Month: April 2025

No one questioned her about her identity, reasons for passage, or intended destination on the ship, and every evening before crews shifted to night’s light duty taken in turns, she was welcomed to join them as they ate supper, told lavish tales of their extensive journies, and sang and danced to sparse instruments accompanied by the beat of drums.

Having already learned a few rhythms herself, it felt easy for her to join in their revelries – and marvelous to be free at last, carried away by water and wind while guided by the stars’ heavenly trajectories.

“I know who you are, Cassandra. It will be alright.”

She jolted awake from the voice in a dream to the muffled sounds of the crew working the rigs outside her cabin and adjusting sails as they docked at their first port.

Dressed in common clothes and allowing herself to relax her posture a little, she no longer stood out as the graceful high priestess she’d been forced into becoming.

Hair tied back and hidden well under a worker’s cap, she stayed on board on the upper deck, out of sight, as the crew restocked supplies and then cast off, aiming for farther shores.

After the guard left once she again refused his advances, she knew she must escape.

It was only a matter of time before the rebellion broke out, and she knew they would eventually target her as a martyr, despite her attempts to keep out of it.

As the evening’s revelries coursed onward, she knew no one would think twice about her absence, so used to her same withdrawn introspections that never gave outward variations as she’d walk the halls and outer gardens.

Only this time, she deviated, heading out toward the cliffside in the deep of night – and at the last minute, making a sharp turn to trace along its edges until an openimg down to the beach below revealed itself.

Heart pounding and breath becoming ragged, she was tentative with each step as she carefully scaled the slippery path in the pale moonlight and then safely reached the shifting sands that compress-crunched quietly underneath her slippers as she lifted her dress hem and swished-stumbled forward toward a small,  beached boat.

Within it, she found a change of clothes in a napsack weighted with stones, a sachel with food and water, and a coin purse with a rough-sketched map folded inside.

Then, she quickly pushed the boat into the edge of the calming ocean waters that were mid-shifting between tides.

Once she had maneuvered it to where she could climb into it without getting herself too wet, she leveraged the boat the rest of the way off of the sand and began rowing with renewed determination.

As she worked on maintaining a smooth yet fast-paced rhythm, she angled the boat out to just past the tucked-in cove to where a ship made ready to sail was still waiting for her in the deeper water.