by David Wood
“Listen to the negro,” Gwyneth said.
Willis flared up immediately. “What did you call me?”
Gwyneth ignored him. “You can all be a part of our family.” Her eyes narrowed and she smiled at Rae. “You look like a Moor, too. But this man you call your brother, he looks like an Englishman. But he has the brain of a Scot. How is that?”
“We’re not blood relations,” Rae said.
“Yet you love him?”
“He’s the most important person in the world to me. He needs me.”
Gwyneth’s condescending smile was filled with pity. “He no longer needs you. He will be safe here for many, many years.”
“Let him go. He’s innocent.” Tears streamed down Rae’s cheeks.
“You could be with him,” Gwyneth continued. “The way you really want to be. Forever.”
“It’s not like that,” Rae said. “You are sick.”
Gwyneth shrugged. “You will have time to consider it. We will not do anything to you until the captain has had his sport.”
“Who is the captain?” Bones asked.
“No one you will have ever met,” Gwyneth said. “But you will get to know him.”
“Who are you people?” Rae’s voice trembled with rage.
“We are called the Finfolk, although we are not all kin. Like you and your brother.” She smiled. “I once lived on the outside. When I was taken, I wanted to leave, too. But now I am happy that I stayed.”
“Did you stay or were you kept?” Bones asked.
Gwyneth drew a clay flask from a pouch at her waist and set it on the floor within an arm’s reach of the cell. “In case you get thirsty.”
“We are not going to drink that,” Bones said.
“Sooner or later you will.” With that, she led her people out of the chamber.
When they were gone, Willis turned to Bones. “This is Karma, you know. The way you treat women, it’s coming back to bite you now. Bet you wish you’d been more of a gentleman.”
Bones turned to Willis. “If you’re such a gentleman, what are you doing in here?”
“The sins of the first mate are visited upon the crew.”
“What the hell are you talking about? And I’m not the first mate. Maddock and I are partners. That makes me co-captain.”
“All right, co-captain, you got any bright ideas on how we can get out of here? Or do you want to find out what it feels like to be a kept man?”
Bones didn’t have an answer. The prison cell was medieval in design, and with the proper implement, he could easily pick it. But their captors had left them nothing.
“Just give me time,” he said. “I’ll figure something out.”
36
Four passageways led out of the chamber. Maddock had no idea in which direction his friends had gone. The only thing of which he was certain was that his friends would not have abandoned him. Either they had been driven away or taken captive. His money was on the latter. They had vanished too quickly, too, for there to have been a fight.
“Eeny, meeny, miney, mo.” He chose the tunnel to the left.
The passageway led to an underground lake. There was no way across or around it.
“This is why I don’t gamble,” he said. Cursing his lousy guesswork, he returned to the chamber to try again.
The second passageway led him on a steep climb and brought him out on a ledge looking down on a strange sight. A handsome man, tall with dark hair, clad all in black, sat on a chair in the midst of piles of treasure. Gold, jewels, goblets, strings of pearls. Unopened chests stood all around. The very definition of a pirate’s horde. A young woman clad in a scanty tunic sat at his feet, gazing longingly up at him.
In the center of the room stood a pile of coral-encrusted stones. From its top bubbled a stream of water, which cascaded down the sides and filled the deep basin that had been carved around it. Two women bathed in its waters. As he watched, one of the women scooped up some water in an oyster shell and poured it over the other’s head. The second woman closed her eyes and let out a groan of ecstasy.
That must be some awfully good water.
There was no sign of his friends, nor of Kyle.
A ledge ringed the chamber. Maddock saw another passageway on the opposite side. He got down on his stomach and began to crawl. The people down below paid him no mind, and he worked his way around with ease. Just as he had reached the other side, the man in the chair looked up. His eyes roamed along the ledge. Maddock froze. The man stared at Maddock’s hiding place for what felt like an eternity. Finally, he looked away.
Maddock breathed a sigh of relief and continued on. The pathway led downward now, ending at another underground lake. Like the previous one he’d encountered, there was no way around. This time, however, the passageway continued on the other side of the water.
“There’s no way they brought Bones and the others here,” he said. He could do what Bones would do, and charge into the treasure room, guns blazing. Try and extract the information from whoever he left alive. He discarded that idea quickly. He was running low on ammunition and no telling how many enemies lived down here.
“...went this way.” A voice echoed down the tunnel behind him. Many footsteps came his way. Damn! The man in the treasure room had spotted him.
And now he was trapped.
With no better alternative, he dove into the water. Its icy depths delivered a sudden shock to his system. Once again he felt a tremor run through him, weaker this time, but still enough to rattle his fillings.
The medallion!
Both ring and medallion were tucked into his pocket. And he had just dived into the water. If the Lusca, or Leviathan, or whatever the hell it was, was anywhere close by, he would be screwed. He began swimming for the other side with all he was worth. His clothing weighed him down, but he kept swimming. Behind him he heard shouts and them something struck the water just past his head. A spear!
