The captain’s unnerving gaze considered my words, and I hoped it was enough to sway him. The last thing I wanted was to be left alone in his quarters. I could feel the sweat pooling at the small of my back but tried not to let my nerves show through. Finally, he replied.
“That sounds wonderful.” The man smiled happily, but his eyes told me something else. That I’d won but he was going to get what he wanted one way or another. “I look forward to it.”
I gave a nervous nod and followed Benjamin out across the deck over to a ladder hatch where he stopped and waited for me to descend first. When we both reached the bottom, he pulled me off to the side.
“What are you trying to do?” he asked me angrily.
I shrugged. “What are you talking about?”
“All of that about me taking you to the island,” he whispered. “If you think this is your escape plan, you’re wrong. There will be no gettin’ away from me, sweetness.”
I refused to let him intimidate me. “The only thing I was thinking of escaping was your crazy brother. If I had to choose between being alone with him or you, I’d pick you. At least you have your wits.”
Benjamin grinned then. “I have more than wits if you’re interested.”
I rolled my eyes and pushed at his chest. “Not in a million years. I prefer blondes, thank you very much.”
He stuck his thumbs inside his thick leather belt and rocked back on the heels of his boots. “Fancy the golden boys, do ya?”
“Nope, just my fiancé,” I replied cheekily and then narrowed my eyes.
Benjamin was quiet then. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised or upset. But he grabbed an empty burlap sack before abruptly turning back to the ladder and began to climb. “Come on, then. Let’s go to the damn island.”
I followed him up to the deck and over to the side where he hoisted down a rowboat. He seemed lost in his own mind as he moved the ropes.
“What? No magic rowboat this time?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
He turned and gave me an oh, please look. “There’s no such thing as magic rowboats.” Benjamin then grabbed a rolled-up rope ladder and tossed it over the side where it hung.
“So, did I imagine the one that emerged from the water the other night?”
He began to climb over the edge, facing me as I waited. “It’s not the boat that possesses the power.”
I grabbed the thick rope and followed. “What is it, then?”
He waited until we reached the bottom and helped me into the small boat. Then he heaved a sigh. “The sea.”
I remained silent as we rowed ashore, letting his reply sink in. They’d somehow harnessed the power of the sea to shield their ship and manipulate its magic. My mind raced over all the reasons why. Or how. I’d had my own experiences with the sea, but I couldn’t imagine controlling its force in any way.
Our little boat jostled as it hit the pebbly sand of the shore and we both climbed out. Before I could grab the tie rope to pull it in, the boat shoved off and disappeared below the surface of the water.
“Jesus,” I whispered, standing there in awe.
“No time for praying, sweetness. Let’s go.”
He stomped off to the forest and I scrambled after him. I had every intention of foraging for ingredients, just like I promised, but I really wanted to scour the island for any potential places to hide or someway to leave behind a note at the slim chance my crew found the island. As we walked across the forest’s floor, I noticed something strange that hadn’t clicked in before.
“Benjamin,” I piped up, “where are all the animals?”
“There are none,” he replied sadly. “Aside from a few birds, but they don’t live here, they belong to the skies. That’s why we eat so much God damn fish now.”
I chewed at my bottom lip. “What do you mean? What did you eat before?”
He didn’t respond.
“So, there’s nothing? Not even bugs?” I continued to press.
I trudged behind the pirate and saw his wide shoulders heave with a sigh. “No.”
“What’s really going on here?” I asked. “What is this place? Why are you guys hiding your ship? Why are we anchored here?”
Suddenly, he came to an abrupt halt and spun around angrily. “Why are you asking so many questions, woman?”
I poked him in the chest. “Why wouldn’t I? It’s all so bizarre! And I think I have a right to know, don’t I?”
He blew out an irritable breath through his nose and pursed his lips under the dark facial hair that lined them. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
I crossed my arms. “Try me. You’d be surprised what I’d believe.”
