Fury's Magic (Fury Unbound Book 2) Page 3

  We finally reached the correct dock and turned off Shipside, heading down the narrow walkway that led to the pier. The ghostly silhouettes of tall ships and ocean liners buttressed both sides of the wide wooden walkway, the fog steaming around them, covering the water’s surface.

  “This is a perfect night for assassins and thieves to cloak themselves in the shadows,” Tam said, his voice soft.

  “Thank you so much for that comforting thought,” I tossed back. But truth was, the thrum and hustle of dockworkers made me feel safe enough. Thugs seldom hung out on the piers, not with the round-the-clock shifts that went on. The wooden walkway echoed faintly with our footsteps, the fog muffling sound. Here and there, we caught fragments of conversation that filtered out from the boats, and the sounds of crates and boxes and barrels being moved around, and the grinding sound of the forklift motors reverberated through the shrouded night.

  Finally, we came to Slip 84, which was to the left, and turned down the narrow walkway leading to the ship’s side. The Fanta Verde was a moderately sized fishing vessel with a ten-man crew. About one hundred years back, the Aqualinia Corporation had discovered a way to convert seawater into energy, and so most big liners and fishing vessels no longer used agroline, instead opting for the expensive but cost-saving Waterthresher motors. This eliminated a great deal of fuel consumption, and oil spills were a thing long past, and meant that no boat with a Waterthresher motor would ever be stuck out of fuel.

  Tam and I stared up at the massive boat. She wasn’t big by the standards of some of her surrounding sisters, but she was still as big as one of the medium-size ferries. A man was standing on the plank that led on board.

  “Fury?” he asked as we emerged from the fog.

  “I’m Fury and this is my associate, Tam. You must be Captain Varga?” I held out my hand.

  He nodded, taking my fingers in his as he gave me a firm shake. “Pleased to meet you both. I’m glad you could make it. I’m afraid I’m going to lose my crew if you can’t take care of these ghosts. If not to another boat, to the sea. These haunts are dangerous, Fury.”

  I stared up at the ship, my senses on high alert. Even from here, I could feel the spirits, and they weren’t restful or good-natured. “How long have you had this problem?”

  “Since we visited Dutch Vista. It’s a fishing town in Alaska.”

  “Isn’t that part of the Canadian Empire?”

  “Not exactly. Dutch Vista is located within the Canadian Empire, but they allow a couple of Americex fishing ports to rent land there. Dutch Vista is one of them. We pulled into port to offload some fish and pick up a new deckhand. When we left a few days later, we had a boat full of ghosts. They’ve been wreaking havoc ever since, and my crew’s exhausted.” He removed his hat and wiped his brow. “Honestly, if we can’t get rid of them, I’m not sure my crew will survive the next run.”

  “That was one cargo you didn’t need.” I rubbed my chin. “So, tell me, what did you take on? Anything besides a new crew member who might have had ghosts attached to it?”

  He let out a disgruntled sigh. “Not during the on-load. But…” The way he stretched out the word told me that there was something he wasn’t sure about revealing.

  “I need to know everything in order to proceed.”

  The captain grimaced, then slowly capitulated. “All right, if it will help. We were less than two days away from Dutch Vista when one of the men spotted something bobbing in the water. It was a metal chest. There was nothing to indicate where the chest might have come from, so we sent a probe down—a subscope. We found a ship on the bottom, a very old ship.”

  “How old?”

  “From what we could tell, it came from the time of the Weather Wars. We couldn’t dive for it, but we filed a salvage claim. And we hauled the chest aboard. I decided to wait until we were back in port before opening it. But the ghosts arrived that night, and they’ve flooded the ship ever since. There are five or six of them and they’re making life a living hell.”

  A ship from the time of the Weather Wars could mean several things. It could have been just a regular ship like a cruise ship or a fishing vessel. Or, it could have been far more dangerous.

  “Did you manage to find out which ship it was? Are there any records?”

