13 – Secrets in the Blood
“Sorry, mate, but Captain Lemon don’t want folks nosing around the body. Not ‘til he has a chance to speak to the missus about sending it into the sea.” The crewman standing before the door was burly and, despite the chilly sea air, had a sheen of oily sweat on his face. His shirt looked like it had given up trying to hold itself together a few voyages ago, but somehow, it still contained about half of the fellow’s thick, fur-like chest hair.
Ward gestured to the closed door behind the sailor. “I’ll just need a few minutes with the body, and I already have the captain’s approval.”
Haley nodded, stepping up beside Ward. “He’s telling the truth! Weren’t you on the deck when the captain offered to pay us to find the killer?”
The crewman, sitting atop a large, iron-strapped barrel, shrugged. “I don’t know about all that, but the captain told me clear as day, ‘Greg, don’t let no one mess with that body.’ Seems pretty straight to me.”
Grace, who’d rejoined the duo after they left Lisa’s cabin, spoke up from behind Ward and Haley, “Just threaten him, Ward! He’s not going to stand up to a sorcerer.”
Ward sighed, then leaned forward, looking into the man’s eyes. The fellow fidgeted, looking down at first, but when Ward kept staring, he reluctantly made eye contact. “Just open the door.”
“Aye, sir, but the captain’s gonna ‘ear about this.”
Haley brushed past him, twisting the handle on the storage room door. “Good! He should hear about the work we’re putting in while everyone else sleeps.” The metal hinges squealed as she pushed the door wide, and Ward followed her.
As he pushed the door closed, he looked at the sailor and growled, “You should keep people out; there will be some harsh magic in the air for a while.” Ward closed the metal hatch with a decisive thunk as the fellow's eyes widened.
“That’ll keep prying eyes away, I’d think.” Grace chuckled, slapping him on the shoulder.
Haley approached the canvas-wrapped body, which lay atop a long wooden crate. “Oof! Such a smell already?”
Ward nodded, moving closer. “It’s the blood. That canvas is soaked with it. I hate to do this, but I think we better unwrap him; I don’t want the spell to think the target is that old sheet of canvas.” The storage space was cramped, and Ward spared a thought to congratulate himself for preparing the spell before leaving their cabin—he’d hate to try to perform his meditative “dance” in the tiny space. Haley began to tug at the stained canvas, but Ward gently pushed her aside. “I got it.”
“I can—”
“Let him do it, Haley,” Grace interrupted, “He’s used to this sort of thing.”
“Well,” Haley wrinkled her nose, “if you insist.” She moved to the side, standing atop another wooden crate to make more room for Ward.
Ward smiled, then, breathing shallowly through his mouth, unraveled the sailcloth. It was damp in some areas and stiff and dry in others, and as it unwound, revealing Raymond’s body, the air in the little storage compartment grew thick with the tang of copper. When he had the cloth mostly off the body, and Ward could see Raymond’s face and the mess of his throat, he took a step back and regarded the fellow’s white, bloodless flesh.
Haley took her hand away from her mouth and nose. “He couldn’t have been more than fifty, but that woman, Gerty, seems quite a lot older.”
“Yeah,” Ward grunted. “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Maybe she’s the one with the money.”
“That’s not very romantic, Ward. Maybe they met twenty years ago. Maybe he’d been an aspiring artist, and Gerty took a fancy for him and began supporting his work—”
“What? Are we having a story-telling contest?”
Haley punched him on the shoulder. “You’re the one who started the whole story-telling thing.”
Ward narrowed his eyes and looked at her. “Hmm? Oh! The horses.” He waved a hand to forestall further interruptions while he looked inward at the words for his Reveal Secrets spell. They writhed with shadows, eager to be let free. “Are you ready? Plug your ears.”
Haley nodded, covering her ears and staring at the body. Ward cleared his throat and then let the words out, reveling in the ease of their passage over his new tongue, “Shrovak Gnyrath!”
They may have been smooth on his tongue, but in the confined space of the storage room, they rang like hammer blows on iron. Dust billowed off the rear stacks of boxes, then, as the words echoed hollowly, the single gas lamp dimmed, and thick shadows gathered up from the floor, seeming to seep from the gaps between barrels and crates. With the shadows came ghostly blue-tinted forms that slowly took shape in the darkness.
Ward recognized Raymond right away, but rather than standing by the railing where he’d been killed, the phantom sat at a desk, staring at a wispy, ethereal book. Grace nudged him. “Hurry, Ward! Look at the ledger so I can remember what it says!”
