Scara
leaned against the bough of her floating home staring off into the jungle. No
other color compared to the verdant green of the dense vegetation, except
perhaps, the green of her mother’s emeralds. Both reminded her of home.
Sharktooth cost her one, the Young Wolf took the other. Now, on Myrmidia’s Spear she was not sure how she felt about the loss of either.
Staring
deep into the green, she felt her mind flow away, ten years falling like
leaves.
Nina’s
finger’s were tighter on her shoulders than never before, pinning her in place.
The candle light fluctuated in unseen breeze, the sudden changes in light and
dark feeling more ominous than before.
“My love,” her father’s voice
shook. Scara could not see him, but never before had she heard this wave of
emotion break through him. “Stay with me.”
Her mother’s voice now, growing
ever weaker. “I would if I could, my most beloved. I will leave soon. Where is
our daughter?”
“Nina is bringing her,” Scara
looked up at Nina, her nanny. Nina just smiled the saddest smile the girl had
ever witness and held a finger to her lips. The little girl nodded to show her
understanding.
“Find her a good marriage.”
“I will. Someone rich, someone
with a name.”
“Someone she can love.”
The softness fell away from the
family patriarch as he proclaimed, “She will marry well. She’ll grow to love
the man she marries.”
The
words seemed so innocent then, marriage a long way away. The first time she saw
the jewels was that night, as she finally went into mother’s room. She had
shown the girl the gems, said they were her dowry. It was a word she didn’t
know at the time, but grew to understand later with all its ominous
implications. Those jewels would buy her the perfect match.
Scara was 14 now, almost a woman in body.
She had been the acting matriarch of Isla del Lagarto de Oro for the last eight
years, since her mother fled to Myrmidia’s side. Part of her knew this time
would come, but when she had been summoned away from a fine tidal pool full of
rare specimens to her father’s study, she still did not fully expect this. “My fiancé?”
“He is a good boy from a good
line, the San Castorios. Ferdinand will give you security, a better title, and
you will give him sons.”
“I have not met him! What if he
doesn’t like learning, or walking on the beach? What if he can’t tell the
difference between a crab and a spider?”
Father’s eyes flashed cold. As
he stared through her, he became the governor, his word law. “I have indulged
your studies because I love you. It does not matter if you have met Ferdinand.
You will marry him. He sails for the
island in two years. Your mother’s jewels will be the dowry.”
When
the raid on her isle happened, Ferdinand and her doom were supposed to appear
any day. She’d grabbed the jewels, running. Her mentor, Timoteo Fusil was
behind her, shouting at her to run. She made it up a tree, watching in horror
as he was captured, taken away. The jewels were also taken away, a little later
by the Young Wolf. She knew she could search every man on the ship – they would
no longer be there.
Looking
back at her crew, she saw Fernando struggling onto the deck, still barely alive
but trying to attend his duties. Baldemero was running in circles, forever the
tornado. Amadeus was scrubbing her hammocks from the medical room. This was her
family now. The jewels were supposed to buy her imprisonment. Instead, they had
given her a life well lived. As a gentle wind brought a spray of salt water
across her face she smiled. She was not a kept woman, she was free.
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