Princess Elodi's Arc

Chapter 44 of 55

Three weeks had passed since the reef. The water ran flat and empty each day, and the crew grew thin from short rations. Elodi worked the rigging beside Isla, her hands hard now from the ropes. She no longer counted the days. Then a shout came from above. Damon leaned out of the crow's nest, one arm flung toward the horizon. "Land at last! Land and a castle!" His hawk Midnight burst into the air and circled his head. Elodi dropped the line and ran to the bow. Isla came with her, her braided hair loose in the wind. Far ahead, gray towers rose from a rocky shore. A great stone castle stood above the surf, its high walls weathered and streaked with green vines. Battlements notched the sky. Isla pointed at it, her brown eyes wide. "I wonder who lives inside those walls," she said. Elodi did not know. She only knew this was the shore her father had sailed toward. "Whoever they are," she said, "I hope they are kind. We need passage inside, and someone must know the way to my father's sister." She gripped the rail. After a month of open sea, land felt strange and too solid to believe. Blackwell drove the ship toward a narrow inlet below the castle. The crew hauled the sails tight. Elodi climbed the rigging without being told and pulled the lines fast, her fear of heights long gone. Isla called the reef signs from the bow, and the hull slid past the last black rocks. The keel scraped sand. They had made land. Elodi jumped down to the deck. Her legs shook, unused to stillness. Damon climbed down from the nest and gripped her shoulder. "We did it," he said. "The crossing is behind us." Midnight settled on his wrist. Above them the castle loomed, its iron gate shut, two green banners hanging still against the stone. Then the gate groaned. A line of armed figures marched out along the shore toward the beached ship. Their spears caught the light. Elodi's breath caught. She had crossed a month of deadly water to reach this place, and now its people came for her with weapons drawn. Blackwell drew her sword at the wheel. "Steady," the captain called down. "We do not run." Elodi stepped to the rail before anyone could stop her. She was done hiding. "We come in peace!" she shouted across the sand. "I search for my father, King Erik. He passed this way years ago." The armed line halted. One figure lowered a spear and stared up at her, still and silent. Elodi's heart hammered. She had reached the shore. Now she had to prove she belonged on it.