He faced her, every trace of joy gone.“And how will you return with the Ring?”
“All I need to do is drop it while standing within one of the portals.”
He flattened his lips and stared at the Ring.“Yet if you sell it to this man, you can never return.”
And there it was.The words struck like cannon fire, ripping her heart clean through.
Tears spilled as she turned to the window again, thankful when Brandt barged into the cabin, cane clapping on the deck.
“Forgive the intrusion, Captain.”His voice dragged with both exhaustion and defeat.“But five more men have fallen ill.”
♥
The stench of sickness met them halfway down the companionway—an acrid mix of sweat, bile, and damp wood.Desi covered her nose with her sleeve as Caleb lifted a lantern, its wavering light spilling across the narrow passage.
Brandt trudged ahead, limping more than usual, his cane clacking against the planks.“They’re in the forecastle, Captain.I moved the worst of them together so we might better tend them.”
When they reached the cramped berth, Desi’s breath caught.Dozens of hammocks hung in uneven rows, each occupied by a man drenched in sweat, his skin slick and as gray as old parchment.Some shivered beneath thin blankets; others muttered incoherently, eyes rolling back in their sockets.
The air was thick, oppressive, heavy with despair.
Caleb’s face hardened as he surveyed his men.“Lord preserve us,” he murmured.“How many more?”
“Three this morning.Two since I left your cabin,” Brandt said, his voice frayed.“It begins with a fever, then rashes.Some bleed from the nose.I’ve tried everything I know—leeches, bark, vinegar compresses—but the sickness only worsens.”He gripped his cane with white-knuckled hands, his expression crumbling.“I should have known.I should have seen the signs earlier.What use am I as a physician if I cannot save them?”
Caleb laid a hand on his shoulder.“You’ve done all a man could, Doctor.”
But Brandt shook his head fiercely.“No, Captain.I’ve failed them.”His voice cracked.“I hear their cries at night.They call for mercy, and I can give none.”He pressed a hand to his eyes, struggling for composure.
Desi stepped beside him.“This isn’t your fault,” she said softly.
“Nay, it isn’t,” Caleb added.“You are the best doctor to ever sail the Caribbean.If you can’t cure them…” A sudden thought fired through his mind.If Brandt couldn’t cure them, then perhaps the illness was not natural as Alden had said.
At that moment, one of the sailors convulsed in his hammock, gasping for air.Desi rushed forward, taking his clammy hand.“His pulse is racing.”
Caleb leaned close.“Hold fast, lad.”
The man’s eyes shot open, wild and terrified, not glazed and distant as one would expect from a fever.
“This sickness may not be of this world,” Caleb whispered to no one in particular.
Brandt huffed.
Desi looked around the shadowed berth.Men groaned, the lantern’s light flickering across their fevered faces.Every creak of the ship sounded like a moan from the sea itself.“What can you do then?”
All this time, he’d been ignoring the signs, ignoring Alden’s warnings, and ignoring God’s leading.Caleb straightened.“What I should have done long ago.I must deal with Ayida.”
♥
Caleb searched theSentinelfrom stem to stern, through the galley thick with the odor of boiled rice and smoke, through her cramped berth reeking of palm oil and incense, and even the shadowy hold where the crew swore they oft spied her muttering to spirits unseen.
But Ayida Noire was nowhere to be found.
Still, even as suspicion clouded his thoughts, another grief tore at him—the knowledge that if Desi took the Ring to save her sister, she would never return.The notion struck him harder than any broadside.Nay, Lord, not that.Not after all we’ve endured.
He forced the ache aside and climbed to the quarterdeck.
The sea blazed in the dying light, the sun bleeding ribbons of maroon and gold across the western horizon, announcing its departure in the splendor of its station.
