Undercurrent: Part II

"What are we going to do, Master Thomas?"

They'd hauled the body aboard and now Thomas and his small crew stood about it in a circle, staring nervously at the corpse. Bad luck! Bad luck to be greeted at port by a dead man in the water. Thomas could feel the mood of his crew growing more and more panicked. He needed to get them back in control, and fast.

His swept his right arm out and backhanded Padraig in the face so hard the boy landed on the deck a few feet from the body. Thomas waited while Padraig wiped blood from his split lip and clambered to his feet, then he yanked his thumb towards the shoreline. "You know whose `special cargo' sits in the cabin below. You swim in, find the man, and let him know what's happened and ask what he wants to do about it, then you get over to Lord Lerrad's warehouse and let his man know what's happened. When you've done that, you get your whiney nose back here to the Elspeth. Got it?"

Padraig nodded.

"Then do it!" Thomas turned back to get his crew moving about the business of running a ship, and a few seconds later a loud splash told him Padraig was doing as ordered.

*****

"Damn you, McDougal! Damn your bluidy eyes!"

Young Gryffyd shifted a bit awkwardly where he stood just inside the doorway of the shed, but Marcus and Timmons were used to such verbal explosions from their Captain and so they merely exchanged glances across the body of Adam ap Morgan and waited. A hard rain pounded on the shed roof.

Ian ran a hand through his hair and scowled at the dead soldier. When Tyralor had shown up at the firehall last night, Ian had assumed it was for another round of aggravating Robyn with enigmatic statements wrapped in convoluted hints. But while McDougal had indeed managed to amuse himself, he'd also been there to pass along some information about a man of the BlackWatch found floating dead in Camelot Harbor. Even that news had been given in the usual roundabout fashion.

Ian was sure that the day Tyralor McDougal used simple declarative sentences to make a point was the day massive cracks would appear in the walls of Camelot.

He let out a deep breath and nodded to the others. "Alright, let's have a look at him, shall we?" He moved closer to the table that held Adam's body and Timmons raised a lit candle to give them all some light. Ian checked the deadman's hands. "No scratches or cuts. Doesn't look like he was in a fight."

Marcus nodded. "Poor fool most like took a bad step in the dark, fell into the water and drowned."

Ian raised a brow. "How many drowned men have we seen over the years? How many have drowned with their eyes closed like Adam's?"

"Hah! I knew it!" Timmons grinned triumphantly at Marcus. "I told you there was somewhat fishy about this!" No doubt there had been another wager made between the two.

"Help me turn him, will you Marcus, unless I'm interrupting something important?" The two veterans nodded, Timmons stepping back to let Marcus step closer to the table and help turn Adan's body over on the stomach. Ian examined the tunic for any sign of a knife wound, then sucked his teeth in frustration. "Nothing." He leaned lower and felt along the back of Adam's head, then swore softly. "There it is!" Long fingers brushed back the hair just behind the left ear, candlelight showing a large round purple lump to the back of the skull. "What's that look like to you?"

Marcus frowned. He'd more experience dealing with the wounded than the others did. "Hit from a rock shot from a sling. I saw a lot of those in France. He was knocked out and then the bastards slid him unconscious into the water."

"Right. He was murdered. When do we roust the scum in The Hook?" Timmons gave a hard smile and blew out the candle.

"We don't. That won't get us anywhere and besides, it's not like the old days. There are respectable people living down here now and I don't want them made targets for retaliation. But there is something up down here; McDougal has been hinting at it for months. Gryffyd, is anyone watching out there?"

"Not that I can see from here, sir. The rain is pretty heavy. It might be keeping the rats hiding in their holes."

Blackthorn nodded. "Good. Let's treat this as an accidental drowning for now. Wait a few hours for dark, then have Adam's body brought up the hill for services and proper burial. An accident, understand? I don't want drunken soldiers rampaging The Hook looking for vengeance. Timmons, you see what the street gossip is down here about Adam's death. Find out who saw him that last night and what he did. Only the four of us in this room are to know how Adam really died. Understood?" He waited until the others and nodded, then walked out of the shed.

The rain was still pouring down outside. Ian pulled the hood up on his cloak and headed down the dock, certain that no one could be lurking about to watch the comings and goings at a small rundown dockside shed..

Had he noticed the figure crouched on the roof of the nearby warehouse, he might have realized how wrong he was in that assumption.

*****

That night, in the dark of his room at the Bardic Hall, Huw huddled beneath his blankets and tossed restlessly in his sleep. Again he dreamt of the night the soldier had died, and again he woke with a shout

Shane appeared in the room's doorway. "Huw, are you alright?"

The boy struggled up to sit in the bed and then nodded. "A nightmare. Sorry I woke you. You can go back to bed, I'm fine!"

But he wasn't fine at all