The Bandits of Goldharbour: A Tale of Realmgard

By J.B. Norman

Kat Darkstone is looking forward to a nice, quiet vacation in the beautiful seaside city of Goldharbour. Amara Valda is looking forward to showing her best friend around all of Goldharbour's most happening places. Dunstana Darkstone is looking forward to meeting the living legends of the Brotherhood of the Coasts at their annual assembly.

Dirk Broadsword and Alison Steel, the most-wanted bandits in Realmgard are looking forward to continuing their legendary crime spree.

As Dunstana crosses paths with Realmgard’s best and brightest pirates, Kat and Amara find themselves crossing paths with the infamous Bandits of Goldharbour.

Does Dunstana have what it takes to make a name for herself among her fellow pirates? Does Kat have what it takes to protect her mother and best friend from the ruthless, greedy Bandits of Goldharbour?

Is Amara wearing the right shoes for an encounter with bandits?

Open up the latest Realmgard story and find out!

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.B. Norman
• Release date: Oct 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005913106

J.B. Norman

J.B. Norman lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where he pretty much lives and breathes writing. When he is not writing his own books, he is editing books written by somebody else. He wanted to write a book since he was about nine years old; upon discovering that "Viking" was no longer a viable career option, he finally sat down and did it.

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The Bandits of Goldharbour: A Tale of Realmgard

J.B. Norman

Published by J.B. Norman at Smashwords.

Copyright 2021 J.B. Norman.

Cover Art Copyright 2021 Joel Balkovec.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, locations, and events are either products of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously.

This book is available in print at select online retailers.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

www.realmgard.com

Table of Contents

First Page

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

About the Author

To the Carleton University College of the Humanities Class of 2013.

Please, don’t take this dedication of a book about pirates and burglars as an insult.

Chapter 1

Kat Darkstone would like to tell you about her family’s vacation.

Mostly, she hates it.

They’re spending a week in the Free Mercantile City of Goldharbour. Since Goldharbour doesn’t feel very different from her hometown of the Free Mercantile City of Porthaven, Kat doesn’t really feel much like she’s even on vacation. She doesn’t have to leave home to spend her time wondering just what the heck a Free Mercantile City even is.

The locale isn’t the only reason that Kat has been less than enthused about this vacation. The truth is, the vacation isn’t even for her sake. The Darkstones have come to Goldharbour for the ninety-third annual general meeting of the Brotherhood of the Coasts, the pre-eminent association of Realmgard’s pirates. Which is yet another reason why the vacation doesn’t feel like one. She’s surrounded by pirates back in Porthaven, too.

And that is precisely why her plan for her time in Goldharbour is to be as far from the Brotherhood’s meeting as possible. On the other hand, her dad and sister, Admiral Dorian and Captain Dunstana Darkstone, being firmly engrained in the Darkstone tradition of piracy, will be spending their every waking moment cavorting with the other members of the Brotherhood.

The highlight undoubtedly will be the annual Brotherhood Award ceremony. They call the awards the Sharkies, on account of their being shaped like sharks. Back at Darkstone Manor, the Admiral has a whole row of little golden sharks lined up across the mantel.

When no one’s around, Kat uses them for target practice.

The one upside Kat can see to this whole expedition to Goldharbour is that her best friend, the ridiculously rich Amara Valda, is also vacationing in the ridiculously rich city of Goldharbour, visiting her ridiculously rich relatives.

They’ll be meeting up in the morning.

If she can survive until morning, that is.

Tonight seems to be lasting forever, thanks in large part to Kat finding herself sleeping in the worst bed that has ever existed.

Actually, Kat reflects grumpily, ‘sleeping’ is probably the wrong word. So is ‘in’, for that matter. Thanks to her sister’s sleeping habits, Kat has been forced off the bed and onto the cold, hard floor.

Move over, Dunstana, an exhausted Kat tells her sister, pulling herself back up onto the bed.

"Snoooooooooooore," goes the sleeping Dunstana. On top of everything else, Dunstana snores, too.

This is precisely why Kat hates vacations.

The bed isn’t even that small. There’s no reason why they can’t both fit. Except, of course, for the fact that Dunstana insists on stretching herself out like a starfish in the middle of the bed, with a Princess Moonflower doll on either side. There’s probably enough space left on the bed for Kat, just not in any shape she could possibly fit herself into. Unless, perhaps, she were an octopus, or some kind of eel.

"Move over," Kat says again, striving to push Dunstana towards the far side of the bed.

Still sleeping blissfully, Dunstana goes "Snrrrk" and promptly rolls back to the middle.

Even in her sleep-deprived state, Kat recognises that she isn’t going to win this fight. She wrestles a pillow and a sheet free from underneath Dunstana and sulks over to the couch. Flopping down on the couch, Kat soon finds to her misfortune that it is upholstered in the itchiest, roughest material in the world and that her long legs dangle over the armrest.

She is left bathed in the moonlight streaming through the window, staring at the shadows at play on the ceiling, trying to fit on a too-short, too-itchy couch while trying to cover herself with a too-short, too-thin sheet. Dunstana, meanwhile, continues to snore away on the bed.

On the plus side, Kat doesn’t have to share the couch.

Much to her surprise when she wakes up, Kat realises that she did somehow manage to fall asleep. With the sunrise comes the realisation that whether in Porthaven, or Goldharbour, or anywhere else in Realmgard’s