TITLE: The Case Of The Cursed Ship
AUTHOR: Talepiece
RATING: 12 cert.
PAIRING: Vastra/Jenny
SERIES: The Casebook Of Madame Vastra
CONTINUITY: This is a one-off in lieu of a second volume in 2015. It continues directly from The Case Of The Dying Machine
DISCLAIMER: Own them, I do not; sue me, please do not.
CREDITS: This story is based on The Wreck from the Trail Of Cthulhu source book Arkham Detective.
NOTE: This is an exception to my usual source material but I liked the idea and it fitted perfectly with where we left Vastra and Jenny in the last story. The upcoming (hopefully) Christmas story and the next volume will return to the usual format and sources.
So much for the end of 2015 being better than the first half: my computer died part way through writing this! To get it out just about in time for Halloween, I've truncated the middle section but I thing it works (possibly better than the original structure) so I hope it's OK.
As always, many thanks for the lovely feedback via FFnet and the TP site. It really is very much appreciated, especially with so many things going pear-shaped this year.
POSTED: October 2015
Returned to Earth but far from their home, Madame Vastra and her beloved companion Jenny Flint found themselves fighting the great evil in one of his many forms. As always with such things, human greed and passion only serve to feed the danger but can trust and love overcome it?
Jennifer Strax Vastra-Flint.
London, 1948.
THE ELDRITCH SEA
"Madame? Where are we?"
Jenny's head moved slowly, still buzzing from the effects of the vortex manipulator. Images of thick grey dust swirled in her mind, mixed with the blue-black of the vortex and the rushing snap of their arrival.
And then it was replaced with a dark and stormy night. The ground at her feet rocked and a freezing spray of salty water rained down upon her. She shivered violently from the cold, then again from the screams that rang out around her.
Jenny turned and the images shifted. A far off voice called her name but she could not focus on it. Nor on anything else. All was the dark, lurching night and the screams. And then a sudden, terrifying image of teeth and scales and a wide, serrated blade looming above her.
"Jenny!" Vastra's sharp tone snapped Jenny back to herself. She shivered again and Vastra pulled her into a fierce hug. "You are cold, my dear," was said in a gentler voice.
The tone belied Vastra's fear. Her lover was pale and shivering as if caught in a winter storm. Vastra tightened the hold and whispered calming nonsense, afraid to let Jenny go. She had seen the young woman do remarkable things, far beyond anything Vastra would expect from such a fragile little human. But she had also seen the after effects, had tended to her near-comatose companion as she slept off her exertions. They could not afford such a reaction now.
Jenny shivered again but felt herself warmed by Vastra's strong arms around her and the gentle hands that rubbed at her back.
"Blimey," Jenny said with as much strength as she could muster, "Miss Peri was right, that thing does pack a punch."
Vastra said nothing for a long moment but continued to comfort her lover. Jenny could feel the tension in Vastra's back and reluctantly eased away.
"My dear?"
"Much better now. Promise," Jenny added to the doubtful look in Vastra's eyes. She cast the leather bracelet a baleful glare, "It's not very reliable either, is it?"
Vastra sighed deeply and returned her attention to their current location. As she turned, the floor lurched violently leaving them both fighting for their balance.
"We're not still in the hive, are we?" Jenny said.
Vastra reached out for Jenny's hand and took it, aware of Jenny's mounting panic. It took a great deal to trouble her usually unflappable companion. Her tongue flicked out to taste the air and Vastra shuddered against the assault on her senses.
"We are not, my dear. In fact," Vastra began but was interrupted by another violent lurch, "we appear to be at sea."
"Sea?" Jenny looked around and finally took in the low, damp wood of the walls around them and the heavy stench of bilge and rot, "At least it didn't dump us in it," she said with another glare at Vastra's wrist.
"I fear we may have been better off had it done so," Vastra said and turned for the small doorway, "Come, my dear, something is afoot."
"That'd be water, Madame," Jenny said, filthy water squelching beneath her boots.
