Right now, Seay.
31
Rowing with the current, we covered the miles quickly.
Before long, wooden palisades appeared on our left with a tower on its near corner. We were looking at New Amsterdam’s northern defenses, which would become Wall Street. The impressive defense ran along the shore—a church spire and a couple of windmills rising beyond—and ended where a large fort began on Manhattan’s southern tip. Further along, rows of gabled houses stood facing the harbor. I looked over at Caroline. Though her face remained serious, her eyes gleamed with interest.
As we circled the southern tip, considerably narrower than in the present thanks to the later addition of landfill, the people of New Amsterdam began to appear through the snowfall. I remarked that they looked like a cross between pilgrims and swashbucklers. “The majority are going to be Dutch and French,” Caroline said. “Some Germans, some English. A couple hundred slaves and freemen. We may encounter natives, but they’ll be here on business. No one will expect us to speak.”
“Good thinking,” I replied.
Buck teeth or not, she’d glamoured us well.
We made our way toward a large wharf, rowing past anchored ships, and pulled up to a pier. While one of our Dutchmen secured the boat, the other returned with a large handcart. I followed their lead and began unloading the beaver pelts. Caroline stood to the side, scanning our surroundings. Despite the weather, the waterfront was active with merchants and sailors porting cargo between boats and warehouses.
When we’d loaded the cart, the larger Dutchman took the handles and wheeled it down a muddied, snow-trampled road. Caroline and I followed. We hadn’t gone far when a sharp whistle sounded.
“Oy! How much for the squaw?”
I glanced over to find a group of men huddled outside the door of a corner tavern. Their shirts were open despite the weather, and by their slouching, wavering stances, I could see they were already three sheets to the wind.
Brilliant.
“Oy! Chief!” the same one cried in a crude English accent. He was talking to me. “I’ll give ya’ a nice wampum for her.”
The rat of a man dug into his pocket and pulled out a string of shells that looked like they’d been recovered from a pit toilet. When I realized he was proposing to swap them for Caroline, my hands balled into fists.
“Keep walking,” Caroline said, her eyes fixed straight ahead.
The man staggered after us, holding out the dirty wampum. I returned a deadly stare.
“Aw, don’ take offense, Chief. We’re good mates, jus’ off the ship. Cold and lonely is all. We’ll go gentle on her.” The other three men guffawed and stumbled after their spokesman in a slovenly trail.
Caroline had our Dutchmen speed their pace until we were turning the corner onto a street that ran along a deep canal. If I wasn’t mistaken, this would one day become Broad. According to Malachi, Seay’s place was only two blocks along the canal on the left. I was more anxious than ever now to get there.
“They’ll lose interest,” Caroline assured me.
She was right to ignore them, of course. A confrontation with the drunks would only draw attention. “Next time give yourself a set of buck teeth too,” I told her, relaxing my hands. But Rat Face’s boots crunched into a jog behind us.
“I’m tryin’ to barter with you,” he called irritably. “You know that word, don’ cha, Chief? Barter?”
When we ignored him, his boots scuffed to a stop. Then, in a burst of resolve, he broke into an all-out run.
“Give us the squaw whore!” he cried.
I wheeled and met him, slamming the heel of my palm into his throat. He doubled over and seized the place in both hands where I’d felt cartilage crunch. When the others rushed up, I uttered a Word and swept my glamoured cane. A wall of hardened air broadsided them and sent them tumbling into the canal.
I leaned down until my lips were beside the gasping man’s ear.
“Keep away from us,” I said over the shouting and splashing below. “Or the next time, I’m gonna wear your scalp like a fucking cap.” I pinched a greasy strand of hair atop his head and plucked it free. “Do you understand?”
He squealed and nodded desperately.
“That was subtle,” Caroline said as we left him.
“I don’t think anyone saw.”
I glanced around the intersection to make sure. Fortunately, the steady snowfall seemed to be keeping the settlement’s residents indoors. Most of the activity was off to the west, toward the fort. The people looked like little moving impressions, too busy and distant to have observed us.
But now I made out three stationary figures, one stout, the other two lean. Whether they were facing toward us or away, I couldn’t tell, but something about them made me itch. I lengthened my strides until we were beyond their view.
“Something wrong?” Caroline asked.
I shook my head, not even sure what I’d seen.
The Dutchmen turned a corner and parked the cart in front of a storehouse. A clothing shop stood immediately beside it, both buildings part of a larger estate with a sizeable garden and additional housing. The brightly-colored buildings with their neat trim suggested fae. The faint currents of magic sealed it.
“This is it,” I whispered to Caroline, anticipation pumping inside me.
The door to the storehouse opened, and two men whom I immediately recognized as Seay’s friends waved us in.
Pelts of various sizes and colors filled shelves and stood in neat stacks on pallets. Natural light glowed through high windows, while lanternlight entered through a doorway in back, where I could hear voices. Probably the workshop where the pelts were fashioned into clothing. I knew nothing of the trade, but this had the look and feel of a successful operation.
While the half-fae inspected the haul and talked with the Dutchmen, I pushed power into the bond on my hand. The lines of the symbol came to life, and a moment later, I had a connection. Seay was here.
