Sam leaned on the railing. “No more than usual.”
“You did not join us to celebrate.”
“You know I don’t indulge in such folly.”
Aye, Blake expected as much. Though Sam rarely disclosed anything of his past or even spoke of himself at all, Blake had learned he’d once been a professor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford. His downfall had something to do with a lady—as downfalls usually did—a betrayal and a sentence aboard a Royal Navy Frigate. Which was where he and Blake had crossed paths. Blake a prisoner and Sam a deserter. Sam needed to disappear from society. Blake needed a surgeon. A deal was made, and Sam aided in Blake’s escape. They’d sailed together ever since, and Blake relied on the elder man’s wise words, for he’d never had a father who offered him such counsel. Still, the man could be rather gloomy at times, often gainsaying Blake’s plans.
“Perhaps ’tis the lady that causes your soul unease,” Sam offered.
Blake twisted the Ring, wishing he could disclose its power to Sam and get his opinion on recent unexplained events. “Nay. I have no time for silly feather-brained females.”
“That pleases me. I intended to warn you against such madness, for she seems quite unlike your prior wenches.”
“Aye, she is remarkable, is she not?” He spoke the words before he realized how true they were. “But never fear, my friend. I intend to put her ashore at the next port.”
“Then why bring her on board in the first place?”
“She had something I wanted. Now that I have it, she is of no further use.” Even as he said the words, he cringed at their cruel ring.
Silence spanned between them for quite some time, as it often did when they were alone together. TheSummonscontinued its gentle curtsey over the dark waters. Blake continued sipping his rum.
Finally, that rum emboldened mind could keep quiet no longer. “What do you know of magical or perhaps godly powers that inhabit ancient artifacts?”
Sam uttered a rare chuckle and glanced at Blake. Moonlight sparkled humor in his eyes. “I’d say there is no such thing. Neither magic. Or God.”
Back in his cabin, Blake pondered Sam’s words as he stood in the dark, staring out the stern windows at the black rolling sea. A heaviness settled on his shoulders at what the wise surgeon had said. If there was no magic, no otherworldly powers…no God, then there was no purpose to any of this. No hope, no reason to go on, save to spend one’s life seeking one’s own pleasure. Yet wasn’t that precisely what Blake had been doing? Chasing power, wealth, revenge?He gripped the black cross around his neck, a symbol of his lack of faith in the God his mother worshipped, a God who led her to cast Blake out onto the street.
Evil laughter spun him around. He peered through the dark cabin but saw no one.
There is no God. There is no God.The black specters returned, shadowy figures billowing in a hellish dance of death.
No hope, no purpose. No joy. No God, they repeated over and over.
Blake fingered the Ring. “Begone!”
The shadows disappeared, but their chanting remained, haunting him through what was left of the night until, by daybreak, his head pounded, his mouth was as dry as a dead sailor’s bones, and even Bandit cowered in a corner, staring at Blake as if he were a ghost.
He hailed Pedro and ordered him to bring the lady at once.
Chapter 8
T
he ghouls returned—demons or whatever they were—drifting in and out of Blake’s vision, hovering against the bulkhead, shapeless figures with dark, malevolent eyes. The old Jewish pirate had told Blake that the Ring could command demons. Yet when Blake ordered them away this time, they remained.
Perhaps he didn’t know the proper commands. Perhaps he needed to send them on a mission.
Perhaps he was merely going mad.
He rubbed his throbbing temples when Pedro knocked and entered the cabin with Miss Hyde in tow.
Even in her wrinkled gown and hastily pinned-up hair, she was a vision of light and beauty, anaturalbeauty devoid of most women’s spurious attempts to enhance what nature provided.
She halted in the middle of the cabin, hands clasped before her, eyes locked upon him.
The demons instantly vanished.
Not only in sight, but their ceaseless chanting dissipated into silence.Pure, peaceful silence.
