by SJB Gilmour
‘He’s just drinking,’ Sarah told her friend. She didn’t like the idea of James doing anything unsavoury, even if that was exactly what he liked to do whenever had had the chance.
Angela shook her head. ‘Chinese Fighting Maple Rum won’t harm him. He might get a bit silly, but he wouldn’t get sloshed on the stuff. No, something not’s right with the old boy. I think I better investigate a few things.’ She tucked the tome under her arm and went to the door. ‘Stay here,’ she instructed the girls.
Sarah and Melanie did nothing of the kind. They rushed behind and followed Angela to Nathan’s cabin, which was really just a broom closet minus the brooms. He was coiled quite comfortably in a mop bucket, snoring softly.
‘Nathan,’ Angela called gently to the slumbering purple bookwyrm.
Nathan gave a startled snort and woke. He blinked several times and raised his head.
‘Oh hello, Mistress Angela!’ he said brightly. ‘How nice of you to visit! Would you like to come in?’ The freshly woken bookwyrm was not about to forget his manners, even though it would be a very tight squeeze to get both Angela and himself inside that closet.
‘No thank-you, Nathan. I just dropped by to ask a favour,’ Angela replied. She peered into the dimly lit cupboard.
‘By all means! Anything I can do to help?’
Angela showed Nathan the tome.
He nodded. ‘Ahh, The Serpentine,’ he breathed, nodding his head in recognition. ‘Quite a nasty little piece of trash. Malicious, though thankfully quite impotent. Why, half of the spells in that thing don’t work properly and the rest don’t work at all. The Herpethians weren’t much chop as cults go. Of course anyone who’s going to waste their time worshipping a herpes demon probably isn’t right in the head to begin with.’ He sniffed at it curiously. ‘What did you do to it?’ he asked. ‘It smells as though it’s just had a curse removed from it.’
‘It has,’ replied Angela. She furrowed her brow with disapproval. ‘Some smart little person put a herpeticus curse on it. I disabled it. It’s safe to handle now. Would you mind looking after it and gathering everyone in my cabin? I’ve got to go have a word with James. I’ve got a nasty suspicion we’ve not seen the end of his little brush with demonic infection and it’s got something to do with this.’ She passed the tome down to the bookwyrm.
Nathan was very surprised. ‘That curse’s been banned for centuries. Why would anyone use it now?’
Angela shrugged and rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t know,’ she sighed wearily. ‘Probably because they’re either incredibly stupid or, well, just incredibly stupid. Would you mind keeping an eye on it while I go and check on James?’
‘Of course not,’ promised Nathan. He wriggled up out of the mop bucket and opened his mouth. Angela carefully placed the book between his very white teeth.
‘Hmm,’ he mumbled with the tome in his mouth. ‘It dovven dasde wike a dormaw dome.’
Sarah and Melanie giggled.
Angela shot them a reproving glance then took the tome out of Nathan’s mouth.
‘Now what was that in English, please?’
The bookwyrm blushed, going even more purple than normal.
‘Sorry,’ he said bashfully. ‘I know it’s rude to talk with my mouth full. I said it certainly doesn’t taste like a normal tome. It might be safe to handle but it’s got several other nasty enchantments on and in it.’
‘Bookwyrms can taste sorcery?’ Sarah asked him curiously. ‘That’s funny. I can smell fear.’
‘And I can feel the planets,’ Melanie added.
Nathan nodded his bald purple head enthusiastically.
‘Oh yes, Miss Sarah,’ he replied. ‘That’s one of the joys of being a bookwyrm. I get to taste all manner of things. A really good author will actually make his enchantments taste like the subject of the tome. This one was quite well written. It tastes like snake, which of course tastes sort of like fishy chicken, but there’s an aftertaste that isn’t quite right. That’s what I meant about it not tasting like a normal tome. Oh, whatever you do, don’t open it to page thirty-two. There’s another curse that’ll need to be disabled before you can read further.’
Suddenly there was a loud bang as though something had exploded up on deck.
Angela handed the tome back to Nathan and then gave the girls a quick, firm push.
‘Now girls, my cabin and stay there. I’ve got to see about James!’
