Hanna Halfblood: A YA fantasy tale Read online

  Hanna Halfblood

  Halfblood Book One

  Robyn Wideman

  Contents

  1. Attacked at Sea

  2. Attack in the Mountains

  3. Hanna Comes Home

  4. Travel North

  5. Hanna Wakes in Ayrith Village

  6. Return to Irontide

  7. Centa, Creyta

  8. Katla

  9. Training with Anso, Dream Walker

  10. Magical Hangover

  11. Attack

  12. Witches and Demon Stones

  13. Crew Arrive, Searching for Witch

  14. Yanga Assassin

  15. Witch Hunt

  Halfblood Book 2

  Authors Notes

  HANNA HALFBLOOD © copyright 2017 Robyn Wideman

  Published: February 2017

  Publisher: Magicblood Media Corp

  1

  Attacked at Sea

  As she climbed the ladder and stepped onto the main deck, Hanna looked up. The sky was a brilliant blue, with only a few fluffy white clouds, and the silhouette of one of the two moons the only blemishes on the otherwise perfectly blue sky. The warm sea air brushed her face, and she closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the way the hot sun felt against her skin. She smiled.

  “Hanna Halfblood, get moving ye lazy sod!” yelled Azad Zargo from his position beside Captain Rozad.

  Hanna grinned at the first mate, baring her teeth, showing off her pearly white chompers. Azad had lost several of his front teeth in battles. He was jealous of her mouth full of perfect teeth. A grin was the perfect response to annoy the man. Before the first mate could respond, Hanna leapt onto the mainsail pole and climbed her way up to the bird’s nest.

  Koyo Tomar, the sailor on duty in the nest, greeted her. “Hanna, come to spot me for a while? I could use a stretch and a bite. Me old bones don’t like staying in one place too long. They creak like rusty hinges.”

  “Take all the time you need, Koyo. I’d rather do this than help in the kitchens. Helan Daner has anointed me chief potato peeler.”

  Koyo chuckled. “Well, you are good with a blade. Can you blame her? I’ll be back in an hour or so. I wouldn’t want to keep you from your potatoes too long. See you in a few, Halfblood.”

  Hanna laughed. Koyo had obviously heard Zargo yelling at her. Halfblood was her nickname while on the ship. Hanna Halfblood. When she was in Irontide, the port city in Northern Solotine where her mother lived, she was called the name as well. But in Solotine the name was an insult. In Solotine, foreigners were looked at with suspicion. Visitors from faraway lands were mistrusted and judged by the color of their skin and the accent on their tongues. There was a certain degree of irony to the way Northern Solotiners treated foreigners, considering how fearful many kingdoms were of them. It was Northern Solotine warships that attacked others. It had been over a hundred years since Solotine had last been invaded by a foreign nation, and that had been in retaliation over their raiding of foreign lands. Not that Hanna didn’t fiercely love her Solotinian mother, Rowena, or her grandfather Thorodd, she did. However, she’d suffered many insults as a child growing up in Irontide.

  It didn’t matter how important her grandfather was, or how famous the Stoneblood name was in Solotine, Hanna was the daughter of a Creytan sailor. Creytans, with their golden-hued skin, dark hair and average height stood out like sore thumbs among the pasty white burly and oversized northerners. Not that Hanna was treated much different in Creyta. Her father, Merdem Mirzan, had taken her to his homeland to visit several times before his disappearance. Each time she’d been viewed with suspicion and marked as an outcast. Her long blonde hair, green eyes and the fact she was as tall as boys several years older than her marked her as having a strong Northern Solotine heritage. But here on the Lady of the Evening, her grandfather’s merchant ship, she was simply Hanna.

  As Hanna looked out on the seas, she spotted the sail of a ship. Excitement made her green eyes sparkle. The almost undetected ship, save the white sail tip, was on the opposite side of one of the small isles that the Lady of the Evening was sailing through. It looked like the ship was using the islands to hide itself as it stealthily drew closer to Hanna’s ship. Flashing mirrors signaled between islands. There was no doubt in Hanna’s mind the signals were going to the ship behind the island. These waters were known to harbor pirates. The fresh water that was available on the chain of isles brought in ships from everywhere. A perfect place for pirates to lurk. “Sail ho,” yelled Hanna.

