Octavia slapped the soldiers on duty at the ti of the escape so hard their teeth rattled.
"You’re telling you can’t find a few prisoners?" She shouted. "What do i pay you for? To eat and rape won?" She slapped two of them again.
"Glovus!!" She scread. "Are these the kind of imbeciles you recruit? Who cannot even do their jobs right?"
"I’m inexplicably sorry, Your Majesty," he fell to his knees, "but... I... Implore... You...to... Understand," he stamred. But Octavia slapped him before he could continue talking."
"You want to understand? You fool; you want to understand that your incompetence has cost my prisoners?"
"Your majesty," Glovus begged. "Please give us a little ti. I promise you, I’ll find them and bring them to you. They are only two won who are badly injured; they couldn’t have gone far.
Octavia looked at him squarely in the face, her eyes blazing with anger. "I hope for your sake that you find them or it will be you in a cage."
The skies thundered, warning them all of the impending storm.
"I don’t care if you drown," Glovus shouted amidst his n. "Find those girls. Because if you don’t, death awaits you back on land."
Drops of rain began to fall, then a strong wind accompanied. It rocked the boats, unsteadying the n. Then the rain began to pour. It ca down of them hard that a few of the n almost fell overboard.
"Sir," one of the n shouted in the deafening storm, "our ships are going to capsize in the storm. We need to head back, now, or we’ll all die."
"He’s telling the truth sir," another soldier shouted, "they have absolutely no chance of surviving the storm. Two of the girls are wounded. We need to tell the princess that they drowned, but we need to leave now, or there’s no hope for us.
As much as Glovus feared the princess, he feared death more. There was no land within a mile radius; even if they sohow survive the storm, they’ll die from a fever.
"Let’s head back," he ordered.
The girls patiently waited behind the rock for the soldiers to turn back, hoping that they wouldn’t see them.
When they had waited and were sure the soldiers had gone, they began to scoop the water from the boat and toss it out.
"Put your back into it, girls," Selene shouted in the storm. "Or we’re never going to see the light of day, we will not see our sisters any longer, and we would have lived our lives with no aning."
Theia and Clair were positioned so they would lean against the rock while the other girls scooped the water out of the boat. The storm continued for a while, pushing the boat from all sides.
"Make sure you hold on tightly, girls," Larissa shouted.
It felt like forever to the girls, but the storm quietened down, leaving them battered and wet.
"That was a close one," Calista said.
"We need to find land as fast as possible, or reaching Epirus will be the least of our problems."
Larissa’s lips chattered slightly. "Things aren’t looking good," she said, her voice grave.
When the sea had stilled, they began to row, looking for land. Unfortunately, the soldiers were right, and there was no land in sight.
Clair and Theia soon began to burn with a fever, their bodies shaking violently.
"What do we do?" Larissa asked, the cold night air increasing the cold that seeped into her body. "There’s no land anywhere, and the girls are cold. It’s not looking good for us, Selene."
"We will get out of her alive, I promise you," Selene said as her own teeth chattered loudly.
Larissa soon fell unconscious against Calista.
"Selene," Calista’s voice was raised in alarm.
"Calm down, take a deep breath, Calista," Selene said.
"What do you an by take deep breaths ?" Calista cried out. "The air is freezing cold, and we’re about to die. You think I can calm down?"
"Shouting is not going to stop anything, Calista, just calm down."
Calista wailed frantically, "I’m sure my tears are turning into ice," she said as her tears flowed. "This was all so stupid, everything. We should never have gotten on those ships to begin with. Why did we have to be so stupid?"
"Calista, please be quiet," Selene begged.
"Oh, please shut it," she retorted. "Always acting like everything is ok. Well, it’s not. We’re about to die."
Selene shook her head and sighed. "gods," she muttered under her breath.
"I’m sorry, I didn’t an that. I love you, I love all of you," Calista said as she continued to weep. "I hope we all et again in the afterlife.
Selene drowned out Calista’s voice imdiately she saw a light flickering in the distance. "Look," she said.
"What?"
"Look, over there, light," Selene cried. "We’re saved."
Calista gently laid Larissa and began to wave her hands, shouting. "There’s soone here! Please, help!"
Selene joined her, shouting for help until the ship reached them. It was a rchant ship.
"Thank you so much, sir, thank you so much," Selene said as soon as they got on the ship.
"Call Nolan, my lovely ladies," he said.
"Thank you so much, Nolan, if you would be so kind as to help my friends, I beg of you, they’re dying," Selene pleaded.
"Not under my watch," he said forcefully. "Girls, co quickly."
A few girls ran forward to et him, all dressed in the sa attire with rings on their necks, hands, and feet. Their eyes looked a little clouded, but Selene concluded that she was definitely delirious from a fever.
They showed Selene and Calista a room below deck where they could take hot baths and change into clean clothes while they took care of the other girl.
"I told you we were going to survive this, didn’t i?" Selene smiled smugly as she soaked in the heat from the water.
"We thank the gods for your grit then," Calista replied and chuckled.
User Comments
0 comments from readers