He dove beneath the surface of the water and changed direction, hoping to confuse the attackers. But did he dare climb out of the water when doing so would leave him exposed? He swam until he felt something brush his foot. That sealed it. He made for the edge of the water and clambered out.
An arrow whizzed past his head and he hit the ground. There was scant cover, only a few stray boulders, and he scrambled to get behind the closest one. He must have been just out of range because most of the projectiles landed in the water, but a few nearly hit their target.
He drew his pistol, keenly aware of his dwindling supply of ammunition, and took aim at the biggest of the lot, a shirtless warrior who stood beating his chest and brandishing a spear. Maddock took careful aim and squeezed off a single round.
The bullet struck center mass. The warrior’s cries cut off abruptly. He looked down in disbelief at his wound, blood streaming down his belly. He let his spear fall to the ground. And then, like a falling tree, he plunged forward into the water.
The surface of the lake roiled. The remaining warriors broke off their attack, but before they could move a mass of tentacles burst forth. The Lusca had arrived!
The Finfolk, if that was indeed what they were, broke and ran. The Lusca seized the slowest of their number in two massive coils and lifted her high in the air. She screamed and stabbed one of the tentacles repeatedly with an arrow. The others halted their retreat to fire a single, utterly ineffective salvo at the monster. And then, in a single, deft motion, the creature ripped her in half.
That was enough for the remaining Finfolk, who fled back up the tunnel in the direction of the treasure room.
Bile rising in his throat, Maddock made a beeline for the only passageway on this side of the lake.
He felt something burning hot against his thigh and wondered for a moment if he’d been wounded in the earlier exchange. He glanced down and saw that his right pocket was glowing with a blue light. The ring and amulet! They must be reacting to the Lusca. He stole a glance over his shoulder to see if the beast was coming after him
. It had vanished from sight, though the surface of the lake still churned.
He reached the tunnel and plunged into darkness. He’d lost his flashlight during the fight. Which was why he didn’t see man waiting up ahead.
His foot caught on something and he fell awkwardly. The breath was forced from his lungs as he hit the ground.
A beam of light cut through the darkness and a voice spoke.
“Maddock. Fancy meeting you down here.”
Maddock rolled over onto his back. Through watery eyes, he saw a familiar face.
Echard!
37
“Will you stop pacing? You’re driving me crazy.” Rae sat in the corner of the cell, arms folded, glaring at Bones.
“I think better on my feet,” he said.
“You’ve been on your feet since we got here. Have you thought of anything?”
“No, but feel free to contribute any bright ideas you might have,” Bones said. The truth was, although the aftereffects of the water Thel had given him seemed to have worn off, coming to this place had once again stoked a hunger inside of him. The source of the water must be nearby. He could feel it.
“You are very loud, did you know that?” a soft voice said.
Bones knew that voice.
“Thel!”
There she was, and with her...
“Kyle!” Rae sprang to her feet and rushed to the cell door. “Are you all right?”
Physically, the young man appeared to be fine, but gaze was faraway, his movements robotic. The glassy-eyed stared was business as usual, but the way he moved indicated there was more at play here than simply not being the brightest tool in the shed.
“Keep your voice down,” Thel warned. “The others think I’m just bringing your friend for a visit. I have other plans.” She took out a metal pick and began working at the lock.
“You don’t have a key?” Bones asked.
“Obviously not.” She flashed an annoyed look at him. “You don’t know how much I’m risking to set you free.”
The questions began to pour out of Bones. “Who the hell are you? Why the story about being a recruiter? Why did you ditch me?”
“I am a recruiter in a way. I select men for breeding and I bring them back here.” She continued to work at the lock.
“I didn’t make the cut?” he asked. He couldn’t decide if he was offended or not.
“I wanted to. I really did, but I just couldn’t do that to you.” She paused, reached through the bar, and caressed his cheek. “You and I have a special connection.”
Bones couldn’t find the words to reply.
“You didn’t want to do what to him, exactly?” Rae demanded.
“Sentence him to an eternity of slavery and addiction,” she said, her attention back on the lock. “Well, not an eternity, but centuries upon centuries.”
“Could you please start making sense?” Rae asked. “Who are you, exactly?”
Thel sighed, her shoulders heaved. “I used to be a college student. I came here on holiday and I met a man. I thought he was the most charming person I’d ever met.”
“Until you met me,” Bones said.
Thel managed a smile. “Right. Anyway, long story short, next thing I knew, I was down here bathing in the Water of Life.”
“You mean the Fountain of Youth?” Willis asked.
“That’s not what the Finfolk call it. Since then, I’ve been one of them. Those of us who are adopted as they call it, are used to bring men into the fold. The Finfolk don’t reproduce at a rapid clip and they rarely produce male offspring. I’m told the population used to be more balanced, but back then, the men did most of the fighting, which meant they also did most of the dying. As their numbers dwindled, the true Finfolk remain down here and use the rest of us for recruiting.”
“How do you keep from getting caught?” Willis asked.
“People disappear in the islands all the time. None of us goes out more than once a year and we try to be careful about our selections.”
