It was cold. Anna opened her eyes, her head ringing. She felt heavy and sluggish as she slowly sat up. Still nestled in the palm of her left hand was the locket. Rubbing her cheek where a coin had been pressed into the skin, she looked around her. The light was dim, and the sound of water echoed from walls of stone.

Father’s vault. Of course.

Shakily, Anna stood up. Her bare feet slipped on the seemingly endless piles of golden coins scattered all over the cave floor. She bent down to pick one up, turning it over and over in her fingers as she walked around, the dank air seeping through the thin fabric of her nightgown. Bandits had sought the Pirate King’s legendary treasure vault time and time again. Even the King’s men had ventured to find it, at some point in history. None could ever guess, or hope to infiltrate, its location. Unbeknownst to all but the Pirate King and his three children, the treasure vault was a cave at the foot of the cliff on which the main house balanced over the sea. It had many entrances; several were hidden within the walls and floors of the house itself, and one was right at the mouth of the cave, on the sandy beach of the cove. Of course, like any plundering villain, the Pirate King had another hoard in a different cave, which was more widely known and guarded by more than mystery.

The Pirate King reveled in the magic of the obvious. His secrets were cleverly hidden, and yet always in plain view. Letting the coin fall with a clink, Anna ran her fingers over the smooth wood of a locked chest, and then the cold hilt of a heavy scimitar wedged between two vases and a gigantic stone statue with emeralds for eyes. The scimitar had been set with a glittering pommel stone: a garnet, Anna guessed, taking firm hold and pulling it out of its sheath with both hands.

Its weight was negotiable. She swung it a few times, then set it down gingerly on the carpet of coins and began to tug on the scabbard. After some time she managed to wiggle it free, and slid the scimitar back into it carefully. She would need it, where she was going. The sounds of the battle outside were muffled by the thickness of the cave walls, but Anna knew it raged all around her. It was even there inside her. She didn’t care what her father and brothers thought. She could be responsible for her own safety. She had to get out there and help defend their home.

There was no way out of the cave, except the cove entrance. All the others were too high above her; Luke and Jesse had pushed her through the hallway entrance, which was a long chute that deposited her with minimal scratches and bruises onto the floor of the vault. There was no way to climb back into the house through the chute. It would be too narrow and slippery. Besides, the thought of inching her way upward in such an enclosed space made Anna shiver. It would have to be the cove entrance then. She set her mind to it, belting the heavy weapon to her waist. The leather was strong and tough, but someone had burned a swirling design onto the surface. The lines curved and entwined, like a flowering vine…

Anna had entered the vault from the cove before, but only in the dead of night, and always with one of her brothers. They had known the way, and she had merely followed. There had been few occasions that required her to accompany them. The last time had been when the Pirate King had summoned Jesse to the secret cave, to choose his weapon from the best collection in the east. Anna and Luke had tagged along, because their father required them to be present. He looked at it as a sort of ceremony, for Jesse’s induction into a life of piracy.

Anna had never been summoned to choose a weapon. She glanced about once more, her eyes stinging with tears. She was a girl, and girls were bad luck on any voyage, on any ship. Her father never meant for her to set sail with the fleet. But now she would disobey. Now she would go into battle too. Steeling her nerves, Anna wove her way through the maze of chests and barrels spilling over with jewels, trying to remember where the cave opened onto the beach.

She had expected it to be easy enough. Instead, it took her much longer than she wanted it to. The entrance was so small that it could barely be called an entrance; it was more like a crawl space, and Anna could hardly fathom how her father and brothers had managed to get into the cave this way. Still, she was small too, and quickly maneuvered her way out. She had to wriggle face first into the fronds of a plant that had obviously been left untrimmed and unheeded for years, and for a reason. It hid the mouth of the cave perfectly. Pulling her newly found weapon through the hole, Anna crouched among the leaves and tried to get a sense of where she was.

