28 April 1875,
Wednesday
This morning we awoke to clear sailing. Captain Sparrow was not
yet awake, so we availed ourselves of the opportunity to take one last
look at his belongings prior to returning them to their rightful
owner. Mrs Frazer pointed out some Chinese characters on the
ancient map. Translated literally, they mean: Earth, Remember,
and Forever. Mr Frazer and I had a long discussion as to the
precise translation because the words chosen make for an odd
construction. We finally settled on “The Earth Remembers,” but
further consultations with an expert may be of use– it may be an
idiomatic phrase that has fallen out of current use.
Mrs Cuthbert was struck by a vision of Mother Earth drawing the map and
giving it to someone a very, very long time ago. Her visions are
usually quite helpful, but it is puzzling as to why an Earth Mother
would need to draw a map. Presumably she knows her own contours well
enough.
When Captain Sparrow awoke, he was in a surprisingly good mood for
someone who had been well on his way to a drunken stupor last
night. We confirmed our bargain, discovering in the process that
he has an exacting memory for details. We returned his personal
possessions. He spent some time conferring with Sir Cosmo over
our current position before declaring that it would be a least two days
before we would reach the vortex.
Captain Sparrow found a deck chair and made himself comfortable.
Lady Cowperthwaite, Mrs Frazer, Wilhelmina, and I took turns spending
time with him. He has a near inexhaustible fund of wild
stories. He also has a knack of not answering any direct question
put to him. I cannot tell if it is because he normally thinks in
circles or because he is deviously minded.
In addition to listening to his stories, and, in my case, sleeping
through some of them, the ladies determined to make up some clothes for
him. Most of his were destroyed when the rocket kite crashed and
set him alight. He, himself, is unhurt but what remained of his
clothes could hardly be called decent– even by pirate standards.
I am working on a shirt, I have rather a store of fancy fabrics I
bought while we were in port. I feel quite certain that one of
the bolder prints would suit him quite well, in addition to appealing
to his vanity. Mrs Frazer, one the best we have with a needle and
thread, has agreed to make up some pants of sailcloth. Lady
Cowperthwaite conspired with Mrs Wooster to filch one of the
Lieutenant's waistcoats. Stockings and other Necessities will
have to come out of our shared stores. Fortunately, many of us
are inclined to pack extras against just such a need.
30 April 1875, Friday
I spent the day finishing the shirt for Captain Sparrow. I am
still sleeping a great
deal
which makes it difficult to get much of use accomplished. I have
hopes
that this exhaustion will lift soon, if my Condition follows the
pattern set by Octavia.
1 May 1875, Saturday
We awoke to quite a fright this morning. Many of the
League were having one of those odd shared dreams we sometimes
experience. We were in a church, attending the wedding of
Lieutenant
and Mrs Wooster’s son. Wilhelmina was sitting two pews back from
me.
I turned to check on her and saw the Dragon Vee sitting next to
her. I
made my way to where he was sitting. In the nature of dreams, the
crowd parted and I reached him easily. I was just pointing out
that he
had not been invited, when I heard Mrs Cuthbert’s voice stating the
same thing. The next thing I knew, George had his hands around
the
Dragon’s neck. I picked up his feet and we were carrying him out
of
the church when Mr O’Flaherty joined us. The Dragon started
scratching
at George, leaving deep welts in George’s arms. I dropped his
feet and
struck him with my parasol, at the same moment Mr O’Flaherty struck
with his fist. The Dragon exploded, spraying blood and gore
everywhere
and I awoke to the sounds of fighting in Wilhelmina’s room. I
threw on
a robe and ran towards the altercation.
I collided with Captain Sparrow in the corridor. He said that we
had
arrived at the rift and that everyone should be woken up so we could
prepare for the trip through.
I stumbled past him to find Mrs Frazer, and George in Wilhelmina’s
stateroom. Wilhelmina was trying to apply first aid to scratches
on
George’s arms. Her katar was on the floor and the protective ward
I
had given her to wear had been broken. George gabbled something
about
the Dragon being on the ship being his fault, as he had pulled Vee out
of the dream. Apparently, the Dragon vanished in an explosion of
confetti about the time Mr O’Flaherty and I hit him in the dream.