“Ah, yeah.” Ward stepped forward, peering over the phantom’s shoulder at the page. At first, he thought it was some sort of accounting document, but then he saw the left column held a list of feminine-sounding names: Lirael Syne, Ansha Corren, Melina Vars, Yara Dreth, Elspeth Grinley, and so on. When Ward saw the other columns—origin, glories, buyer—his stomach sank. It was an accounting document, but a horrific one.
“He was selling women,” Grace said immediately.
“I mean…” Ward frowned, looking at the column of buyers. They were all code names or nicknames; he couldn’t be sure. They were names like “Bronze Tree,” “Iron Sun,” and “Serpent’s Eye.”
“It surely looks like it to me,” Haley said, and Ward realized she’d moved around to the other side of the phantom version of Raymond.
“All we know is he has a ledger with women’s names…” Ward trailed off as the phantom began to scrawl a new line at the bottom of the ledger page: Josina Fenn – Applegrass – 680 – Silver Hawk.
As if from the bottom of a well, the phantom’s voice chuckled and muttered, “A pretty penny for slothful apple-picking wench.”
“The bastard!” Grace hissed and tried to slap the phantom’s face, but her hand simply passed through it, scattering blue-tinged mist. As if her outburst had been the catalyst for their dispersal, the ghostly forms began to melt away, first Raymond, then his desk and ledger. A moment later, the room was bright again, and the shadows were back where they belonged in the crevices between the storage room’s contents.
“Well,” Ward sighed, “we’re no closer to the murderer.”
“Who cares?” Grace cried. “Let him rot and good riddance! Whoever killed him deserves a reward!”
“I agree with Grace.” Haley put a hand on Ward’s shoulder. “I believe this man’s dark, vile past caught up with him.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Ward approached the corpse and, rather than wrap it up in the sail cloth, he began to pat down Raymond’s blood-drenched suit. “I agree; it looks like he was a bad guy, but that doesn’t mean the murderer was a sweetheart. Maybe it was a business partner who was just as dirty. Maybe it was a rival in the, uh, kidnapping business. I’d still like to figure out who it was.”
He wasn’t surprised to find the man’s pockets empty and only pale marks where there might once have been rings on his fingers. As he was inspecting the corpse’s fingernails, though, he caught sight of the edge of a tattoo on Raymond’s left wrist, just under the cuff of his shirt sleeve. Holding up the hand, he nodded to Haley. “Roll his sleeve up a bit.”
“Oh!” Haley leaned close, spying the hint of colorful ink. A few seconds later, they were both staring at the weird design. The tattoo was in the shape of a jagged circle of thorns with a stylized green serpent in the center, its body coiled into a figure eight. The serpent’s head was turned outward, its forked tongue flicking toward a small, white flower blooming at the edge of the circle of thorns.
“Dammit,” Ward growled. “I really need a camera.”
“A what?” Haley looked at him quizzically.
“A, uh, thing that makes a picture of whatever you point it at.”
“A vaporgraph! There’s a man in Tarnish with one!”
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Ward chuckled. “Not really going to help me here, is it?”
“Well,” Haley frowned, “I bet I could sketch that if you want.”
“Really?”
Haley nodded eagerly. “Yes! I made a book of birds and squirrels when I was younger, and when my father showed it to the mayor, he offered me fifty glories for it!”
“Well, you’ll do better than I could. I’m a stick-figure kind of artist.” Ward took a sheet of paper from his pocket—he’d taken a few when they’d stopped by their cabin—and passed it and a fancy, hand-made pencil to Haley. Five minutes later, she’d sketched a nearly perfect replica of the tattoo. Ward folded it and put it into his pocket beside his bloody impression of the killer’s footprint, then commenced wrapping the cold, stiffening body in the sailcloth.
When he finished and turned toward the door, he looked between Grace and Haley, shrugging. “That wasn’t exactly a bust, but I sure wish I could get that spell to show me exactly what I’m looking for.”
Grace shook her head. “I don’t know, Ward. If you saw who killed Raymond, you would have condemned the person immediately. Now that you know what a vile bastard he was, you’ll approach the killer differently.”
“Well, either way, I’m going to figure it out.” Ward looked inward to where the words floated in his mind, and sure enough, he still had the Reveal Secrets spell, though it was faint, and he doubted he’d get more than one more cast out of it. “I’ve got another idea.”
“Oh?” Grace looked at him with an arched eyebrow, but something distracted Ward, preventing him from expounding on his plan. The brass lever holding the storage room hatch closed seemed to be glittering with soft blue light. At first, Ward wondered if his spell was still running its course—maybe another ghostly secret was still playing out, like when he’d cast the spell in his hotel room back in Tarnish. When he peered at the brass, though, putting his body before it, the light faded.
