Heart of the Sea

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Thalassa dismounted the horse and slowly helped him down. She looked around the trees surrounding the field they were in as she helped Mr. Pierce sit down on the grasses. “We shall be leaving the horse here. He got a bigger chance of surviving the woods than that fire,”

Pierce held on to her arm. “Thalassa, you cannot cross that fire. It is, without a doubt, fatal to you,” his voice barely more than a whisper. “We should just wait here ’til it subsides,”

Thalassa gasped as if she could not believe what he had suggested. “And by that time, Mr. Pierce, you would have died of blood loss!”

“I do not care,” he replied. “I am. . . I am not telling you. . . to cross that bridge for me. You cannot even stand the rays of the sun, Thalassa. What. . . do you think would happen to you when you get too close to that fire?”

“I am perfectly fine, Pierce,” and when she addressed him that; all formality forgotten as she had always been with him before, he knew she had remembered him.

“No. . . you are not. Your voice is strained- I know you are merely forcing yourself to talk naturally. You- you are sweating hard and paler than usual,”

He fell to the ground and stared at the sun; remembering the times the younger Thalassa would feel so weak as to have Pierce sometimes carry her to the falls yet became so renewed when near the raging water. He smiled to himself as he closed his eyes; Thalassa might have thought she had him fooled, but he had always known.

“My heart has bled for you, Pierce. I had not come this far just to let you die. Do not leave me alone again. You are the rock I was leaning on when I was young but- when I saw you again at the queen’s garden that day, my heart was irrevocably gone,”

She whispered so low she was not even sure he had heard right. But- he wished to the heavens that he had. For the angel in front of him had just confessed to him.

“Please, Pierce. We cannot give up like this,” she pleaded, her tears streaming down her face.

Pierce lifted a hand to try and dry her tears. “I cannot bear to watch you die for me,” he answered; looking directly in her eyes.

“I will not die,” she promised.

She slowly helped him up and he had not fought her soft, gentle grasp. They slowly walked towards the mouth of the bridge. The fire was blazing but somehow, the heavens were helping them for a path in the middle remained open.

She started to pull him across the bridge. But- Thalassa collapsed in the middle, breathing heavily, and paler than the moon itself. His own wound forgotten, Pierce helped her stand and together they supported each other. Slowly, they reached the end of bridge where they both fell to the ground.

Soldiers started to ran towards them but Thalassa could not even stand. She was forcing her eyes to open but he could see how much effort it was taking her. And her breathing was slow; sometimes he feared it would stop.

“Thalassa! Please, hold on,”

Thalassa managed to open her eyes to look at him. “Pierce. . . please, bring me back to my family,” she pleaded as she pulled meekly at his hand. “Please,”

“Get me a horse!” he commanded.

“But- sire! You are heavily injured!”

“Get me a horse!” he ordered more forcefully.

He carried Thalassa and put her on the horse; leaning her back to the horse’s neck before he mounted. He took the reins and the horse started to gallop through the woods. He pushed the stallion to go faster fore with every minute that passed; Thalassa’s breathing was becoming more and more shallow.

He was greeted outside the door of the palace for they had seen him coming from one of the drawing room’s window. He dismounted the horse and took Thalassa. Her family ran towards them and Mr. Haskell took his daughter from Mr. Sinclair.

“We need to call a physician!” the queen cried.

“Father, the pond!” Aeras shouted, gaining a strange look from the queen and the prince. “It is our only hope!”

The Haskells started to run towards the garden, and the other followed suit. Mr. Haskell knelt before the pond and slowly let his daughter down the water.

“She will drown!” cried the queen.

But the Haskells hadn’t answered and his nephew held her back; gesturing for her to watch. Mrs. Haskell gently pushed Thalassa to the middle of the pond with Aeras knelt between her parents and prayed for her sister’s safety.

Thalassa never sank. But- the water started to cover her skin like it was natural. Drawn to the mysterious happening in front of them, the queen, the prince, and Pierce took a step closer to the pond.

Soon, Thalassa was covered in water like it was her skin. And slowly, as the sun started to set and the moon started to take its place, her breathing started to get even. Her color went back to her usual pale, and see looked asleep- floating in the pond.

The water slowly left her body and fell to the pond again. Pierce jumped and swam towards her. He held her tight to him and pulled her out of the pond.

“We should clean your wound as we wait for the physician to arrive, Mr. Sinclair,” Aeras said as no one wanted to leave her sister’s side that had yet to regain consciousness.

He sat down on one of the chairs. His cousin brought back a pail of warm water he had asked a servant for and a clean cloth. He gave them to his fiancée. Aeras lifter Mr. Sinclair’s shirt and started to clean it when she noticed a miracle.

“Goodness!” she exclaimed. “It healed!”

Everyone turned to look at him. His clothes, red from the blood, were the only evidence that he was even wounded in the first place.

“How can?” Nicholas asked; baffled by everything.

“He was holding Thalassa at the pond!” Aeras cried as she ran to hug her parents. “It worked! Her healing worked! And not just with her!”

“Our daughter is going to be fine,” Mrs. Haskell said as she cried in joy and relief.

A few days had passed before Thalassa woke up. And as requested, the royal family had not asked any questions for the Haskells promised a full explanation when she wakes up. Without bothering to change from the clothes she woke up in, Thalassa and her family set off to find the queen.

They found her talking to her son in the drawing room. Mr. Pierce had gone back to the outskirts to assess all the damage and to take care of the remaining bandits. When he would return was unsure.

Thalassa and her family knelt in front of the queen. But- she was quick to ask them to stand up and take a seat.

“My queen, we have lied to you many times,” Mr. Haskell started as she gave a glance to the women of his life. Thalassa was sitting in the middle of Aeras and his wife; both were holding her hand. “It was true Thalassa cannot stand the heat of the sun because she is in one with the water,”

“What are you saying, my dear Haskell?” the queen asked; not sure what he was talking about. Nicholas was standing behind her; his book forgotten in his hand.

“Papa, allow me please,” Thalassa interrupted. Her father nodded at her and she turned to look at the queen and the prince. “I am guessing you have heard of the tale of the ‘Heart of the Sea’,”

The two nodded and Nicholas finally took an open chair near his mother to properly listen to the story. “Yes, we have. To be honest, the late Mr. Sinclair had started a voyage to find,”

Thalassa closed her eyes in pain. She knew that. “Yes, but sadly, he had not returned from the journey,”

All eyes looked at her shock. Her family wondered how she knew when even they did not knew the news. The public was told that the late Mr. Sinclair died during a storm in one of his routine travel to his wife’s grave,”

“How did you know?” Nicholas asked.

Thalassa gave them all a smile that was more sad than happy. “I have known Mr. Sinclair long before I have known the palace,”