Alphas and Airships by Melanie Karsak

Author:Melanie Karsak [Karsak, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clockpunk Press
Published: 2018-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13: North Ronaldsay

As soon as the sun had risen, Harper and I headed to the port where we found the old couple already waiting. With less than a dozen words spoken between us, we set sail for North Ronaldsay.

I eyed the old couple carefully. In truth, I knew little of Scottish folklore. These two were a curious pair. My palms didn’t itch when I was around them, but still, there was more to them than met the eye.

“What is it?” Harper asked as she sat down alongside me.

“Probably nothing. Just wondering about them,” I said, passing a glance at the couple.

“They are curious. The man’s tattoos… The symbols are old. Celtic. Possibly druidic.”

“But I thought the druids were hanging around Stonehenge.”

“They aren’t always hanging around Stonehenge. Have you ever been there? There’s nothing there but the stones, some mounds, and a big, windy field. I haven’t seen those symbols before except on standing stones.”

I pulled off my eyepatch and looked at the old woman. There was a shimmer around her shape, a swirl of silver light. And around the old man, a shine of green and gold. Druids. Well, that was a new one for me.

I turned and looked at Harper.

She stared at me, her eyes on my mangled face. She swallowed a gasp.

“Yeah, bloody awful, isn’t it?” I said, touching the still-tender skin.

“I didn’t know… Your eye. It’s a mooneye.”

I nodded. “Pretty, isn’t it?”

Harper gave me a sympathetic smile. “Can you see at all?”

“Silhouettes.”

“I’m sorry.”

I shrugged then pulled my eyepatch back on. “It’s all right. He went after my grand-mère. Couldn’t let that happen. I got the better of him in the end. Bloody werewolf.”

To my surprise, the man and woman chuckled, but neither said anything to me. Working deftly, they guided the ship across the dark blue waves and into port at the northernmost Orcadian island.

Once the ship was tied up, Harper debarked, and I went to the couple. “Thank you,” I said, handing them payment.

The woman gently pushed my hand back. “Go chase the devils out of my country, Clemeny Louvel.”

“I… How did you…”

She chuckled. “Blood knows blood. Be safe.”

I looked from her to the old man. He touched his fingertips to his forehead.

“Thank you,” I told them.

The woman nodded.

Once I debarked, the pair unlashed the ship then set sail once more, guiding the vessel back out to sea.

I headed down the dock and joined Harper. What did she mean, blood knows blood? What kind of blood? Was she talking about the druids? What did I have to do with the druids?

Frowning, I joined Harper who waited for me at the end of the pier.

“Okay, now what?” she asked.

“Well, first, how big is North Ronaldsay?”

“Oh, a couple miles around, I suppose.”

“Population?”

“Less than one hundred, maybe?”

I nodded. “Won’t take long then.”

“Long to do what?”

“To find out if there is anything weird happening here.”

“Aside from the mysterious ship Boudicca?” Harper asked, looking back out to sea.

“Yeah, aside from that.”

“All right. Let’s go chat with the locals,” Harper said then shifted her journeyman’s satchel, adjusting her belt so her pistol was readily at hand.

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