Cast In Dark Waters (7 page)

"Maybe not, but I gave him my conditions before we left Port of St. Christopher's. He agreed to them."

Welsh stared over the side, where the mermaids had supposedly been spotted. "You've your own course to follow."

"Don't we all."

"Ain't it the truth."

He looked at her closely but said nothing more. His hands seemed steady but hers felt weak and quivery. They faced into the wind and caught sea spray as the ship rocked and creaked. The anchor chain clapped against the hull. It might've been a fair evening any other time. Air rushed past and fluttered their clothing. The rains had churned the depths and dredged the rotting bottoms, and the stink of dead fish was heavy in the breeze.

She turned and went below deck, greeted some of the mates in passing, then stopped before the
Maycombs
' small cabin and knocked lightly. Elaine Maycomb answered and moved aside without a word, her fingers flapping against a blue kerchief that danced and snapped.

Her husband was cleaning his pistol with a rag soaked in oil. He rose and said, "Lady Crimson."

"Mr. Maycomb, the other day you asked if I'd ever been in love."

"Yes, and I apologize for my ill manners. I never should have broached such a subject. Forgive my impertinence."

She shook her head. "Not at all. You've obviously heard of the recent loss of my husband."

"I have, and I'm terribly sorry."

"Please explain to me what you were told. I fear that certain chatter may have sullied my standing."

Elaine Maycomb appeared as if she might exit the room. She released the kerchief and it swayed and spiraled as it dropped to the floor. Rats squeaked nearby. She placed her hand on the door latch but only to retrieve some object hanging from the handle. It was a chain with a dangling silver cross.

"When I learned that Daphna had fled with Villaine," Maycomb said, "I questioned a number of my colleagues both in the States and back in Britain for any information about him. We learned of his personal history, his criminal escapades, and of
Benbow's
renown."

"All of this must have been rather startling, to someone of your ilk."

"We were terrified for our daughter, as we mentioned, but I was prepared for what I must do. Our confidential agent mentioned your name in passing as someone that he, or perhaps we, might want to contact if he initially failed in his task. I suspect he was quite dismayed about going up against Villaine and his men. He knew a privateer such as yourself, who handles odd commissions and matters like this, would be much the wiser in these circumstances. That's proven to be the case. I should have listened and never sent him in alone."

"You're of the opinion that he's dead.”

“Yes."

"But what were you told of me specifically?"

Maycomb replaced his pistol oil and rags, then took out a whetstone in preparation to sharpen his sword. "That you had lost your husband less than a year ago." He didn't hold back in the least, and there was no embarrassment in him as he spoke. "That he was the victim of the
Loogaroo
, the
Blutsauger
, in these waters where demons and the ghosts of slaves still wander."

Crimson stepped across the small room to the porthole. There was another chain with a silver cross hanging there, protecting the opening from evil spirits trying to force their way inside. Perhaps
Anu
, mother of gods, was kept close to
Maycomb's
heart for a reason, whereas sweet baby
Jesucould
flit all about the place. The fading sunlight caught in the metal and gleamed red and running.

"And do you believe that?" she asked.

His voice dripped with the kind of sorrow that only men who've lost a great faith ever know. "Even in the hills and backwoods of Virginia I've seen strange things I'm not likely to repeat. As I mentioned, I spent a great portion of my childhood in Scotland, and heard tales of the
Boabhan
Sith
. Two men in the village I grew up in were supposedly taken by the beast. I've no reason to believe these stories are lies. One of the men was my very own uncle."

Elaine Maycomb, perhaps serving her only role in this conversation, once again managed to force herself to say that which Crimson could not utter. "
Daemonia
Wampyros
."

Crimson's fingers began to twitch so she grabbed tightly to the hilt of her cutlass. "To be honest with you both, I don't know what truly happened to my husband Tyree. His ship was sunk by a raiding vessel not far from
Benbow
and the scuttlebutt that's traveled back to me has apparently trafficked much further as well. The yarns play upon my dreams."

"Have you searched for him?"

"No," she said. "A sailor's life leads to the bottom of the ocean. That's the fate for all of us. If you hunt the dead they might pursue you in turn. Worlds tend to meet in places such as these. In the Caribbean we see even more oddities than you might in Virginia, Mr. Maycomb."

"Of that I have no doubt." He withdrew a leather pouch and opened it before her. "Here, I thought we should finish our transaction before landing in the morning." The diamonds he poured into her cupped palms seized the dusk and dropped into her hand like clotted blood.

"Are you daft, man? Why the hell did you bring diamonds to the Basin?"

"I wasn't certain if the natives would accept gold coinage," Maycomb said. "If I ran into trouble on the island I knew I could count on diamonds to help me, either to buy my way out or to distract someone if I should find myself in a crisis. I'm certain some of
Villaine's
men can be bribed to allow me entrance to see my own daughter."