George and Wilhelmina had been fighting the real thing, however.
There
were deep scratches on George’s arms and Wilhelmina’s katar was covered
in blood. She took care to wipe the blood onto a handkerchief
against
later need. Various members of the League checked in on the scene
of
the disturbance. I told Mrs Frazer of Captain Sparrow’s
news. She
went to spread the news and I stayed with Wilhelmina and helped her
finish bandaging George, somewhat over his protests.
Transit through the vortex was anticlimactic after the morning’s
excitement. I stayed below with Mrs Frazer and the children, so
did
not see much. We did have an uncomfortable moment when the ship
seemed
to drop out from under us, as if we had entered a sudden storm.
All
four of the children were substantially disappointed that the wild ride
didn’t last longer.
We came with in sight of the ‘Island of Souls’ today. Sir Cosmo
means to sail clockwise around the mountain (north and south losing
their usual meaning in these strange waters) to look for the HMS Arabis and Lieutenant Pellew.
I spent the day making a
new warding charm for Wilhelmina.
2 May 1875, Sunday
Yesterday was nothing but trouble and vexation!
After sighting the Colossus marked on Sir Cosmo’s
copy of Lieutenant Pellew’s maps, we continued around the island to a
marked harbour. The harbour was occupied by the Skylark, the vessel assigned to Sir
Phillip.
Sir Cosmo asked Mrs Fraser and Wilhelmina to accompany him to the Skylark, leaving Sir Spencer and
Lady Cowperthwaite
(and the rest of us) to come to the rescue if things should go
awry. I was able to tell Sir Cosmo that Major Powell was with a
party that was established on the island itself.
Lady Cowperthwaite’s ordered to the rest of us aboard the Selene to use the next hour to
develop a plan for
taking the Skylark.
While we were
waiting, planning, and fretting, a bird few to the Selene from the island. It
bore the
distinctive stamp of one of Major Powell’s enspelled messenger
birds. The message started without preamble and seemed more a
record of events than anything else.
In the message, I could see Sir Phillip talking to Major Powell.
He had sighted our arrival and was wondering how we had arrived so
quickly. He made several attempts to talk Major Powell into
using magik to pre-emptively subdue us. Major Powell talked him
out of it. He mentioned the name of one of the other magik
users with their expedition, a Mrs Domokos. I do not know how
much of what Major Powell said was for my benefit, but he did point out
that Mrs Cuthbert is one of the most powerful psychics alive today and
that in addition to run-of-the-mill witches like myself, we count
several among our number who have an unpredictable relationship with
things magikal. Regardless of who his real audience was, Major
Powell did seem to talk Sir Phillip out of attacking us immediately.
Sir Cosmo returned not long after the bird had flown away, its mission
completed. He had little difficultly with the captain of the Skylark who was now under his
command. It
transpired that both Sir Cosmo and Sir Spencer had been made Deputy
Commissioners for Her Majesties Military Affairs. They are under
Sir Miles’ orders to find Lieutenant Pellew, discover what he has
learned about the rebellions being fomented in the South China Sea and
return man and information to Sir Miles as quickly as possible.
I reported the information I had received from Major Powell to Sir
Cosmo. He had already determined to visit the island and speak to
Sir Phillip. Given Sir Phillip’s stated desire to strike first,
Sir Cosmo decided to take most of the league with him to the
island. We left the children in care of Violet and Daru, not
wanting them to spend any more time in Sir Phillip’s company than was
absolutely necessary.
We arrived to find a full scientific expedition in progress. The
lead scientist was the Reverend Galahad Parslo-Parslo, another
schoolmate of Lieutenant Wooster, and greeted by the sobriquet, “Knight
Night.” For all that he seems a fool, the Reverend knows
something of what he is doing. They have been excavating a ruin
that includes linguistic fragments that point to a use of a variant of
Cuneiform which is rather far from its presumed home.
Sir Cosmo handed his orders over to Sir Phillip and I was greatly
entertained in watching a vein in Sir Phillip’s head begin to throb and
an unsightly choler begin to spread up from his neck. Sir Cosmo’s
orders outweighed Sir Phillip’s authority and he was quite vexed that
we were taking ‘his’ ship to help in the search for the HMS
Arabis.
