THE CAT’S MAW

PROLOGUE

THEN

“It’ll be on us ‘fore we have time to pray and pass water!” yelled a voice from high in the rigging.

Lightning crashed in the distance, and a tide of black clouds swallowed the stars behind the ship. The Captain paced the deck. Half his men were starving and threatening mutiny. The other half were spilling their guts over the side, or fouling up the hold below.

The sickness was spreading. The storm was closing in. And Death waited on all sides, laughing in the shadows.

“Then skip the prayer, hold your piss, and dump everything,” he said, gripping the hilt of his dagger.

“Sir,” the Steward said, holding his swollen stomach, and doing his best to stay standing as the boat lurched, “are you sure you want to…?”

“Dump it all,” said the Captain, inching the blade from its silver scabbard. “The cannons. The bags. The liquor. The food that’s turned. Even the rats, if you can catch ‘em. Anything that could slow us down.”

The Steward winced and gagged as the deck dipped, and clutched at the arm of the Captain’s salt-stained coat. “But the haul, sir? What we almost died for? What of the thing that’s cursed us since we left?”

The Captain looked to the cabin door. A bearded priest stood in the shadows, shivering in his ashen robes. The holy man moved to block the door with darting eyes and a considerable girth.

“There’s more to fear than curses, boy,” the Captain hissed, slapping the Steward’s hand away. “Touch that box, and you’ll know. All of you. Go!”

“Yes, sir,” he said, stumbling off towards the bow. “You heard the man – dump it all!”

The Captain turned and gripped the back rail. He watched the lightning dance and slice through the heavens. He saw the darkness creep towards him, like oil spilled across the sky.

I’m in a race with the Devil, he thought. But when we’re light as the whiskers on His face, we’ll see who gets there first.

With fingers full of splinters, he twisted the ring of gold on his left hand. It slid easily across his taut, pale skin, leaving smears of brown and red. Dirt and blood.

It won’t be for nothing. I promise. To the edge of the Earth, the end of Time, and whatever stands between. We will raise a glass again in the New World, and laugh in its face. Together.

He looked up at the stars as the storm closed in and saw them extinguished, one-by-one, until just two remained. They glimmered and shone through gaps in the clouds like two great eyes in the darkness, burning on a demon’s face that chased him across the sea.

Rest now, my love. For soon, you shall sleep no more.

With a gust of wind the eyes blinked out, shut tight in the storm. Far below, a lone man tilted back his head, and howled at the darkness.