Benjamin looked annoyed, but I could tell there was a part of him, deep down, that longed to talk about it. “I don’t know for certain, but I think there are no animals here because this island… doesn’t actually exist.”
I shook my head. “That just gives me more questions to ask.” But my companion remained silent as he stared at me. Probably regretting the words he just spoke. “I’m not foraging a single thing until you give me some answers, Benjamin. And I doubt your brother would like it if we came back empty-handed after I promised him a delicious meal.”
I saw the defeat on his face and he planted himself down on a fallen log. I watched as is bowed under the pressure of his massive body. “Better sit down,” he told me and pat the space next to him. “It’s a long story.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as I sidled up next to the man. “So much has happened, I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Start at the beginning. What brought you here to this island?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess it all started many years ago. We raided a small island down near Jamaica and acquired this strange map that apparently led to an endless treasure. Whatever a man thought to desire. The natives there worshipped it. Like it was a key to the heavens or something.” He wrung his anxious hands through his hair. “How were we supposed to know it was cursed?”
“What? What was cursed?” I asked, hungry for answers.
He slapped his knees in exasperation. “Everything. The island, the map, the gem we stole once we followed the map.”
He’d lost me. “Wait. What? Back up.”
“The map we stole,” he began, “This old Jamaican witch warned us it was cursed. Beware the heart, she told us. But my brother didn’t understand. Nor did he care. Neither of us did. We spent weeks following the map, sailing around in circles. Until we found a small cluster of islands hidden by an invisible cloak.”
“Like the one hiding your ship?”
“Yes, much the same,” he confirmed. “The group of islands was protected by strange creatures, ones I believed to only exist in stories. Once we found the treasure, we took what we could carry but my brother wasn’t satisfied. The legend said the reward was endless. What fools we were.”
“So, what happened?” I prompted him to keep going, completely enthralled at the story.
“Abraham went mad, yelling and demanding that the Isles give him his reward. Then, this creature, made entirely of water, appeared.”
I swallowed hard as a chill crept down my spine. A siren of the sea. They’d found the mythological home of the sirens.
“What did it do?” I dared ask. I knew how tricky the sirens were, and I suddenly remembered the debt I owed one.
“There were others in the distance. But she was different. Her chest glowed with the light of a green jewel, it was blinding, mesmerizing. She told us to leave. But Abraham refused, demanding his endless reward. But the creature wasn’t moved by my brother. Finally, he snapped. Went mad. I tried to stop him, but he was too fast. He jumped on the water creature and stuffed his hand inside her chest, ripping the glowing gem from her form and she collapsed into a puddle. I was frozen. My brother became something else that day, something mad.”
I was tight with anxiousness from listening to the tale, but I couldn’t ignore t
he relief that seemed to flood over Benjamin. As if he’d been dying to talk to someone about what had happened. I took advantage of the opportunity to gain a sliver of his trust. To relate in any way I could.
“Yeah, I get it,” I said with an understanding nod. “My sister is insane, too. She’s murdered a lot of people. So many, I don’t even know the number. Now she’s trying to find our mother and kill her, too.”
He regarded me curiously. “Was she always like that?”
“As far as I know, yes,” I replied. “We didn’t grow up together. I only just recently learned that she was my sister.”
“Well, Abraham was a decent man once,” Benjamin told me. “A good brother. I loved him dearly. He was everything I wanted to be. And now…” He shook his head in disappointment and fell silent, unable to even finish the sentence.
“So, how did you end up here? What’s with this island?” I derailed the conversation. I felt bad, he looked so pained.
He blinked rapidly and inhaled deeply. “Uh, well, after we left with our treasure, we set sail for England. But we never made it. It took a few days to realize, but the sea had been turning us around in circles. Then, one day, this island rose up from the ocean and our ship connected with it.”
My face twisted in confusion. “You mean you crashed?”