The tang of blood was heavy in the air. Shouts and screams mingled with the groans of the dying and the loud clanging of blades against blades. Anna found that she was on the far end of the beach, where the fighting was not so intense. But her heart still wedged itself into her throat, and she could barely breathe. This was it. She had to prove it now. She had to prove that she was just as good as any of her father’s men– that she could fight for the island and the pirates too. Tightening the scabbard around her waist, she stood up and scanned the horizon, only to gasp with horror at what she saw.

The sea was tinted a rusty shade of red– blood, and fire. Anna took a step back, finding herself flat against the jagged wall of the cliff. This was all too familiar. It was a scene from her nightmares, reborn into reality and made sharper by the ashes floating on the wind and the hatred that burned as brightly as the fire that had gutted the landscape. Anna could see the charred skeleton of Medrana, still struggling to stay afloat in the cove. One of the royal ships had run aground, and nearly all the sails on every vessel were tattered, shred to ribbons on a breeze of smoke.

Squinting, Anna could see a figure leap overboard. She could almost hear the ship groaning, feel the water rushing between its blackened ribs. It would sink soon.

“ANNA!” Sparks flew as a musket fired, the bullet missing and hitting the cliff harmlessly. One more inch, though, and she would have been dead. Anna was too shocked to scream, and could only stand there looking around frantically for the person who had called her name in time to save her.

Jesse slashed at the soldier’s arm, and the man fell to the ground moaning in agony. Spattered with blood, his cutlass notched and his shirt long since torn from him entirely, Jesse tackled his sister hard as another musket fired in their direction.

“What do you think you’re doing??! How did you get out??! Anna, you were supposed to stay safe, you were supposed to–”

“No!” Anna answered furiously. “Not this time, Jesse!” And Jesse knew it was no use. She would never back down, now. Anna’s hand moved instinctively to her locket, which she had strung back onto its chain. Jesse resisted the urge to bang his head hard into the ground, knowing Father would never forgive him for letting her go into battle. But he also knew he couldn’t stop her.

Anna got up and never looked back, charging right into the musketeer who was still re-loading his gun a few feet away. The scimitar flashed, and he fell alongside his fellow soldier in the sand. Jesse called to her as she set off into the thick of the battle, despite the fact that every bone in her body was shaking uncontrollably. When she made no move to return, he ran after her.

“Stop, stop! I’m not going to tell you to hide!” Panting, Jesse dragged her forcibly to where the cliff created a slight overhang, and ducked down with her into the shrubs at its base. “Listen. I can’t find Luke. I don’t know where he is, I haven’t seen him since we went our separate ways...just after putting you in the vault.” Jesse pressed one of his daggers into his sister’s hand. “Take this, just in case you need it. One of us needs to find Luke. Father can take care of himself, but you know Luke when he gets all fired up. He can’t control himself.” Serious-eyed, Anna nodded and slid the dagger into her right boot. Jesse disguised his sigh of relief at such unquestioning cooperation, and continued. “Some of the men told me that they saw someone swim out to Medrana when she started burning. I think it might have been Luke.”

“Do you think he’s still on the ship...?”

“I think I would have seen him otherwise. The battle has gone on long enough that not many are left on either side except the fiercest fighters, and we’ve all been trying to stick together. Father’s out there, in fact.”

Anna raised her head, hoping to catch sight of the Pirate King in the mess of men and debris. But Jesse had her by the shoulders now, and was looking into her face intently.

“If Father sees you, I don’t know what he’ll do. I’ll go to him, and you find a way to Medrana. Help Luke, if he’s there. If not, just try to lie low, okay?” Jesse shook her til she nodded in agreement. “Okay. Don’t get killed.” Anna threw her arms around her brother hastily, then stood up and prepared to cut her way through to the shore. Jesse, who had long since abandoned sheathing his cutlass, barreled out in the direction of the Pirate King.

Lee was running across the beach, sand flying from his boots. The strongest pirates had clustered in the middle of the battlefield now, fending off attackers in unison. The last stand. And he knew, without missing a beat, that the tallest was the man who figured so often in his nightmares: the Pirate King.