The Pirate Fairy (21 page)

“We have to get down,” Anisse whispered as Fortunata called up to them.

“What’s taking so long?” She waved her arms, looking like a deranged albatross.

“You’re going to have to pretend to try flying farther away,” Anisse warned. “You won’t succeed. You’ll fall.”

“And why would I do that?”

“It would be your natural instincts. I suppose you believed her when she said that Rigby kidnapped Merritt.”

“Ahoy there!”

“What do you mean? Are you saying he wasn’t kidnapped?”

“Of course not. Haven’t you noticed her magic still works? I’ll admit she has limited scope without him, but she got into a world of trouble sending him off to your ship, The Pirate Fairy. She’d read your thoughts, you know.” Anisse dropped her gaze down to the deck where Fortunata was having a right royal hissy fit.

“Why did she do that?” Denny was feeling very stupid now and he didn’t like the feeling at all.

“She read your thoughts and knew that you had gold hidden in crevices all over the ship. She wanted it.”

“What’s going on up there?” Fortunata roared.

“It’s Carpathian gold, isn’t it?” Anisse whispered.

“Some of it. Yeah. Why?”

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Boy. You
are
a buffoon.”

“Shut up! I am not.”

“Are too. Carpathian gold is bewitched.” Her voice dropped farther until it was almost impossible to hear her. “It multiplies.”

Denny gaped at her.
Boy, I am a buffoon
. “It does?”

She rolled her eyes. “The longer you have it, the more it self-duplicates. Fortunata has blown through her entire inheritance. She’s been searching for Carpathian gold for years. She couldn’t find any of your gold. She invaded one ship, not expecting to be abducted by the pirated Charlotte
.
When she got onto your ship, she looked everywhere for your gold. She knew it was there from reading your thoughts but couldn’t locate it.”

“Of course not.” The notion infuriated him. “I’ve got that loot well hidden.”

“Anyway, she sent poor Merritt to find it and Captain Rigby is holding him hostage.”

“He’s not a captain. He’s a first mate!”

“Fortunata’s powers dwindle when she and her brother are separated, and if one of them is in chains.”

My God. I have those coins stuffed in caves and in my house in Penzance. Penzance! I’m taking Fortunata there! She’ll steal all my money.
The thought didn’t bother him as much as the idea of something happening to Merritt. Denny would never forget what the man had already been through, and Denny cared more about Merritt than money.
What if Rigby hurts him? I don’t trust him at all.

“Get down here now!” Fortunata screamed.

Denny remembered how pitiful she had been when he and his crew had first encountered her and Merritt on the Charlotte.
Of course!
Once Merritt had been unchained and started to recover, she’d seemed to materialize clothes and food out of nowhere.

“Now fly!” Anisse shoved him none too gently out of the crow’s nest. “What are you doing?” she called aloud. “You can’t go farther!”

Poor Denny started to plummet fast, unused to flying. Fearing a painful thud on the deck, he flapped his wings and headed for the skies again as Fortunata yelled his name.

“Denny!”

He hit his head on something. An invisible ceiling. Boy, did it hurt. It made him dizzy and winded him. He dropped down to the deck, all three women screaming as he landed like a dead bird.

Denny heard voices but couldn’t raise himself physically, or ward off the strange, yet alluring dream in which he found himself. Denny was in a place where there was no pain.

“You gave him too much!” a female voice said from somewhere in the distance.

“It was never a problem before,” another disembodied voice responded.

Denny turned around on the floor, but he was no longer outside. He was inside and to his astonishment he was in Christoph’s private office at the jail in
Tarragona
. He couldn’t recall a time, ever, where Christoph had lounged, naked on his brown leather sofa and beckoned Denny toward him, but that was what Christoph did now. His thick, huge, hard cock lay against his thigh and Christoph smiled.

“I won’t bite. Ah, I see. You’re in love with him. Do you know how long she’s been keeping you captive?”

Christoph spoke better English than Denny remembered. “How long?” he asked.

“She can answer better than I.” Christoph sat up now, looking off to his right with a frightened expression on his face. “I’m not supposed to fraternize with people stuck between life and death, but I wanted to urge you not to die. You need to live. For both of us.”

“Are you dead?” A sudden stab of anguish tore at Denny’s heart.

“Oh, yes. It’s been a few years now. Your captain killed me. You were supposed to die in my custody but I loved you. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

Denny sat up on the floor. “No wonder I couldn’t find you whenever I went back to
Tarragona.”

Christoph nodded. “I have to go. I’m sorry for us. For you. You have to go back, but whatever you do, don’t listen to her. You can never return to that island. Merritt’s sister means to kill you both. She wants only money. I’m to blame. I followed your progress and knew you’d captured a fortune in Carpathian gold. She wanted it, and is prepared to go to any lengths to get it.”

“How do you know her?” Denny was stumped by all of this.

“She was the woman I married. She was the wife I told you about. Please don’t grieve my passing. Death was a mercy.” Christoph blew him a kiss, and a strong, blinding white swamped the vision in front of Denny’s eyes. Footsteps clattered from somewhere…

“Denny! Denny!” a woman’s voice cried, luring Denny out of his dream.

“Polly?” he called out.

“Don’t say my name! Save me!”

“Poll—” Her name died on his lips. Where is she? Who has her?

He knew then. He knew everything. Merritt’s face swam into his mind. They were together. The man he loved and the sister he adored. Denny knew that Fortunata had sent Merritt to rescue Polly. He would never have left me for gold. She must have made some bargain with him. He could almost hear her saying,
Bring the sister, bring the gold, and I will let him live. I will let you be happy.

