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The Heart of Terror—November 25, 1533
Cailin Knightly tucked the blankets around her son Kyle. He was finally asleep in his crib in the corner of her and James’s master cabin on Knightly’s Refuge. She brushed the midnight curl from her baby’s brow and tip-toed away. Carefully, she closed the door as she exited into the Captain’s Cabin.
“Bless you, sweetling.” Cailin’s handmaid sagged with relief in the reading chair by the bookcases. “I was havin’ a fretful time of puttin’ him down.”
“Thanks for trying, Maggie.” She padded gently to the hall door and grabbed her cloak. “Methinks he was just fussing for his mum. I let him chew on my knuckle for a spell while I rocked him to sleep. I wish I could find something better to soothe him, though.”
Kyle was cutting teeth, so he was a little more needy than usual for Cailin’s attention. She strapped her custom belt and daggers onto her waist and nestled the sheathes into the folds of her woolen gown.
“James and I have that delivery to make. We shouldn’t be long.”
Cailin slipped on her mittens and wrapped her scarf over her head and around her neck to battle the bitter cold. Donning her cloak and yanking her hood up, she headed to the door and grabbed the large box from the shelf.
Maggie set her knitting beside the chair and followed Cailin out of the cabin. “I’ll get Keith to start workin’ on supper, then. We’ll have a nice hot meal for you when you return.”
“Be sure to wake Lord Duncan,” Cailin said, referring to the friend they’d picked up in Dover. “I know he’s still tired from his ordeal, but he needs to eat.”
Maggie swung open the door to the outside.
The freezing wind lashed Cailin’s cheeks, and she lifted her scarf to cover her nose and chin. Fisting her skirts, she trotted up the steps to the main deck with the box tucked under her arm. Night had fallen quickly while Knightly’s Refuge moored at Hartlepool, England. She was not prepared for the darkness or thick fog. The lanterns on the ship swayed and created a ghostly haze in the light snow flurries.
“She’s tied down, Joseph.” James tugged one last time on a rope securing the ship to the dock and whirled to face Cailin. His nose and cheeks were pink, but he smiled as their eyes met.
“Aye, Cap’n!” Joseph called from the poop deck. “Evenin’, Mistress Cailin!”
She waved in response.
James rubbed Cailin’s shoulders as if to help her keep warm. “Are you ready to get rid of this thing, Mouse?”
“Aye.” She tried not to think of what was inside the small chest she held in her arms. Though it had caused them a heap of misfortune and almost gotten them killed, they’d been paid a large sum for their troubles...and would soon get another large sum to finally hand the damned thing over.
She followed her husband along the snow-sprinkled gang plank to the pier. He helped her step down and she continued behind him on the narrow walkway toward solid ground.
When they reached the end of the pier, they both searched the white-covered docks. Only one other ship had a crew bustling around the decks. A small handful of people milled near the icy water’s edge.
“Wasn’t he supposed to meet us here?” Cailin asked.
“Those were the instructions we got from Thorne.” James scratched his head and turned ’round.
“You are Captain James Knightly? And your wife, Cailin?” Like a specter, a tall, lanky man emerged from the dark fog and regarded them both with a suspicious glare.
Cailin squinted into the dim light of the oil lamp hanging on the post.
James glanced at Cailin and cocked an eyebrow. “Seems this fellow and Thorne have the same unnerving approach.” He frowned and strode toward the stranger. “Aye. And you are?”
Her husband casually gripped his sword, but the gesture did not go unnoticed.
“You will not need your weapon, Captain. My name is Fletcher and I’m here for the box.” He handed James a rolled parchment, tied and sealed with red wax.
James tilted the seal into the light and Cailin leaned close. She recognized the emblem.
“Aye, this is the seal we were told to look for.” James narrowed his eyes. “Do you have the payment we were promised?”
Though the man pulled a hefty purse from his inside coat pocket, he held it against his chest. “Let me see the relic first.”
Reluctantly, James stepped aside and Cailin shuffled forward. She glanced around, ensuring there were no prying eyes before lifting the hinged lid, and revealed the shriveled human hand with a candle melted into the palm.
She averted her gaze from the hideous thing created with black magic.
“The Hand of Glory,” Fletcher whispered in awe. “Well done, Knightlys. Well done, indeed.”
Cailin gladly closed the lid and James accepted the sack of money. Dipping his hand inside, he pulled out a few coins to be sure the payment was genuine.
