by Candace Sams
Frankie gasped. “You’ve known all this since before WWII.”
Trey simply stared in absolute disbelief.
Mac saw the expressions on the sibling’s faces. The pair wouldn’t be able to function properly until the entire story was revealed, and there was more to tell. He took the initiative, to prod Merlin further. “Because Frankie and Trey are immortal, they’ve been more than able defend themselves against rogues, from any source. They’d done it for over a hundred years. You had no right to hide a brother and sister’s existence from each other, never mind hiding the fact that their father is alive, and will gladly kill them for Morgan LeFey! There is no excuse you can make for what you’ve done.”
“Why would Father try to kill us, if he found out about us?” Frankie whispered.
Merlin sighed heavily, slightly lifted his hands from his sides, and let them fall again. “Frankie, he is quite as insane as Morgan. He was mentally unsound even before he became immortal. Trey knows why. For some reason only known to Mother Nature, Effrin’s state of mind wasn’t altered with his becoming an immortal. His body was cured of his disease, but the damage already done to his mind remained. This, too, I have seen in my visions. I can assure you, he is every bit as mad as Morgan; just as mad as the day he struck you down. Indeed, his madness is likely what draws Morgan’s interest. That she-spider has always gathered those near whose mental imbalances were like her own.”
“Sweet Jesus!” Trey murmured. “I-I had no idea such a thing could happen. Three immortals? From the same family?”
Merlin nodded. “Indeed. I was as shocked by the fact as you. In the annals of all immortals, such a circumstance has never occurred before. But there is a first time for everything. After all, my own sister is an Ethereal.” Merlin dragged his hands through his hair, slowly shook his head and continued. “Your father’s mind was so deteriorated that perhaps there was no way to mend it when he entered immortality. Or perhaps fate is simply paying him back for what he did to Frankie. Personally, I tend to believe that second explanation. Karma, as the saying goes, is a bitch!”
“I-I don’t understand,” Frankie murmured. “What does my brother know about my father’s deteriorating mental status that I wouldn’t have known?”
Merlin continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “For some odd reason, Morgan finds Effrin…as he still refers to himself…utterly charming. She cannot do without him. To reiterate, I kept you both separated so that your father…in his syphilitic, immortal madness…wouldn’t take out two of my finest future fighters. So far, Effrin does not know his son and daughter live. The bastard never had any reason to have Morgan use her magic to look for his family since he firmly believes they must have all died in the flood. The sorceress cannot glean answers to questions that, for her, don’t even exist. Don’t you see the cleverness of my magic, in hiding Trey and Frankie?”
“You aren’t making any damned sense,” Trey croaked.
“If you could see what I see in my scrying efforts, you would know why I do what I do. For now, I sense the coming battle. It will be very soon. Now is the time for you to learn of your sister’s existence and she to learn of yours, Trey. In doing this, I am still taking quite a chance, but making a necessary choice.”
“What choice? What chance?” Frankie angrily asked.
“As I just tried to explain, Morgan has no reason to look for two presumably dead siblings. Not for Effrin or anyone else. However, once you came into my sphere of influence…when she’s magically trying every day of her fetid existence to learn what I’m doing…she may have inadvertently seen the pair of you in one of her visions. If Effrin sees you while she’s scrying, and he learns you’re both alive, he’ll most certainly try to kill you. He’ll pester Morgan into helping him do so. All that notwithstanding, the time for you to be here is now. It is my hope that I can continue to keep your existences secret. I will try to do all I can in this effort.”
“Why?” Frankie asked as he shook her head in confusion. She glanced at her brother. “What the hell is Merlin saying. I can’t make sense out of any of this.”
