The Rise of the Dawnstar (The Avalonia Chronicles Book 2)

only way I was ever going to be able to do that was to master my powers and push myself as far as I could go. I would not give up, not this time.
“Tell me more about Santino,” I asked Brandon as we watched the sailors fight.
“What would you like to know?” Brandon kept his voice low.
“If he is a pirate, how does he hold so much power in Brandor?”
Brandon thought for a moment before answering. “He’s not a pirate anymore.” He turned from watching Santino spar, placed his hands on the railing, and gazed out to sea. “In his younger days, Santino was indeed a pirate. The most dangerous pirate who ever sailed the five seas.”
“So why did he give it up?”
“About a decade ago, there was an incident in Brandor that caused the five families to fight among each other, plunging Brandor into the bloody depths of a civil war. Assassinations and killings were rampant in the desert kingdom, and Santino’s elder brother was murdered. That was when Santino’s father summoned him back. But by then Santino had already amassed an army of his own, consisting of highly trained fighters, pirates, and mercenaries. He responded to the other emirs with sure ferocity, and he subdued the rest of the nobility, bringing peace back to a once-troubled kingdom.”
“What happened to the other emirs and the Council of Five?” This was a whole history of a kingdom I had no idea about; I was intrigued.
“Santino appointed a new Council of Five, including only noble families who supported him and his father. But everyone knows the council is ruled by Roderigo Valasis because the might of Santino’s army keeps them in their place.”
Santino had finished sparring and was putting his shirt back on while giving orders to his men.
I squared my shoulders and walked up to the pirate prince. He turned toward me, eyeing my clothes. “Suits you,” he said, buckling his sword belt around his waist. “Although I do prefer a woman in a dress.”
I ignored his comment. “Teach me to fight like you,” I blurted.
His amber eyes twinkled with amusement as he considered my request. “That could take a while.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, looking around at the ship. The journey to Brandor would take more than a few days if the winds were in our favor, longer if not, and all I had was time.
Santino grinned. “It would be my pleasure, Princess Firedrake. But I must warn you, I will not go easy on you.”
“I look forward to it.”
The days aboard the Starfire went by quickly, with most of my time spent sparring with Santino on the deck. I made friends with most of the sailors as they stopped their work to watch their captain teach me to fight. They joined in from time to time to assist Santino when he needed more than one opponent to demonstrate what he wanted me to learn.
He taught me moves I wouldn’t have even dreamed of, and I was getting better at using daggers. They were my weapon of choice, although Santino did not let me learn with real daggers like Rafe did. We trained with small wooden sticks, making it far easier for me to master some of the moves.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Santino said, laughing, when I questioned him on when we would use real weapons.
I was knocked down more times than I could count. But I welcomed the beatings, each one reminding me I had so much more to learn.
“Get up!” yelled Santino after a particularly hard session. “Your last teacher was surprisingly soft on you.”
I pushed myself up from the damp wooden deck. “I guess Rafe was not the right person for the job.”
Santino laughed. “No, probably not. I think he must have been more interested in courting you instead of teaching you to fight.”
I tried to look indignant but ended up blushing. “It wasn’t like that. A lot of the time was spent on magical training, that’s all.”
Santino didn’t say anything but gave me a knowing look and went about commanding his ship.
I walked back to my room, a mass of bumps and bruises. But he was right, Rafe had been going easy on me. Giving me time to adjust, but what I actually needed was to be pushed to my potential. I couldn’t blame him, and it was endearing to know he wanted to protect me. But the truth was no one could protect me now. I was the one who had to protect myself and everyone else from Morgana, who wanted to destroy everything my ancestors had built.
“How did you become a pirate?” I asked Santino one day after a particularly hard training session that lasted the whole morning. I didn’t get knocked down as many times as I usually did, so I considered it a good day. We had been sailing for eight days and would be reaching the port city of Sanria soon.
Santino smiled. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got nothing but time.”
“Well, all that fighting has left me famished. I would be honored if you would join me for lunch.”
I followed Santino to his cabin. Since I’d come aboard this ship, I usually ate lunch with Brandon, who insisted on instructing the cook on how to create Eldorean dishes. Apparently, the Brandorian spices were too hard on his stomach. I hardly ever saw Katerina, who stayed in her cabin complaining of seasickness; I was glad she wasn’t around.
I was curious as to what the captain’s cabin looked like, and it was the first time Santino had invited me here. It was a beautifully crafted space with walls of gleaming wood and polished brass handles. A bed lay along one wall, decorated with sumptuous crimson cushions. A big desk in the middle of the room was littered with ledgers, charts, and what looked like a map of Avalonia. He went about clearing papers off his desk, and the steward came in to lay out an assortment of food