Princess Elodi's Arc

Chapter 36 of 55

Blackwell spread a chart across the table. Her finger stopped on a small mark far to the west. "There," she said. "That is where the sister was born. If she still lives, she lives near that shore." Elodi leaned close. The mark sat past a wide stretch of open blue. Hope rose in her chest. She had a heading at last. Then Blackwell measured the distance with two fingers and shook her head. "But hear me. This sea is wider than any map shows. Your father learned that the hard way." She looked at Elodi. "That is likely why he never sailed home. He could get lost with a full crew and a good ship. Lost, he had no way back." Elodi's stomach dropped. "How long to reach it?" "By sail, near a month," Blackwell said. "If the wind is kind. If the sea lets us pass." "A month." Elodi sank onto the bench. The otter climbed into her lap and she held it without thinking. "We came by griffin in days. Surely there is a faster way." "Not across this water." Blackwell's voice went low. "These waters are not empty. There are creatures below that swallow ships whole. There are singers on the rocks who lure men to drown. I have lost sailors to both." She tapped the chart. "A month is the cost of doing it right. Rush, and you feed the sea." Damon spoke from the shadow by the door. "Not even I have crossed water like this. My griffin failed halfway and dropped us on your deck. We cannot fly it further." He crossed to Elodi. "A ship is our only road now." Elodi stared at the chart. A month at sea, past monsters, past singers, chasing a shore she had never seen. Every part of her wanted a shortcut. But she remembered her father, lost because he trusted the sea to be small. She would not make his mistake. She stood and faced Blackwell. "Then I sail with you. The full month. However long it takes." She swallowed. "You owe my father a debt. Pay it by carrying me to his sister." Blackwell studied her for a long moment. Something in her hard face eased. "Aye," she said. "I will carry you." She rolled the chart and tucked it under her arm. "But understand this. Once we leave, there is no turning back for a storm or a monster or a change of heart. We commit, or we do not go." "I commit," Elodi said. Blackwell nodded and stepped onto the deck. She shouted orders up into the black rig. Sailors sprang to the lines. The great dark sails caught the wind, and the carved serpent at the prow swung west toward open water. Elodi gripped the rail as the ship heeled and began to move. The shore behind them shrank. Ahead lay a month of sea, and somewhere across it, the only person alive who could lead her to her father.