himself, prepared for battle, in the event the French returned to reclaim the
village of Emberwick on the north end.
It had never come to pass.
The British who’d settled there instead had eventually come to suffer a
series of misfortunes, and had fled the island, leaving Dracadia abandoned
once more.
Of course, rumors had spread. Some had blamed the indigenous
Cu'unotchke tribe, who’d sequestered themselves in the southern
mountains, for having roused their heathen gods. Whatever the cause,
speculations of bad spirits and inexplicable maladies had kept most from
the enticement of land ownership on Dracadia. As a result, the island had
failed to house any more than the heretics who’d been exiled there. The
worst offenders of the holy doctrines.
Lord Adderly did not avert his gaze from the path ahead as the shore
broke through the fog and the water grew shallower. Over the devastated
landscape, black birds clustered in thick flocks. Murders. The ravens, whose
presence had long stirred fears of evil. Lord Adderly had watched their kind
follow men to war with the promise of carrion. The circling birds could
only be an omen.
A sign of death.
“Dear God,” Lieutenant Christ said, where he sat beside the
commodore. “Is it the savages, My Lord?”
“No.” While the commodore answered assuredly, the truth was he didn’t
know. He’d fought all sorts of savages, and while they battled with
unconventional fervor, they were hardly inherently evil.
“Rumors speak of sharpened black stones for teeth, and eyes like
wolves in the darkness,” Christ prattled on.
“Perhaps you give equal merit to stories of sea monsters and sirens.”
“Of course not, My Lord. But the men who speak of such things are of
sound mind. Good Christian men.”
The commodore had little doubt of their integrity, but to offer the truth
behind their voyage would have sparked panic.
Perhaps even mutiny.
For, unbeknownst to Lieutenant Christ, they had been summoned there
by correspondence from the church, after several clergymen had failed to
return with three accused witches. Under the care of Dr Jack Stirling, the
three women had been ordered to trial in Massachusetts proper. There’d
