Page 16 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

“I don’t know,” she said around a wave of weariness. “I’m going back to bed. However,” she said, with a significant glance at everyone gathered around her, “If this should occur again, I will defend myself. Again. I am no helpless princess.”

She directed that last remark at her stepmother.

Then she darted around Felix and ducked back to her tent. Pulling the flaps together was not nearly as satisfying as slamming a door might have been, but shutting them all out was the only defense she had against the flood of emotions building inside her.

“Reva…” Cassandra’s irritated voice rose from behind the tent canvas.

“Good night, stepmother!”

Her pulse thundered in her ears as she braced herself for a quarrel with her only living relative. But shuffling feet in the sand suggested everyone was moving away. She caught snatches of conversation, such as: “Stand guard…Watch her closer…”

She sat down on her mattress, facing the tent flap, and willed her taut muscles to unwind. Tears burned behind her eyes as the adrenaline faded and left her feeling weak and sick. The shadow of a guard pacing outside her tent brought her no comfort.

She let herself cry because no one was watching. Wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand, she lay down facing the tent opening, clutching her dagger in her hand and wondered if she’d have to endure another attack tonight.

Could she trust her own guards? She wanted to because she’d known them most of her life.

She still didn’t think Felix was capable of this. So who else did that leave? Jareth, who could have killed her on the beach but hadn’t? Or Rency, who had been her off and on ally for nearly two years now? While he wasn’t particularly likable, he’d never done anything to suggest he wished to harm her.

Annoy her half to death, yes—but harm her? No.

Who else did that leave? Cassandra? Reva swayed as exhaustion crept over her in pulsing waves. That wasn’t an accusation she wanted to make without solid proof. While she had no love for her stepmother, she’d never seen her do anything that suggested she was more than a conniving courtier who wanted fancy gowns and jewels.

Her mind tumbled over the problem again and again until she grew too weary of trying to unscramble motives and fell asleep.

Something warm and damp pressed against her cheek. Reva’s eyes snapped open, and she struggled to focus on the pink blob beside her face.

Yowling, she bolted into a seated position, grappling for the dagger beside her bedroll. Sunlight streamed through the crack in the tent opening.

“Sand and pearls!” she said to the baby kraken nestled on her pillow. “You horrible, rotten little beasty! You almost gave me a heart attack. What are you doing here?”

The tiny blob of tentacles and suction cups unfurled like a flower opening its velvety petals to the sun. Calix stretched his many arms and blinked his dark, pearl-shaped eyes. A sound reverberated from him, like…like…

“Are you purring?” Reva pushed her messy braid over her shoulder. “For crying out loud. Have you adopted me or something? Because I certainly didn’t adopt you.”

In response, the tiny creature only purred louder and stretched a tentacle toward her. She hesitated and then offered a wary fingertip. Calix coiled his warm appendage around her pointer finger. Before she realized what he was up to, the kraken had begun to coil around her hand and was oozing up her arm, making sucking noises as he crawled across her skin.

“Oh no. Pearls, no! Yuck. Ew. Just…ew!”

She tried to grab him, but the squishy feel of the kraken’s body beneath her fingers nearly made her wretch. Squeezing her eyes closed and bracing for the most unpleasant experience of her life, she let it crawl up to her elbow and then over to her side. She peeked down as the kraken oozed his way into the pocket of her trousers, where he curled into a warm, vibrating ball.

Despite herself, Reva cracked a smile. “Well, I guess that isn’t so bad. But don’t get used to it, Blob. I’m giving you back to Prince Jareth the first chance I get, I promise you that.”

Reva loosened her braided hair, brushed out the long, black tresses, then hastily re-plaited it into a tight braid that should stand up against the sun, wind, and sea. When she reached for clean clothing from her sea chest, her outstretched arm showed off the slashed sleeve and bloodied bandage from Rency’s shirt—a visible reminder of last night’s attack.

Reva shivered.

Reva pushed these thoughts away as she pulled a clean tunic and skirt from her travel pack. The skirt she’d chosen was one of her own design, with several straps and buckles to hoist the skirt up above her knees in the front, leaving her free for movement. It exposed her trousers and knee-high boots gloriously.

Cassandra hated this skirt.

Reva grinned as she slipped her favorite pendant over her head—a gift from her father for her thirteenth birthday—and then reached for her earrings. She’d taken them off the night before, placing them in a tiny box she’d set on the ground next to her pack. The pearls—woven together with sea stones in a small, intricate knot—had once belonged to her mother.

“Where are they?” she asked, growing frustrated when she could find neither the box nor the earrings.

Exasperated, Reva sifted through everything in her tent, desperately searching for the tiny box. It had probably gotten tossed about during last night’s attack. It seemed the most logical explanation, and yet, try as she might, she could not find the box or earrings.

A heavy sense of discouragement settled over her shoulders. Could the attack have been motivated by theft rather than murder? But who would go through so much trouble for such inexpensive earrings, whose value lay in sentiment not the gems it boasted?

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