With that, she disappeared. Sarah and Melanie looked at each other again, grinning. Neither had any intention of missing whatever was going on. The bookwyrm then wriggled off down the corridor towards the cabin Uncle Benjamin shared with Aunt Roberta and Uncle Robert.
Sarah wasn’t quite sure how to follow Angela using sorcery without making a portal, so she simply bolted down the corridor to the stairs. Mel followed close behind her. When they appeared up on the deck, they were amazed by what they saw. The weather had turned for the worse. The gentle snow had become sleet and the ship was pitching against mountainous black waves. Despite the bucking ship and icy spray, James and Ronny, both quite obviously drunk, had stripped off to their underclothes and were wrestling on the deck to the bemusement of the hardy sailors looking on.
Angela worked her way through the burly crowd and stepped up to the wrestling pair. She clapped her hands and barked a quick spell and the two froze. Then she waved at two of the sailors standing nearby.
‘Gentlemen, would you mind removing the gnome to a safe distance please?’ It wasn’t a request. The two sailors, whose faces now showed more than a little fear, rushed to comply. They picked Ronny up under his armpits and dragged him away. James lay on the deck, still frozen into place. The other sailors suddenly found other tasks to do and hurried about them.
Angela then waved one hand at James. The Master of Flora collapsed on the deck. He lay there for a few moments then bounced up to his feet, shivering mightily.
‘What the hell happened?’ James demanded and instantly donned fresh clothes. He looked this way and that not knowing where he was or how he got there. He swore and turned to Angela. ‘Okay cousin, would you mind telling me just what is going on?’ His speech was peppered with several quite colourful curses, which Sarah was now quite used to hearing from him. ‘I thought you got rid of that demonic infection!’
‘I did,’ Angela replied calmly. She sniffed him. ‘You’ve been drinking. Taken anything else I should know about?’
James shook his head.
‘Then it must be something else.’ She grinned at him teasingly. She pressed two fingers to each of his temples and concentrated. Her eyes widened. ‘Uh, oh—’
‘What?’ James demanded, startled.
‘Keep still. There’s a mark on you.’
‘Mark?’ Sarah and Mel asked at once.
Angela didn’t answer them. ‘James,’ she reprimanded him. ‘I told you to keep still. I’ll have to concentrate here…’ She glanced over the Sarah. ‘Sarah, come here. This is a two-witch job. I’ll handle the necromancy, you break the enchantment.’
Sarah changed form and padded up to James and concentrated. Now she knew to look for an enchantment upon the bald sorcerer, she had an idea of what was going on. She saw the spell. Woven within it was an evil presence - sort of a demonic signature. If she were to break the spell, that evil might be let loose. Angela would take care of that, while Sarah broke the enchantment.
‘Mel, when I ask, count to three,’ Angela instructed her niece. ‘Sarah, on three. You break the spell, I’ll cast out the presence.’ Still holding James’ head, she began muttering a low necromantic rite.
James’ eyes were wide. ‘Shouldn’t we be naked for this?’’ He looked very worried.
‘Not for what I’m about to do,’ Angela assured him. It’s a one-way spell. Now shut up.’ She began chanting her rite again. After a few moments, she gestured to Mel.
Mel counted in slow, measured time. ‘One.. Two… Three!’
‘Annullarikus!’ Sarah barked.
&nb
sp; ‘Figeos!’ Angela commanded at the same time.
James cried out as a flash of green light burst from his scalp. Then he shrugged himself free from Angela and shook his head painfully. Then he swayed for a moment then fell onto the deck like he’d been dealt a massive blow to the head.
Helping him back onto his feet, Angela observed ‘Someone really doesn’t like you, cousin.’
James was furious. He rubbed his face with his hands and stomped on the deck in a rage.
Sarah had never seen James so angry. Sparks of uncontrolled enchanted energy flickered up and down his body as he threw his tantrum.
Benjamin arrived on the deck. ‘The spirits warned us there might be another attack.’ He glanced at Angela. ‘Nathan showed me the Serpentine. Snakes and reptilian demonic infections? Could Herpethia be behind this? I didn’t know she was strong enough to cause a Primary Affect. She’s a demon, not a devil.’
‘What was that?’ Sarah demanded. ‘I mean I broke it, but I couldn’t really tell what it was meant to do.’