Her eyes grew wide. Gold coins? James’s eyes seemed just as saucerous as hers. He nodded and Cailin relinquished the box.
“I’m sure you’ll find there’s more in there than our employer promised.” Fletcher unfurled a satisfied grin.
“Aye...but why?” James handed the money to Cailin, which she quickly secured to her belt and shoved into the pocket she had sewn inside her skirts at her hip.
“We have another task for you and the extra is another partial payment.” Tucking the box safely under his arm, Fletcher inclined his head toward the parchment. “Take that missive to Robin McKinney at McKinney’s Trinkets & Baubles, just down Maritime Avenue by the clock tower. McKinney will give you the information you need to get started, including what you’re looking for. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other errands to run.” Fletcher whirled to leave, then paused and glanced over his shoulder. “You must have impressed Thorne a great deal for him to give you another assignment so quickly...and to pay you so handsomely. I look forward to what you might do for this task. Good evening, Captain, Mrs. Knightly.”
The mysterious man disappeared into the fog.
James frowned. “The bloke didn’t even give me a chance to refuse.” He rubbed his chin and glanced down at her. “What say you, my daring wife? Care to go on another adventure?”
Cailin simpered appreciatively. “Aye. Let us fetch our instructions and head back to the ship. Maggie has Keith already cooking supper.”
James rolled his eyes heavenward as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Oy, we don’t want to unleash the wrath of Maggie upon our heads. Let us make haste.”
She tittered and snuggled beside his warm, solid frame as they trudged through the snow toward Maritime Avenue.
Breathless and chilled to the bone, they’d finally happened upon McKinney’s Trinkets & Baubles, a curious little shop across from the clock tower as Fletcher had said. A bell tinkled over their heads as they entered and stomped the snow from their boots.
The shelves and tables were cluttered from floor to ceiling with an array of odds and ends, furniture and dishware, anything one could imagine in such a tiny space.
“Who in blazes is comin’ into my shop on such a cold, dreary night?” An old woman with a brown shawl shuffled around a bookcase, frowning. She squinted and raised the round spectacles perched precariously at the end of her crinkled, large nose. “What do ye want?”
Cailin cast a warning glance at her husband and stepped forward. “Excuse me, mum, but we’re looking for Mr. McKinney.”
“Mister McKinney?” She scoffed and waved them off. “You’re too late. He’s been dead for years.”
She began to shuffle away.
“Um, we need to speak with Robin McKinney,” James blathered quickly. “Perhaps we had the mister part wrong?”
The old woman cackled. She winked at Cailin and tapped her bulbous nose. “He’s a smart lad. Worth keepin’.” She cackled again, but then her smile dropped like a stone. “I’m Robin McKinney, but ye can call me Mrs. McKinney. So, what do ye want?”
James extended his hand, offering the sealed parchment. “We were instructed to give you this.”
She waddled forward, pinching the rim of her spectacles as she neared. Handling the scroll, she eyed the seal. “Ohhh...” Her eyes darted from James to Cailin and back to the scroll.
Scuttling past them, she peered outside as if to ensure no one had witnessed their exchange. With a snap, she locked the door and pulled the curtains. “Come with me. Into the back.”
They followed her hunched figure through the maze of oddities until they squeezed through a short, dark hallway into a small tidy room with a modest fire burning in the hearth to their left.
“Sit down while I look this over.” She sat at a desk pushed against the same wall as the door while James and Cailin took the two cushioned chairs on the opposite side of the room, a small knee-high table between them.
Cailin craned her neck to see around Mrs. McKinney, who sat angled at her desk. The old woman broke the seal and tossed it into a wax box, then unrolled the parchment and tilted it toward the firelight.
“You be James and Cailin Knightly, eh?” She peered over her spectacles at them.
They nodded.
“Hrmmm.” She continued reading and a smile grew on her thin lips. “Ah. Well.” She grunted as she rose and tossed the scroll into the fireplace, sniggering. “Thorne is on top of things, I see.” She shuffled past James and Cailin to the bookcases along the back wall and tugged on the ladder leaning against the shelves.
“Would you like me to get something for you?” James stood.
