The Isis Knot (41 page)

“But with you—”

“I went to him ignorant. I knew nothing about this”—she drew a finger down the cuff—“or him. He stood on the other side of the room when I put it on. He didn’t even go into the cave with me. But he knew what would happen inside. He tricked Isis into giving me what the cuff had promised. He tricked me. It’s what he wanted from Elizabeth two hundred years ago—or today, rather. That’s why he never told her anything about what she was really meant for or what the cuff could do.”

“What about the ring?” he asked.

She exhaled and swept a long look across the stars. “Did you get the feeling like Moore has the other ring? Tuthotsut had two, remember. Maybe they’re somehow connected?”

He was nodding as she spoke. “Yes. And if Elizabeth somehow got the cuff off you and put on this ring, it would create some sort of…corridor…back to him?”

She let out a short, humorless laugh. “I suppose it isn’t the weirdest thing we’ve heard lately.”

His expression changed, softened. The fingers of one hand grazed lightly down her cheek. “You surprise me every time you open your mouth. Did you know that?”

“No.” She turned her face to kiss his palm. “But so do you.”

A strange sadness twinged the corners of his eyes.

“We can get rid of the ring,” she said, “now that we know what it does. Throw the ring into the ocean and close up that corridor forever. And then stay the hell away from England and Seth Moore.”

But what did that mean then, about the possibility of her going home?

William threw a shadowed look over her shoulder at Elizabeth, then stalked back into the fort. She followed, because she couldn’t read his emotions and that scared her.

He took Elizabeth by the shoulders and sat her up, propping her against the wall. He just stood there, staring down at her, until she barked, “Out wi’ it!”

He slid his hands into his pockets. “Why did you do that to Jem?”

Elizabeth sneered. “Do what? He said he knew where you were and then he failed me. It wasn’t my fault the constables came running.”

“Do you know what they do to bolters?” William’s voice was eerily even. “Jem will hang. His death is on your head now. Along with your husband’s and anyone else you’ve hurt in the name of Seth. Do you feel satisfied with that?”

She snorted. “Eh. Stumpy’s somehow managed to survive for nineteen years when death should’ve taken him when we were six.”

Sera’s whole body went cold. Was she saying—?

William frowned. “Stumpy?”

“That’s what I called him when we were children. When he was fat and short. When Father used to beat us—”

Sera surged forward. Almost too close. The stain of Seth’s influence came off Elizabeth like noxious fumes.

“Your brother.” Sera’s voice sounded awfully hollow to her own ears. “Jem is your brother.”

“He is. What’s it to you? Said he hated you, he did. Said I could have you as long as I took you away from him.” She glanced at William. “Fat lot of good that did me.”

Dark spots invaded Sera’s peripheral vision, seeping closer and closer to the center, threatening to end her sight. But no, it only narrowed, circling and spinning down into the tunnel vision she’d experienced on the streets of Parramatta. All she saw was Elizabeth, and the sight of the woman, unrepentant over having sent her own brother to his death, fed the brewing chaos.

The magic wanted death. It didn’t seem to discriminate; it didn’t seem to matter that Elizabeth had once been Seth’s pawn. The bloodlust was being stoked by Sera’s anger, and it wanted her to use the evil Ramsesh had stolen from Tuthotsut all those years ago.

No
.

She scrambled backward, her shoulders striking the stone wall.

“Sera, are you—?” William reached for her.

“No,” she mumbled. “I won’t. I won’t do that again.”

She drunkenly spun out of the fort and back into the night air, putting space between her and Elizabeth. Footsteps crunched behind her and then William’s strong arm draped around her, pulling her close.

“The death inside me,” she breathed into his neck. “It wants Elizabeth. She needs to pay but…not like that. I can’t do that.”

“I know.” He stroked her back. “I know.”

With a gasp she pulled away. “You said she confessed to killing her husband?”

He gave a little shake of his head at her sudden subject change. “She did. Name was Thomas, I believe.”