“
You know me so well
,” a voice whispered in his mind.

Denny gasped but dared not say Merritt’s name.

Merritt was now lying naked on the couch in the same position Christoph had been. He arched an eyebrow toward Denny. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

Denny swallowed. “Are you real?”

“If you believe I am, then I’m real.”

An exhausted Denny looked at him. “I don’t know what’s real anymore. All I have is you and Polly, and I am nowhere near you.”

“We’re alive and we’re waiting for you. Don’t drink anymore nectar. My sister’s been poisoning you.” Merritt stopped speaking and cocked an ear to the left, a startled look on his face. “They promised me more time.”

“Are you okay? Has Rigby hurt you?”

There was a sigh from Merritt. “I’m waiting for you.”

Denny knew Merritt was waiting for him. Somewhere. Out there. In the world. “And I wait for you. I love you.”

“Then you do believe.” Merritt’s face darkened. “It’s been so long.”

“Can I touch you?” Denny begged.

“Yes. But it’s not enough time.” He kept staring at the growing light coming for them.

“It will never be enough time.” Denny crawled over to him, his sights set on the gorgeous mouth smiling at him and the luscious cock resting against Merritt’s thigh.

The footsteps grew closer and Denny’s body lifted before he could get any closer to Merritt.

“I love you!” Merritt shouted as Denny became blinded by the harsh white light.

He found himself on the deck again.

Merritt. Had it all been a trick? He opened his eyes, not wanting to see anything else but the man he loved.

“How long have I been held captive?” Denny asked as Ebba, Fortunata and Anisse hovered over him, exchanging glances. None of them responded. “Tell me,” he croaked.

“Two years, seven months,” Ebba said.

Denny was glad he was already lying down, otherwise he would have fallen over.

“You almost died,” Fortunata whispered. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.” She looked worried and began pacing the deck, leaving Ebba and Anisse to raise him to his feet.

“I’ll get you some nectar,” Ebba said.

“No. No nectar.”

Ebba shot an apprehensive glance toward Fortunata.

“Don’t look at her. Listen to me. I can’t get us to England if I’m out of my mind on drugs.”

Fortunata’s head snapped in his direction, her eyes dangerous slits. She stomped back over to him. “Who did you talk to on the other side?”

“Nobody,” he lied.

“What did you see? There is no way you could have known your nectar had been bewitched unless someone told you.”

Denny brushed off his clothes and gave her a tight smile. “I guessed,” he said, wagging a finger at her. “You’re good. I’ll give you that. You had me fooled. I really thought I was in that cell for just a few days. And you’d better remove my warts and the ones on Ebba’s and Anisse’s faces too or—”

Ebba uttered a shriek, her hands flying to her face.

Denny went on with all the dignity he could muster. “If you don’t stop with the stupid hexes and the poisoning, I will never,
ever
let you touch my gold.”

Fortunata stared at him. “Who told you?”

Denny just threw back his head and laughed.

Chapter Eleven

Denny charted his course with his crew members. Barthelmass, Ebba, the quartermaster, bosun, rigger, ship’s doctor, three sailors, Theodore the cat and even the customary cabin boy, a young stowaway who’d somehow escaped the island, were all informed of the ship’s journey. Denny had always allowed his crew to be a part of the decision-making process. Denny had always prided himself on being strong enough to lead his team that was unruly but not so bloodthirsty that they killed him or abandoned him…or sold him off to what they thought were pirate ships.

As the ship set sail for Algeciras, in Spain, its first port of call, the mood on board was jubilant. Fortunata had been allowed to listen to the plans without offering an opinion.

“I don’t trust you,” Denny told her repeatedly. “And don’t try bewitching anybody on board, or I’ll make you walk the plank.”

“Watch how you talk to me,” she said, which really made him laugh. The stronger he acted, the more her powers seemed to recede.

Two years, seven months
, he kept reminding himself. Had she not been running out of money she would have kept him imprisoned forever.

She sulked on her own, reduced to the task of swabbing the deck, per Denny’s instructions. The crew took turns monitoring her.

“And use no poison, mind,” Barthelmass admonished her.

Ebba went below deck to make Denny more porridge. She promised it wouldn’t be poisoned, and Denny was forced to believe her.

They had a three-week journey ahead of them, and the crew remained in good spirits, especially when it seemed that the food on board was pretty good.

“She can’t make food appear by magic,” Ebba informed Denny. “Somehow she’s lost all her powers. She is afraid of you.”

“Good.”

“Who did you see when you hovered between life and death?”

Merritt’s face loomed in his mind. “An angel. That’s all you need to know.”

Ebba nodded and handed him a huge bowl of porridge. Denny felt sure Fortunata had sent her to ask him this question, but Denny had no need to divulge his secrets. He kept his mind blank and focused on the task at hand, getting to Cornwall.

For several days, the voyage went smoothly until they weathered a bad storm on the eleventh day. Fortunata, Ebba, Barthelmass and Bertie, the cabin boy, all took to their beds, slumbering like dormice, avoiding the ship’s wild surges. Denny loved it, as did the rest of his crew. He was surprised that Anisse handled it so well, but though she tried, her cooking was grim. She couldn’t help burning everything that came into her path. She was, however, an excellent seamstress and did a bang-up job patching torn sails and clothing.

In the middle of one particularly violent sea squall, Christoph came to him in his mind.

“Guard your thoughts,”
Christoph warned.
“Trust nobody.”
He then went on to give Denny surprising instructions. He yearned to talk to somebody about the surprising visit from Christoph, but knew he couldn’t. He was just anxious to hit dry land to execute the first of his plans. Plans he had to keep shielded from Fortunata.