Even Jenny had to duck to make it safely through the entrance and Vastra was forced to bend low. They stepped out into an equally low and dark corridor with similar doorways branching off it at regular intervals.
"The passengers quarters?" Jenny asked.
"Most certainly."
"Not much luxury. And this tub's falling apart."
Jenny reached for the battered, sopping wood at her side and gasped despite herself. Vastra turned back, then stopped in horror. Jenny lifted a reddened hand and stared at it.
"Jenny -"
"It's not mine," Jenny shook off her surprise, "It's on the walls, look."
Jenny wiped her hand on her tattered breeches as Vastra studied the stinking wood in the near-darkness.
"Scratch marks," Vastra's tongue flicked out once more, "and a great deal of blood."
"Scratch marks? Like something's been dragged along?"
"Not something, my dear," Vastra said and then continued their trek to the open hatchway that was barely visible ahead of them.
At each tiny doorway, Jenny poked her head inside. She could see little in the darkness of the low cabins. Each was barely more than a cell with a tiny cot and what little dunnage the size of the space allowed. The cots swayed wildly with the rocking of the vessel. There was no sign of any of the passengers themselves.
Just as they reached the rickety ladder to the hatch, the ship bucked and tumbled yet again. Vastra turned and covered Jenny with her own body, pressing them both into the cold, soaking wood. A great wash of sea water raced down from above, bringing with it stinking debris that settled in dark pools at the base of the ladder.
Vastra eased away and shook herself, dislodging a long strand of seaweed that had whipped at her back. Jenny sniffed and her face wrinkled, "We'll need to bathe for a month," she muttered before noticing that Vastra's attention was entirely on one of the pools of filth.
"Madame?"
"This detritus, my dear, it is from the seabed itself."
"And?"
"And even such a violent storm should not dredge up quite so much from quite so deep."
"You sure?" Jenny said as the ship rocked again.
"Quite. Now, shall we?"
Vastra indicated the hatch above before making her own, careful way up. She offered her hand down to assist Jenny but it was batted away.
Both expected to hear a loud cry of approbation but there was an eerie silence as they straightened up and looked around the deck. Above, a myriad of undamaged sails flapped in what could barely be called a zephyr and around them, the sea appeared oddly calm. Yet the ship itself bucked and lurched with increasing frequency. Spray flew up and cascaded over the decks, the sopping wood creaked loudly.
Out to sea the sky was an ethereal silver-grey but the ship itself was surrounded by an inky light that seemed to shift and dance. Further out there were hints of lights bobbing around that might be other vessels and farther still, a vague outline of what might be land.
"What the -" Jenny began but stopped as her eyes grew more accustomed to the strange light. "Madame?"
There was more flotsam fouling the deck, which ran deep with water as the vessel continued to tumble in the oddly calm seas. As it ran about their feet it was dyed red by the quantities of blood that stained the deck. There were more deep scratches too and plenty of signs of a struggle. But nary a sign of human - nor any other - life.
"Could it have been your cousins?" Jenny asked, referring to the creatures that she had spent time with while holidaying at Little Sundersley. It had been time enough for Jenny to come to understand the violence at the heart of the race, though they had never been anything more than indifferent to her own health.
Vastra straightened from her consideration of a thick splash of blood that stubbornly refused to be washed away and thought for a moment. Her tongue flicked out again and she shook her head.
"I think not, my dear. There is no sign of their presence."
"What then?"
Vastra hesitated and received a fierce glare from her companion in encouragement. "There are worse things, my dear, than my cousins."
"Bleedin' 'ell," Jenny muttered and renewed her study of the deck.
She shuffled a little further from the hatch, mindful of the rolling deck at her feet. Airships were a much more civilised form of travel, she decided with some feeling.