  Azad Zargo climbed the main mast with a speed that made Hanna jealous. “What do you see, Hanna?”

  “I just caught a glimpse of the topmast. They’re hiding behind that isle,” said Hanna as she pointed at the isle to the north of them.

  Together Azad and Hanna waited in silence. The breeze whipped Hanna’s hair across her face. She quickly tied her hair back with a leather thong she had around her wrist for such a purpose. The isle in question was small and the hills and trees that hid the mystery ship would soon be out of the way. Below them, on the main deck, the crew were all preparing for a fight. The Lady of the Evening was a fine merchant ship, but it wasn’t fast enough to avoid any pirate ship that dared to attack it. Hanna took deep breaths; Azad was calm and his steady nature helped to keep her nerves from getting the better of her. She’d been involved in several battles at sea before.

  Despite her young age, Hanna was a warrior. In Northern Solotine, warrior training started young, and Hanna had been in more than her share of fights. Girls didn’t get special treatment in Northern Solotine. If you wanted to train with the boys, you could. Hanna’s grandfather Thorodd had insisted that she start training as soon as possible. Hanna’s mother had reluctantly agreed. The first few years of training had been rough on her. The northern children used training to get to her. They beat her, often. But northerners weren’t the only warriors in the world. Her father brought a warrior, Anso Sengaw from Creyta, to train her while he was at sea. Then, when Hanna started sailing with the crew, her father trained her. After her father’s disappearance, Hanna continued to sail and sparred with the entire crew, who viewed her as a little sister.

  Anso had returned to Creyta, but Hanna never forgot her trainer’s lessons. The invaluable schooling stayed with her. The Lady of the Evening was owned by Thorodd Stoneblood but the crew was all Creyta men, her father’s men. While only fifteen, Hanna had been training in multiple fighting styles since she was six. Her first battle happened before her thirteenth birthday. Her first and second kills happened within a year of that first battle. The open seas were rife with pirates and the Lady of the Evening was a rich merchant ship that traveled far and wide trading goods from Solotine to the world.

  As the Lady of the Evening started to sail past the small isle, the ship Hanna had spotted came into full view. Azad pointed at the flag. It was red with a black sword. Not traditional pirate colors, but still a pirate ship. It was one of the Black Sword Gang’s ships. A gang of pirates that liked to target Northern Solotine merchant ships because of the black steel weapons they carried. Black steel was the finest metal in the land and the specialty of the great northern blacksmiths. “Black Swords!” yelled Azad down to Captain Rozad.

  Captain Rozad nodded and barked his orders to the rest of the crew. The Black Sword Gang was surely going to try board the Lady of the Evening. A fight was coming!

  “Better get your skinny little butt below deck,” said Azad.

  Hanna frowned. Go below deck? Had Azad lost his mind? “Below deck?” she said in a questioning tone.

  Azad glanced over at her in amusement. “Unless you’re going to fight with just your dagger, you should go below deck and get
your weapons. But I’m only a mere sailor and not the great Hanna Halfblood.”

  Hanna blushed in embarrassment. In her excitement, she hadn’t even thought about weapons. She knew Azad wasn’t being mean when he labeled her the great Hanna Halfblood. He was gently reminding her that if the ship was taken she was one of the few women on board and the granddaughter of a wealthy northern merchant. She was likely to be a target for the pirates. Either to be kidnapped for ransom or for other foul purposes. “Right. Weapons. I’m on it,” said Hanna as she jumped out of the crow’s nest and scurried down the mainsail mast.

  Hanna’s quarters below deck were a small room she shared with Helan Daner and Dilare the Red, a fierce woman sailor who Hanna was positive had once been a pirate. Dilare was not a Creytan woman, her heritage something else. Azad had suggested Dilare was from the Isle of Droll, a land known for its flaming red-haired population, but it had never been confirmed. Not that Hanna cared where the woman was from. She was a fantastic warrior, as capable as any man and a good friend. Dilare was as funny as she was fierce. Her sense of humor, twisted and vulgar, made many of the men blush when she outdid them in colorful insults.

