Princess Elodi's Arc

Chapter 50 of 55

The storm hit at nightfall, just as Blackwell had warned. Rain drove sideways across the deck. The Serpent Corsair rolled hard, its black rig groaning against the wind. Elodi had lashed down the crates and sent her father below with the otter. But when she counted heads, one was missing. Emmy stood frozen near the mast, clutching her stuffed griffin, staring up at the churning sky. Thunder cracked overhead. Emmy screamed and ran. She bolted across the pitching deck toward the rail, blind with fear. Elodi's heart stopped. One slip on the wet planks would throw the girl into the black sea. "Emmy, no!" she shouted. But the wind swallowed her voice. Isla moved first. The island guide had crossed this reef and knew the sea's cruelty better than anyone aboard. She lunged and caught the back of Emmy's gown, dragging her from the rail. "Hold onto me!" Isla yelled. Then a wave broke over the deck. The wall of water knocked them both flat and washed Emmy sliding backward toward the open stern. Elodi threw herself down. Her aunt Ella scrambled beside her, both women grabbing for the girl's flailing hands. Their fingers closed on Emmy's wrists. Elodi's boots skidded on the soaked wood. "Pull!" she cried. Together she and Ella hauled Emmy back, inch by inch, against the drag of the sea. King Erik burst up from the ladder. He saw his niece sliding and dove. His arms wrapped around Emmy's waist and locked tight. He pulled her against his chest and would not let go. Emmy sobbed into his shoulder, soaked to the bone but safe. The deck was death now. Another wave loomed. Elodi grabbed the leather straps of the griffin, which crouched lashed near the mast for shelter. The beast's tan feathers were plastered flat, its blue harness slick with rain. "Everyone, to the griffin!" Elodi shouted. She pulled the straps hard, hand over hand, dragging her family across the tilting deck toward the one solid anchor she could find. Isla reached it first and gripped the harness. Ella followed, then Erik with Emmy clamped against him. They huddled in the griffin's lee as it hunched over them like a wall of fur and feather. The next wave crashed and broke around them, but the beast held its ground. No one slipped. No one fell. When the wind eased, Elodi looked at the small circle of faces. Everyone breathed. Everyone lived. Emmy still shook, but her fear had a shape now, and her family held her. Blackwell fought her way down from the wheel, rain streaming off her. "We rode it out," the captain said. "But that storm dragged us off course. We're not where we should be." She wiped her eyes and stared into the dark ahead. "By dawn we'll see what these waters brought us to."