Sir Cosmo asked that Mrs Voach be brought to meet with us. She
and Wilhelmina were soon reunited, though she seemed quite puzzled that
Wilhelmina would have cared enough to come looking for her. The
two of them, with League escorts, went to take tea in Mrs Voach’s tent
while Sir Cosmo finished his business with Sir Phillip.
I had quite an interesting discussion with the Reverend Parslo-Parslo –
though I could not spare as much attention to his findings as I would
have liked– something about being in the same tent, even if it was a
large expedition tent, with Sir Phillip made me anxious.
In the deluge of strange things that have occurred, I almost forgot one
of the odder items. All of our family ghosts: Sgt Frazer, Mr
MacGreggor, and my own Great-Aunt Hethelyn became embodied when they
arrived at the island. They are still dead, but they have
physical bodies none-the-less.
The party was breaking up. Sir Phillip seemingly willing to admit
that he didn’t really need the Skylark
while he was
busy with his scientific investigations, and given that we would be
back in a little as a week after circumnavigating the island in our
search for the Arabis.
I had gone out to look
for Wilhelmina and become absorbed in helping her mother pack when I
heard a terrible noise coming from the forest beyond the ruins. I
dashed out of the tent, only to see the body of my husband fly far
overhead. He was able to shout “Raise power!” before being flung
out of range of speech.
I did not hear him land. Mrs Cuthbert and Major Powell joined me
in hastily setting up a ritual to raise power to deal with some unknown
force strong enough to send my formidable husband flying. We
could hear noises in the forest, and could see whole trees being flung
about as if they were mere kindling. Through the chanting, I
could hear a deep, alien, voice calling out that he required the
Celestial Maiden and cursing like a sailor at whoever was impeding
him. Behind us, at the scientific camp, there was a near
panic as members of the expedition realized that something terrible was
wrong.
I heard Lieutenant Wooster and Mrs Frazer organizing an evacuation
using the steam launches we had used to come ashore. All was
shouting and chaos. The three of us tried to shut it all
out as power coalesced around us. My first thought was to try to
put our Adversary to sleep and give us time to think. I cast the
spell and felt it slam into some sort of barrier– and dissipate to no
effect. It was going to take more power to get through to the
creature. Major Powell suggested that a direct attack might not
work. I tried to think of something that would slow the creature
down without hurting our friends, most of whom had joined the battle in
the forest. We raised power once more and I cast my shaping
elements spell and created a mud-pit all around the creature. We
heard him howl and begin to make assorted squelching noises and took
the opportunity to move our base of operations closer to the
battle. It had worked even better than I had hoped!
The creature was up to his eyeballs in mud!
All was not well. The creature was struggling to get free and it
seemed that all of our attacks so far had been mere
distractions. I learned later that Wilhelmina had smashed
glue-pot into the eyeholes of the being’s helmet and Mrs Wooster had
made and improvised missile of a hideous pot she had been trying to get
rid of ever since her god-father-in-law gifted it to her back in Port
Victoria and the torn portion of Wilhelmina’s skirt that had come off
when Wilhelmina had headed into the forest to tackle the creature
single-handedly. The fabric was still stuck to the helmet,
continuing to obscure our Adversary’s vision.
My husband entered the clearing, carrying the body of Sir Cosmo.
Lady Cowperthwaite ran to him and became very still. Ravvi
brought Sir Cosmo over to us and it was clear that Sir Cosmo was not
breathing. Mrs Cuthbert laid hands on him– summoning him
back from death while Major Powell and I poured all the power we could
raise into her efforts. I heard Lady Cowperthwaite shouting in
the voice of Kali and heard bone crack. The sound of our
Adversary screaming in pain nearly deafened all of us.
I am not certain what Lady Cowperthwaite did to the being, but it had
disappeared under the earth and she was back at Sir Comso’s side with
Galen wrapped around her legs by the time Mrs Cuthbert had finished her
work healing my husband and Mr O’Flaherty, who were both gravely
injured.
To see Lady Cowperthwaite bent over Sir Cosmo’s prostrate form, tears
spilling from her eyes, and the flash of Kali’s aura still around her
sent a chill into my bones. Galen sat near his father’s head and
stroked his hair.