  “We haven’t had any word yet,” Captain Varga said. “But I know what you’re thinking and I’m pretty sure you’re right. The subscope showed that the ship possessed a row of guns on both sides. It was a war vessel.”

  As I had feared. War vessels lined the bottom of the oceans, and most had gone down in battle. “Did you see any evidence of how it sank?” Chances were the evidence could have easily rusted away during the intervening centuries, but Captain Varga gave me a solemn nod.

  “The scope showed that one entire side of her hull had been blasted open. But Fury, it wasn’t an outward attack. That ship exploded from the inside by the looks of the hole. I think her own men took her down. She had to have gone to the bottom quickly. The hole was huge. And there are bones down there, plenty of them. A ship that big could easily carry a crew of five or six hundred.”

  As what he was saying sank in, my mood plummeted. We were dealing with a lot of unknown factors, none of them promising. I turned to Tam.

  “All right, let’s go on board. Captain Varga, it’s time to open the trunk and see what we have in there.”

  Without further discussion, he turned and led us on board.

  Chapter 3

  As we crossed the plank, it occurred to me that I had never been aboard a real ship. Ferries, yes, but a ship that sailed out into the wild ocean? Never. I jumped the short distance from the plank down to the deck of the boat. The water rolled beneath us, making it difficult to stand at first, but I finally got my sea legs. The waves churned, frothing in the inlet, and I could only imagine what they must be like out on the ocean proper.

  Tam must have been thinking along the same lines because he said, “The Ocean Mother’s restless, isn’t she?”

  Captain Varga nodded. “That she is, man. That she is.”

  Under the lights of the ship, it was easier to see him. He wasn’t a terribly tall man, but he was broad shouldered, and stocky. He was wearing a white shirt beneath a waterproof vest, and gloves. His pants looked to be waterproof as well, and wide galoshes covered his feet up to his knees. Varga had skin the color of freshly tilled soil, and his hair was a salt-and-pepper mix of tangled braids. His eyes shone in the night like a cat’s and that’s when I realized that he wasn’t fully human, although I didn’t know exactly what he was.

  I had barely taken two steps aboard when something shoved me from behind and I went stumbling against the rail, hard, bruising my stomach muscles.

  “What the hell?” I whirled, expecting to see somebody there. Neither Tam nor Varga were near enough to have touched me.

  “Ghost. They’re bullies, among other things. We’ve had hell to pay out on the ocean with the men trying to fish and bring in a run. Almost lost one of my crew to a squall when one of the fuckhead ghosts knocked him overboard.” Varga’s voice took on an edge that sent a chill through me. The captain was not happy.

  “So they’re not just a nuisance. They’re actually dangerous.” Most ghosts that I dealt with were relatively benign, but now and then I got hold of one that was more than just a scare-‘em-up spook. It wasn’t that there weren’t plenty of deadly spirits out there, though. I had just lucked out until now.

  “They’re dangerous, all right. The minute we pulled into port, two of my best deckhands threatened to quit if I didn’t get rid of the haunts. So I petitioned Poseidon and he turned me over to Hecate.” At that moment, his eyes flashed again and I knew. Captain Varga was a Theosian, like me. And he was bound to Poseidon, which made us temple-mates, so to speak.

  “That’s why she recommended I take the job. I had no idea.”

  “That I’m a Theosian? I don’t tell a lot of people. My men don’t even know.
Poseidon’s tasks are odd and varied. I don’t have one specific job. Mostly I fish. But when he sets me out on stormy seas, we usually navigate just fine.” A glint in his eye told me there was something else that he wasn’t telling us, but common courtesy prevented me from asking.

  Theosians were often reticent about their powers, and with good reason. The government insisted on chipping us at birth, when we were first categorized. They didn’t bother to give a reason. They didn’t have to since they were the ones in power. But every Theosian knew why they kept tabs on us.

