Pirates of the Lily Rose
an excerpt

They sent three men over, two were obviously bodyguards, and meant to intimidate. If I assumed the rest of the crew on that ship were like these two, the intimidation would work. They were burly, biceps bulging out of their black shirts. They wore saffron baldrics to hold their swords, and matching bandanas around their necks. Their eyes were like steel, cutting through everything they were looking at. Both had scruffy looking beards on their square jaws. The only difference between them was their hair, one was light brown, the other tar with small flecks of grey beginning to seep in.

The third man must have been the inspector. He was much smaller, and his black tunic and pants were covered by his saffron overcoat. He was not scrawny, but compared to his companions he was small. He carried with him a small parchment, a quill, and the smallest vial of ink I had ever seen. The vial had a small cork stopper, and the inspector was able to open the vial, dip his quill in, and stopper the vial again in a very swift, practiced motion.

The inspector’s face showed his youth, his soft brown eyes were still bright with excitement; his russet beard was just starting to come in. For the first time just a bit of me was glad we were running as merchants and not pirates. I’d hate to kill him.