Spirit Guardians of Provenance by Sophie Petticrew

Author:Sophie Petticrew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2022-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Aria was cold, wet and generally miserable. She and the rest of the group slopped their way out of the sea and onto the sandy beach of the mainland, turning to watch the water horses disappear below the surface and swim away. The graceful creatures had brought them to the shallows and then as they had refused to move any further, the teens had realised they would have to slip off their backs and swim the rest of the way to the shore. She was exhausted and her waterlogged clothes had threatened to drag her beneath the surface as she propelled herself towards the safety of the beach.

Beside her, Aria could hear Oliver counting under his breath, “In, two, three, four… Out, two, three, four…” but she was too exhausted to question him on it. She had other things on her mind besides Oliver and his weird yoga breathing exercises.

When they had reached the shore, the seven teens had flopped down onto the sand to catch their breath after the adrenaline-fuelled escaped from The Captain’s ship. The late afternoon sun was warm on her back as Aria sat on the beach, leaning back on her hands and looking out at the waves. She kept playing over the moment in her head when Johanna had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and grabbed her. She had been confused, but as the barrel had crashed down behind her she had turned to thank the dark-haired girl, only to find her cowering on the deck. Aria had known instantly what had happened, but when Johanna had started to scream, she had tried to convince herself it couldn’t be what she thought it was. Johanna couldn’t be having that reaction to seeing her death.

Dragging her thoughts back to the present, Aria focussed on where she was and really took in the area for the first time. They were sitting scattered across a sandy strip of beach that led up a gentle slope towards a vast landscape of rolling hills. The sky above their heads was tinged a pinky-purple shade and Aria wondered whether that had anything to do with the hazy purple barrier they had passed through to get here, or if that was just the natural colour for the sky in this part of Provenance. Looking down to where she absentmindedly trailed her fingers through the soft sand beside her, she realised that it too was not the colour she was expecting. She scooped up a handful and smiled slightly as the pale green grains trickled through her fingers, twinkling as they caught the light. It was beautiful, and the thought crossed Aria’s mind that she should pocket some and have it made into jewellery. Her musing was cut short, however, as she felt a hand land gently on her shoulder and she turned to find Oliver towering over her.

“Hey,” he smiled, and she was surprised to see a flicker of what looked like guilt cross his face, “you doing okay?”

“Fine,” she gave a theatrical sigh.

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