The scratches appeared to trail on towards the battered railing that ran around the edge of the deck, though the dulled metal was barely visible against the darkness that surrounded the ship. Jenny had seen great sailing ships on the Thames, though they were being replaced by modern vessels now and you didn't get to witness the great displays of pristine sails and scrubbed decks that some of her older relatives had described from their past. It was a shame as there was something quite inspiring in such a sight.
There was nothing inspiring about the sight around them. The whole thing made Jenny feel queer. The deck shifted again and she fought for her balance. She fell forward and reached out a hand to stop herself. As her fingers pressed deep into another length of scratched wood, her head was suddenly full of those same images; of scales and teeth; of screaming and blood; of a large, serrated blade rising above.
"Jenny," Vastra's hands closed around her and Jenny heard the urgent, "Jenny, please," from far away.
"Blades. Really big, nasty buggers with really big teeth," Jenny muttered as she returned to her senses.
"Indeed, my dear," Vastra said close to her, "that is certainly the sort of blade that made such pronounced splatter patterns. And how did you come by this knowledge?"
Vastra had been making a particular study of blood and the patterns it made when exsanguination of various sorts took place. Unusually for a naturally curious sort of person, Jenny had chosen to absent herself from such studies. She found it distasteful, Vastra knew, but accepted that it was as much a tool in their investigative work as Vastra's expertise with footprints.
Jenny shook herself, trying to dislodge the last of the images that lingered in her mind. They felt real, not like dreams or nightmares at all but like events that had occurred not too long ago. She glanced around the deck and paled yet further.
"I know what happened here, Madame. I don't know how but I know with all the certainty I can muster."
"Indeed," Vastra said doubtfully and then began carefully, "My dear, you have been through a great deal in recent times and have suffered a terrible attack. Do you not think -"
"No, I bloomin' don't," Jenny cut her off with another glare, "Whatever Miss Peri and that Doctor did, I felt champion when I got out of the funny white room. Well," Jenny allowed, "champion until all the other stuff happened, obviously."
"It is the 'other stuff' to which I refer."
Jenny considered the charge but shrugged it off, "No, Madame, I'm quite sure of it; I know what happened here and-"
She was cut off my a towering wave that rose up from the calm sea and lashed down upon the deck. The ship dropped out from beneath their feet and Vastra scooped Jenny into her arms before allowing them to roll with the tide, as it were. A guy-rope which had broken free of its staunch on one end offered some degree of security and Vastra grabbed for it and held on with all her might.
They swung from her tenuous grip as the water rolled back and forth on the deck. After what felt like hours the mass of water dissipated, most washed below decks via the gaping hatches. They lay entwined, Vastra maintaining her hold on the rope until all was still around them. Or as still as this cursed vessel would allow.
"I was just thinking that we could do with a bath," Jenny said from the vicinity of Vastra's armpit.
Vastra laughed despite herself, pleased to find her companion's sense of humour intact, if nothing else.
"My dear, are you injured?"
"I'm soaking is what I am," Jenny said, then, "and cold and sore and starving."
"But apart from that?"
"Quite well, thank you Madame. You?"
Vastra hefted them both to their feet and shook herself like an overgrown puppy. Jenny watched in amazement as the scales on her lover's face and neck flared open.
Vastra gave herself a cursory inspection before studying Jenny more closely. As she did so, she said "Certainly damp around the edges -"
"And in the middle too, no doubt," Jenny put in.
"- but refreshed, if nothing else." Vastra's white teeth beamed in the murky light before her face grew serious once more and she said, "Now, do tell me what you have ascertained."
"Not ascertained exactly," Jenny hesitated, "more seen. When we first arrived and just now too, I saw this thing," Jenny struggled for the words to describe her visions, "This big, weird thing with teeth and scales and things," She rolled her eyes at the limits of her vocabulary. "Anyway," she glanced around and found that they were now aft, close to the raised deck at the stern of vessel. It really was a very old sort of ship, Jenny thought but she said, "Anyway, these things - whatever they were - they had these big, sharp blades. They came up out of the sea, I reckon, and they dragged the crew and the passengers off. Madame?" Jenny added at Vastra's deliberately blank stare.