Ward whirled and looked at the body, smiling broadly. “Mana!” Haley and Grace watched him as he approached Raymond’s corpse again, this time extending his right hand into the air above it, his fingers splayed. “I haven’t gathered mana since…” He looked at Haley. “Since Nevkin.”
Haley moved closer, peering at the body as though she could somehow will the mana to reveal itself to her. “Is it difficult?”
“Nah,” Ward smiled at her. “It was hard the first time, but only because I hadn’t yet learned how to still my mind and ground myself. I’m a lot better at it now.”
She scrunched up one eye and asked, “How can you ground yourself on a ship?”
“I don’t think it works that way,” Grace replied. “I think ‘grounding’ is a little more broadly applied to what Ward is doing. He’s feeling his place in the universe along with everything else around him. When he opens himself that way, the mana will flow into his pathways.”
Ward looked at her sideways. “You’re suddenly so knowledgeable, huh?”
“Oh, hush! You know I helped you the first time!”
“Yeah. It’s true.” Ward looked back to the body, then as his hand bathed in the swarm of mana motes, he closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. Almost immediately, he felt his heartbeat and focused on that, slowly expanding his perception outward. He listened to the creak of the ship’s hull as it barreled through the waves and the distant thump-thump-thump of the mighty steam engine vibrating through the metal. Closer at hand, he focused on Haley’s soft, steady breaths.
As his mind grew still and melted into the world around him, he felt the first of the motes tickle his palm like a gentle zap of static electricity. After that, a dozen more shivered into his flesh, and then as cool, tingling streamers ran from his palm, up his arm, and into his chest, he felt a rush as dozens, then hundreds of motes began to flow into him. Ward caught his breath, practically vibrating from the sensation. The mana rushed through him like rivulets of icy, electrically charged water, amplifying his senses to the point of overload.
Dopamine exploded in his mind, sending tingles up and down his spine, and Ward nearly lost consciousness, falling forward and barely catching himself on the edge of the crate where Raymond’s body lay. He felt Haley’s hand on his shoulder and heard her voice, small and distant, “Are you okay, Ward?”
Grace moaned softly and answered for him, “He’s fine, just overwhelmed. His vessel was ready to pull in a lot of mana—more than usual.”
Ward shook his head and pulled himself to his feet. “Damn! That was intense. I, uh, want to see what the hemograph is going to say after that!” He turned to the door and took a step, nearly collapsing again as his rubbery knees didn’t behave the way he’d expected. Haley was there in a flash, propping him up as she put his arm over her shoulders. “Maybe the second half of my investigation can wait until morning,” he grunted. “Let’s get back to our cabin.”
“Agreed. I’m tired, and we’ve been breathing this rank air long enough.” Haley pulled the door open, and the two of them staggered out, past the guard who leaned back into the corner and seemed to hold his breath as though whatever was bothering Ward might be contagious.
Ward glared at him. “Don’t let anyone throw that corpse into the sea until the captain speaks to me.” When the guard didn’t respond, Ward stood up straight, taking his own weight as he turned to stare. “Understand?”
“Yes, sir.” The man nodded rapidly, his fleshy throat, covered in patchy stubble, bouncing up and down with the motion.
Ward nodded, then leaned on Haley again as they made their way back to their cabin. By the time they’d covered half the distance, Ward was feeling fine. The weird jelly-like sensation in his limbs seemed to work itself out, but he kept his arm on Haley’s shoulders for a while, enjoying the camaraderie. Once they were in their room, with the door secured behind them, he plopped down on his bunk and began rummaging through his pack.
Haley sat on her bunk, facing him. “What’s the other half of your investigation going to be, Ward?”
“Well, there are a couple of parts. For starters, we need to interview that old lady—Gerty. Then I want to cast my spell again on the spot where Raymond went over the railing. Hopefully, there aren’t so many secrets about that little walkway, and it’ll show us Raymond getting bumped off.” Ward frowned, thinking, as he pulled the hemograph out of his pack.
Grace had sat down beside Haley, and she stretched out her leg, nudging his knee. “You say that like you have some doubts.”
“Nah, not doubts. I, uh, just want to do it when no one’s around. It wouldn’t be great if the killer saw us uncover his or her identity.”
Haley tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “The best time would be just before dawn, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, probably. I’ll probably wake up. If I do, I’ll slip out and cast—”
“Not without me!” This time, it was Haley’s turn to nudge his knee with her boot. “Someone needs to watch your back while you’re doing your magic.”
Ward chuckled. “Fair enough. I’ll wake you up.” Shaking his head, he laughed softly. “I mean, if I wake up in time. I think I will, but it’s a little iffy considering I’m not exactly following my normal sleep routine.” He had the hemograph on his lap by then, and he flipped it open and gingerly pressed his finger against the spring-loaded brass disc. As it sank, he braced himself for the sting. Even so, he still flinched when the needle jabbed into his flesh.
