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  LOST WARRIOR

  HANNA HALFBLOOD

  BOOK 3

  Copyright

  Lost Warrior© copyright 2018 Robyn Wideman

  Published: Nov 2018

  Publisher: Magicblood Media Corp

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  23

  24

  25

  Author notes

  1

  Hanna at Sea

  The strong wind raced across the deck of the Bright Eye, blowing Hanna’s hair back, and her blouse rippled across her chest giving the sailors who dared to look a glimpse at her curves. Her bare midriff, flat and toned, showed many scars, and Hanna was proud of them. She’d earned each and every one of them.

  As they sailed east, Hanna admired the speed and responsiveness of their new vessel. The Bright Eye was a small and sleek brigantine they’d captured during an attempted attack from the Black Sword Gang. One of the more notorious pirate organizations. This brigantine was significantly smaller than the merchant ships the Stoneblood Trading Company used, but what it gave up in cargo space it made up with speed and agility. It was no wonder the ship was preferred by pirates.

  “She’s a beauty, Captain,” First Mate Dilare said.

  “Yes. I should send the Black Swords a thank you note.”

  “I’m sure they’d appreciate that,” Dilare said with a smirk. “Just like they appreciate the three other vessels of theirs we’ve destroyed in the last year.”

  Hanna shrugged. “If they value their ships so much perhaps they should stop using them to steal our cargos.”

  Dilare shook her head. “Fat chance that happens. Any merchant ship leaving Northern Solotine is going to be a target.”

  “Yes. You are right.” Hanna knew exactly what Dilare was talking about. The market for black steel weapons had increased dramatically in the last few years. Rumor had it that the Sacred Blood were the biggest buyers and were taking everything they could get their hands on. Why they were hoarding weapons was the mystery. The dragon fanatics turned weapons dealers had plenty of customers, but to Hanna’s knowledge there were no major wars going on. Aside from the far east, the Stoneblood Trading Company had connections in almost every kingdom. None were reporting a war on the scale that would justify the increased demand in weapons. It was something to keep an eye on. But, in the meantime, they would keep destroying, or in the case of the Bright Eye taking, pirate ships that tried to attack them. The positive effect of the increased pirate activity was some of their competitors in the shipping industry had lost entire cargos to pirates and now the Stoneblood Shipping Company was the busiest they’d ever been. Which was why Hanna was using the new ship and not the Lady of the Evening for this voyage. All the merchant ships were fully scheduled, and they couldn’t justify taking one all the way to Caruana on a mission that wasn’t trade related. Sure, they’d loaded enough goods to make it a profitable venture, but still her main reason for the trip was to explore and search for information regarding her missing father.

  The Bright Eye was one of two ships that had attacked the Lady of the Evening because of the mysterious mage who’d wanted her supply of spirit stones. Where the mage was from, or who he worked for, were unknown. The only things Hanna knew was the man wore Caruana leather and had knowledge of her father. Traveling to Caruana was a desperate attempt to find out more about the connection between the mage and her father, but it was the only lead she had. Her father’s disappearance had been a complete mystery. And for the mage to bring up his name had been a shock. Hanna was determined to track down any information she could.

  “Want me to take the wheel. It looks like Tayo is eager for another lesson,” Dilare said.

  Happy for a distraction from her brooding, Hanna nodded. Tayo was growing more like his father every day. Despite not knowing Koyo for most of his life, Tayo was like a younger version of her dear friend. Koyo’s dying request had been a spirit stone for Tayo, so he could connect with his son in a way he’d never been able to in life. Now, Tayo was going through what Hanna had when she’d gained Thorodd’s spirit. Learning to share one’s body with a spirit wasn’t easy.

  “Captain, shall we dance?” Tayo asked with a wink.

  Hanna couldn’t help but smile at the cocky young man. He was basically her own age, but in so many ways seemed younger, more innocent. “Yes, I do believe I could use a little exercise.”

  Hanna stepped towards the weapons rack and, instead of grabbing her axe, picked up a heavy glaive.

  Tayo frowned. She’d never sparred with him using a glaive before. But to his credit he didn’t complain about the new weapon. Instead, he lifted his sword and shield and took a defensive stance.

  Hanna picked up the hefty weapon and let it rest on her shoulder blades. The glaive, aside from her eagle claw daggers, was the first weapon she’d learned to use as a child. She’d thought it had been her father’s influence that made her start with the heavy glaive, but later she’d found out her mother had been the one behind the decision. Her mother had been the one to teach her father to use a glaive, a fact that had come as quite a shock to Hanna, who’d never seen her mother use a weapon.

  Casually walking towards Tayo, Hanna turned and started moving at an angle, making him shift his feet as he waited for her attack. With practiced ease, Hanna suddenly exploded into action. Pulling hard with her right hand, Hanna used her neck as a pivot and the glaive whipped around in a tight arc.

  Tayo raised his shield to block the ferocious attack and her glaive struck the shield. The momentum of the attack sent Tayo sprawling backwards.