  Neither of the women was in the room when Hanna entered. She went to her weapons rack and grabbed her fighting daggers. The weapons were ancient Creytan in design, their true name one she’d long ago given up trying to pronounce. Instead, she simply called them her eagle’s claw daggers. The weapons were curved blades eighteen inches long with a small two-inch blade sticking out the bottom of each handle. Anso Sengaw had ordered the weapons made for her in Northern Solotine. Deadly ancient Creytan weapons made with the famous black steel of her mother’s homeland, the blades were fitting weapons for a girl torn between two cultures. She then grabbed her glaive, the large pole weapon that she’d learned to use as a child in Northern Solotine. The weapon, a sturdy witch oak pole with a curved blade at the end, was perfect for repelling boarding sailors.

  Armed, Hanna left the room and spotted Koyo Tomar chewing on a chicken leg.

  “I thought Helan was using those chickens for supper?”

  Koyo winked. “I’m an old man. I need my strength before going into battle.”

  Hanna scoffed. “You will need your strength when Helan gets her hands on you. You know how she hates it when people mess with her meal plans.”

  “We all die sometime. I’d rather die at the hands of an angry woman than those of a dirty milk drinking pirate.” Koyo took another bite of his chicken and eyed Hanna’s glaive. “I wish I could use a weapon like that. So much reach! I’d never have to smell another pirate’s breath as I gutted him.” Koyo finished his chicken and threw the bone out of a port hole. He picked up his small shield and sword. “Shall we go repel some pirates?”

  Hanna bowed low and waved for him to go above deck. “Age and wisdom before the curse of youth and beauty.”

  Koyo grunted in amusement. One of his favorite topics to tease Hanna about was her youth and how beautiful she was. He claimed that she must be one of his own children. She was too beautiful to be the offspring of Merdem Mirzan. “One of these days I’m going to have a long talk with your mother.”

  “My mother is a lady, unsullied by drunken louts like you. Just because you can’t remember all the harlots you’ve bedded doesn’t mean you are every youngster’s father.”

  “Tis true enough,” said Koyo. “And truth be told, northern women scare me. Too big. Who wants to bed a woman that can beat you to a pulp? I like southern women, and Creytan women. You northerners are too big and too pasty.”

  “I’m not pasty,” protested Hanna.

  “No. You’re not,” admitted Koyo. “You definitely inherited your warm skin color from your father. But that hair and those eyes, they certainly didn’t come from your father. But enough about you. Let’s talk about me. How many pirates has ol’ Koyo killed?”

  Hanna rolled her eyes. “According to the great Koyo, eighty-nine. But I’ve yet to meet a sailor who can confirm half of your kills.”

  “That’s because sailors don’t get as old as old Koyo. They find their home at the bottom of the sea among the mermaids at a far younger age. Let us go see if we can add a few more pirates to the total.”

  Hanna couldn’t argue with Koyo on that point. He was the oldest of the crew by a good number of years. Perhaps he had killed that many pirates in battle. He’d been sailing for a lifetime. The number of battles he had been in with pirates was probably almost as high as the number of kills he claimed. Hanna followed Koyo onto the deck. The pirate ship was closing in fast now.

  “Shields up,” yelled Captain Rozad.

  Hanna quickly curled in under Koyo’s shield. An arrow crashed into the deck just in front of them, and another hit the shield. The arrowhead pierced the shield and stuck out between both their heads. Koyo looked at the arrow and then at Hanna. “Well, their archers are top notch. Perhaps we’ll get a good fight after all.”

  Hanna shook her head. Were all old warriors as crazy as Koyo?

  “Prepare for boarding,” yelled Captain Rozad.

  Hanna peeked out from under the shield. Fewer arrows were hitting them now as the pirates prepared their ropes and grappling hooks for boarding. Traditionally, merchant ship captains would attempt to avoid letting pirate ships come alongside their ships. Captain Rozad had a different tactic. When the pirate ship came in close, a party of warriors from the Lady of the Evening would jump onto the pirate ship. The well-practiced counterattack usually disrupted the pirates and caused panic. Pirates didn’t have the best reputation for being disciplined and structured fighting units. The Lady of the Evening’s crew consisted of hand-picked warriors. The Black Sword Gang was in for a nasty surprise.

