CHAPTER ONE ~
The Greek sun beat down, pulling all moisture from the air and making it difficult to breathe. Isadora reached towards the rope closest to her, steadying her balance. The sea was caressing her family's boat, the royal ship of Rulak as Isadora watched the few dolphins near the ship's side jump with playfulness. She was surprised no one had found her yet. She was supposed to be work on her sewing, as a proper princess should, and then report to her mother, who was almost as powerful as her father on the ship. Instead, she'd ducked out onto the third deck to watch the breeze ruffle and fill the sails. At least, that's what was supposed to happen. Her other family members were gathered in the captain's office, talking with the captain as to what they should do. The Rulak family was quite suspicious and believed that the absence of a breeze in their sails was a bad omen. Hearing the clunk of the door, Isadora whispered goodbye to her playful sea friends and sneaked back inside her room. The taping of her mother's shoes on the deck became louder as Isadora heard them stop at her door. Knowing her mother would expect her to be sewing, she reached around blindly trying to find her sewing. Unfortunately, what little she accomplished the day before was all she had. She swiftly slipped into her sailing dress to cover up the "unladylike" attire she had been wearing so she wasn't noticed on the deck. Her hair usually gave her away, as it fell to her hips, but she had been careful to tuck it into her clothes. Her thoughts halted as her mother entered the room, her sailing dress more adored by jewels and other such precious things than Isadora's. Chrysanthe had hair a shade darker than her daughter's, and she walked and spoke like royalty.
"Isadora how goes your sewing on this fine day?" she inquired, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the cabin after being out in the sun.
"Wonderful, and I am well Mother" I replied, reminding myself to pretend to work on the sewing in front of me. I could tell Mother was worried about the absence of the breeze by the way her hands fidgeted with her dress, but she made no comment about such things to me. I was not even supposed to be aware that there were any problems onboard – my Mother firmly believed that a princess should not have to worry about such things. I was content with this lack of knowledge when I was little and Father brought me onto the ship, but as I grew older to my current age of 16, I started to make friends amongst the crew and listened to their stories, learned what I could about sailing, and heard all of their gossip. One of no particular rank on the ship, known by the name of Nolimytirus, or Nolin for short, recognized my eagerness to know the current state of things, and if his duties permitted it, would visit me and talk for a few minutes, breaking the unending period of my loneliness when at sea. My other acquaintance was my maid and friend, Maria. She was at home right now, with some American sickness. I missed her company, and the company of other people, and wanted to get off the ship.
"Mother, why has the ship stopped?"
"Oh no worries, my child. A princess should not worry." She'd been telling me that since I was five. It was her way of dancing around a question without answering it. "We'll be stopping at a nearby port to get some supplies. In fact, why don't you take the time to visit a stone collector's stall? I'm sure there are some here that you do not have." Mother rolled her eyes and sighed, disappointed. She couldn't understand why her daughter couldn't act normal. She had prayed every day for a little girl, and the gods had played a joke on her by sending her Isadora – a child who never did what she was told, collected rare and unique stones, and seemed to know things she shouldn't, like who stole the icon from her Father's room. Isadora had been visiting a friend, and came home babbling about a household servant and the missing icon. What was odder, was that she was right when she had discovered the icon in a desk in the servant's quarters.
Isadora's thoughts swirled to the stone collector, forgetting about pestering her mother about the weather conditions.
What my mother doesn't know is my…….abilities. Since I can remember, I've been able to "hear" the voices of stones, as well as finding hidden items. I used to think I was delirious or sick when the stones "talked" to me. As with the ability to find things, I thought it was just a talent I had. That was, until I found a small child who had been thought to be dead in the ruble of a house fire. The townspeople had been trying to locate the child, with no avail, for days. Giving up, after finding no one and getting no response to their persistent calls to him, they all left the site. I had been "listening" to the stones about the fire when one contacted me, telling me that a "human child" "stuck" "breathing" and left me to race off and discover the child with my finding ability. It's almost like a hum in my head the closer I get, and sometimes I find things without looking. I was frightened of this "curse" until I talked with my Aunt. Aunt Daere explained the magic that was in my family's bloodline, and it was no curse. She said that most of the Rulak family had almost no prominent magic, but she, a distant cousin, and now I showed signs of the magic. I had only spoken to her a few times, but during those visits, I learned how to quiet the voices of the stone and how to ask questions and get answers from them. I'd been practicing until we had left on this trip. Father had wanted to leave Greece for a bit of "peace and relaxation with my family" as he said. But we all knew about the assassins that had been sent a week earlier. The only way my father was not killed was by the talents of our spy network – which is another thing I should know nothing about. However, people talk in private rooms, and these rooms are made of stone. It isn't too hard to find out what I wanted to know. The hardest part was deciphering what the stone's said. They spoke often in one or two word phrases, which I had to piece together to get information. Not the easiest things to understand, but the stones were some of my closest friends and I missed them while being on the water.
I stood up as I heard voices outside, knowing we had docked. I took the dress off, since I wanted to appear as a commoner as to not receive attention with the assassins about. As I jumped from the boat onto the dock, swinging over the rail gracefully, I looked back to see my Mother, Father, and my two older brothers, Oron and Kraytos, dressed in their Rulak robes, leaving the ship together. Foolish, I thought. All rulers had a spy network or someone who wanted to become a ruler, and one of them had sent the assassins after my Father. As I wandered alone down the crowded streets of Suteria, I contemplated the night the assassins had been captured in Father's room. The stones did not know, as the assassins had entered through the tile roof, but I thought it was either King Torsten or someone who wanted to attain to my Father's position. I do not believe Oron or Kraytos would harm my father to become king, but who knows? Certainly not I.