  Hanna followed up the whip like motion with a jab, using the glaive like a spear. As she jabbed past the shield she jerked hard, sending the back of her blade into the shield, pushing it to the side. She jabbed again, this time stopping with her blade beside Tayo’s neck.

  Embarrassed by his quick defeat, Tayo looked around at the crew to see if anyone was laughing at his expense. But to his relief no one was. The older crew members had all sparred with Hanna and knew what Tayo was experiencing, and the new members were too in awe of her to dare laugh.

  “What did you do wrong?” Hanna asked as she pulled her blade away from his neck.

  “I’m not sure,” Tayo admitted.

  “Did you not feel Koyo’s spirit? What was it trying to do?” asked Hanna. One of the hardest things about learning to fight with a spirit stone was allowing the spirit to move your body in a way you weren’t intending to move.

  Tayo frowned as he thought about the sequence of events. “My feet weren’t set properly.”

  Hanna nodded. “That was your first mistake. Everything after that just compounded matters. The glaive is a heavy weapon, just like an ax, if you aren’t properly set it will knock you back off balance even with a smaller person like me yielding it. Let’s start again. This time, don’t concentrate so much what you think you need to do. Concentrate on that feeling of Koyo pulling you towards where you need to be. Koyo is far more experienced than you when it comes to sparring against a glaive. Let him guide you.”

  Tayo reset and nodded for Hanna to attack when she was ready.

  Instead of stalking and making him shift, Hanna just attacked. She lunged forward with a double hand overhead attack.

  Tayo flinched then raised his shield. The blow struck his shield and sent him a half step backwards. He was still resisting Koyo’s spirit.

  Knowing how much she’d struggled with the same issues, Hanna just took a step back and let Tayo reset. The only way he was going to learn to fight as a spirit warrior was repetition, or necessity. Some of her own best progress had come from desperation, not practice. There was something about almost dying that liberated one from bad habits. Hopefully, Tayo would learn the longer way through repetition and instruction, not by being faced with death. Hanna attacked again and again. Each time she varied her attacks, not letting him know what was coming and each time Tayo failed. She could see Koyo’s influence, but it was taking him too long to accept it.

  After a solid hour of training, Hanna stopped. “That is enough for today.”

  Tayo looked frustrated and tired.

  “You’re doing fine, Tayo. Learning how to fight as a spirit warrior is very difficult, it goes against most of the training you’ve already learned.”

  “I can feel him, I know when he is pushing and pulling me towards a position, but they feel so unnatural.”

  “Work on your forms then. Don’t even bother with sparring. Just get used to the feel of having that second influence and accepting it. As you become more in sync with how you do each maneuver it only becomes a subtle pull instead of a jarring one. With time you become accustomed to each other and fight as one. That is when you’ll truly understand how powerful you can be. And trust me, learning to fight with one spirit is much easier than multiple.”

  Tayo laughed. “I can’t even imagine. Thank you for the advice.”

  Hanna returned to the helm.

  “He’s good,” Dilare said. “He’s not ready yet, but I can see it. He’ll be a fine
addition to the crew.”

  “And what about our other new crew members? What is your opinion on them?”

  “Toma and Giant? They will be fine. They were on the Drunken Damsel crew for over a year. They can handle themselves,” Dilare said.

  Hanna nodded. She’d been so preoccupied with her own adventures that her role in the company had been reduced. She didn’t know everyone like she once had. Toma was a hard worker but reserved. While Giant, another hard worker, was outgoing, cheerful, and a bit of a joker. His name was more apt as a description of his personality than his physical size as he was the smallest member of the fighting crew. Nino Baz and his son, Lohan, made up the rest of the fighting crew. The rest of the ship’s crew would fight when necessary, but it was the small fighting crew who mattered the most in a fight. It was the fighting crew who would board enemy ships as a counterattack to any attempts to take the ship.

  Hanna’s thoughts were almost prophetic, as one of the crew called down from the crow’s nest. “Sail ho.”

  “It looks like you might get to thank the Black Sword Gang personally,” Dilare said. “If I’m not mistaken that is their flag.”

  It was strange, they were far out of the normal hunting grounds of the Black Sword Gang. The pirates preferred to stay in the waters to the west of Droll, where they could use the vast number of small islands as cover while they stalked the trade routes between Solotine, Droll, Mykoznia, and Creyta. The Bright Eye was already far to the southeast of any of those routes. “What do you think, Dilare?”

  Dilare shielded her eyes as she examined the pirate ship. “They have the advantage if the wind doesn’t shift. I don’t know if we can outrun them. But they are far enough away that it will take a day or two for them to catch us. However, there is a storm on the horizon heading our way, and from the looks of it, a big one.”

  Hanna looked at the black skies ahead and frowned. Their options were limited. Turn and face the pirates, or head into the storm and hope to evade them without fighting. It went against her nature to avoid a fight, but she had a mission to fulfil. With a little luck, it would be a quick little storm and they’d be through it. “OK. Full sails. We’ll give them a run and see what happens. Storm be damned.” Hanna had to smile. She’d never given the command to run away from another ship before. It was a strange thing to do. Normally, her ships were pirate hunters and welcomed the attack. The Lady of the Evening was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but the Bright Eye was a different story, it was a darting little fox.

