Despite their disagreements, her cousin was loyal to her.
Always.
“Thank you,” Elea said, and felt a drop of water fall on her head from the deck above. She raised her hand to wipe it off her forehead before realizing it wasn’t seawater. It was blood. Her head started to swim and she felt dizzy.
Nora grabbed her by the shoulders. “Seven purgatories! You can’t faint now. We don’t have time for it.”
“What are we going to do?” Elea asked, trying to regain her composure and her footing.
“I don’t know,” Nora snapped, stepping farther away from her.
“Can’t you use your strength?”
While Elea’s gift was discernment, Nora had the strength of ten men. But her cousin shook her head again. “Even if we were to fight our way out of this room, we are in the middle of the ocean. What would be our next move? I can’t possibly win against two full naval crews.”
Elea’s whole body shivered. They were trapped in their cabin and their enemy was coming. She heard footfalls on the stairs. “They are going to be upon us in seconds.”
“I need more time to think,” Nora said, pushing their bed against the door to barricade them inside. She knelt down, holding it into place.
Elea stood doing nothing, frustrated that, once again, she was depending on her powerful cousin to save her. Then they heard the sound of someone turning the doorknob to their cabin. For a moment, Elea thought that they might push through the door and the bed, but Nora was too strong for them.
“Do you want me to help?” Elea asked.
“No, my queen,” her cousin said sharply. “Stay clear. They’re going to get an ax and break down the door. I don’t want you to get cut again. Infections can be deadly.”
Elea backed up until her rear was against the wall of the ship. The other ship was so close that she could have reached out her hand through the porthole and touched it.
Crunch.
Elea saw a hint of silver slice through the wooden door. Nora was right. The Kauls were going to destroy the door to get to them. Elea cringed each time the ax hit the door.
Chop.
Chop.
Chop.
Their time was running out.
She could now see the black of their uniforms through the holes in the door. Nora stopped holding the bed and took three enormous steps to her side. “I have a plan.”
“What?!” Elea asked desperately.
“Don’t say a word.”
“That’syour plan?”
Without Nora barricading the door, the Kaulish sailors easily broke through the rest of it. The first man to come into the room was young, probably mid-twenties. He was hatless, with curly black hair and golden-brown skin. He was built like a bull, with enormous arms and thick legs. But he was not much taller than Elea. His mouth opened and he looked at Elea and her cousin as if he were fascinated. His scent was a mixture of salt, sea, and curiosity.
He pointed to their hair. “It’s true. They have violet hair.”
Elea touched her dark purple curls. It was physical proof that she and her cousin were descended from the great Queen Eleanora, beloved daughter of the goddess Màthair. The creator of the earth who had lived over five hundred years ago.
“Your informant was correct, Admiral Rapace,” he continued. “These are the Urkan princesses my father is looking for.” He spoke in Kaulish. Probably assuming that she and Nora only knew the high tongue spoken by all aristocrats in Urka and the continent.
“Are you sure, Captain Batard?” the admiral replied in Kaulish as he entered the cabin. He was older, with a weather-beaten face and iron-gray hair. On his black uniform, he proudly wore the four bars that signified his rank.
Batardmeant . . . “Illegitimate,” Elea whispered.