“Don’t you see,” Merlin assertively added, “the pair of you represent everything that went wrong in Effrin’s past life. You, Trey, were far more successful as a businessman, and would have someday surpassed him in the shipping industry had the storm never happened. He always saw you as a business threat, not as a son in which he could find pride. Frankie…he already tried to kill you once, girl. Your sense of strength and purpose were everything he hated in women. You bested him at almost every turn, especially when it came to your little sisters. By bringing you together now, as I’ve said, is taking a grave chance on Mordred seeing the two of you, and of Effrin finding out about you. But I am doing this for one very good reason; one reason only!”
“Why!” the sibling’s blurted in unison.
“If you’d found out about each other’s existence, on the day of the coming battle…if I’d waited that long to bring you together, where portents say you should be…the shock of seeing each other would have thrown your focus to the four winds. The loss of focus, under those circumstances, could have resulted in your heads being removed by one of Morgan’s minions.” Merlin clasped his hands together. “You’ve both had over a century of very good training under your belts. If your father finds out about you two now, through Morgan’s scrying efforts, or through any other source, then he will be dealing with two very deadly children! He’ll find Frankie particularly lethal since she is due a great measure of revenge.”
Mac shook his head in anger. “The result of all this chicanery is that neither Trey or Frankie will be leaving this hill until the battle is done. Merlin…you’ve always known that, by putting the brother and sister back together again at a time of your choice, Frankie will be far less likely to go back to the states. You figured that she’d demand to be here, to be with her brother for the last battle. Especially since Trey is a British citizen and bound to be on this mission. Whether she would have stayed on her own made no difference, you weren’t taking chances. So, you manipulated the situation. Then, there’s the likelihood of her procuring immortals from the states. She’ll be more motivated to get the help from Washington now that Trey is here. It’s emotional blackmail! That’s what this is really all about.”
Merlin shrugged. “Frankie will do the right thing just as she always has. As will Trey. I’ve just offered a little more…motivation…for their efforts. At any rate, Trey should fill in the details of his life after Galveston, and of his father’s mental status. He has plenty of time since there’ll be no more attacks tonight. He can tell you all about it, without my presence. His entrance into immortality is a morbid tale that I don’t care to hear again. Not right now.” Merlin took a deep breath and lifted his chin. “I’ll take my leave to destroy the remains of the dead. We wouldn’t want some poor farmer to wander up here looking for lost livestock, only to find separated bodies and heads littering the landscape.”
With that, Merlin strode away, into the darkness.
Mac turned to the siblings. “Trey? What was all that crap Merlin mentioned about your father’s mental status? While I’m asking questions, I didn’t know you knew about Morgan LeFey’s existence.”
Trey held out his hands. “Merlin told me about Morgan, and about Garrett being the descendant of Galahad, a long time ago. I was told it was top secret and to keep my mouth shut about it. So, I never mentioned it to you. I guess you never said anything for the same reason. You were under orders as well as me. Now, we both know that Merlin was playing us! He didn’t want me talking to you, or you to me.”
Mac sighed heavily, but said nothing. Merlin had spun a web of deception and lies so thick that the situation was beyond reckoning. If the wizard thought bringing the siblings together tonight would mitigate their shock, then the man was sorely mistaken. Trey and Frankie’s pain was almost palpable, to the point he found it difficult to breathe or even think clearly. Merlin had set up this entire battle w
ith the rogues. There were any number of ways that a wily sorcerer could have done it. They were puppets. All of them.
“What I didn’t know was that my father was alive, and with that…that bitch! I couldn’t have imagined that he survived Galveston! Or that my sister survived,” Trey finished as he gazed at Frankie.
Frankie hugged her brother hard again before speaking. “I woke up under some debris. I couldn’t find anyone I knew, so I left the island. I eventually ended up turning myself in to Washington and was given a job there, with Division 52. But what happened with you, Scott? Just start from the beginning.”
Scott Pratt—alias Trey Seward—retrieved the swords, handing Frankie’s back to her while solidly gripping his own weapon. “This could take a while. I-I still can’t get over the fact that…you’re alive!”
“I think the two of you need to be alone. I’ll head back to the castle,” Mac offered.
