Princess Elodi's Arc

Chapter 45 of 55

The armed line stood frozen on the sand. Elodi gripped the rail, waiting for a spear to rise. Instead the ranks parted. A white horse burst through them at a gallop, hooves throwing wet sand. A man rode low over its neck, his red cloak snapping behind him. He wore a gold crown set with orange stones. Elodi knew that crown. She had watched it catch candlelight when she was seven years old. Her breath stopped. "Father." King Erik reined the horse hard. It skidded and reared. He swung down before it settled and stared up at the ship, one hand shading his eyes. His dark beard had gray in it now. His face was thinner than she remembered. But the eyes were the same pale brown that had looked down at her the last night he named the stars. "Who calls for Erik?" he shouted. His voice shook. "Who knows that name on this shore?" Elodi could not speak. She climbed over the rail and dropped to the sand. Her legs buckled and she caught herself. She walked toward him, her orange gown heavy with sea spray. "It's me," she managed. "Elodi. Your daughter." He went still. His arm dropped from his face. He searched her, the braided bun, the boots, the woman standing where a small girl should have been. "Elodi was seven," he whispered. "Elodi is a child." "Not anymore." Tears cut down her cheeks. "You showed me the stars. Then you sailed away. I followed one of them here." Erik crossed the sand between them in three strides. He seized her shoulders as if to prove she was solid. Then he folded her against his chest and held on. She felt his arms shaking. He smelled of horse and salt and something faint she had forgotten until now. "Eleven years," he said into her hair. "I sent a letter. I never knew it reached you. I never dared hope." He pulled back and gripped her face in both hands. "You crossed the reef. You crossed all that water. To find me." "I did." Behind her boots scraped the deck. Captain Blackwell swung down over the ship's side and landed on the sand. She walked to the king and held out her hand. "After weeks of searching," she said, "I bring you your daughter, Erik." Erik gripped her hand hard, then pulled the captain into an embrace. "You kept your debt," he said. "You kept it beyond anything I asked." He turned back to Elodi and swept an arm toward the towers rising above the surf. "Come, my child. You and your people are worn thin. Rest inside these walls tonight." He looked at the gaunt crew lining the rail. "We will speak in the morning, when your feet trust the ground again." Elodi looked up at the gray castle where her father lived. She had found him. Now she had to learn how to bring him home.