Benjamin raised one eyebrow in my direction. “No.” He sucked in a deep breath. “It’s some sort of tether. Keeping us here. We’re not able to leave. We don’t seem to age, yet we can be killed.”
“Holy shit,” I said in a whisper and looked away as my mind worked to process everything he told me. “Wait, how do you know you can be killed?”
He stood abruptly and adjusted his gear. “That’s enough.”
“Why? This doesn’t even begin–”
He spun around and bellowed, “I said that’s enough!” His deep, threatening tone shook through my body and I trembled before nodding. Clearly, that was a subject that couldn’t be touched. But Benjamin quickly softened, and I could feel the sense of guilt he suddenly harbored. He pinched the bridge of his tanned nose. “Let’s go forage before it gets too dark.”
My trembling chin moved up and down as I nodded. Part of me was scared, but I was mostly angry. And a little sad. I was being held prisoner on a ship that could never be seen. Never be found. What little hope I had of Henry and my crew tracking me down vanished and I was left with an empty pit. My only hope was to leave a signal on the island.
“Hey, look, I’m sorry,” Benjamin spoke. “I just–” He stopped to rub his dirty, tanned hand over his short, dark beard. “I’ve never told anyone that story before. There are parts I’m not ready to share.”
I saw another opportunity to gain his trust, but I also couldn’t fight the urge to comfort the giant pirate. He was vulnerable and hurting, that much I could see. I stood and touched my hand to his arm in a comforting manner and gave him a smile. “That’s okay. There are things I’m not ready to share, either. Maybe I never will.”
Like how I’m a time traveler, or how I sliced a sword through old Maurice’s body. Or how the man I love tried to kill me. The dark thoughts filled my mind, but I forced another smile, to which Benjamin returned warmly. His body turned more toward me and he leaned closer, nervous and… wanting. I retracted my hand and backed away, worried that I had given him the wrong impression.
“Let’s, uh, let’s go,” I mumbled.
Benjamin cleared his throat. “Yes, of course.” He glanced up at the sky. “We’ve got about two hours before the sun begins to set. What can you find?”
“Plenty,” I told him and grinned. But there was one thing he never really clarified in his story. Everything told me to bite my tongue, to let it be. But I couldn’t. “Can you answer me one last thing?”
“Perhaps,” he said cautiously.
“How long have you guys been here?”
Benjamin stood tall with his hands on both hips as he seemed to contemplate telling me the answer. Or whether he thought I could handle it. “I’ve no idea how much time has passed. But we first found ourselves stranded on the second of June, the year 1614.”
My eyes widened in disbelief and I covered my gaping mouth with a hand. I suddenly saw Benjamin and his men in a whole different light. It’s a wonder he’s not lost his mind like his brother. My God, they’d been cursed for almost a hundred years. “The siren’s gem…”
Benjamin nodded solemnly. “My brother got what he wanted. He was rewarded for his actions.”
I shivered at the realization. “An endless reward.” No wonder Captain Cook went insane. They were cursed and tethered to the island. Unable to leave or age.
Forever.
***
We foraged the island for a couple of hours. Well, I did, with Benjamin trailing behind. Quiet and lost in thought, he barely kept track of where I stepped. Which was a good thing. I easily found enough crowberries to make a delicious sauce and dug up some roots of a few edible plants. I even found some wild rosemary. Strange that an island would manifest such as this with no wildlife but be plentiful in vegetation. I never commented on it, though. I was too busy scanning for… something. Anything. A speck of a ship at sea. A way to leave behind a sign.
“You know, I’m pretty hungry,” I told my watcher. “We should eat something.”
“We can head back to the ship,” he replied.
But that would defeat my plan. “Well, I still have some things to gather,” I told him, trying to hide the deception in my voice. But I could tell he wasn’t convinced. I rubbed my belly then, reminding him that I held a child in there. “I just get so hungry these days. If we could roast up a couple of fish really quick, I could finish finding the ingredients I need.”