  Tam had altered my chip when I was thirteen and first landed on Jason’s doorstep after my mother was brutally murdered. While I appeared to have the requisite tracking during cursory scans, the information on them was garbled enough to prevent anybody from figuring out who I really was unless they did a detailed search and put all the pieces together. That wouldn’t happen in a normal scan or cop-and-stop, but if the Devani hauled me in on any charges, that would be it. They’d find out who I was, and that I was wearing an altered chip. Considering it was a capital offense, there would be no hope for me. So I kept out of range and out of sight as much as possible.

  I glanced around the deck of the ship. Large pots lined one area of the boat. Crabbing pots. So the Fanta Verde braved the north seas, still as dangerous an occupation as it had ever been. A door led below deck, and the wheelhouse rose over us, lit from within.

  “Do you mind if we poke around? Does your crew know we’re aboard?”

  “They do, and be my guest. The chest is down below, in the galley. I figured you’d want to take a look at it.”

  Cooperation in jobs like this was king, and I was grateful Captain Varga understood that.

  “It will help a lot if we know which ship it came from. There are some historical documents left from that time. But if the ship was blown out of the water, it doesn’t matter who did it or who was on it. That sort of end would leave a lasting impact in the astral zone over the area of water in which she sank. If the ghosts were soldiers, they’re probably still fighting a war that’s been over for hundreds of years.” Chances were the ghosts saw the men of the Fanta Verde as the enemy, which was going to make it a lot harder to clear them.

  I headed toward the door leading below. Tam followed, and after him, Captain Varga.

  The staircase was steep, but at least there was a railing. After the WaterEdge Stair, these steps seemed as simple as skipping stones. As I turned left into the galley, a group of five men looked up from where they had gathered around the table. The booth could seat at least fifteen. Rough and ready, most looked to be true seamen, weathered by salt and wind with brine for blood. Their leathery faces reflected the years spent out in the elements. But to a man, especially the youngster of the group, their faces mirrored fear.

  “Gentlemen.” I gave them a cursory nod, my focus moving to the chest. It was large, all right, with a thick stream of energy oozing from it. Long fingers reached out, hunting. Whatever was inside that chest was sentient. Shivering, I tore my attention away from it as Captain Varga introduced us.

  “Boys, this is Fury, and her partner, Tam. They’re here to oust the ghosts.” Captain Varga motioned for them to scoot over so we could sit down.

  But as I approached the table, a miniature lightning fork sparked off the chest, surging toward my shoulder. I darted to the side just in time. The bolt drove past me toward the wall of the galley where it drove a hole deep into the wood. The boat groaned and the smell of char filled the air as the captain rushed over to make certain there was no fire.

  “Crap.” He poked at the hole. “There don’t appear to be any embers,” he said, turning back to the table. “But what the hell was that?”

  I glanced over toward the stove, where one of the men was preparing dinner.

  “Watch the flames on your stove. These spirits mean business. That bolt could have done some serious damage, though I doubt it would have killed me.”

  Tam edged over to the chest. “The bolt came from the lock. Whatever’s connected to this chest is sentient.” He picked up one of the forks on the table and prodded the side. The tines clinked against the metal. Nothing. He poked it again. Still nothing.

  I took a step toward the chest and the energy swirled up, a viscous green mist taking the shape of a serpent. It coiled, staring at me. I backed away again and it dissolved.

  “Well, it sure doesn’t seem to like me.” Musing, I glanced around the galley, looking for the other ghosts. “Where is everybody on the spooktacular level? Where do the ghosts seem to congregate?”

  “They tend to hang out in here,” one of the men said. “They vanished a few minutes ago. One was trying to scare Jesse.”

  “That’s me,” the cook said. “Damned near made me drop a dozen eggs. Freakin’ ghost poked me in the back as I was whisking them up to make scrambles and toast.” Jesse turned around, a wary look on his face. “I don’t like talking about them. But I can tell you, I’m tired, miss. I’m tired of trying to keep one step ahead of them.”

  A suspicion tugged at the back of my mind. “Tired? More than usual?”

  “A lot more.”