“Then leave her here tied up. I’ll go back to the Rocks and find a constable. Maybe word of Thomas’s death has reached here. Maybe they’re looking for her. Those two earlier didn’t ask her name, didn’t ask her any questions. But if I tell them about her and where she is, they’ll take her in, won’t they? We can get rid of the ring and she’ll be in the hands of the Crown. We have our justice.”

But no future…
Stop it, Sera.

He frowned. “No. You’re not going back into town alone.”

She put a hand on her hip and gave him a twenty-first century look of incredulity, complete with an eye-roll. “Well,
you’re
not going back there. Not with your name and face. Not with your crimes.”

“Ah!” He grabbed at his hair in frustration, walked two steps away, then came back.

“You know I’m right. I have to go. I can’t be here with her any longer. I’m scared of what will happen…what I’ll do.”

“Just stay out here. I’ll go.”

“No. I’ll be fine. I know the Rocks now, where to hide, what to avoid—”

He grabbed the front of her blouse and pulled her into him, sending her stumbling off balance. But their mouths still met, a shock of a kiss, wonderful and brief and too full of emotion.

“What am I supposed to do then?” he whispered against her mouth.

“You make sure Elizabeth is secure, throw the ring into the water and meet me somewhere. Say, on the other side of Sydney. Near the Governor’s house. They won’t think to look for us in the good part of town.”

“And
then
what?” He glanced to the east, where the first tinges of dawn appeared over the ocean. She understood. They were still on an island. Still in New South Wales. Still in 1819.

She leaned closer and stroked a thumb over his lush bottom lip. Those lips, the kind that no man should have and use with such perfection.

“And then”—she kissed him again—“we find a new life.”

#

Elizabeth listened as Sera—the deceitful one, the
unworthy
one—said something to William and then hurried off. Elizabeth couldn’t hear what was said between them, but it didn’t matter. She knew what was coming.

She’d come this far, had been within spitting distance of Mr. Moore’s gold cuff, and she wasn’t about to let a little rope and the threat of punishment stop her now. This was an island. They could try to run, but they wouldn’t get far.

She could find herself back in Mr. Moore’s arms very, very soon.

They’d forgotten to replace her gag, and she bent her head and started gnawing on the ropes like a mouse. Nibble, nibble. Tug, tug. She worked frantically, swiftly.

Outside, William began to pace, his toes scraping at the dirt. He walked all around the fort, and Elizabeth kept a keen ear trained on his pattern as she squirmed and loosened the rope around her wrists.

Sometimes his footsteps faded into nothing. She didn’t know if he was sleeping or standing staring into the dawn like a madman…or if he’d walked to the cliff’s edge and thrown the ring down below.

That last thought made her work even faster, her heart slamming inside her chest.

At last the rope dropped free from her arms and sensation tingled back into her fingertips. She bit back a hiss of pain and started to work on her ankles, which were freed much quicker. She rose to her feet, silent as a mouse, and crept to the doorway.

William was sitting on a low wall, facing the Rocks. His hands rested on his thighs, his head hung low in thought. Then, as if a decision had been made or a great idea realized, he suddenly looked up and pushed himself off the wall.

The ring was in his pocket. She’d seen him put it there. And now was the time for her to take it back.

He took one step, but that’s as far as he got.

The rock in her hand—a loose chunk she’d taken from the fort wall—was about the same size and weight as the iron she’d used to silence Thomas. It didn’t have a point on it like the iron had, but as her arm swung down toward William’s head and she felt the supreme, righteous power of what she had to do, she knew the rock would do exactly what she needed.

She struck him in the temple. His body spun around. His eyes, wide and full of disbelief and surprise, met hers right before he crumpled to the ground. The sound of his collapse was satisfying. The stutter and struggle of his breath begged her forward.

She shoved a hand in the pocket where she’d seen him deposit the ring and…nothing. Perhaps she’d been wrong. She checked the other pocket. Also empty.

