Page 14 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

“You should try to sleep,” Jareth said at last, his tone more subdued than it had been. “I want to go back into the cove. Continue my search to see if I’ve missed anything.”

She nodded and shook off the clinging web of her own unease. Jareth didn’t wait for a further response but slipped under the waves, disappearing into the dark water with a gentle splash.

Reva retraced her steps across the narrow beach and stooped to enter her tent, brushing off her feet before lying down on her mattress again. With any luck, no more sea creatures would be lurking in her clothing…

She draped an arm over her face and sighed as she tried to force her weary muscles to relax. But thoughts of the burning ship and screaming sailors filled her mind. Every time her thoughts strayed, she forced them away from the horrors she’d witnessed that day and tried instead to focus on her breathing—on tangible things like the lumpy mattress beneath her, the distant growl of waves against the shore, the scent of damp rock and salt and seaweed. She rolled onto her side with a weary sigh.

Something thumped outside her tent.

Reva’s eyes flew open, and she held her breath. Was it the guard standing outside her tent? Had he dropped something?

Her fingers crept across the mattress toward the knife she’d place beside her pillow, the one she usually kept in her boot. She slid it from the sheath and stared at the tent flap a few feet away from her, barely able to make out details in the gloom.

Perhaps it was nothing, a mere trick of her tired mind.

But then the flap shifted and allowed a thin ray of moonlight to spill into the tent.

Her pulse thundered beneath her skin, her heart rate increasing with a jolt. Someone was coming into her tent whether she wanted them to or not. Should she scream for help or use the element of surprise to her own advantage?

More cold light flooded the tent as the flap pulled back to reveal a dark shadow beyond. The intruder moved, blocking out the moonlight as he stooped to enter the tent...

Reva shoved herself into a crouch, lifted her blade, and rasped, “Don’t come any closer. I’m armed.”

Chapter Five

The intruder lunged, lifting a blade of his own. Reva grunted and threw herself out of the path of the dagger. Barely. She felt it slice through her clothing as she rolled across the mattress and came up with her own weapon raised high. A dark shape loomed over her, hooded and cloaked. Reva sliced sideways with her blade, eliciting a hiss from her attacker as he dodged backward.

Then he swung toward her in retaliation. With little room to maneuver, Reva braced one hand against the ground and kicked out with her left leg, catching the attacker on the shins. He grunted and went down to one knee, the blade still held high over his head.

Reva dropped onto her back, tucked both knees to her chest, then kicked as hard as she could. Her bare feet caught him high on the chest, and the momentum of her strike flung him back through the tent opening.

“Intruder!” she screamed as loudly as she could. “I’m being attacked!”

Startled voices rose from around the beachside camp. Rather than wait to be attacked again, Reva scrambled to the left and dove beneath the side of the tent, worming her way in between two stakes. She wiggled over the sand and crouched low on the beach. Dagger clenched in her fingers, she eased to the edge of the tent and peered around.

A form lay motionless on the ground outside her tent, but no one else was in sight, the moonlight shining on an empty beach. She spun side to side, the hand that held her dagger trembling. From the south, dark shadows dashed from the direction of the fire pit, straight toward her.

Someone tried to murder me in my sleep!

Anger overran her fear as she searched for signs of the intruder, but other than the watchmen approaching there was nothing to see. Where had he gone?

She knelt beside the fallen guard and felt his throat. A pulse throbbed against her fingertips, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Bobbing lanterns glinted in her eyes as three guards dashed toward her.

“Princess!” one of them called. “Princess Reva, is that you? What’s wrong?”

“I’m alright.” Reva stalked into the circle of lantern light. “But my guard’s been hurt. Someone search my tent, please. There was an intruder.” Her legs wobbled, but she was grateful her voice didn’t quiver.

Two of the guards peeled off to obey—one kneeling beside his fallen comrade while the other ducked into her tent—while the third placed himself beside her.

“Reva, what’s going on?” Lady Cassandra appeared from her own tent, belting her brocade robe about her body as she approached. Reva wondered how she’d managed to climb out of bed so quickly. “What have you done? What’s all this horrible yelling?”

“What have I done?” Irritation flooded Reva like icy salt water through a crack in the hull of a ship. “Why do you blame me? I didn’t attack myself in my own bed!”

“Reva, you’re acting hysterical.”

“You would, too, if you’d nearly been murdered!”

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