Benjamin eyed me curiously, but I knew he had a soft spot when it came to my baby. He made the mistake of revealing that early on. Finally, he gave in. “Fine. Start a fire and I’ll go catch us some fish.”
Relief washed over me, and I gave him a grateful smile before he headed off toward the water. I only had a short amount of time. With haste, I assembled a fire pit with small stones but made sure to create an imperfect circle, one with a slight point. Benjamin surely wouldn’t notice, but someone who was looking might. The stones discreetly pointed to a tree, one that I dug a shallow hole at the base with my hands and placed my beloved emerald necklace in, covering it with just enough dirt to remain unseen, but could easily be discovered. Henry would notice the disturbed earth. I just knew it.
By the time Benjamin returned with two large fish, I’d had a nice fire burning and we roasted up a late lunch. We sat and ate in silence and, even though it was part of my plan, I was grateful for the food. The baby was starving lately, and I wasn’t eating near what I should have been.
“Thank you,” I told him as I discarded the skin and bones into the fire. “I really needed that.”
“How far along are you?” he asked and then tossed his scraps in after mine.
“About four months, give or take.”
“You don’t show that much,” he noted.
My heart squeezed. “Yeah, I know.”
That was all I was willing to comment on the subject. The health of my unborn child was something that plagued me on a daily basis and speaking my worries out loud made them all the more real and terrifying. I was stuck in a world with no proper doctors, no penicillin, and no way to save my baby should something go wrong. Thankfully, Benjamin seemed to sense my reluctance.
“So, what else do you need?” he asked and scooped up the burlap sack that held the things I’d found so far.
Truthfully, I’d manage with what I already had, but I knew I had to keep up the rouse or the pirate might catch on that I was up to something in his absence. “Uh, just a few more of those thick white roots. I’m not sure I have enough for the whole crew.”
“You should be fine,” he quickly replied.
“Are you certain? How many of there are you? I’ve only seen two deckhands.”
He lo
oked away. “That’s it.”
That couldn’t be. The Black Soul was a massive ship. The crew to maintain it would have to be pretty large. At least a dozen or so. “What? But, how–”
“That’s it. Alright?” Benjamin’s dark brow furrowed in frustration and I could tell he just wanted to drop the subject and get back to the ship, so I nodded and let him lead the way.
I followed close behind, but not too close. My plan to leave a signal wasn’t finished. When his back was turned, I bent and scooped up a jagged piece of stone and sliced the palm of my hand. I stifled the moan that threatened to come out at the first flash of pain but remained quiet as we traced our footsteps back to The Black Soul.
All the while, I left behind a smear of my blood. A wipe on a tree, and few drips on a rock. If there’s a slim chance that Henry and my crew spot the smoke of our fire, they’d come searching. I only hoped they’d find the necklace and follow the trail of blood. But that would still bring them to a dead end with the ship being cloaked.
When we finally emerged from the forest, Benjamin walked to the edge of the water and summoned the rowboat. I quickly grabbed a handful of the broken bits of the telescope and compass from my pocket and dropped them in the sand. It wasn’t much of a map to find me, but it was the best I could do.
I took the few steps to his side, so he wouldn’t turn and find what I’d left in the sand. The boat bubbled to the surface just as he looked down at me and spotted the blood on my hand. Before I even realized what was happening, Benjamin grabbed my wrist and pulled it up to get a better look.
“You’ve cut yourself,” he noted. “Are you alright?”
I tried to yank my arm back, but his grip was too firm. “I’m fine. Must have caught it on a tree or something.”
He rolled it back and forth, examining the gash. “No, it’s deep. You should get this cleaned and wrapped up as soon as possible.” He released my wrist and let it fall to my side as we stepped into the boat. “I’ll mend it when we return to the ship.”
Self-consciously, I wiped the wound against my pants. It stung like Hell. “No, really, I’m fine.”
The Blackened Soul Page 8
