captain is a busy man, and he appreciates your cooperation. I can assure you he will treat you every bit as well as you treat him.”
    The ship’s captain stared at Dean in silence, thunderstruckby the boy’s proclamation. After a few quiet moments, a smile formed on the captain’s lips and he burst out laughing. His crew took the outburst as permission to do the same and roared with laughter as well.
    “Surrender? To a pint-size pirate?”
    “Been too long in the sun, I’ll wager!”
    “At his captain’s mercy, he says! Where is he, then?”
    Dean shook his head as the rowdy seamen mocked him. He had expected his youth and boyish looks to get in the way of the message he was sent to deliver. With a head full of short black hair, bright blue eyes, and a full set of teeth, he was hardly Blackbeard the pirate. He appealed to the
Santa Clara
’s captain directly.
    “I know it’s hard to accept, sir. No man wants to surrender his command, but please, be reasonable. Are you really going to send all these men to their deaths just to satisfy your own selfish pride?”
    The captain’s smile faded into a sneer, and his laughter into a growl. He drew a pistol on Dean. “Mind your tongue, boy. You’re on
my
ship. I don’t take that kind of talk from my men, and I’ll be tarred if I’ll take it from a whelp like you. What makes you think I won’t shoot you dead and toss your body to Davy Jones right now?”
    Dean held out his arms. It wasn’t the first time he’d had a pistol pointed in his direction. He knew full well their accuracywas terrible except at very close range. “Go ahead and shoot. I wager you’ll be lucky to hit the ocean if you try. More likely you’ll hit one of your own men. But that’s not why you won’t fire on me.”
    The captain cocked his pistol. “Why won’t I, then?”
    Dean glanced down at his feet. The whole time he and the captain had been talking, the line he’d tied to the mast was slowly being drawn out by someone in the fog who was tugging on the other end. What was once a twisted