Deadly Curiosities (40 page)

“Do you want me to anchor you again?” He asked.

“No, let’s try it without you or the ring and see how it goes.” I raised an eyebrow. “If I have trouble, feel free to jump in.”

The wrapping paper gave me an insight into Sorren’s mood. Handling the brown paper and the twine, I sensed his worry. He was concerned for Teag and my safety, and justifiably uncertain about how we were going to stop Moran and his demon. While I would have liked to have read total confidence, just to shore up my own nerves, I knew Sorren’s worrying was a good thing. It would make for caution, and with luck, we could handle our demon problem without more deaths.
With luck
. That was the tricky part.

I pulled the twine loops apart and peeled back the paper. Inside was a broken piece of weathered wood and several yellowed pages from a ledger. I frowned, exchanging a glance with Teag, who shrugged.

I laid my hand on the broken wood. Immediately the comfortable surroundings of my kitchen disappeared, and I found myself onboard a wooden sailing ship in the midst of a terrifying storm at sea.

The deck was drenched, and waves pounded the clipper as winds tore at its sails. Rough seas made the ship rise sharply and then fall out from under the feet of the men who scrambled to keep her under control against all the forces of nature.
“Captain Harrison!” one of the sailors shouted. “We’re taking on water.”
Captain Harrison turned from throwing a pouch into the water. He knew he wasn’t going to come home from this one. The captain was a man in his late fifties, and I recognized his face from family pictures I had seen at Gardenia Landing. The man who built Gardenia Landing, the sea captain whose fortunes waned when he did business with Jeremiah Abernathy.
“Put all the men we can spare on the bilges,” Harrison ordered. “Get the rest in place to man the sails.
With luck, we’ll make it through this.”
Harrison eyed the sky, and I followed his gaze. Their ship, the
Lady Jane
, was fighting for her life, and her captain knew it. But as I followed his worried gaze skyward, what I saw troubled me far worse than even the violence of nature.
The horizon had a greenish glow, like foxfire. Lightning streaked down from black clouds, striking the heaving surface of the sea, and some of those streaks were green as well. A miasma hung over the sea, a foul haze that stank of dark magic. Harrison saw it too, and I could see he was afraid.

Harrison fingered an amulet that hung on a chain around his neck, and I saw that it was a medal of St.
Nicholas of Greece, the patron saint of sailors. Harrison knew the dangers of the sea, and he looked like a man to hedge his bets.
“Looks like the storm that took down the
Cristobal
,” one of the sailors said to another.
“Not natural. Mark my words: it’s a hexed storm. We won’t see shore again,” the other replied.
Harrison looked as if he wanted to reprove the man, but I could see he feared the sailor’s words were true.
“I don’t like the look of the storm, sir.” It was Norris, one of his officers, a man who had served aboard one ship or another since he was just a boy. “It’s not natural.”
Harrison shook his head. “No, it’s not.”
Norris met Harrison’s eyes. “The cargo we picked up from the
Cristobal
, the pieces you delivered to Mr.
Abernathy – d’ya think they were cursed?”
Cursed, I thought, but not in the way Norris expected. Magic had taken the
Cristobal
to the bottom of the ocean, along with artifacts Jeremiah Abernathy desperately needed to control his demon. If Harrison had picked up some of that cargo and delivered it, Abernathy might have decided not to leave any loose ends, people who might have noticed what was in those waterlogged crates.
“Aye,” Harrison replied. “Or maybe it’s divine justice for my being fool enough to do business with the likes of Abernathy. I should have known better.”
Harrison’s position as a ship’s captain was the legitimate side to his family’s shipping business.
Smuggling was the underside of that trade, and what kept a difficult industry profitable. Rum, tobacco, stowaways, and other illegal cargo paid the bills and the enormous cost of upkeep. That meant trading with an unsavory set of partners, the type a gentleman would commonly deny. From that standpoint, bringing back some flotsam for Jeremiah Abernathy must have looked like a bonus, free money for scooping up some pieces from the
Cristobal’s
wreckage.