I nodded at Caroline, then instructed the bond to summon our target. As the signal went out, I wondered if it could still compel her to respond. With the time distortions, there was no telling how long she and the others had been here. Judging from the operation, at least a year, maybe more.
Now I picked out a familiar voice among several coming from the workshop. A moment later, a woman appeared in the doorway. She said something over her shoulder and then faced the storeroom. Though the hair at the front of her bonnet was glamoured strawberry blond, the face that peered back at us was natural. She appeared a little older than I remembered and was sporting fewer freckles.
“Is this the shipment from the Hackensack?” Seay asked.
It took me a beat to realize she was referring to a tribe and not the city. When her associates answered in the affirmative, she came over to examine the pelts, running a hand over the fur. She kept her right hand behind her back.
“Six guilders per pelt,” she declared.
The Dutchmen conferred and came back with seven. Seay agreed and signaled to the two half-fae. They disappeared through a side door, presumably to retrieve the payment. Under Caroline’s enchantment, the Dutch traders moseyed to the far end of the storeroom, leaving us alone with Seay.
She glanced up at us, eyes glimmering green, then stepped around the cart. Her lips pursed as she searched my face. I’d rehearsed a pitch to explain who we were and why we’d come, but she spoke first.
“Nice teeth, Everson.”
I stared back at her. “You remember me?”
Her right hand flashed into view. I stumbled backwards, the sting that spread across my cheek only adding to my confusion. Did she just slap me? She’d clearly seen through my glamour, clearly remembered me—so what was with the hostility? She advanced, but Caroline stepped over to meet her.
“Okay, calm down,” Caroline said. “We’re here to help.”
“Help?” She thrust a finger past Caroline’s shoulder. “Bucky here abandoned us in 1776. He left u
s in that hellhole to die.”
“No,” I said firmly. “Malphas blocked your return.”
“One of his demons compromised the fae,” Caroline explained. “Made it so you couldn’t come back. Everson’s been working his ass off to get back into the time catch so he could find you and the others.”
“And who are you supposed to be?” Seay demanded.
Caroline relaxed her glamour, allowing her face to become her own. Recognition registered in Seay’s eyes, but she maintained a surly expression as Caroline’s fair-skinned features turned Algonquin once more.
“Wow, fae royalty,” Seay deadpanned. “I’m floored.”
“Look, we have Gorgantha and Malachi,” I said. “And now we’ve found you. Only Jordan and his druid circle are left, and Malachi knows where—”
“Jordan,” she cut in. “I’m almost as pissed at him as I am at you. He’s the reason we ended up here.”
“Yes, Gorgantha told us what happened,” Caroline said gently. “And I’m sorry. But it’s time to leave.”
“Leave?” Seay snorted. “Not going to be that easy, your highness.”
Assuming she was referring to her clothing business, I said, “We’re in a time catch, Seay. This place has already happened. It’s going to loop and loop until it comes apart—which could be any moment.”
Seay was wearing a long coat over her gown. She unfastened it in front and raised her eyebrows at us as a round belly pushed into view. I swore to myself and exchanged a look of disbelief with Caroline.
Seay was pregnant.
Really pregnant.
“So, what happened?” I asked her.
“Do you really need the rod A, slot B explanation?”
“I mean everything,” I said, flustered, “from the beginning.”
We had moved the conversation to Seay’s office, a small room off the workshop with an ornate wooden desk and velvet chairs. The Dutch traders remained in the storehouse helping count out the pelts.
Seay sighed. “After Jordan split for his druid circle, we stayed in the woods in Brooklyn, waiting for you.” Though she narrowed her eyes at me, the look didn’t hold the same venom as it had only a few minutes before. “Gorgantha was supposed to get us some food, but she never showed.”
“She became trapped in another time catch,” Caroline said.
“That explains it. A group of us went out looking for her but came back empty. Thought maybe she’d decided to throw her lot in with Jordan. Anyway, after a couple days, we were in sorry shape. There were some villages nearby, and we went out at night to see what we could find. Long story short, we got lost and ended up here. We enchanted our way into farm work on a huge estate up in Yonkers. It sucked, but we got food and shelter out of the deal and time to figure out how everything worked. The farmer’s brother was in the fur trade. With a little more enchanting, we learned the ins and outs and started our own business. And then we’d forgotten we’d ever done anything else.”
“But you recognized me,” I said.
“Only because you activated this,” she said, showing the symbol on her right hand. “Everything came back in an instant, all fresh. The fear and anger especially. Sorry about the handprint on your face.”
“No worries,” I said, touching the still-prickling spot. As my gaze dropped to her belly, a nervous rush hit me. Partly at the thought of my own child, but mostly at what I had to ask next. “Is the father one of your friends, or…?”
“No, he’s local,” she said.
Dammit, that’s what I’d been afraid of.
“We’re not married or anything,” she hurried to add. “He’s this young merchant who works on the waterfront. I met him at a party at the governor’s mansion. After a night of dancing, and yeah, drinking, I woke up under a pile of bedding between him and one of the scullery maids. Hey, it happens,” she said defensively.
“No one’s judging you,” Caroline said.