As the hemograph began to click and the aetherflux glowed and shifted under the glass, Haley and Grace leaned forward to watch. It seemed to take a little longer than usual, but after a minute or so, the glowing aetherflux took on the shapes of letters and numerals:
Previous reading detected – Earlier values displayed in Brackets
Bloodline: Awakened Human – Aetherborn Traces, Lycan Traces, [Unknown] Traces
Accumulated Mana: 1212 [0]
Mana Distribution: Natural – No Allocation Enchantments Detected
Mana Well: Tier 3 – 36% [35%] to Next Tier, Enhanced Regeneration Minor
Mana Sensitivity: Tier 4 – Bloodline Dependent
Mana Pathways: Tier 5 [Tier 2] – Bloodline Dependent, [Unknown] Artifact Influence Detected
Vessel Capacity: Tier 2 – Bloodline Dependent
Vessel Durability: Tier 2 – 60% [59%] to Next Tier, Enhanced Healing – Minor, Enhanced Bone Density - Minor
Vessel Strength: Tier 2 – 46% [45%] to Next Tier
Vessel Speed: Tier 2 – 50% [49%] to Next Tier
Longevity Remaining: 62% [55%] – Tier-Two Depletion Rate (Approximate)
Anima Heart: Tier 1 – Closed, Pathways Detected
Anima: Nil
“You got most of your longevity back!” Grace jabbed her finger on the rating in question, and Ward pushed it aside so he could see what she was pointing at.
When he saw his longevity was just a few percent shy of his pre-Nevkin numbers, he smiled, nodding. “Yeah, I honestly feel pretty damn good, but I’m tired.”
Haley pointed to his “vessel” attributes. “Why are your new values so close to the previous ones?”
Ward indicated his accumulated mana. “I had zero extra mana in my system after…Nevkin. Now, though, I have over twelve hundred—all that mana I got from Raymond. That’ll start feeding into my other attributes. Looks like I got a percentage toward the next tier just walking over here.”
Grace nodded. “We need to find a way to improve your vessel capacity, Ward. You’ll be stuck at tier two for most of those attributes until then.” She looked at Haley, narrowing her eyes in contemplation. Ward knew what she was thinking.
He cleared his throat and lifted the hemograph. “Do you wanna see what it says for you, Haley?”
“I…I’ve never used one.” She looked down, studying her pale hand, and Ward knew what she was thinking. What if it showed her something she didn’t want to know? What if it said something terrible?
“You don’t have—”
“I’ll do it!” Haley held up her pointer finger. "Do I just push it against that brass circle?”
Grace nodded. “That’s right, Haley. Just push it in there so it can get a drop of your blood. It doesn’t hardly hurt.”
Haley looked at Ward, and he nodded. “It always startles me, but it doesn’t hurt much.”
Biting her lower lip in concentration, she slowly depressed the brass disc. Ward heard the needle click, and Haley jerked her finger out. Ward chuckled as she glared from him to Grace and back again. “That hurt!”
“I wasn’t lying, Haley!” Grace leaned toward her earnestly. “Ward has a meatier finger! I bet the needle hit your bone. I’m sorry!”
Haley was rubbing her pointer finger vigorously, but she smiled at Grace, shaking her head. “It’s fine. I’m sure you’re right.”
“Are you two calling my fingers fat?” Ward cocked an eyebrow, but the two women ignored his attempt at humor. Both were intently staring at the hemograph as the aetherflux began to shift and warp, forming into neat rows of letters and numerals:
First reading detected – storing results in cognicrystal for future comparison.
Bloodline: Awakened Human – Infernal Traces, Celestial Echoes – [Unknown] Corruption Detected
Accumulated Mana: 312
Mana Distribution: Natural – No Allocation Enchantments Detected
Mana Well: Tier 1 – 36% to Next Tier, Enhanced Fire Affinity - Minor
Mana Sensitivity: Tier 2 – Bloodline Dependent
Mana Pathways: Tier 2 – Bloodline Dependent, Enhanced Mana Collection - Minor
Vessel Capacity: Tier 2 – Bloodline Dependent
Vessel Durability: Tier 2 – 74% to Next Tier
Vessel Strength: Tier 3 – 55% to Next Tier, [Unknown] Feat or Mutation Detected
Vessel Speed: Tier 2 – 21% to Next Tier
Longevity Remaining: 99% – Tier-Four Depletion Rate (Approximate), [Unknown] Feat or Mutation Detected
Anima Heart: Tier 1 – Closed, Pathways Detected
Anima: Nil
Ward made a low whistle. “That’s…not what I expected.”