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Ramsay heads straight toward the main hold where he had kept my crew and servants, the rest of us close behind him. The closer we get to it, the worse it smells, and I try to steel my stomach against the sight we may see. Even if the crew isn’t in there, I don’t care to see Hodges and the rest of the bodies.
With his lantern held out, he takes in a deep breath and puts his hand on the door.
Suddenly there’s a scurrying sound, a scraping of the wood, and the quartermaster lets out a gasp as countless tiny black crabs come crawling out from underneath the door, heading straight toward us.
All of us yelp as they keep on coming, a stream of black writhing legs and snapping claws, hundreds of them fanning out across the deck, then crawling up our bodies.
I violently run my hands over my body, flinging them off, trying not to panic as they get in my pant legs, in my shirt, until finally the swarm of them leaves us and continues up the stairs to the rest of the ship.
“What in the blazes was that?” Ramsay says, panting hard. His body gives off an involuntary shake, thoroughly disgusted. “Skip is going to have his paws full.”
I shiver, still feeling the crabs on me, even though they’ve disappeared into the darkness.
Ramsay puts his hand to the door again, steadies himself, and opens it.
The hold is full of bodies.
The bodies of his crew, piled high.
Dead.
I let out an ear-piercing scream and Ramsay stares in total shock, anguish and terror contorting his face in the light of the flame, while it shines on the pale, still faces of Sam, Henry, Thane, Cruz…
“God, no, god,” he whispers hoarsely and starts to sway on his feet.
I reach out to steady him and there’s a low rich laughter behind us.
We turn around to see Nerissa behind the skeletons who automatically part in fear of her. She’s grinning at us maliciously, twirling a piece of kelp around her finger.
“I thought you’d come sooner or later,” she says.
Ramsay tries to speak but he can’t form the words and I watch in real time as rage takes over and he runs at her, lantern held high.
“Stop,” she says, holding out her palm and Ramsay freezes in place, fighting against an unseen force. “And take a moment before you do something foolish. Look again at your dear crew.”
I look behind me. They haven’t changed position but even with the light fainter, I can see that Henry is breathing, his chest gently rising and falling.
“They’re sleeping,” she explains. “A bit of magic, hope you don’t mind. They were so unruly and loud once I stuck them down in the hold that I needed some peace and quiet.”
“You piled them on top of all the dead bodies,” I say to her, aghast, when it seems Ramsay needs a moment to catch up. “As if they were disposable. That’s cruel.”
“That’s cruel? Oh, my child. Goodness.That’scruel? That’s exactly what they deserve! Don’t you know that I am a great purveyor of justice? The reason there are corpses in there to begin with is because the crew of theNightwindput them there.” She gives Ramsay a look of disgust. “Your whole kind is remorseless, you bloodsucking lampreys of the land. It’s about time someone taught you a lesson. See what it’s like. Maybe you can change your ways.”
“What do you want?” Ramsay asks, his gaze cold, his voice iron.
“Nothing,” she says with a bright smile. “Now that you’re both here, I have all that I want.” She eyes the skeleton crew. “You must pardon me, my darlings, but I’m afraid I’ve grown weary of you. You’re no longer part of my destiny. No, I’ve seen my destiny now in Thane’s crystal ball.”
Ramsay stiffens at that.
“And my destiny is here,” she adds simply. “As soon as I saw the vision, I knew what my gut was already telling me, that I have business aboard this ship. Naturally, I slowed the wind. Perhaps you’ll notice we were just sitting out here, waiting for you.”
“You have no business here,” Ramsay says with a jerk of his head. “Your business is with your skeleton crew on theNorfinn.”
“Bones,” she says, drawing out his nickname. “If I leave, then there will be no one to lift the spell. Your crew will sleep forever.”
“Then wake them,” he says, grinding out the words.
Her smile becomes coy. “You know how us witches work. We want a favor in return.”