Apparently Galen, concerned that his mother had left her gun behind on
the boat, convinced the other children made a break for it in one of
steam launches. Though I doubt the other children needed
much ‘convincing.’ Mrs Frazer had managed to intercept them and
had tried holding them in the launch on the beach, but Galen bolted for
his mother with Caroline trying to follow. Mrs Frazer now
occupied with holding her squirming daughter while keeping Robert and
Octavia in place, could not also chase after Galen. The Inspector
offered to chase down Galen and brought the gun along so there would be
no further excuses from the other three for action on their part.
I did not see what occurred back at the beach, but heard about it from
a very vexed Ruth later. Though I could not tell if she was more
furious at our assorted offspring or at Inspector MacGreggor for his
comments about her being unable to control the children.
Meanwhile, we could tell the being was still alive and it seemed to be
tunnelling under the earth, toward the ruins. Unsure of what to
do, I rejoined Major Powell and we began to raise power once more.
The being burst up from the ground and was looming over us. It’s
chest glowed with a strange light. Mrs Cuthbert called out that
it was an incarnation of the Fist of Shiva– though knowing what it was
gave me no idea as to how to stop it. Shiva danced the universe
into creation– what could we do against such an immensely powerful
being?
Then the creature started cursing and using extremely foul
language. He was asking us why we were trying to stop him.
He claimed that he already had the ‘star’ and now he needed the Maiden
to claim the sword. Then he shook his fists at us in a way that
took me back over five years. Of all the horrible things to
encounter, this fist of Shiva incarnate, this impossibly powerful
being, was, at his core, my ex-husband Captain William Robert
Forrester, of the 25th Light Dragoons, missing, presumed dead at the
ambush at Kanish Pass.
The words of one of the prophecies bloomed in mind:
The star of destruction
fallen to the Valley of Tears,
A traveller is bathed in the blood of
armies,
A faithless soldier trades eternity
for power,
Destruction in his chest where a
heart once beat,
Seeking destiny on the island of
souls.
And, holding our power in abeyance, I said his name.
He looked at me and said in a tone I had come to dread after ten years
of marriage, “I should have know it would be you.”
We had a rather unsightly argument where he, as usual, refused to yield
to reason. I heard Lady Cowperthwaite begin to call on Kali and
turned to throw our power behind her request, when Major Powell stopped
me. “I know what to do,” he said.
I trusted him and poured all that we had gathered into his
keeping. He shouted a spell in Latin, it was more of command
really and the basic substance was “Return Home!”
The spell struck my ex-husband, the fist of Shiva, in the chest, where
the glowing artefact I had noticed earlier lay. The force of the
spell threw William into the air and he vanished into the sky.
Major Powell brushed off his hands and explained that he had aimed the
spell at the ‘star’ in William’s chest and had sent it back where it
had come from. With any luck, William was now in the heavens.
We all took a deep breath, and then the arguing started. I
was feeling rather shaky. The combination of the near death of my
beloved spouse and the unexpected resurrection of my rude, boorish,
adulterous, ex-husband had disturbed me greatly.
I offered to ferry the children back to the boat, but Mrs Frazer did
not want to take them back any sooner than necessary, as Lieutenant
Wooster had succeed in evacuating Sir Phillip and Mrs Domokos to the Selene. Hearing that news,
Mrs Wooster and I
offered to go back to the ship and keep an eye on Sir Philip. I
passed a gaggle of military men under Lieutenant Lochsley’s command on
my way to the boats. I indicated that the fight was over and he
was quite disappointed.
On the short ride back to the Selene,
Mrs Wooster
confessed that she has not yet told her husband that she is
expecting. In addition, Mrs Cuthbert has informed her that she is
carrying twins. I suggested she get advice from Mrs Frazer, who
has experienced that mode of childbirth and that she tell her husband
as soon as possible. I’m afraid I was still too tired and shaken
to be a very good friend. Sir Phillip and Mrs Domokos were behaving
themselves when we arrived
aboard. It was not long before all of the League convened on the Selene to debrief.
