Vixie mimicked Aerity’s quiet footing around the side of the building. When they got to a pile of cut wood, Aerity stopped.
Why was there a neat pile of wood on this barren island?
Aerity’s heart picked up speed. She wasn’t afraid of traveling persons, like vagabonds or gypsies—their own mother hadbeen one for sixteen years—but what if outlawed criminals had taken up residence here? They needed to find their guard and Wyneth and get out of there. They could send a group of soldiers out to check the premises later. Aerity pressed a finger to her lips and Vixie nodded, frowning down at the woodpile, then peering around suspiciously. The island was so quiet. Whoever had been there must have ventured away.
As they turned the corner to the side of the building, the scents of decay became so strong that both girls covered their mouths and noses. They approached an open doorway. Aerity pressed a hand back at Vixie to keep her sister there, while she slowly peeked into the dim room, heart hammering.
Tables lined the room, laden with . . . animals? Or, rather, animal parts. Aerity was appalled, a sickening feeling traveling through her. What was going on here? She saw no people, but one of the animals, something that looked like a crocodile’s head attached to a bear’s body, actually looked to be breathing, though it lay very still.
Aerity whipped her head back around and stood against the wall outside the door, fighting for breaths. A sense of danger blanketed her. When Vixie poked her arm, Aerity shook her head and hissed through her teeth. “We have to find Wyn and get out of here! Right now!”
She took Vixie’s hand, trying to creep quickly past the gruesome room toward the corner that would take them to the back of the building. Vixie slowed to a stop, peering in with wide eyes. In a panic, Aerity yanked her sister with toomuch force. Vixie stumbled and cried out quietly as she fell hard into debris of cut stones and warped metal.
“Vixie!” Aerity bent over and pulled her sister back by the waist, helping her sit in the dirt. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to make you . . .” She lost her voice when she saw the gash down Vixie’s shin and the blood that seeped down to her feet. Aerity’s first flustered thought was to run for Mrs. Rathbrook.Stupid. They were on an island, alone!
“Perhaps if we roll your trousers down.” Aerity pulled the tight material around her sister’s knee, but as she unrolled it and the fabric touched the wound, Vixie shook her head and pushed her hands away.
“No, please!”
“It could help hinder the blood flow.”
“Ithurts.”
“Okay.” Aerity chewed her lip. “Do you think you can swim?”
“I can try.” She winced sharply when she attempted to stand.
“Maybe you should stay here while I go back for help.”
Vixie whimpered and glanced back at the doorway behind her. “I don’t want to stay here. What’s going on in that room?”
“I don’t know,” Aerity admitted. “We have to keep quiet until we find out. Let’s get you up.” Her sister whimpered as Aerity helped her to her feet, keeping an arm around her waist. “We’ll find Wyneth and get out of here.”
They hobbled forward, Vixie bending her injured leg to keep weight off it. When they neared the corner to the rear of the building, a shrill scream pierced the air, causing Aerity’s stomach to sink. The sound of old wood sliding and creaking came next, like doors being forced closed. Aerity felt Vixie squeeze her shoulder as the sisters froze, listening to the low, pleading voice of their cousin inside the building. Another deeper feminine voice said something indecipherable in response.
Tremors threatened to overtake Aerity as she put a finger to her lips and pulled her sister silently to the edge. She was fighting to take tiny gasps into her lungs when she peeked slowly around the corner—nobody was in sight. They must have been inside. Again, Aerity moved them forward, both girls creeping along to the large warehouse door.
“I told you, he will not hurt you,” came the accented female voice again, alluring and husky—perhaps Kalorian? “Now relax, girl, and tell me who you are.”
Aerity slowed their approach. As she got closer she released her sister to lean against the wall, and she found a gap in the door’s wood where she could look in. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness of the cavernous room. What she finally saw made her slap a hand over her mouth. At the wide entrance area, just inside the rickety old sliding door, was their guard, lying in a thick pool of his own blood. His head was wrenched to the side at an unnatural angle, his stomach torn open.
Vixie leaned in toward the gap and gave a small gasp, her face horrified. Aerity tried to block her view, but she knew it was too late. Her sister had seen the grotesque sight for herself. Aerity got close to Vixie, taking her ashen face in her hands, meeting her eye to eye. “Stay calm,” she mouthed. Vixie’s eyes watered as she nodded.
Hearing Wyneth fumbling for her voice, Aerity peered in again.
“I . . . I’m . . . L-lady Wyneth, miss.”
“Lady?” The woman’s voice was calm, even happy sounding. “As in a royal lady?”
Don’t tell her who you are!Aerity wanted to scream.
“Y-yes. Wyneth Wavecrest.” Curses. Her cousin was rasping, terrified. From Aerity’s angle she could see her cousin’s profile through the gap, but not the other woman.
“Ah . . . it appears the luck of your seas is on my side,” said the woman, delighted.
Aerity heard another sound now, like the snuffling of a giant hog.
“Please, miss,” Wyneth begged, but the woman only chuckled.