Trey shook his head. “No! I want you to hear this. Mac, you once asked me about my past and I wouldn’t tell you. Like I said, I didn’t tell you what I knew about Morgan because I promised secrecy. I’ve had too many secrets that I don’t want to keep anymore. Now, we’ll be fighting together. Seems to me that we all need to know where we’re coming from. You should know your friends as least well as you know your enemies.”
“I agree,” Frankie softly added as she stared at her older brother.
Trey faced Frankie. The brother was trying to emotionally ready himself for the story ahead.
Mac wanted to be anywhere else. He’d already told Trey about his past. Frankie had romanticized it, but she wasn’t so enamored of his history that she didn’t understand the brutality of those times. However, this story was going to bring out the brutality of more modern days.
He’d chosen his path in life. It had put him in dangerous, illegal company. He’d decided to be a Wolf’s Head. For the siblings, they’d had no choice at all. In the tragedy of the Galveston hurricane, the innocent died while at least three from the same family had become immortal. The odds of that happening were stupefying. At least, they were for everyone but Merlin. If that kind of survival rate had happened before, Merlin would lie about that, too.
He didn’t want to hear what was coming. The situation was like the aftermath of a bad car wreck. He wanted to look away. He wanted to just walk off. The brother and sister wouldn’t let him. He’d hear this now, or he’d hear it later.
Trey squared his shoulders. “It was the day before the storm. Do you remember, Frankie?”
“I remember. What was all that crap about father’s mental status? What did Merlin mean when he said that father was…syphilitic…and that he beat me nearly to death? I remember he hit me once. While that was bad… I woke up. I wasn’t dying. I woke up during the hurricane —”
“No, Sarah! There’s more to it. A lot more. Merlin is talking about bits and pieces of history that he obviously didn’t want to admit to knowing,” Trey harshly announced.
“Tell me!” she whispered, then she grabbed her brother’s free hand with hers.
The sword she held in her right hand was gripped so hard that Mac saw her knuckles turn white. Frankie was emotionally shredded. He felt it to his bones. Her angst wafted on the air like smoke from a fire. Trey was equally as affected but doing his level best to get a grip on the situation. This entire scenario was due to Merlin’s machinations. Merlin knew so much, but had withheld it all.
They were nothing but pawns being moved on a battlefield. Still, Mac did as he was asked. He waited. For his friend’s sake, and for Frankie’s.
Trey Seward, alias Scott Pratt, took a deep breath and began. “Let me tell you the way it really happened. I don’t know what the hell Merlin is saying about why he kept us apart, he’s not making any sense about that. He sounds like he’s going mad. But I was there that day before the hurricane. I can tell you what happened for at least part of that one day, in Galveston. And that’s the part you don’t know.”
* * *
Galveston, Texas
September 7, 1900
Friday—one day before the hurricane
“I don’t like it, Mr. Pratt. I’ve talked to some of the other captains. The storm has got ‘em spooked. I think it’s gonna be worse than just some tropical storm.”
“Why?”
“The waves are high swells that are coming far apart and slow. I know you might not reckon by such things, but I’ll stake my reputation on my gut feelings, sir.”
Scott gazed at the man for a long moment. “What’s your suggestion, Captain Ellis?”
“Get the boats out to sea. Wait to offload the cargo. We can do that after the storm blows through.”
“That will cost money. We need to get those goods to the rail, and on to the warehouses in Houston. We’re running this company on deadlines.”
“Sir, I know. But I’m telling you, something’s wrong with this storm. I really suggest gettin’ the boats out of here, as far to the south as we can. Even as far as Mexico. There’s no time to waste with offloading.”
“It’ll blow in tomorrow. You won’t have time to get far.”
“You asked me, sir. I’m telling you what I think.”
“Where is my father? You should go to him about this.”
“Your father didn’t show up this morning. We need to make a decision now.”