Crimson had to agree that such a show of wealth would be a powerful argument made on Daphna's behalf. She had no idea what sort of relationship Villaine and the girl might have by now. For all his society manners, Villaine could well be tired of his titled English prize, and the teenager might be pouting and whining to be allowed to return home to once again shop at London boutiques. Perhaps the diamonds would dazzle him more than her young splendors. That is, if he didn't just decide to kill everyone and take the booty by force.

He said, "At dawn you can take me over to
Benbow
. I'll strike off for
Villaine's
settlement and you can wait just off shore for my return. If I'm not back in the prescribed five hours, leave this area at once. Your primary concern then is to see that my wife is returned to Port of St. Christopher's safely. That's all I ask."

The face of
Anu
peered at her from around
Maycomb's
collar. "No, sir, you won't be going anywhere."

"Pardon, Lady?"

"You'll be staying here aboard ship. I'll retrieve your daughter if I can, and only if she's willing to go. If not, I'll give her the diamonds as a precaution in case she ever changes her mind. She'll have enough to bribe guards if need be and find her own passage off
Benbow
."

"No," he said. "I want to see her myself."

"You'll only slow me down and increase our chances of being found out. I'm leaving now."

"What, tonight?"

"Don't let your love for your daughter ruin the opportunity to save her at this late hour."

"I thought you wished the visit to last only in daylight hours."

"I've changed my mind on that."

"But why?"

She didn't mean to tell him but found herself speaking anyway. "I've my own reckoning to fulfill beneath the moon."

With his mouth twisted into an angry sneer,
Maycomb
stepped forward about to argue further but his wife stopped him with a hand to his wrist. "Trevor, you hired this woman for a reason. She is capable and level-headed and principled. Stay with me and allow her to retrieve Daphna, if she can."

"I want you here in case the ship is attacked," Crimson said. She opened her satchel and took out three of the rowan tree stakes and four of the iron rings. "You know of what I speak. Use these if you must. A stake must pierce the heart with one thrust. The rings can be used to strangle the fiends, if need be. Iron is supposedly anathema to them."

"Assuming they exist at all."

"Yes, when making that presumption. Do you feel you're up to the task?"

"Yes."

"I'm convinced as well."

Maycomb took the proffered weapons and said, "Do you believe your husband is alive on
Benbow
?"

"No," she answered quickly. "No, I don't think that at all." She spun and grabbed the door latch, but before she could leave, Elaine
Maycomb
draped the silver chain and cross around Crimson's neck.

"Save her, child. Deliver our daughter and yourself."

The brazen three-quarter moon had started its lumbering climb into the sky. Two crewmen were on watch and they merely eyed her and kept silent, on the lookout for any activity in these pirate waters. The harpooner was still muttering about mermaids but nobody was listening anymore.

Welsh, wearing his darkest clothes, was already in the skiff when she reached it. Hedrick had placed in proper provisions, to be certain: a small cask of whiskey. Welsh had finished about half of it by the time she got in with her gear.

"Figured you'd want to make this journey at night."

"Goat, if you really knew me so well, you'd run for your worthless gray life."

"Someone's got to watch over you, lass, before you go
findin
' yourself in even greater troubles."

Together, they worked the pulleys hard and lowered the skiff into the water. They cast off, sat side by side, and rowed towards the island of
Benbow
through the glossy darkness.

"They're watching us fer sure. I can feel that spyglass on me handsome face now."

"Must be the native girls so impressed with your dashing looks."

"My
thinkin
' exactly."

"You keep your wits about you, old man."

He grimaced and said, "What's that hanging about yer neck? You haven't gone missionary now, have ye? The savages be
sharpenin
' their machetes for the likes of a nun
spreadin
' the gospel in the wrong place."

Crimson ignored him and kept rowing. They drew along the coastline and continued around towards the jungle side where the volcanic mountain rose with the village crouched at the top.

"No ships," Welsh said. "This here looks to be the best natural harbor for the island, but there's no vessels at all."

"Could they be hidden in some cove?"

"On volcanic rock like this? Not likely from what we've seen so far. Still, perhaps..."

Whenever Crimson looked up, the island soared towards the pagan moon, a craggy monolith reaching. "We've come all this way and
Villaine's
off plundering in Cuba?"

"Let's set about there," Welsh told her. "Watch the rocks. Lord in the heavens, what sort of heathen place of worship is this?"

"Look at the stairs. It's as if the upper crest of the village itself forms some sort of temple."

"No wonder the dead here can't get any rest."

There were perhaps fifty yards of clear beach before the base of the stone steps. ”Be ready for anything."

"I always am, with the help of a bit of whiskey." He gulped another mouthful down and smacked his lips. "All right, then, let's see what sort of ghosts haunt this damnable place. Perhaps some pretty ones, eh?"