Then Abernathy decided to eliminate witnesses.
The sea churned beneath the ship, with waves rising high into the air, then crashing down onto the deck with force enough to splinter masts. Each wave that pounded the Lady Jane’s deck swept sailors overboard. Desperate men lashed themselves to the rail. Even then, the sea cheated, sending wave after wave of suffocating, freezing seawater to nearly drown those that were not swept away, or break their bodies when their lifeline kept them rigid against its force.
Harrison made his way back to the bridge. Another wave swept across the
Lady Jane’s
deck, and Harrison nearly lost his grip on the railing. He was soaked to the skin, teeth chattering against the wind.
The green mist shrouded them from seeing anything, isolating them on the vast, roiling sea.
The water picked Harrison up like an empty bottle and flung him down the deck, smashing him against the base of one of the masts. He struggled to his feet, dragging himself up against the wind, and held on as another wave rose high over the deck and slammed into them once more. Men, rope, tools and anything not nailed to the boards stood a good chance of being thrown into the churning sea.
Resolute, Captain Harrison dragged himself along the railing. His right leg sent blinding pain through his body whenever he put weight on it. He was certain it had broken when he smashed against the mast.
Staggering and limping, using his arms to haul himself down the rail, Harrison again made it to the steps, staying on his feet as the ship pitched.
Just as Harrison reached the top of the steps, an ear-splitting crack of lighting sizzled through the driving rain, striking the top of the
Lady Jane’s
tallest mast, splitting it like a dry twig. The mast exploded, sending a deadly rain of wood chunks and knife-sharp splinters flying through the air. A dozen men fell, struck in the head or chest with the heavy wooden debris. More men staggered as long splinters pierced their bodies, driven through their skin like nails.

The huge mast creaked and groaned a death cry as it toppled, bringing its sails with it, crushing men beneath the massive post, sweeping them overboard with its yardarm or tangling them in the heavy, soaked canvas of its sails.
The wind keened through the remaining masts, and the air buzzed with the charge of the nearby lighting strikes. Harrison staggered into the bridge, facing his terrified officers.
“We’re taking on water,” his first mate said. “You can feel it in the way she handles.”
Harrison nodded. “Not surprised,” he replied. “She’s not as young as she used to be.” It went unsaid that neither was Harrison.
“Do we head for the lifeboats?” one of the officers asked.
“In this storm?” another challenged. “Might as well throw yourself into the sea.”
Harrison kept his eyes on the sea, and on the green flashes of ungodly lightning that flared and crackled down around them. He had the look of a man steering into hell at high speed, and if the officers around him had hoped for salvation, one look at his expression stripped them of all hope.
A wall of water rose, towering higher than the ship’s remaining masts. The wave swept the
Lady Jane
up with it, then dropped her into a trough as the huge wave came crashing down. The drop broke her keel, and the wave smashed what was left of her masts. The
Lady Jane
went quickly into the icy depths, shrouded in a green, ghostly fog, its cursed captain holding onto the wheel with a death grip as the sea claimed him for its own.

“C
ASSIDY
! W
AKE UP
! You’re shivering like you’ve been in the arctic,” Teag said. The vision left me, and I was sitting in my kitchen once more, but the cold of the merciless sea clung to me. My teeth were chattering, and I folded my arms across my chest, running my hands up and down my upper arms to warm myself.

“Before you ask, yes, having you anchor me made a big difference. And in the future, you are more than welcome to do it anytime you’re willing.”

Teag gave me a pitying look and went to the living room to retrieve an afghan from the couch. He wrapped it around my shoulders and went to make me a hot cup of tea. I accepted it gratefully, holding the cup in my hands and letting it warm me as I let the horror of the vision slip away.

“Why is it you never get to see cute puppy dogs and happy bunnies?” Teag wondered.

“I do,” I said, barely stopping my teeth from chattering. “I don’t generally need assistance with those visions.” That was the bright side of our work at Trifles and Folly. Most of the pieces we handled were boringly normal, without any resonance at all. Some held the echoes of joy and wonder, like souvenirs from bygone trips, well-traveled luggage, silver and crystal that had been wedding presents or were part of holiday celebrations for many years. Touching those items was one of the best parts of my job.

Teag poured a cup of tea for himself and sat back as I told him about Captain Harrison and the ill-fated
Lady Jane.

