Allison D'Amico
Volume 4
A young woman walked by herself among the wreckage. Wooden splinters of all sizes jutted from the sand. There was no way of knowing they had once belonged to a mighty ship. Or maybe it had been a humbler sloop. Or a canoe. She considered the debris for a long time, hoping the mystery would reveal itself.
The girl’s eyes were the color of the dull air before a storm. She wondered if she had come from a tempest. If there had been a great storm, the heavens hid its traces from her. It was a glorious day – wonderfully sunny with a gentle breeze. There was blue on endless blue where the ocean stretched to meet the sky. Cresting waves would catch the light and dazzle as though small gemstones had been strewn across the sea. Within the currents, she saw hues of azure and teal. It was altogether lovely, but even so, the girl frowned, for she knew better than to trust the sea.
The ocean wore a flaunty costume. The night came to tear down the illusion. It had been such a moonless night when she washed up. Giant clouds swam in the sky like crocodiles coming to devour the light of stars. The ocean and sky merged into an endless black. Sailors knew to fear such a night. Jagged rocks poked out of the water like teeth to ensnare ships.
She had found herself alone and blind in the dark, but her other senses had not failed her. She was aware of the chill that tortured her clammy skin and of the salt that burned in her mouth and throat. Filling the air was an incessant roaring. The thunder grew louder, closer.
The crescendo of seawater slammed into her. For a terrifying moment, her small body was lost in the flood and raked against sand, rocks, shells. Then the violent tide spat her back onto shore. Awash with fear, she scrambled to flee, half-running, half-stumbling, and sputtering seawater as she went.
After only a few yards, she collapsed. A hundred cuts and bruises cried out in fresh pain. There was another pressure she hadn’t felt before, like something trying to split her skull.
Behind her, the restless waves continued their charge and pounded the shoreline. Farther out, they crashed against the rocky spires, and water was deflected high into the air to rain down in explosive display.
The sea was raging, but its violent clamor was growing more distant to her ears. The sirens were calling her. With soundless lullabies, they invited her to dreamless sleep. The tide would rise and she would slip into the endless darkness, devoid of light, devoid of life, devoid–
NO! She commanded her strength to appear. Her legs quivered from the effort. Unable to walk or even stand, she pulled herself forward miserable inch by miserable inch along the sandy floor. The idea never occurred to her that the region might be deserted. She could not see the horizon as it was so dark, but she was certain that somewhere ahead she would find a town and find someone to help. She grit her teeth to keep from crying and kept going.
In the end, her battered body couldn’t match her strength of will. The next she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on a thin mattress in a circular hut. In the morning, someone had discovered her unconscious form on the beach and brought her to a healer. Her wounds were treated, but the worst pain remained in her throbbing head. People came to her with questions, and she found herself unable to answer. She couldn’t even tell them her name. The girl returned to the beach hoping she could sift through the wreckage for any clues of her past, but the water gave nothing away.
The ocean was a hoarder. It swallowed ships and men, and stored them in its seven-chambered belly, never to be seen again. Why it hadn’t swallowed her too, she didn’t know.