  “He’s right, ma’am.” One of the younger deckhands doffed his hat and gave me a congenial nod. “I’m always up and ready for work, but I’ve had the hardest time getting a move on lately. It’s like I’ve got heavy weights around my ankles. And I’m so tired. I can’t seem to get enough sleep. We run short shifts in the bunk as it is, but I’m having a hard time falling asleep. I feel like I’m being drained. And when I do sleep, I have horrible nightmares.” The young man blushed. “I don’t like admitting it, but I feel like an old man. I could fall asleep right here.”

  It was one of the first times anybody had ever called me “ma’am,” but he seemed very young and very afraid. I wouldn’t put him out of his teens, provided he was human. And I was pretty sure he was.

  I slid into the booth next to the boy. “What’s your name?”

  “Reggie.”

  “Well, Reggie, how old are you?”

  “Seventeen, ma’am.” He glanced over at Tam, then with a hesitant smile, said, “This is my second season on the Fanta Verde.”

  “He’s a good deckhand, too,” Captain Varga said. “We took him on after his parents were killed by the Devani in a raid on their place. It was a false alarm, but that didn’t stop the freaks from using their bog-dogs to kill.” He said all this softly, and Reggie did his best to keep a blank expression. But when he blinked, slowly and only once, it was enough to reveal the pain and heartache still present.

  Tam let out a soft sigh. “They’re getting worse, too. Ever since the quake hit, they’ve been out on extra patrols. We’d all do well to mind ourselves and watch our steps.”

  “That’s for certain.” I steered the conversation away from Reggie’s parents. I looked around at the others. “Are all of you tired like Reggie is?”

  They nodded, one by one.

  I was about to say something, but a faint mist rising up from the chest caught my attention. Then, with a sudden rush, it lashed out, racing through me. I shivered, chilled to the bone.

  “Tam?”

  He gave me a slight nod. “I felt it, too.”

  Closing my eyes, I pulled up my Trace screen. No Aboms, but with a flash, my Sight opened. Hecate was queen of phantoms and spirits, and she had given me the gift of seeing ghosts and spirits.

  The next moment I opened my eyes to see the galley filled with misty forms. They were a sickly, mottled color. Vaporous, they weren’t quite human, yet not purely nebulous, fog-forms. They hovered around the men, cords running deep into their crown chakras, draining them of energy. The steady pulse running through the etheric veins showed the flow of energy to be a one-way. At this rate, the ghosts would drain the men of their life force before long.

  Trying to ignore the ghosts—who didn’t appear to know that I could see them—I asked the men, “How many of you have been attacked
by the spirits?” Draining energy was bad enough but that the ghosts were attacking the men was even worse.

  One of the more grizzled deckhands spoke up. “The name’s Ethan, ma’am. Last night, I woke up thinking my cabin was on fire. I saw flames everywhere, but as I cleared my door, I realized that I didn’t smell smoke. I managed to shake away the visions, and the fire disappeared. To be honest, I thought I was going crazy.”

  Ethan looked to be an old geezer, but I’d lay even odds that he could take on a bog-dog and win. Leather-skinned, weathered, and wiry, he’d probably be working on the deck until he keeled over from old age or a heart attack.

  “We need to open this chest.” I motioned to Tam, who slipped over to my side. In whisper-speak, I said, I can see the ghosts, and they’re draining these men. Chances are when we open that chest, things are going to get dicey. Should we send them off the ship?

  “Perhaps.” Tam’s voice was so low the men seemed to take no notice. “What do you think will happen to the ghosts when the men leave the room? Will they follow, if they’re attached?”

  “There’s only one way we’re going to find out.” Bringing my voice back to normal level, I said, “You. Sir? With the coffee mug? Can you do me a favor and step out of the galley for a moment? I want to check on something.”

  He looked confused but obliged. The moment he left, the ghost followed him, still attached. Damned life-sucking leeches.

  “All right, come back in,” I called out.

  He returned, giving me a quizzical look, but I kept my mouth shut as I tried to puzzle out the best course of action.

  We couldn’t risk a sudden surge of attacks when we opened the chest, but I needed to keep the ghosts here. Somehow, I had to separate the men from the ghosts before we proceeded.