  ...

  The Bright eye careened with the crashing waves, dancing atop the raging seas as a perilous storm threatened to tear the sails from the mast. Lightning ripped through the sky, lighting the impossibly dark clouds with a glowing neon blue. The thunder and the torrential rain sung a song so loud and fierce that Hanna was unable to hear her crew as they readied for battle.

  The deck was the furthest thing from stable as the ship ebbed and flowed with the waves. The ship tipped to the left, allowing a giant wave to crash upon the deck. The icy-cold waters chilled Hanna upon first touch but she had more important things to worry about than freezing to death. This was a storm like she’d never seen before.

  The wind whipped her hair across her face as she stared over the railing of the ship. Just a few meters to the right of them was the ship of their enemy, the Black Sword Gang. The pirates had followed them for the previous twenty-four hours. Hanna had hoped they would turn around once they saw the storm approaching but they followed them into the dangerous tides and now, they were stuck in the precarious situation of simply waiting.

  Waiting for the storm to pass or waiting for their ships to collide. Hanna wasn’t optimistic for the former. She wasn’t worried about taking the pirates head-on in battle—even with a smaller crew, she’d easily be able to dispatch them, if only the weather permitted. She was worried that neither she or the other crew were going to be able to steady their ships and avoid the both of them sinking to the depths at the bottom of the seas.

  There was a reason sailors and pirates never ventured too far southeast. The farther one travelled south or east, the more dangerous it became. Caruana was as far east as most sailors ever ventured to travel, and it was too far from Solotine to be part of their normal trade routes, but she reasoned that she didn’t have a choice. The mage had mentioned her father by name and there was nothing in the world that was going to stop her from following up on that lead; not the deadliest of storms and not some stinking pirates.

  Tayo stood on one side of her and Dilare stood on the other.

  “We’re taking on too much water,” Dilare screamed, her wet hair flat against her head and raindrops spattering against her lips.

  Hanna only nodded to indicate she had heard her. They were at the mercy of the seven hells and all they could do was wait. She kept a close eye on the other ship though to make sure they didn’t attempt anything.

  Standing guard near the edge of the railing, Nino Baz and his son were in place with their swords drawn. They were prepared to disenfranchise any cross-ship boarding. But not even pirates were crazy enough to attempt such an act of stupidity during such a cruel and unusual storm. At least she hoped they weren’t that crazy.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Hanna watched as Toma and Giant secured themselves to the main pole. It wasn’t a bad idea as many a sailor had fallen overboard in far calmer seas than this.

  A bolt of lightning tunneled into the sea in the near distance. There was no end in sight for the storm and the pirate ship was too close, they were in danger of being smashed and likely capsized. Hanna could no longer wait. She needed to do something. She grabbed hold of Tayo’s shoulder and ordered for him to follow her.

  They ran around the cabin along a narrow corridor between planks of wood on either side of them. Their boots slushed through the ankle-high water and, just as they were about to reach the stern, the ships collided.

  Hanna stumbled backward, her head slamming against the wooden wall behind her. She watched, almost in slow motion, as Tayo’s body was thrown over the side of the ship, landing on the deck of the enemies’ ship.

  There was no time to think. There was no time to weigh her options. She instinctively reached for her glaive, but it was back at the helm, so she grabbed a dagger from her boot instead and jumped from the Bright Eye and onto the pirate’s ship.

  She readied the weapon in front of her as a crew of pirates raced towards her. She was outnumbered, outflanked, and on enemy territory. Worst of all, Tayo didn’t seem to be conscious, so she was all alone.

  If it weren’t for the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that her ship was about to sink to the bottom of the sea, it would have been a far less difficult fight, but she was too distracted. She stepped over Tayo’s body and readied herself to fight with the dagger in one hand and the shield in the other.

  She dispatched of the first two pirates with ease. The first she sent over the railing and into the cold sea with the blunt of her shield, and she kicked the other one backwards with her foot. By the time he recovered, she stuck her knife in his gut and kicked him backwards once more, just in time for another pirate to trample over his dying body.

  From within, she could feel the three spirits vying for control. They weren’t working in unison as she had become accustomed to. It worried her that the three of them wrestled with each other for control because it made her feel as if they were afraid.

  She was afraid, and Hanna Halfblood was never afraid. It had to have had something to do with the reason she was out on the high seas in the first place. She was so close to following up on the only lead she had ever had since her father went missing, and she was damned if she was going to go down without a fight.

  The storm weighed heavily on her and she was tired, but no matter how bad things looked, she wasn’t the type of girl to give up. She prepared herself for the next onslaught of pirates. She closed her eyes for the shortest of moments and worked to calm the infighting between the three spirits. She allowed her grandfather’s calm strength in, allowed her mentor’s steady hand, and, finally, allowed the fortitude of the demon.

  She was one step ahead of each of the men as they tried to take her over. Each of them either ended on the deck in a pool of blood or were thrown over the side. Once she had dispatched them all, she placed the dagger back into her boot.