Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
ANA THE DEATHLESS
There were only so many places a pirate could go for a blessing.
A priest wouldn’t dare come near a pirate.
No, what I needed was someone who would bless the saints and sinners alike.
What I needed was someone who walked the lines between the innocent and the damned. What I needed was . . . Dracinda.
Bright rays of light peeked over the horizon and bathed the streets in sunshine.
But it also brought to light the events of the night before.
Pirates and wenches were unconscious in the streets.
They lay against walls, were curled in doorways, and hung draped over the balconies overlooking the rest of the town.
Many of them were still drinking and carousing.
Off-tune music continued to play from somewhere farther down the street.
I kept on walking past the tavern, past the inn, and past the barn.
Wagons full of supplies moved about, along with merchants making advantageous deals for themselves.
Everyone was out to get something in Gallowsbay. Today was no different.
When I turned the corner toward the small house on the outskirts of the town, I nearly stopped in my tracks.
There was a line of people from the front door that curved around the side of the house.
They looked exhausted, as if they’d been standing there for far too long.
Their posture was hunched, their eyes too bloodshot, and there was an air of impatience lingering around them all.
I wasn’t about to join the end of that line.
Not when I had so little time before I was expected at my boat.
I strode right past the line and to the front door. Bellows of protest sounded. I paused at the door and narrowed my eyes toward the line, resting my hand on the hilt of my sword. Murmurs of Ana the Deathless repeated. When they fell silent, I pushed the door open and strode into the house.
The small entry was covered with symbols drawn with dark-red paint. When I stepped past it, they glowed brighter for a second and then went out. “Hello?”
Music played from somewhere inside, and I slowly made my way toward it.
Voices drifted out toward me, so I followed them farther into the house.
I stepped into an open living area with doorways leading deeper into the interior.
The walls were a dark cream color, and the furniture was made of rickety old wood.
The room smelled of musky herbs and ashes.
“Hello,” a smooth, warm voice called from down the hallway.
“Dracinda, I’ve come—”
“I know why you are here, deathless one.” She sauntered from the hall and out into the main room.
Dracinda was one of the most beautiful, deadly women I’d ever encountered.
Long silvery hair flowed down her pale skin and past her curvaceous hips, and her sapphire eyes were wide and round.
If she wasn’t so deadly, she’d be sought after by every pirate on this island, and not in a good way.
But Dracinda had been here for longer than any of us could remember.
It was said she didn’t age, but pirates had a lore for everything.
I strolled around the room, looking at the animal bones she had scattered about and mixed in with crystals of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Something in a metal bowl burned, sending a thin plume of smoke drifting up toward the ceiling. The scent reminded me of dried flowers.
I turned back to her. “Then you know what I need?”
Dracinda walked over to the table and dropped down into one of the chairs.
Her dress had a high slit in the side and one strap fell off her shoulder.
She rested her hand on the table and drummed her finger there.
A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth.
“You seek a blessing but that’s not what you need. ”
I arched my eyebrows at her. “It’s not?”
“Of course not.” Her voice was a deep, husky purr.
“Then tell me,” I moved to sit in the chair across from her, “What is it that I need?”
She sat forward and her eyes glinted with interest. “Ana the Deathless walks with Death. I wonder why that is?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Finally someone who knew exactly what I was dealing with. But how did she know? “You and me both.”
“What would you pay to find out why?” Her eyes roamed over me from head to toe, and she leaned toward me.
I leaned back in the chair in response and folded my hands, resting them on my stomach. “Are we negotiating?”
“Life is a negotiation,” she countered.
“It is.” I had to choose my every word carefully. There was no telling what kind of curse or blessing I’d get from Dracinda. But I did know it could go either way. Was it worth it? I wasn’t sure. I had to take it as a sign that Thanatos continued to linger around me.
“Then let us speak of things we desire, things we need, and things that would be left unspoken with anyone else.” A heaviness wove through the room, and I suspected Dracinda’s power was at work.
“I do not wish to speak of Thanatos.” I kept my voice low and calm. The truth was, I did want to speak of him. I just wasn’t ready to pay that price. “But I wish for this voyage to be fruitful. I seek a treasure of unspeakable value.”
“As does another.” She continued that slow drumming. “Why should I help you and not him?”
I pulled a bag of coins from my pocket and dropped it on the table. It fell there with a heavy thud. “I’ll triple it when I return with the treasure. You know I will hold up my end of the deal. Captain Barr will not.”
“Hmm. Yes, he tends to backstab those he makes deals with.” She chuckled.
“Yes.” I nodded.
“Very well.” She rose to her feet and walked over to a box that sat on a small table on the other side of the room.
When she opened the box, a sad song began to play.