‘It was a mark,’ Angela told her. ‘Demons, devils, gods… all kinds of beings can leave them. Sort of a spiritual scent. It lets other beings know the spirit or deity has laid claim to the individual, or it’s a way for them to find that individual from other planes. Sometimes, it’s also a fingerprint showing where that spirit has interfered with a person. There’s a prophecy at play here Sarah.’ She looked over at James. ‘Oh calm down, you big baby.’
‘I get that,’ Sarah replied stiffly. It didn’t happen as often as it used to, but she still felt defensive sometimes when she thought others were treating her as though she was a bit dim. ‘What’s a Primary Affect?’
James stopped stomping but continued to swear and curse.
‘Well, sometimes if deities or,’ Angela went on, crooking her fingers to indicate inverted commas, ‘“powers that be”, want to make sure we do as we’re supposed to in their version of a prophecy, they sometimes reach out and take over. When that happens, it’s called a Primary Affect.’ She sighed and shook her head. ‘Mortals love this kind of thing. It makes them feel special or blessed for some reason. If the morons only knew that they usually only happen when they’re not doing what they’re supposed to, then they wouldn’t be nearly so fat-headed.’
Angela frowned and reached out to James, who flinched from her.
‘Stop that,’ she chided him as she touched his bald head again. ‘Hmm,’ she mused. ‘It’s all gone,’ she told him. ‘But I’m sorry, I can’t tell you who left it or why. Could have been Herpethia, or not her at all - something or someone completely unrelated. If there are any residual signs, they’re too weak for me to detect.’ She looked over at Benjamin. ‘If it is Herpethia, she’s left no trace that I can find. That level of anonymity requires power. A lot of it.’
‘Let me have a go,’ Sarah told her. ‘Hold still,’ she instructed James, grinning.
James braced himself while Sarah stood up on her hind legs and placed her massive front paws on his shoulders. She then sniffed his face so closely that her wet nose touched his face several times. She could smell both his and Ronny’s sweat. There was seawater, Chinese Fighting Maple Rum, dirt and the coffee, bacon and eggs he’d had for breakfast, but no snake like she’d smelled on him the day before. There was also a distinctly feminine scent on him too that she did not recognise, but it wasn’t reptilian. She pulled her paws from his shoulders and began to walk around him, sniffing everywhere.
‘Hey!’ James protested as she sniffed at his crotch. His anger was giving way to embarrassment. Sarah wagged her tail. The feminine scent was much stronger there.
‘You did more than just plant a few beets before we left, didn’t you,’ she teased him. Being in her wolf form, she wasn’t anywhere near as embarrassed as she’d have been as a human. ‘Who was she?’
‘James!’ Angela exclaimed, exasperated.
‘Ew!’ muttered Mel.
James went bright red and looked down at the deck.
Sarah’s tail was wagging so hard it was thumping on the deck. She shook her head and then looked up at Angela.
‘Whoever she was, she wasn’t human.’ She turned to James and cocked her head. ‘Maddy smells sort of like that, but different. Was she a quickling?’
‘More like James thought she was a quickling,’ Angela surmised. ‘She, he, it – could have been anything – was most likely a lesser demon disguised as a quickling to seduce him.’ She gave him a chiding look. ‘Obviously that wasn’t hard to do. Tell me James, is that where you got the tome from? Your latest dalliance?’
‘Disguised?’ James seemed incredibly put out. ‘Bloody Mason’s the illusionist! He’s supposed to be able to detect this kind of thing!’
‘Don’t get mad at Ronny,’ Angela told him firmly. ‘It’s not his job to vet your girlfriends. Again, did she give you The Serpentine?’
‘Could have,’ James admitted. Then he flared. ‘If her job was to give me that tome, why’d she hang about for another—?’ He paused, searching for the right word. ‘—go this morning?’
‘Maybe she really did like you?’ Mel teased. James gave her a venomous scowl.
‘Never mind,’ Angela told her, as much to calm her blushing cousin as to remain on the subject at hand. ‘Her mark on James was light.’
‘Mark?’ Sarah asked.
