The Mariner

“And what then?” Harris snapped. “Follow him all the way until we find the Pope? Let’s face it, you would kill him, I would kill him, probably that timid bugger upstairs would even have a go. This way we get both the Pope and Philip. Barnett’s professional, he’ll see to it, I promise you.”

“He needs to be put on trial.”

Both turned, surprised by his entrance. Heidi looked sympathetic, her own eyes ringed with red. Harris, on the other hand, appeared more embarrassed by the terrible situation than anything else.

“This isn’t like the old days, we can’t formally charge him and send him to the Old Bailey. The only trials we have are for Anomenemies.”

“Who’s to say he isn’t one? He has no past, knowledge he can’t account for, a strange ship manned by wild fucking beasts, sounds a lot like an anomaly to me!”

Heidi turned to McConnell, agony in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, it’s all my fault!”

He didn’t move as she embraced him, holding him close whilst she sobbed.

“He spoke her name last night, I thought that meant he just interfered with her, I didn’t think…” she trailed off, tears pouring down her face. “I thought I had time to deal with it.”

McConnell patted her back, faking comfort he couldn’t genuinely give. “We all missed the signs and she paid the price. So let’s not miss any more.”

Heidi pulled away, wiping her face. “Like what?”

“In all your years of killing Anomenemies, has the world gotten any better?”

“No,” Harris replied, to a faint but impotent protest from Heidi. “Mavis believes there’ll be a tipping point when the old rules of science snap back into place.”

“What do you believe?”

“I’m in the market for new ideas.”

“I’ve seen a part of the world come together. I’ve seen an island reappear that had once drifted beyond the horizon. We’ve been living though the Shattering, chunks of the world vanishing, a shrinking land and growing sea.”

The others nodded, remembering the symptoms if not knowing the cause.

“But I saw some of it draw together. And I think we have a chance, a remote chance, of bringing it back. We need to return to Sighisoara, and all the other settlements you’ve come across.”

“Why, reverend?” Heidi asked, perplexed.

“We’ve forgotten too much, and allowed ourselves to drift for too long. I know how to pull us back from the brink.”

“Whatever your plan is, we’ll have to run it past Mavis.”

“Then let’s get back to the Beagle. But promise me something, you’ll send another ship back here to look for Philip. If he’s alive, I want to see him hanged.”

Harris agreed. “He’ll be dead, but just encase, sure. We will need to return for the men I sent after him anyway. If they haven’t killed him by the time they return, I’ll have him arrested for you.”

“Not for me,” McConnell said with a cold twinkle in his eye. “For the world we will create.”

Grace’s body was sewn up in the cloth they’d used to cover her body. The journey back to the fleet (even further to Sighisoara) would be too long to transport her, so they decided to bury her corpse upon the moors. Standing at the top of the cliffs, looking out at the great expanse of land, McConnell found himself hoping the Mariner would survive out there, just long enough so he could watch him die.

The only ship at their disposal was the Neptune, and as they rowed towards it, the number of their party reduced by six, Harris warned everyone to have their weapons ready.

“He’s on the moors,” McConnell reminded him, not understanding the concern. “He wouldn’t come back to the ship if he thought answers were ahead. It was all he cared about.”

“Not him,” Harris shook his head, loading his shotgun. “His monsters.”

Heidi patted McConnell on the shoulder. “I know she was fond of them, but they have to go.”

“I understand,” he said, feeling a morsel of sympathy for the beasts. “She is dead, and they were always his.”

But aboard the Neptune, the devils couldn’t be found. Where once intrusion had been sharply resisted with growls and gnashing teeth, there was now an eerie silence. And with the devils, so went the ease the ship had sailed before. Instead it performed stubbornly, like a spooked mare. It were as if the magic had died along with Grace.

“Or perhaps its ghosts no longer see the need to haunt,” Heidi suggested. Perhaps there was some truth in this. If there was ever a man who deserved haunting, it was the Mariner.