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Writer's pictureMark Sanders

Chapter Six: Ambition

Updated: Oct 7, 2022

Blogtober 2022 Day Six entry

Scared as she was, Eila loved the Beaumaris, and her only ambition from the first time she set foot on a ship at age five was to be a captain.


Her mother, Catrin Ellesmere, was Kira Caernarvon, younger sister of Queen Meridith of Llanfyllin, and she was less than receptive to Eila’s demand to be apprenticed aboard a navy vessel.


“Absolutely not,” Catrin said. “You are an Ellesmere and a lady, and you have far more proper duties than swabbing a deck.”


“Like what?” Eila said. “Having formal dinners with suitors twice my age who don’t speak our language?”


“Marriage is the means by which we form and strengthen alliances.”


“I have two brothers and two sisters,” Eila said. “I think we have enough in our family willing to marry.”


“There’s also the matter of royalty, which you cannot deny.”


“Countless sons of kims have served as captains.”


“You are my daughter.”


“Are you telling me, Kira Caernarvon, sister of Queen Meridith, that women are unfit to lead and command in our kingdom?”


“That’s not what I meant,” Catrin said. “It’s difficult, dangerous work.”


“It’s what I love,” Eila said. “I’m lost on land. I put salt in my bathwater to remind me of the sea.”


“You’ll apprentice on a local vessel,” her mother said. “Your voyages won’t leave the islands until you’re of age.”


Eila ran to Catrin and hugged her fiercely. It was an argument she never regretted winning, despite the alien sky that gave her no direction.

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