“How could you be part of a cult that kidnaps people?” Rae asked. “Don’t you have a family? People you care about?”
Sadness washed over Thel’s face. “I did, but that was a long time ago. Anyway, I can’t leave. If I’m away from the Waters of Life for too long, I’ll die.”
“How long have you been down here?” Bones asked, already knowing the answer but refusing to believe it.
“Since the seventies. I stopped counting a long time ago.”
With a cat-like hiss, Rae reached through the bars and tried to grab Thel. Her fingernails raked Thel’s cheek. Thel took a step back, blood streaming from shallow cuts.
“Do you want out of here or not?”
“Yes, so I can kill you for what you did to my brother!”
“I like it here,” Kyle said dreamily. “I feel better than I ever have. Look at my skin! It, like, glows. And I feel strong!” He flexed and tapped his biceps.
“What is happening to him?” Rae said.
“The Waters of Life accelerate the body’s natural healing abilities. It happens so rapidly that it’s almost spontaneous.” She took the flask from her hip, opened it, and dribbled some water over the scrape on her cheek. As they watched, it mended itself, healing as if it had never been there. “And based on the reading I’ve done when I’m up above, I think it affects the telomeres in our body.”
“What are telomeres?” Willis asked.
Rae answered. “Telomeres are stretches of DNA and proteins found at the ends of chromosomes. They grow shorter every time a cell divides. Once the telomere grows small enough, the cell stops dividing and eventually dies. If telomeres don’t shrink, the body can continue to renew itself.”
Bones shivered. Growing up on the reservation, death had only ever been discussed as a great mystery of the spirit, something wondrous. To hear the process of dying reduced down to its nuts and bolts was disconcerting.
Thel nodded. “I don’t think it completely stops the telomeres from shrinking. The people who have been here the longest show signs of aging. Gwyneth found a gray hair last year. She cried for days.”
“How old is Gwyneth?” Bones asked.
“More than three hundred years. She was one of the first settlers in the Bahamas. The Finfolk took her captive. She didn’t mind, though. In her time, a woman didn’t have many choices. Down here she’s a warrior and a valued member of the community. And she gets to live a very long time. We still have to eat, of course. Fish, seaweed, owl eggs. And we bring back supplies from the surface.”
Bones felt dizzy. He gripped the bars of the cell. If the water truly did contain substances that could stop aging as well as heal injuries, the implications were staggering!
“How long can someone live?”
“Some of the Finfolk are thousands of years old. They came here from the old world. Humans don’t live as long, but they claim one man lived over nine hundred years. I’ve yet to see someone die of old age.”
Willis gaped. “You know how many sick and dying people you could save with this stuff?”
“No. How many?”
Willis blinked, surprised by the question. “All of them, I guess.”
“Exactly. Think about the state of the world right now—the threat of overpopulation, the consumption of resources, the pollution. Now imagine that no one ever dies. They have children who also never die. And those children have children.”
Bones understood right away. Without natural deaths, the human population would quickly exceed the world’s capacity to support it. Wars would be fought on a grand scale to control limited resources. Population controls would be necessary. But in the end, nothing would stem the tide.
“There’s also the problem of the water being the most addictive substance ever. Bones had no more than a sip and I can tell he’s still feeling it. If a person drinks too much, they’ll never be free from it. They have to be near it, drink it regularly, or they die.”
“And how much has my brother ha
d?” Rae asked.
“Not that much. Not yet. The next few days are going to be hard on him, like an addict quitting cold turkey. But he will survive.”
“Why lure him here only to release him?”
“Because I know Bones won’t leave without him.”
“I want to stay,” Kyle said without a trace of emotion.
Bones had heard enough.
“Give me that.”
He reached through the bars, snatched the pick away from Thel, and began to work at the lock. Thel stood back and watched in silence. A minute later, the lock clicked and he swung the cell door open.
“Don’t do anything to her,” Bones warned Rae. “We need her help to find our way out of here.”
“What about Kyle? He doesn’t want to come with us.”
“I’ll throw him over my shoulder and carry him out of here if I have to.”
“And Maddock?” she asked.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find him.”
Seeing no other weapon, he grabbed the torch from the wall. He hoped he got the chance to use it on somebody. To hell with the Water of Life and all the rest of it. They were going to find Maddock and get the hell out of here. And if he had to take a few Finfolk with him along the way, so be it.
38
“Toss me your weapon,” Echard ordered. He had his own pistol trained on Maddock, finger on the trigger, steady aim.
Maddock had no choice but to comply. Still catching his breath, he slid his pistol toward Echard, who picked it up and tucked it into his pocket.
“I’m impressed that you made it this far,” Echard said. “How did you figure out that Father Jerome was the key?”
“A hunch, mostly.” Maddock sat up and winced as a sharp pain stabbed into his side. He might have broken a rib. “How did you figure this out?” Maddock grimaced and made a show of favoring his side as he shifted into a more comfortable position. Let Echard think he was out of the game.
“I’m a collector of old stories. Tales of great powers the ancients possessed. Powers that are beyond our comprehension, but are very real.”
