Princess Elodi's Arc

Chapter 41 of 55

Isla led Elodi down the green slope to the sand. The Serpent Corsair waited offshore, its black sails furled, the carved serpent glaring from its prow. A small boat rowed them out. Isla had promised to sail with them, but a promise on the beach meant nothing. Captain Blackwell decided who boarded her ship. Elodi had won the captain's trust with hard work and honest words. Now she needed the captain to trust a stranger. Damon stood on deck, loading barrels of fresh water, coconuts, and dried fish. When he saw Elodi, he set a barrel down and ran to her. He caught her waist and spun her once in the air. "I missed your face," he said, grinning. "And I yours," Elodi laughed. She steadied herself and gestured to the island girl beside her. "This is Princess Isla. She'll help us, if Blackwell allows her on the ship." Damon's smile faded to caution. He glanced toward the stern, where the captain stood watching them. Blackwell crossed the deck in slow steps. Her short dark hair hung flat in the salt wind. Her dark eyes moved over Isla, from the vines in her braids to the spear in her hand. "You bring me a passenger," she said to Elodi. "My ship is not a ferry." "She's a guide," Elodi said. "She has sailed the western passage twice. She knows the reefs. And she saw my father with her own eyes, eleven years ago." Blackwell turned to Isla. "Is that true? The passage past the reef?" Isla did not flinch. She planted her spear against the deck. "The sirens sing loudest near the black rocks," she said. "Sail too close and your crew jumps into the sea. I know where the current runs safe. Your charts do not." The captain studied her a long moment. A gull cried overhead. "You speak plainly," Blackwell said. "I like that. But the sea does not care what you know until it tests you." "Then test me," Isla said. Blackwell almost smiled. She looked to Elodi, then back to the island girl. "Erik lived because these islands gave him shelter," she said quietly. "Perhaps his daughter will live the same way." She nodded once. "You sail with us. Stow your spear and take your place at the bow. I want your eyes on the water, not on my crew." Relief flooded through Elodi. She gripped Isla's arm. The last stretch of empty sea now had a path, and someone aboard who knew it. The crew hauled the anchor. Sails dropped and caught the wind. The Serpent Corsair turned its serpent prow toward the west, where the reef and the singing rocks waited. Elodi stood at the rail beside Damon and watched the island shrink behind them. "One month," Damon said. "Then we find your father and his sister if she lives”