Sir Cosmo, Mr O’Flaherty, and my husband should have been resting but
instead there was a long argument about their fitness to partake in any
ventures on the morrow. We did all agree that since William had
indicated that he knew where the Moonblade was, and was after the
Maiden to retrieve it for him, it was worth following his tracks and
see if we could take custody of it. However, both Sir Cosmo and
Mr O’Flaherty were adamant that they be included in the venture,
regardless of the fact that Mrs Cuthbert had pulled them back from the
brink of death once already. My husband was silent on the matter,
however, I suspected that where ever Cosmo went, so would he go.
Later that evening, after full dark had fallen, I heard Lady
Cowperthwaite’s voice up by the prow of boat. I also heard the
distinctive bass rumble of Mr O’Flaherty, who was supposed to be
resting in his cabin. I walked up to the front of the ship, to
find that Lady Cowperthwaite had caught her husband, Mr O’Flaherty, and
my husband trying to make a break for the island. They wanted to
do a bit of scouting.
Mr O’Flaherty was unwilling to listen to sense and dove into the water
and began to swim for shore. I cast a witchlight over the water
and we spotted Sir Spencer in a rowboat nearby. Apparently he had
been in on the scheme as well. I think it was at that point when
I asked if this was actually the island of “Make Men Stupid”.
Needless to say, I was exasperated. We had been through this
exact thing with the children earlier today– to have to go though it
again with our injured spouses and friends was too much to take.
Perhaps if I had broken down in tears the men would have taken pity on
me and been less obstinate, but that is not my way. When I am
frightened, I get angry, and when I get angry I start yelling.
Fortunately for all of us, Mr O’Flaherty made it safely to the beach,
only to pass out from exhaustion once there. Mr Frazer and Sir
Spencer retrieved him and put him in dry clothes and then into his
bed. Sir Cosmo and Ravvi both fell asleep while we were waiting
for Mr O’Flaherty’s return.
Lady Cowperthwaite and I both managed to get our husbands to bed.
Ravvi does not usually sleep, ever since his first return from the dead
he has only needed to meditate to recover for the next days work.
It worried me when we were first married, but now it worried me even
more to see him completely asleep in our bed. I crawled in next
to him, leaving George to guard the corridor.
I woke to hear someone calling George’s name. For the second time
in recent memory, I stumbled out of my room wrapping my dressing gown
around me as I went.
George was still in the corridor, but he seemed woozy and unable to
focus. He said something about being poisoned, and my first
thought was that the scratches that Vee had inflicted on him had been
poisoned after all. However, Mrs Frazer caught the scent of
something in the air. I raised the alarm and Mrs Frazer worked to
evacuate everyone topside while I helped George out into the fresh air.
It did not take us long to discover that Sir Phillip and Mrs Domokos
had taken one of the steam launches and Mrs Voach and headed into the
jungle in search of the Moonblade.
Major Powell was quite irritated. I was glad to see that he was
still with us. He has earned my grudging admiration and respect
and I would have been very disappointed if had he been among the
missing.
We were able to determine that Mrs Voach did not go willingly and after
several rounds of arguing while in the midst of packing for the
expedition, Mr O’Flaherty insisted on coming with us. Sir Cosmo
argued long enough to get Lady Cowperthwaite to admit that the could
come if he insisted, but then offered to stay with the ships.
My husband looked torn. Having his charges split up does not make
his job easy, however, he elected to stay with Sir Cosmo. I am
glad of that but also worried at what they might get up to with three
ships at their disposal. Sir Spencer was placed in charge of our
expedition. Major Powell and Captain Sparrow opted to join
us as well.
We spent the morning following the trail left by the Fist of Shiva when
he had battered his way though the jungle. Around noon we noticed
we were being followed. A wagon drawn by two white horses was
catching up with us.
Now we are sitting around a clearing with the latest surprise.
Mrs Voach’s husband, owner of Voach’s hygienic dairy, established, is a
being of immense, controlled, power. He and his dairy wagon
somehow arrived on the island all the way from Australia.
I am not sure what to make of this development....
Sir Spencer has given us the sign to resume. I must put this
record away for now. I cannot shake the feeling that I have
not seem the last of my ex-husband, in addition to whatever might be
waiting for us around the next bend.
Proceed to More than I
could take in
Return to Miss Whitnell's Diary Index
Contents this page copyright 2007 by Kristin Fontaine. All Rights Reserved.