Undertow (Whyborne & Griffin #8.5)(21)
Cold crept up my spine. How frightening must it have been, to be so alone on the vast ocean, certain they were being hunted.
“Men began to vanish,” Oliver went on remorselessly. “Snatched off the deck in the hours of darkness, with no trace of them remaining. Father and Captain Parkhurst did their best to keep the men from mutiny. But they were half-crazed with fear, and some of them took a whaleboat at gunpoint. The captain had no choice but to let them go. The ketoi swarmed the boat within sight of the ship and dragged every soul into the sea.”
“Oh no,” I whispered.
“The diary ends there. Or almost there. There’s a single entry more, undated, that merely says God help us all.” Oliver shook his head slowly. “You can imagine what went through my mind when I read that. I wanted to tell you—to tell everyone—that our fathers hadn’t died from some act of God or nature. They were murdered by fiends from the very depths of hell. But if I had tried, everyone would have thought Father mad, his journal either the ravings of a lunatic or some sort of forgery on my part.”
Oliver leaned forward, intent on me. “So now you know the truth. These creatures have your father’s blood on their hands. And you understand why, for the good of humanity, we must wipe their filthy kind from our globe.”
Chapter 8
I sat very still, painfully aware of my heartbeat. I’d always believed Papa a victim of the sea—of chance. A rogue wave, or a storm, or a crushing floe of ice drifting down from the pole had wrecked the Bedlam. There was no one to blame beyond providence or ill fortune.
But that hadn’t been the case at all. He’d died in terror, probably in pain, not at the hand of blind chance but at that of the ketoi. By creatures that looked like Persephone.
I heard again the crack of the bullet, saw the bright splash of Persephone’s blood on the sidewalk.
“I understand this is a shock to you,” Oliver said, and his voice surprised me with its gentleness. “It was to me as well. At first, I wondered if it could even be true. Or if Father’s diary merely chronicled his own descent into madness.” He swallowed thickly. “I regret ever doubting him, but at the time I had to be sure. So I left New Bedford and sought the truth. It took some time, but I did find it in the end. I came across men and women who knew things beyond the normal realms of human existence. Who showed me how to call upon a power most don’t imagine even exists.”
He spoke a word I’d heard from Persephone’s lips, and the candle on the table burst into flame.
“Our sorcerous friend,” Joanna had said last night. She’d referred to Oliver.
“Don’t be afraid,” Oliver said, putting his hand on mine once again. “Magic is real, but I’ve vowed only to use it for the good of all humanity. I’m with an…an organization, one might say, that includes Mr. and Miss Ayers. We’re fighting to save our very species.” His fingers tightened around my wrist. “And you do see the ketoi are monsters, don’t you? Whatever you might have thought before?”
I took a deep, trembling breath. I could remember my first reaction to seeing the ketoi, all too well. The night of the Hallowe’en tours, when they’d swarmed through the open doors of the museum, bringing with them the scent of the sea.
I’d been utterly terrified. Nothing I’d experienced in Widdershins had begun to prepare me for the sight of such inhuman things. They’d been menacing, terrible, intent on taking us hostage. Probably on killing us. I’d clung to Dr. Gerritson’s arm, certain we were all going to die.
Then the doors burst open, and Dr. Whyborne walked in, Persephone at his side. They’d saved us. Persephone had cut off the head of the old chieftess, held it up by its tentacle hair, and ordered the ketoi to leave. It had been bloody and barbaric, and I should have run screaming when I saw her next in the house where Dr. Whyborne rented a room from Mr. Flaherty.
But I didn’t.
“Oliver,” I said raggedly, “I know they’re frightening. I do. But please, listen to me. Papa made a terrible, tragic mistake. The ketoi of the Bering Sea compounded it, punishing everyone aboard the ship. But these ketoi had nothing to do with it. They don’t deserve to die because some ketoi on the other side of the world lashed out in revenge. You’re punishing innocents for a crime they didn’t commit.”
“Innocents?” He laughed raggedly. “My dear, sweet, na?ve Maggie. I’ve spent years searching for every report of mysteriously vanished ships. I know about the derelicts found off the coast here a mere two years ago. These creatures are just as murderous, just as guilty, as their kin.”
I pressed my lips together. How could I convince him, when I didn’t have all the facts myself? I knew the old chieftess and Stanford Whyborne had banded together, seeking to rule the land and the sea. But as for the rest of it, Dr. Whyborne didn’t confide such things in me. No one did.
I was only a secretary, after all.
But I did know Dr. Whyborne wasn’t evil or cruel, no matter what blood ran in his veins. I knew that Persephone had saved my life, that she cared about me. That she would never hurt anyone who didn’t threaten her first. I knew Irene loved small animals, that she laughed at herself as much as anyone else, that she had been my friend even if she hadn’t told me why she’d moved into the boarding house with me.