Highwater and Glass

The Sacred Crossing, Chapter 3 - Eloise

"What if we just let her ride away?" asked Eloise.

The dust was already settling as Annette and her horse disappeared over a rise. Rev shot Eloise a look, but how could he disagree? The mood was immediately more relaxed in The Princess's absence.

"We shouldn't have laughed," he said.

"Why? It was funny! She was startled by an adorable rabbit. We would've laughed had it happened to anyone. Her station shouldn't mean we have to walk around on eggshells so as to not upset her!"

"That's unfortunately exactly what that means," said Rev. "Factor in that she is a spoiled thirteen-year-old child and we have to be doubly careful."

He sighed and looked in the direction the Princess disappeared. He was excellent at arguing against his emotional interests. It reminded Eloise of Oran.

"We better get after her," he said. "She'll be sulky and resistant, but I'd rather that than finding her dead in the dirt, or worse."

"She couldn't have gotten far," Eloise assured him.

"Unless something found her. Just because we haven't encountered any spirits, doesn't mean they aren't here."

"I thought they were only interested in those that they considered worthy," Eloise muttered.

They rode up to the crest of the rise and looked down into another expansive basin. Annette's horse tracks were visible in the earth for a healthy stretch until they suddenly stopped. Eloise's eyes darted to the horizon. Annette and her horse were nowhere to be seen.

"Oh crumbs."

Apparently, to Eloise's surprise, Princess Annette was considered worthy enough to be snatched up by a spirit. There was no other rational conclusion to her horse tracks ending as they did, at least according to Rev's expertise. He cursed several times, pacing with his hands on his hips. Eloise had never seen him so angry.

They decided to continue east towards Plosa. The spirits would return Princess Annette when they were through with her, Rev explained, dead or alive. It pained Eloise to see Rev so troubled by Annette's disappearance. On one hand, she understood the responsibility he felt as the girl's guardian. On the other hand, she reasoned, Annette ran away on her own accord. Still, she supposed it was a story that wouldn't hold up in the court of Port Shorishal.

When their shadows begin to stretch out in front of them and the sky begin to pick up hues of gold and pink, Rev spotted the first sign of civilization they had seen since leaving Alindal. A small shack billowing smoke beside a decrepit windmill sat peacefully in the distance.

"That shouldn't be here," he said cautiously.

"What? Are people not allowed to build homes on The Sacred Crossing?" asked Eloise.

"No such law exists. It doesn't have to. These lands belong to Ponodurga and her spirits. We're invited to visit during our crossing. But to build a permanent settlement, that's asking to be tortured and killed."

"Then whose home is that?"

Rev didn't answer. He looked spooked. He altered his course slightly to ride towards the shack. Eloise followed, unable to shake the feeling something bad was about to happen.

As they got closer to the structure, they found clothes hanging to dry on lines. An old woman was sitting on the porch fanning herself with a dry woven frond. She wore maroon rags dusted with layers of filth. Her skin was wrinkled and tanned like leather. Her hear was white as bone. Neither Eloise nor Rev were set at ease by her presence. It smelled like magic in the air and in a small fenced-in yard, Annette's horse was eating oats from a trough.