“I hear a but in there,” Seay said. “But what?”
I cleared my throat. “We’re worried about the baby.”
She placed a protective hand over her swell. “What about him?”
“With the way time catches work,” Caroline said, “nothing can travel outside them, including people. They’re locked in this particular place and time. Outsiders like us can come and go, obviously, but…” She gestured at Seay’s belly. “We’re just not sure how this is going to work, the baby having elements of both.”
“Leaving the time catch could kill him?” Seay asked.
I nodded grimly. “We don’t know, but potentially. Yes.”
Seay stood and paced behind her desk, her green eyes sharp and pensive. I couldn’t imagine what was going through her mind. Join us and risk losing her child, or stay here, where both would perish.
“I can’t go, then,” she decided.
I raised my hands as if trying to coax someone from jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. “Seay, listen to me. I know this isn’t an easy decision, but you have to understand how fragile the time catch is. If you stay here, it will come apart, taking out you and anyone who remains, by choice or circumstance.”
“If I lose him, I’d die anyway.” She cupped her swell in both hands now.
“But by leaving, you’d at least give him a chance at life,” Caroline said.
Seay wedged a thumbnail between her upper teeth in anxious thought. At last, she turned to me.
“Is there anything you can do?”
She meant my magic, but how could I protect a child from something of this magnitude? I considered Seay’s fearful, pleading eyes before swallowing hard and nodding. “I have a potion in mind,” I said. “It’s no guarantee, but it will buffer your child from the transition, improve his odds of survival.”
It was a lie, but a necessary one to save my teammate.
Seay nodded. “Okay.”
I prepared the potion on a wood stove in Seay’s kitchen, which was in a nicely appointed house behind the store. Cats roamed the rooms.
While I worked, combining ingredients from her pantry with others I’d brought, Caroline filled Seay in on everything to do with the demon Malphas, the St. Martin’s site, and the time catches. I caught bits and pieces of the conversation. Seay confirmed that a crazy man had approached her on a few occasions, but she’d had no idea it was Malachi.
By the time I finished, Seay was up to speed, and I had a potion that did nothing.
“Here it is,” I said, handing her a warm tube. I’d made the liquid pink to appear as benign as possible.
Seay looked it over and placed it in a coat pocket. “As I told Caroline,” she said, “I’m going to meet with my team. None have children, but several are in relationships with locals. Two are engaged to be married this spring.”
Ouch, I thought.
“We’ll meet you at the caves later,” she finished.
“Wait, we’re not going together?” I asked.
“Between restoring their memories, explaining everything, and preparing for the trip, it’s going to take me the rest of the day,” Seay said with a weary breath.
“And we have Arnaud to look after,” Caroline reminded me.
I’d already left the demon-vampire longer than I was comfortable. “If for some reason we’re not at the caves, use the bond to call me,” I said. “And if on the very remote chance we’re no longer in the time catch, go to Jordan’s. Malachi said the portal is inside an unusual arrangement of boulders right above what’s known as Hell Gate. That’s a chokehold in the Harlem River before Randall’s Island.”
“I know Hell Gate,” she said. “It’s infamous among traders.”
“Just be sure to drink the potion before you enter,” I said.
“I … I’m still not a hundred percent decided, Everson.”
“Let us know either way,” I said. “We’ll wait.”
Her eyes glimmered. “Thanks for coming back for me, you jerk.”
“Thanks for being so understanding.”
Sm
irking, she kissed the spot where her palm had landed, then hugged me, making me feel both better and worse about the fake potion.
“See you soon, Bucky,” she said.
32
The snow was still falling when we left. Seay arranged for the Dutch traders to boat us back upriver, which would save Caroline from having to enchant them again. I was worried that she had less in the tank than she was letting on. But as we walked toward the dock, I was more worried for Seay.
“Do you think she’ll come?” I asked.
“I put a bit of suggestion into my pitch,” Caroline said. “Between that, your potion, and her desire for her child to have a future, yes. I believe she will.” Though Caroline didn’t say it outright, she knew my potion was a fake.
“I feel crappy about lying to her.”
“You did what needed to be done.”
“I hope so,” I said, but the thought of the child not surviving the transition sat like a massive brick in my stomach. The child wouldn’t survive here, granted, and neither would Seay. But the look she’d given me… She was trusting me with the most precious thing in the world to her right now.
We took a different route to avoid the corner tavern, one that headed away from the canal before turning left to join the waterfront. As we followed the Dutch traders, I kept my guard up, but the people we passed paid us little heed. That didn’t last. We were just emerging onto Pearl Street when a hoarse shout sounded.
“Oy! There they are!” The rat-faced man had been keeping lookout from behind a stack of crates near the warehouse. He emerged now, jabbing a dirty finger toward us. “There! Over there!”
His drunken cohorts weren’t with him—probably still thawing out somewhere—but four men who had been milling around the wharf with muskets on their shoulders oriented to his pointing and hustled toward us, weapons aimed.
“The rattle watch,” Caroline said under her breath. “They’re patrolmen.”
The crowds around the wharf paused in their bustling work to watch the developing scene.
Night Rune (Prof Croft Book 8) Page 23