William’s chest pulsed erratically. His eyes were closed. He didn’t have long to live. She didn’t care.

Aha! Perhaps he’d slipped the ring into his boot, thinking he was being sneaky. She moved to his feet and yanked off both boots, turned them upside down. Only dust came out.

No. It couldn’t be.

She patted down his entire body, unfolded hemlines.

No
.

She whirled to the south, to the cliffs. Maybe he’d thrown it over when his footsteps had gone quiet earlier, when she’d lost track of his movements around the fort. Maybe he’d carried out his threat after all.

Now it was her turn not to breathe. Rage swept in and replaced the air.

She sneered down at William, whom she could no longer see breathing at all. His face was slack, his body completely still. Deathly still.

She looked toward Sydney in the distance, coming alive in the brightening dawn, and a new sense of purpose came to her.

If William had tossed her ring, and Sera was still running around the colony wearing Mr. Moore’s cuff, there was only one thing left for Elizabeth to do.

The thieving harlot had to die.

CHAPTER 26

Sera stumbled through the maze of the Rocks, hurrying toward the Hyde Park Barracks. The morning had just barely dawned and people were starting to trickle into the lanes, but no constables wandered the streets at this hour. That was why she aimed for the barracks, because if there was one place where the colony’s version of cops would be, it was the jail.

She’d find the first soldier or constable she saw, tell them about Elizabeth and get her contained, meet up with William, and then get the hell out of Sydney.

By the time she reached the barracks, the sun had fully risen above the horizon. The complex stood within a high wall. Three stories of clean tawny brick with an angled roof and rows of rectangular windows. Two uniformed men yawned where they stood at the gate.

This was it. All she had to do was walk up to them, tell them about the murder Elizabeth had committed and where to find her, hope they didn’t ask too many questions, and then disappear.

She flattened herself against a corner of a granary and peered out. The area surrounding the barracks was wide and open. A group of smaller buildings stood across the way, one of which was still under construction. A pile of newly mined pale stone sat to one side, ready to be carved into bricks, and wooden scaffolding scaled up the side with already chiseled stone piled on top. A few people began to fill in the spaces between the scant buildings, and it made her wary. She had no idea what news, if anything, had been circulating around the Rocks about Jem or William or the woman the two men had shared a room with below the Waldgraves’. Caution stilled her feet. The beat of her heart began to pick up pace.

Movement to her left caught her eye. Not the careful, easy movements of a colonist starting the day’s work, but a flash of something quick. A billow of a long dress, floating out behind as the wearer dashed from one hiding place to another. A brief glimpse of an all-too-familiar yellow color as it disappeared behind a bakery.

Elizabeth. Whom she’d left tied up and gagged back at Fort Philip with William. Or had she been gagged when Sera had left? Sera had taken off so quickly, so desperate to get away, that she hadn’t checked. She’d trusted William to make sure Elizabeth was secure before heading to their meeting place. William…

Now her heart completely stopped. If Elizabeth was free, what had happened to William? Had he gotten away before Elizabeth had somehow finagled her way out of the bonds? He had to have. He wouldn’t have delayed there. He would’ve tossed the ring and started for their meeting place right away—

Elizabeth peeked out from behind the corner of the bakery. Found Sera immediately. The crazy woman’s eyes were hard and focused. Her lips curled in a smile at the same moment her fingers curled around the edge of the stone building. She’d known where Sera had been all along. Which meant Sera was being hunted, and that Elizabeth’s wicked smile hid terrible things.

William. She’d done something to William. The smugness could mean nothing else.

Seth’s magic came alive inside Sera. Instantly, forcefully. The bloodlust Elizabeth had awakened up at Fort Philip tried to push Sera out of hiding. It wanted her to march right out in the middle of the street and face Elizabeth head-on as Sera dealt out death. A gunfight without guns, and no chance of survival for the madwoman.