“So Harrison came upon the
Cristobal
either as it foundered or shortly afterwards, soon enough to scoop up crates and barrels that floated to the surface,” Teag said. “I’m guessing here, but I’d bet that either Harrison had done some smuggling for Abernathy before this, or knew enough about him to think he’d pay for goods from a pirate ship.”

I shrugged. “For all we know, the crates might even have been addressed to Abernathy.”

Teag nodded. “Could be. So Harrison delivers the goods – but only part of what was actually onboard the
Cristobal
.”

“The rest went to the bottom with the ship.”

“Abernathy and Harrison concluded their deal, and Harrison took his ship back to sea,” Teag said. “But then Harrison sails into a strange storm, just like the
Cristobal
did. In fact, it’s so much like the freak storm that sank the
Cristobal,
Harrison gets suspicious, but it’s too late. Abernathy – or Moran, or the demon – decide Harrison is an inconvenient loose end. Conjure up a nasty storm, and sink the evidence,” Teag said, making a spiraling gesture like water going down the drain.

“I think that’s exactly what happened,” I said.

“What about the ledger?” Teag asked. I reached for it, but he grabbed it away.

“Rest,” he said with a warning look. “I can read as well as you can.” I sat back, happy for the reprieve.

Teag frowned as he scanned down the faded ink and old-style penmanship. “Offhand, I’d say it’s Captain Harrison’s log book,” he said. “Just pages torn out – but it happens to be the day they saw the
Cristobal
sink.”

“What does it say?” I resisted the urge to want to see for myself. The horror of the
Lady Jane’s
wreck was still too close.

“I can see why Harrison and his crew were frightened by the storm that sank them – aside from the normal human reasons to not want lightning to strike your ship or big waves wash you overboard.”

“Harrison’s notes say he and the crew spotted a ship flying a Spanish flag on the route between Barbados and Charleston, between Bermuda and the coast. It was a good distance ahead of them, but clearly in sight.” Teag looked thoughtful as he studied the next portion of the log.

“Harrison says that they had crossed paths with the
Cristobal
before, and recognized it, even at a distance. Clouds came up ‘unusually fast’ his notes add,” Teag continued. “Here’s what he says: ‘
The air took on an unusual color, like the green glow of a certain fungus, a sickly, diseased color like a rotting corpse. The mist gathered all around the
Cristobal
, so we could scarcely make out the tip of her tallest mast. Clouds gathered, and bolts of lightning began to strike all around the ship, but nowhere else. All around the
Lady Jane
, the sky was clear and we had calm winds. This discrepancy was noted by my men, who commented on it at length and many took out charms or good luck trinkets and prayed for deliverance’.”
Teag met my gaze and raised an eyebrow. “There’s more. ‘
I ordered our course changed so that we did

not steer into the same unlucky conditions as the
Cristobal
. Yet I wished to see if assistance would be needed
.’”

“For a pirate ship?” I said with a snort. “More like he hoped there would be cargo to loot if things went wrong.”

Teag nodded. “I thought the motives sounded very noble. ‘
We saw lightning strike the
Cristobal
in several places, and the sea was wild beneath her. One huge wave and one deafening peal of thunder later, and the
Cristobal
vanished from our sight
.’”

“Just like that,” I murmured.

“Apparently so. Matches what I found on the Darke Web”

I thought for a moment, sipping my tea. “Abernathy and Moran wanted what was on the
Cristobal
,” I continued. “Somebody hired a wizard to sink the ship. We’ll probably never know whether that person was Abernathy’s enemy or someone with a grudge against Moran or the crew of the
Cristobal

themselves. Whoever it was wanted to make sure Abernathy didn’t get what was onboard the
Cristobal
, but sinking the ship didn’t completely fix the problem. Some of the items washed up anyway. He couldn’t have guessed that Harrison would happen upon the wreckage and see an opportunity.”

“Then Abernathy and Moran got rid of Harrison, figuring that eliminated a witness,” Teag said. “And they might have wanted to go back after the wreckage right then, but something else must have gone wrong. Moran disappeared and Abernathy wasn’t strong enough to control the demon himself, so his fortunes soured and the demon caused a fair bit of damage until Sorren and the others could banish it.”

“But they didn’t destroy the demon, and they didn’t manage to banish it permanently,” I said as I absently reached down to stroke Baxter’s fur.