Empress of the Sea

Chapter Fourteen

Elesa could not sit still. The captain had returned to business as usual, taking half of the sailors with him, including Hendric. With nothing to do, Elesa paced up and down the sand and back and forth from shore to forest. The departure date was looming ever nearer, and yet she did not feel as if she had accomplished anything.

The captain was prepared to tell the emperor that the island was perfect for whatever he wished, and Elesa felt that to agree would please her father, but her own beliefs did not seem to align with Captain Arion's. She told herself that it did not matter, that her purpose on the island was not to serve herself, but to please her father--to gain his trust.

If telling him the island was perfect for his plans was the way to gain that trust, then that was what she needed to do. As she walked, she convinced herself of this plan.

Towards the afternoon, Elesa was testing Luhn's limits, walking a little bit farther from the camp at each turn. The first mate either did not notice or chose to ignore her. Whatever his reasons, Elesa was glad because the camp was so small that she was beginning to feel cramped within its confines.

Each time she took five steps farther than the time before. She did not see the harm in it since the camp would be in sight no matter how far down the beach she walked. Once she had taken those five steps, Elesa stopped and glanced back toward Luhn, sitting by the fire and working intently on his most recent whittling project.

She wanted to walk farther. She wanted to continue walking until her legs felt sufficiently stretched. The proposition was tempting, but Elesa knew she should not. Just as she was turning around to walk back to the camp, a glimpse of silver out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.

Elesa turned to face the forest and watched, uncertain if she had really seen something. As she stared, she saw it again; a flash of silver hair between the branches. It was the woman. With a start, Elesa began to walk towards the forest. She stopped at its edge, peering into the darkness and feeling the cool air wrapping around her exposed skin.

Another flicker of silver, and her heart was beating faster. The woman obviously wanted her to follow, but did Elesa dare to enter the forest alone? Someone would surely notice that she was missing, but the proposition was tempting.

After another moment of indecision, Elesa pushed forward, ignoring the part of her that thought it was a bad idea. There was no time to rethink her decision because the flashes of silver were moving farther away, and Elesa had to walk quickly to keep them in sight.

She did not know where the woman was leading her. She could not even be sure it was the woman leading her, but she strode onward, deeper into the trees. The nervous feeling in her stomach and the cool air made her shiver, and every so often she had to pause because she had lost sight of the silver.

Eventually, Elesa stumbled out of the trees and found the waterfall before her. In her concentration, she had not even heard the rushing water, but now it was all that filled her ears. Until a woman's voice broke through and suddenly the waterfall did not sound loud any longer.

"Hello again, emperor's daughter."

There was something different about the silver-haired woman this time. She shimmered before the spring, her figure blending into the image of the water behind her. Elesa had not even noticed her at first. And her voice. It was bubbly, eager; overexcited, even.

"I'm so glad you decided to join me," she gushed, hands fluttering around her waist as if she did not know what to do with herself.

Elesa stared openly. The woman was the same as the one she had seen before, but this time she appeared differently. Her dress and hair seemed to blend into the spring water behind her and her eyes shimmered in a way that made Elesa wonder if they were as deep as the ocean, too. The emperor's daughter was tongue-tied.