Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK II - Scene LXXXIX

A crash of lightning and a grimace of thunder. Of the five ships that had left Brynnyfirdia one had been wrecked upon the waves; another scattered to the wind, presumably lost as well. Of the three that remained, two, including the plucky Coo-Cal, approached the coast of the Upper Desert; as the third - the ship carrying Liofia, Goola and Julen - wallowed far behind, middling in the ocean.

Even with the storm raging Liofia remained calm and focused. Her mind unwilling to contemplate a failure to make the journey. Almost in oblivion to the howling waters she waded through her thoughts, remembering when she was a child and her father had left for the Three Deserts. Had he made a similar pilgrimage? She felt a royal pull. A sense of fate. Goola and Julen, on the other hand, just stood in hope. The dangerous moment freezing their minds, as their hands gripped the fixings of the ship - Julen more concerned for the broad and determined Liofia than for himself. His wide eyes sucking in the drama. Everything on the small ship looked so light and frail against the giant ocean surrounding it, as if any piece could be ripped away in an instant: suckled towards the ends of the world by the bellowing gales. Like loose brittle leaves, ripped down long and winding autumn streets. Yet, Liofia looked heavy on the solid wooden boards of the deck. A plum stone in the flesh of the earth.

As a bright flash of lightning lit up a section of the black sky she steadied herself further. Once again trying to envision her exit. The great seas of the realm a watery passage; a natal canal for her fleeing soul.