  “You ready?” asked Koyo.

  Hanna nodded and closed her eyes. Taking deep breaths she focused her mind, clearing it of all thought other than the task she was about to do. She waited for the thud of grappling hooks catching on the rail. Seconds later the familiar sound hit her ears.

  “Now,” yelled Captain Rozad.

  “Go. Go. Go,” said Koyo as he lifted his shield.

  Hanna sprang up from the deck like an uncoiled spring. She sprinted towards the rail of the Lady of the Evening and jumped onto it. Without slowing, she leapt off the ship and sailed through the air. A dozen of the Lady of the Evening’s crew joined her, jumping onto the pirate ship.

  Hanna hit the deck and did a barrel roll under the sword of a pirate. As she came out of the roll she turned her arm, whipping her glaive around. The blade sliced into the man’s chest. Standing, Hanna glanced around. The dozen warriors from their ship were surrounded by pirates. But the surprise counter attack was working as Captain Rozad had hoped. The pirates seemed confused. A handful had jumped onto the deck of the Lady of the Evening while others were pausing and turning back to attack Hanna and the rest of the boarding team.

  A pirate roared and charged at Hanna. His sword came down in a ferocious attack. Ferocious and yet slow, thought Hanna, as she hopped a step to her right. The sword, and the pirate holding it, sliced past her. Hanna pivoted and pushed the running pirate in the back. The shove threw the pirate off balance. He hit the rail of the pirate ship hard. His momentum carried him over and his war holler turned to a scared scream as he fell between the two ships into the sea below.

  The surprised pirate leader, who had hesitated when the crew of the Lady of the Evening boarded his ship, finally started to organize his men, yelling at them to continue their attack. But the hesitation had been an expensive and deadly error. The first pirates who’d jumped onto the deck of the Lady of the Evening were dead. Without numbers on their side they’d been swiftly cut down as they crossed over. Now as the second wave tried to jump across they had to avoid the blades of Hanna and the rest of the boarding party. As small groups of pirates jumped over onto the Lady, they were either stabbed or pushed down into the water. Then a second wave of Captain Rozad’s men joined Hanna and the others on the pirate deck.

 
While the pirates scrambled around trying to decide whether to jump across to attack or stay to defend their ship, Hanna let her hands slip down to the end of the glaive. She held the weapon like a large club and spun around in a circle like a whirling dervish. Pirates had to dive out of the wave of her blade as she cleared a path toward the middle of the ship and the pirate captain. When she was almost to him she yelled for Azad. The first mate leaped onto the pirate ship deck and ran through the clearing Hanna created. She lifted her blade to the sky, letting Azad run past her.

  As Azad sprinted towards the pirate captain, he threw daggers at the pirate captain’s guards. The pirate captain brought his sword up and slashed at Azad. Azad jumped over the blade, kicking it down into the deck of the pirate ship. Before the pirate captain could bring his sword back up, Azad was holding him by the neck with a blade to his exposed jugular.

  “I’d tell your men to surrender if you want to live more than three seconds,” snarled Azad.

  “Never,” swore the pirate captain.

  Azad started counting down. “Three-two-one.” Azad’s blade started to break the skin of the pirate captain’s neck. The man winced in pain and then yelled to his men. “Surrender men. Drop your weapons.”

  Hanna carefully guarded Azad’s back while she waited for the pirates to realize their captain was calling for them to surrender. The captain had to yell three times before all his men dropped their weapons.

  The boarding party collected all the pirate’s weapons and put them on the Lady of the Evening. They then searched the pirate ship for booty. It seemed that they had recently attacked a merchant ship carrying wine and silks. The crew loaded the pirate loot onto the Lady of the Evening. Hanna and a handful of the crew guarded the pirates as the others raided their stores.

  The pirate captain looked disgusted as he realized he was being raided. A pirate being raided. He would be a laughing stock when he crawled back to wherever his home was with his tail between his legs. The pirates had been thoroughly whipped by the crew of the Lady of the Evening.