Patriot (A Jack Sigler Continuum Novella) by Jeremy Robinson, J. Kent Holloway Read Free Book Online

scooped from Lanme Wa’s casket. She then placed the vial in the center of a circle of salt she’d poured onto the floor. Next she mumbled an indecipherable prayer.
    When she finished, she turned to the box in which Lanme Wa lay, and sneered. “Don’t you be judgin’ me, pirate. For too long, my line has been servin’ you. Da service you gave my great-grandmother has long since been repaid, and now it be time we take our rightful place in dis world.”
    She didn’t expect him to answer her challenge. She doubted he was even aware of what was going on. Asherah hadn’t lied to the funny old scientist and the ship’s captain, though.
    Lanme Wa was most definitely alive.
    Throughout the years, she’d seen the signs. From the age of six, her grandmother had charged her with the task of feeding the man once a year. The chore usually consisted of some arcane ritual she’d never fully understood. Then they would push back the sarcophagus’s lid, and she would toss in a single fruit—a mango, orange or even an apple, when they were available. A month later, Asherah was supposed to return to the crypt, open it and remove whatever was left. On every single occasion, the fruit showed signs of having been eaten—if only a bite or two. And since the casket was sealed airtight, she knew the food had not been co-opted by any scavenging rats. For even if they could have gotten inside, they would have quickly died from suffocation.
    No, Asherah had no doubt that the pirate known as Lanme Wa was still alive, and capable, at least, of eating. She wasn’t entirely sure what else the desiccated living corpse was capable of… If he was aware of his surroundings… If he could hear the words being spoken around him. But there was one thing she knew all too well. She knew that once the immortal pirate awakened, he would pose the greatest threat to her plans, and she would need all the help she could get to overcome him.
    That, of course, brought her thoughts around full circle to William. The young slave was the key. The l’wa, who she served, were territorial. Their influence and power could be felt only in the place where they were created. Once she had stepped onto the ship, and left the safety of the Caribbean islands she called home, the l’wa she knew so well were useless to her. A l’wa created in the turmoil of the raging sea, however, would have powers far beyond those of any she’d known her entire life. All she needed was a willing soul, and William had agreed enthusiastically.
    She rifled through her medicine bag again, withdrew seven candles made of dolphin lard, and an assortment of herbs, shredded tobacco leaf, sugar cane stalks and a bottle of snake venom. She placed each on the floor. Satisfied all the ingredients were present, Asherah carefully set each candle around the circle of salt, then lit each of them in counterclockwise order.
    Now, for the elements of life .
    She sprinkled three small piles of the tobacco, representing the haze of the future, around the blood vial. Then, uncorking the snake venom, she poured the contents along the outline of the circle while reciting the necessary incantation to withdraw the veil of death. The stalks of sugar cane were arranged on the floor in the form of a cross, which was designed to give a newborn l’wa the sweet taste of wisdom and power. Finally, taking a pinch of the herbs, she dropped it into the wide-mouthed neck of the blood vial, before immediately going to each candle and blowing out the flames.
    The sickly sweet aroma of the candle’s smoke wafted up toward her nostrils, and she inhaled deeply before swaying back and forth to an inaudible tune playing in the back of her mind. Unconsciously, she sung the words of the ancient song, focusing her will on the vial and imagining the thick, strong frame of William in her mind’s eye. Five minutes later, as the last vestiges of smoke had completely disappeared, she reached down, corked the vial of blood and