Mrs. McKinney glanced at him, then up at the books. “That would be right kind of ye, laddie.” She sidestepped and gave James space to climb the ladder. “The biggest volume on the top shelf.” Her right hand fluttered while her left hand clutched her shawl at her throat. “That fat, brown one. Yes, that’s the one, boy.” When James brought the book down with him, she pointed at the desk. “Set it over there, son.”
He did as she asked and returned to his chair.
Mrs. McKinney hummed and mumbled, flipping pages and scouring the text in the crumpled tome. Placing her palms on the open book, she leaned very close. “Here!” She cackled and gestured for them to come close. “This is what we’re after.”
She scooted out of their way and settled in the chair closest to the fire while James and Cailin gazed at the book.
She frowned. The two pages were scrawled with what looked like tiny marks dotted across the parchment. There was an occasional loop or a slash, almost as if someone had used a quill with very little ink but kept writing, not caring that only a part of the letters were all that was left of the message.
At the bottom of the right-hand page was a detailed drawing of a pendant, and perhaps what appeared to be a diagram of both sides. A triangular setting held a triangular stone with curved corners. The colored ink seemed to indicate the stone glimmered or may have even contained some shimmering essence, judging by the lines radiating from the stone. Like sunlight through the clouds.
Cailin regarded Mrs. McKinney over her shoulder. “Is this pendant what we’re supposed to be looking for?”
She inclined her head. “That there is known as the Heart of Terror.”
“Well, that sounds delightful.” James’s lips twisted with disapproval.
“What are all these markings?” Cailin ran her finger over the strange, partial writing.
The enigmatic shop keeper shrugged. “Dunno. Can’t read ’em and we don’t know anyone who can. But we do know that necklace is powerful magic and needs to be hidden away so it don’t fall into the wrong hands. The last time it was seen, the wearer killed a legion of Roman soldiers in moments. An entire army laid waste.”
James whirled. “Ten-thousand men? You mean Caesar’s army?”
“One of them ancient rulers.”
“Then what happened?” Cailin dreaded the answer, but they needed to know what they were up against.
“Someone was able to sneak up behind him and shoot him in the head with an arrow.” The old woman clapped once for emphasis. “Bam! That was the only way they could get the necklace without being killed.”
“Who took it?” James folded his arms, scowling.
“Dunno.” She shrugged again. “Been missin’ ever since.”
Cailin pursed her lips. “How is it Lord Thorne thinks we can find it?”
“Well, you must have shown him ye have some kind of skill in recoverin’ these kinds of things, or he wouldn’t have sent ye.”
“Why the sudden interest?” James asked. “If it’s been missing for over a thousand years, why seek it now? Surely, we’re not so miraculous as to ignite interest in a new search.”
Mrs. McKinney tilted her head, regarding Cailin then James as if pondering an answer. Or perhaps she wasn’t sure how much to tell them. “Well, they’ve always been lookin’ for it, but just recently there’s been a small village nearby where all the residents were killed. No sign of how they died. All laid waste just like them Roman soldiers.”
Cailin’s heart dropped into her stomach, and she sat sideways in the desk chair, leaning her shoulder against the back slats. “Oh my.”
Mrs. McKinney nodded. “Oh my, indeed. But Thorne thinks yer up to the task. Will ye do it before anyone else gets killed?”
“I don’t know.” James wiped his palms down his hips.
“Everyone in the village?” Cailin asked. Please, not the children.
“Everyone, lassie.” Mrs. McKinney’s voice softened. “Every last man, woman...and child.”
Cailin thought of her little, sweet Kyle lying in his crib and her heart went out to the residents now gone. She gazed up at James.
“Och, now, woman. We have our own wee bairn to think of.” He paced beside the bookcases, his handsome face marred with anger.
“But it’s Kyle I’m thinking of. How many more children will die at the hands of this monster? Maybe we can stop this person.” Cailin clutched the back of the chair so tight her fingers ached.
James growled and buried his face in his hands. “Don’t look at me with those big blue eyes!”
“Aye, lassie,” Mrs. McKinney scolded. “That’s some mighty underhanded trickery there with your pleadin’ peepers. Not many men can handle such a lethal weapon.” She winked.
“Oh, hush,” James hissed.
“Well, I can’t blame ye for not taking the job. It’s a dangerous task, to be sure. I’ll just send Lord Thorne a missive tomorrow afternoon and let him know he’ll need to find someone else. Leave the coin he gave ye, minus what he owed ye, and I’ll return that to him, as well.”