Scott frowned, pulled his pocket watch out of his britches, and checked the time. “Father should have been her over half an hour ago.”
“Every minute counts, sir. We do this now, or we take our chances with the boats and the cargo. I’m tellin’ you, I don’t like the feel of this. I’ve been on the ocean all my life, and I haven’t ever seen the way the waves are hitting the shoreline. I tell you true, Mr. Pratt, this is going to be a bad blow!”
Scott considered the man, and the intensity exhibited in his expression. Darrell Ellis was one of the finest captains along the entire Gulf. Still, he didn’t have the seniority in the company to make such a monumental decision. Then again, if he was wrong, and the storm was just another of so many tropical depressions that blew over the island, Houston still wouldn’t get its deliveries on time. Nobody was going to haul anything to the railways. Not if a good rain and wind kept the delivery drivers from hauling perishables, and if some of the goods were fragile cloth and staples that couldn’t get wet.
“Use your best judgment, Mr. Ellis.”
“Thank God, sir!”
The man quickly left the office. Scott saw him running down the dock, toward the boats and the other captains standing nearby.
Apparently, the rest of the crews had been waiting to see what orders Ellis, as most respected among them, would be given. If they were all so nervous about the coming storm, then things were worse than anyone thought.
“Where the hell is he? Father should have been here by now,” he muttered to himself.
Ellis and the other captains had to have noticed his father’s diminishing mental capacity. Maybe that was why they’d waited for his sire to be gone, and had come to him about moving the boats out with such short notice.
Soon, he’d have to take charge of the company entirely. There’d be no way of hiding the truth. On an island where gossip ruled, there’d be no controlling the chatter. Father’s sexual escapades, with women near the docks, would be out on the street soon. He’d already found out about it through his own sources though been able to stem the gossip for his mother’s and sisters’ sakes. So far.
While that news wouldn’t keep people from doing business with Father, other news associated with Father’s philandering would.
Mother had learned of her husband’s infidelity in a most alarming way, not having to do with idle prattle. She had accidently come upon a bottle of mercury in the senior Pratt’s pocket.
Though there were several reasons for imbibing that element, one of the most common was for the treatment of syphilis. Dosing with it, as Scott came to believe, was what was causing his father’s mental faculti
es to fail, at an alarming rate recently.
Thankfully, Mother had a room to herself, and had for years after the twins were born. He only imagined how terribly afraid she was. Women did contract that disease from their husbands. Sadly, no one cared how anybody got it. Those with it were ostracized, with very harsh judgement ascribed. With that bit of gossip circulating about his sire, no one of a high moral caliber would have anything to do with Father, even assuming his mind stayed intact. And it wouldn’t.
He had done a little extra detective work, and eventually found more mercury pills and ointments of all kinds. They were hidden in the shipping company’s wall safe at the Levy building. Research told him that there was enough mercury there to treat ten people, for many months. Several prescriptions with the pills mentioned the word syphilis, so there was no mistaking the reason for it being prescribed.
Apparently, Father had found different doctors to sell him enough to dose by extremes. Whether any doctors had reported Father as having a contagious disease was unknown. As far as he knew, no one from any health department had shown up. However, Effrin Pratt was a very influential man who could pay for anything. Even his doctors’ silence.
The consequences would soon be evident. Failing mental faculties didn’t even allow the older Pratt to recall that his son had the safe combination, which resulted in finding the drugs so carefully hidden there.
As the saying went, ‘One night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury’. Scott shook his head in confusion. Why would anyone risk their life in such a way? Then again, why would anyone cheat on his wife?
What was done, was done. Nothing could undo it.
With the decision having been made to get the company’s boats out of harm’s way, Scott strode purposefully home. Perhaps there was something to the captain’s weather fears. Maybe it’d be prudent to warn others, but the local weatherman had not put up a hurricane warning. At least, he’d seen none yet. So many people had experienced so many storms on the island, that few paid any attention.