Angela nodded. ‘Probably an identifier for whatever Affected James. Whatever the mark was for doesn’t really matter. It’s gone now. We’ll just have to keep an eye on each other.’ She frowned again looked around the squally deck and shuddered. ‘It’s really quite awful out here,’ she suggested. ‘Why don’t we all go back below decks and dry off?’
Sarah and Mel went back below decks. Once they had changed into fresher clothes, they both realised just how exhausted they were. They’d been up before dawn, gone to Mount Olympos, met a god and then travelled halfway around the world again to wind up on an old sailing boat where all sorts of weird things were happening. They both ate a quick snack of sandwiches that the crew supplied in their cabin and climbed into their bunks. Both girls were fast asleep almost as soon as their heads hit their pillows.
Chapter Five
The next day, the stormy weather had passed and the raging swells had died down to gentle rolling waves. The fine weather held for nearly two weeks. Sarah and Melanie spent their days sitting in an empty space forward of the main mast or staring out at the endless ocean from the aft. The air, though still cool, was fresh and bracing. The sun shone down on them and reflected back off the water. Each day, the air was a little warmer as they sailed towards the Tropic of Cancer.
While the ship sailed south, Nathan, Angela and Benjamin spent their hours studying the strange leather-bound Serpentine tome. Uncle Robert and Aunt Roberta had gone wolf the moment they stepped on board and stayed that way as much as possible. The two grinning Browns spent the days perched perilously close to the edge along the bow of the ship, their tongues lolling in the breeze.
James, furious at having twice had an attempt to possess him, spent a great deal of time in religious observances to Demeter. When he wasn’t praying or reading some of Her sacred texts (of which there were few and these seemed mostly to do with crop rotation and companion-planting), he joined Ronny fishing. While Ronny kept his catch to feed the group and crew, James sacrificed his on a small brazier Captain Thunder had instructed Fingers to erect at the aft of the ship.
Sarah and the other werewolves kept well away from the aft while James was doing this. Even with the breeze blowing the smoke away from the brazier, the smell of burning fish was really quite awful.
One evening, after the crew had hauled in most of the sails, Sarah was lounging in the last rays of sunshine up on the foredeck. She whined as she caught whiff of a particularly horrid smell coming from the rear of the ship.
‘I get that he’s keeping in touch with Demeter and all that,’ she complained to Mel, ‘but does it have to smell so bad?’
M
el looked surprised. ‘Huh? He’s not doing that right now. He’s in Benjamin’s cabin now with Nathan. The three of them have been arguing all day about something they’re trying to figure out in The Serpentine.’
This brought Sarah up short. She sniffed again and her hackles raised.
‘Then what’s that smell?’ Whatever it was, it was fishy and getting stronger. As she and Mel turned to look towards the aft, a cry from the deck nest sent a chill down her spine.
‘Kraken!’ yelled the man, pointing to the wake. ‘Kraken off the port stern!’
In three bounds, Sarah was at the back rail of the ship, quickly joined by Captain Thunder and various members of the crew who had armed themselves with swords and pikes.
The creature was vaguely squid-shaped, only with more tentacles. And, it was huge – easily the size of a bus. Unlike a squid, Sarah noticed with horror, the tentacles were covered in scales instead of suckers and each one ended in a deadly reptilian head. As the creature swam towards them, several of those heads poked up out of the water.
‘That’s no kraken,’ muttered Thunder as he eyed the beast.
Now she could smell the creature even more clearly, Sarah realised the scraggly-bearded man was right. The monster chasing them through the churning sea wasn’t any kind of mythical enchanted beast. It was a demon.
‘Demon!’ Sarah growled, her golden eyes glowing with excitement.
The crew echoed her words among themselves and went from being ready for a fight to terrified. They backed away from the rail and clustered about the main mast.
Ronny, Angela, James and Benjamin joined Sarah, Mel, Robert and Roberta at the rail with Captain Thunder and Whitey.
‘Fingers!’ Thunder yelled over his shoulder. ‘Take the helm! Take us fifteen to starboard!’
The ship’s one-eyed bosun raced to the wheel and began spinning while he hollered orders to the crew to adjust the sails.
‘It’s going under!’ Mel yelled, pointing over the side. The horrid thing had nearly caught up to the ship now and was diving under it.