Breathing a sigh of relief, he gripped the railing as theSentinelluffed alee then came even on her keel to initiate the tack.Sails flapped above as a blast of night air, filled with hope and promise, swirled about him while the silken rustle of the sea against the hull brought a soothing relief.
He fingered the Ring.Itdidhave power, just like the stories his sister and Blake had told him.Not purely evil as his father had warned, but good too.Besides, it felt right on his finger, a perfect fit.Like it was meant to be.
TheSentinelcontinued its tack, tilting to larboard, sheets snapping as they luffed and then filled with wind.Caleb should go below and check on that hole.
Liam marched toward him, his green eyes firing as he gripped the stone around his neck.“By the saints, Cap’n, what just happened?”
Alden joined them as several of Caleb’s crew crowded around, their shocked expressions twisting maniacally in the moonlight, their wary glances scanning the deck where the rats had been only moments before.The stench of the beasts lingered, however, an omen of a future Caleb dared not imagine.
“Where did the rats go?”
“They was ’ere one minute, gone the next!”
“Vanished into smoke!I saw it wit’ me own eyes.”
“Ne’er saw the likes o’ it.”
“Sweet Mary, mother o’ God, this ship be cursed!”
“Ayes” along with grunts rumbled over the men.
Alden raised his hands.“There’s no curse here.Not anymore.God protected us.”He gave an approving nod to Caleb.One he didn’t deserve.
Ayida stepped from the companionway, her gaze sweeping the men like a tide creeping in.
“There’ll be no talk of curses,” Caleb said in his most authoritative voice.“Whatever those creatures were, they’re gone now.And, despite them, we won our battle.Good work, men!”
Three of his crew popped on deck from below.“Hole’s plugged as best we can, Cap’n,” Blair said.
“Won’t last long,” Craden added, “Water’s still seeping in.”
As Caleb expected.He rubbed the back of his neck, noting blood splotches spread across the deck.Were there injuries?Not from cannon shot.But from the rats.Particularly on those men who wore no shoes.Yet now as he looked closer, bloody cuts sliced across bare arms and chests.Cursed specters or not, their bites were real.
He snapped his gaze to the quarterdeck where he’d left Miss Starr.She remained leaning against the larboard railing, staring at the sea as if she longed to return from whence she had come.He should go to her.Ensure she was unharmed, but Brandt shoved through the crowd.“Make way, lads.Make way.I see I’ve got my work cut out for me.”He gestured to their bloody feet.“Come down to my cabin, and I’ll dress your wounds there.”
Ayida stood amidships, arms crossed over her waist.“When vermin vanish in smoke, it be no work of mortal hand.The sea’s marked dis ship… and all who sail her.”
Shorty frowned.“Marked for what, woman?”
“For what’s owed,” she purred.“The deep always takes its due.First de plague, den de vanishin’, den”—she snapped her fingers—“de black water calls ye under.”
Alden stepped forward.“You speak poison, Ayida.The ship’s no more cursed than you or I.The rats are gone, and we’ll be rid of the rent in our hull soon enough.Superstition won’t mend a sail nor keep a man afloat.”
Ayida’s eyes glinted as a slow smile raised her lips.“Aye… gone, like dey was commanded.But a command that don’t come from steel nor shot… only from somethin’ older.Somethin’ dat answers to de one who holds it.”Her gaze flicked toward Caleb before she turned away.
Caleb stared after the woman.She’d never spoken in such riddles before.Did she know about the Ring?Regardless, a metallic taste filled his mouth.“There’s no curse here.Only a ship in need of repair and a crew with work to do.Fear’s the only sickness I’ll have aboard.Now, one by one, go see the doc.The rest, to your stations!”
He charged toward Ayida, intent on ordering her below.That’s when he saw no bites, no cuts, no blood marred her bare arms or her shoeless feet.
Chapter 10: The Compass Rose
Was there a point at which someone reached a peak of shocking events, a limit of how much a human could endure before their mind short-circuited and drifted off into la-la land?La-la land.Wherever that was, it sounded like heaven compared to what Desi had witnessed these past days.She couldn’t make sense of one crazy happening before another one came along, sending her heart and soul into a tailspin from which she had no escape.
The disappearing rats were the crest on the tidal wave of insanity that washed over her.Chuckling, she lowered to her cot and hoisted her skirts.Bloody bites cut into her feet and ankles and sliced across her arms.Numb with shock, she hardly felt the pain.What shedidfeel was an odd sense of admiration for the captain—Caleb.Not only the way he’d handled the ship during battle, but all while fending off an army of rats.He’d been calm, commanding, decisive…andhe’d protected her, brought her on deck at first and then later covered her with his body, enduring the bites and nips meant for her.
Of all the strange happenings, his chivalrous actions baffled her…confused her.Warmed her.She couldn’t imagine anyone she’d dated behaving with even half the gallantry this man—pirate—had shown her these past few days.In fact, she doubted any man would subject himself to even the slightest injury in order to save her.
Not that she wasn’t a modern woman who couldn’t take care of herself.Yet, even though she was embarrassed to admit it—and she never would to any of her friends—she loved the idea of a man being the protector, the defender, a hero who honored and treated women with respect.Not in a degrading way, but in a way that celebrated the differences between them.The kind of men she read about in romance novels and longed to write about in one of her own.