James held out his hand for the sack of coins. Reluctantly, Cailin untied the purse from her belt and pulled it from her skirt pocket.
Her husband counted out the original share they were promised as the final payment and left the rest in the sack on the desk, then grabbed Cailin’s hand and pulled her after him. “Good evening, Mrs. McKinney. Please send our regrets.”
Once they’d exited the warm shop into the frigid night air, James paced while Cailin fumbled to fix her scarf and don her mittens. The snowfall had grown heavier and almost covered their tracks. They fell in step beside each other as they stomped through the flurries to the docks.
The wind froze the tears on her cheeks, but the closer they got to their ship, the more she realized they’d made the proper choice. Aye, maybe they could have saved some lives. Mayhap they could’ve even helped take another dangerous relic out of circulation. But why was it their responsibility to save the world?
“Do you think we did the right thing, Mouse?” James stopped at the pier and gazed down at her with troubled eyes, his dark lashes dusted with snowflakes. “This sounds much more dangerous than the last relic we encountered. I just...” He scrubbed his hair and groaned.
“Aye, I had the same misgivings, but we have our own child to think of, just as you say, and shouldn’t be putting our lives in such peril and risk leaving him an orphan.”
He nodded and, as they continued toward the ship, Cailin hooked her arm through his, squeezing tight.
“All right, Mouse. We have a nice hot meal waiting for us. Let’s warm ourselves and get a good night’s sleep with a clear conscience before heading out on the morrow.”
They climbed up the gang plank to the empty deck. James trotted down the stairs and opened the door to the cabins below. Cailin slipped off her mittens and scarf as she followed...and uneasiness settled in her gut at the unexpected silence.
“James?” she whispered and pulled her daggers from the sheathes at her hips.
Her husband slipped his dagger from his boot and cautiously advanced. He eased open the galley where Keith should have been finishing supper.
But there was no sign any cooking had started.
Cailin’s hands trembled as she and James crept toward their main cabin. Fear threatened to choke her as they approached.
James twisted the handle and shoved.
Empty.
“Kyle!” Cailin dashed for their bedroom.
James seized her by the waist and forced her behind him, reaching the entrance first.
Nothing.
Sheathing her blades, Cailin shoved past him and lunged for the crib. The space was bare. Kyle’s blankets, even his favorite wood-carved rabbit, were missing.
She fell to her knees and wailed.
James stomped into the Captain’s Cabin and dining area. Cailin sobbed into her hands, consumed by grief.
“Cailin!”
She leapt to her feet, blinking through her tears. “What? Where...?”
James stood by the dining table, holding a piece of parchment in his hands. She rushed forward and snatched it, glancing at the familiar emblem in the broken seal on the table.
“Seems they have given us no choice.” He cursed under his breath and paced the room.
The paper quivered in her fingers.
Brave Captain & Mrs. Knightly,
The Heart of Terror will destroy our world if it falls into the wrong hands. No one is safe until it is recovered. We understand your concern for your family, but we must think of the greater good. Until you find the necklace, we will keep your crew and family safe, comfortable and well cared for. You have our word.
You can do this. We’re counting on you. Your family is counting on you.
Sincerely,
Fletcher
Cailin stormed from the cabin and up to the main deck. James stayed hot on her heels as they both raced down the gang plank. Trudging through the mounting snow and cold, they ran as fast as the weather permitted. In half the time, they reached McKinney’s Trinkets & Baubles and burst into the shop.
Mrs. McKinney sat before the fire, a frown on her weathered face.
Cailin rushed the old woman and pressed her blade to her wrinkled neck. “Where is my son?”
“Slit my throat, and ye won’t know anything, girl.” Robin McKinney held no fear in her aged eyes. Only promise.
James placed gentle hands upon Cailin’s arms and eased her away.
“I don’t agree with their methods,” Robin confessed. “And I didn’t know they had taken yer wee boy until after ye left my shop. I guess they knew ye well enough to understand ye wouldn’t have taken the job. The money is still on the desk. The name of the village is on a piece of paper. It’s as good a place to start as any.”
“I want my son!” Cailin shrieked.
“I know, child. But they didn’t tell me where they’re keepin’ yer family. Only that they were safe.”
James pulled Cailin into his strong arms and she buried her face in his chest. But she made a silent vow.
When they saw Fletcher again, she’d sink her blade into his cold dead heart.