She pulled a circular pendant from within it that was affixed to a long gold chain.
She held it up and it swung from side to side as she walked back to the table and sat down.
“You don’t need a blessing. You need this.”
My eyes locked on the gold pendant. It was circular and flat like a coin, with a feather etched into the front of it.
A tall man with blond hair and crystal-like eyes moved up behind her.
He wound his arm around her body and spread his hand against her flat stomach.
He jerked her body back against his and pressed a kiss to her neck just under her ear.
“And what new deal are we making, my love?” His voice was deep and rough but enticing in the best way.
The scent of sun and coconuts filled the room, and I leaned in his direction. How could this man be so enticing? Dracinda leaned into his kiss. “Ana’s come for some help with her next voyage.”
He let her go and took a seat next to me. “And have you offered her such help?”
“I have.” She stood across from me and dropped the pendant on the table between us.
Tristan sniffed the air between us. “Why does the scent of the Underworld linger on your skin?”
Dracinda chuckled and dropped down into the chair once more. “Tristan, love, did you know that Death has taken an interest in her?”
It was odd to me to talk to them as if Thanatos making an appearance in front of me was a normal thing.
I wanted to believe that Dracinda was simply a witch, but I had no idea what this Tristan was.
Though he seemed like a normal man, he was too well-dressed, too comfortable with himself, too . . . powerful.
Tristan raised his eyebrows. “What kind of interest?”
God, his scent was intoxicating. I could hardly think. “I’m not sure. He just shows up every now and then,” I managed to say.
“I see.”
Dracinda gave him a heated look. “I suspect his interest runs deep.”
I shook my head. “He said we were friends once. Though I don’t remember ever being friends with him.”
“Friends.” Dracinda wagged her eyebrows at Tristan. “I bet he would do anything for her. Their connection is deep. Don’t you think so . . . love?”
Though she smirked at him, there was an edge to her words, and I felt I was missing out on something. “He has done nothing for me so far other than show up at the oddest moments.”
Tristan gave a heavy sigh. “It sounds as though they are good friends.”
“Yes, I believe he would defy fate for her.” The smile dropped from her face, and a cold chill ran down my spine. “Don’t you think so?”
“Not this again.” Tristan groaned. “I won’t fight with you again about this.”
Dracinda slammed her fist on the table, and I wanted to lunge for the pendant as it bounced from the impact of her strike. But I held still and waited. She leaned toward Tristan. “What good are you if you cannot bring me my sister?”
“She died long ago. There is nothing I can do.” He held his hands out in front of him.
“The dead cannot come back,” I said. I wanted to ease the tension in the room. There were some things that no witch could do, nor should they. The dead should remain so. It was part of the circle of life.
She chuckled and shook her head. “Oh, Anastasia, how na?ve you are.”
Anastasia was what Thanatos called me. It unnerved me that she would use it now. If I hadn’t seen things out at sea that seemed beyond this world, I might’ve even been terrified by her power. “It’s just Ana, please. And how am I na?ve? Death is forever.”
“Yes, and love springs eternal.” She narrowed her eyes at Tristan. “Love is a lie, and death is only a suggestion . . . sometimes.”
“Death is never a suggestion,” Tristan growled. “Death cannot be undone. You know this. We have been over this. I cannot take back what has been done.”
“You just don’t want to!” she yelled. When my eyes widened, she growled in my direction and motioned to the necklace on the table. “Take your trinket, Ana the Deathless. I expect your payment when you return.”
“Dracinda, please.” Tristan lowered his voice nearly to a whisper and grabbed her small hands up in his large ones. “We must move forward.”
“I will move forward when you return my sister to me.” She met his eye. “Until then, I curse you and your brethren. You will know love, but it will always be out of reach . . . I will always be out of reach.”
“If that is how you wish it to be.” He gave a deep, defeated sigh and dropped her hands.
Dracinda shot to her feet and marched across the room.
She grabbed a vase from a table and hurled it in Tristan’s direction.
It nearly smacked into his face as it soared at him and smashed into the wall, raining down old water and dead flowers.
She spat on the floor in his direction, then stomped from the room. I could only sit there with wide eyes.
Tristan wiped stray drops of water from his face. “I wish you luck on your voyage, Ana, and may you never know this kind of strife.”
“I wish you peace as well.” I didn’t know what else to say or how to comfort him in what was so obviously a lovers’ spat. I grabbed up the pendant, and it vibrated with power.
He rose to his feet and hesitated there for a moment, as if he was considering whether to say more, then he seemed to decide. “You can trust Thanatos.”
Before I could ask another question, he too stormed from the room, leaving me there alone . . . with way too many questions and very few answers.