"I believe you are correct on every count, my dear," Vastra said when she had overcome her surprise. "And these visions, you have never had them before?"
"Never. And I'd be quite happy not to have any again, if you don't mind."
"I do not. Though, if you are not generally susceptible to such things" Vastra hesitated and Jenny finished for her.
"Then there's something causing them. And this too, I expect."
"Quite. Now," Vastra said in a stronger tone, "let us find what little shelter we may. That," she indicated the raised deck, "would be the quarterdeck, I believe, and so the Captain's Cabin should be just below."
"Aye, Aye," Jenny said and followed Vastra as she made for the cabin. As they went something glittering in the odd light caught Jenny's eye and she said, "Wait," before veering off their course to lean down.
Vastra stopped, watching Jenny carefully as she reached for something that appeared to be embedded in the sopping wood of the deck. The pitch had been gouged out at various points all along this particular area, as if someone had fought especially hard not to be taken. They had failed, it would appear - long tracks streaking towards the railing would attest to that - but fight they most certainly had. Vastra wondered if it might have been the ship's Captain. They were famously prone to staying with their vessels despite imminent doom.
"My dear?"
Jenny tugged at the object that had caught her attention, waggled it from side to side to open the gap that held it and pulled it free with a grunt of satisfaction. Jenny took a moment to consider the small, glittering piece and Vastra encouraged her with a flick of her hand.
"On my way, Madame," Jenny said as she clutched the object in her hand and hurried across the deck.
She joined Vastra just as her companion was yanking the large doors open. They had once been richly painted in black and gold with fine carving in an ornate style. But the rich colours only remained in scratched and faded patches and the ornate styling was barely discernible. The wood gave with a strange creaking sound and Vastra handed Jenny over the slight rise into the Captain's Quarters.
They stood, somewhat awed at the cabin beyond. Jenny shivered and Vastra pulled the now rickety doors closed behind them. The cabin ran the full width of the ship with broad, glazed windows across the whole. It would have been a decent space for a gentleman's private library and resembled the same despite the sloshing sea water and the signs of wear.
There appeared to a be a water closet of sorts tucked away to the right but the rest of the space was open. A small bed stood to one side with a dressing table and cabinets about it. There were chests and shelves holding the remains of books and papers, though many more had tumbled to the floor. There was a desk too, surprisingly large and well endowed with drawers, and a fine Captain's chair upended next to it.
The desk was surrounded by fallen books and papers, broken glass bottles and ink stains that were slowly being washed away by the shifting water. As they studied the room the ship lurched yet again and a heavy package fell from the desk, thumping down even upon the soaking wood at their feet.
The noise startled them both out of their thoughts and they made for the desk. Vastra reached down and lifted the package, shaking it away from them before unwrapping the heavy sail cloth around it. Inside, weighted with a slab of marble, was a logbook.
"You have a read," Jenny said and indicated the other side of the desk, "and I'll get those drawers open."
"An excellent idea."
Vastra set her feet wide to aid her balance and began to flick through the pages. Jenny righted the large chair and sighed in relief.
"My dear?"
"Fine, Madame, honestly," Jenny said, though it was a lie as the stinking water was soaking into her bones and the cold was slowing her movements. Leaving that unsaid, she asked, "Anything interesting?"
As Jenny rifled through the objects on and around the desk for something that would substitute for her much-missed lock-picks, Vastra began to read passages from the log.
"It would appear that this is a British vessel, though one long since in the service of the Americans."
"They thumped us once or twice. The Americans! At sea!" Jenny tutted and then gave a happy little "Lovely," as she came upon a paper knife that would serve her purpose.
"Indeed, my dear," Vastra said absently and then continued, "Most recently, the ship - the Star Of Mauritius, it would appear - was hauling cargo and passengers of the less discerning kind-"
"You can say that again."
"-around the coast of the United States."
Jenny interrupted once more, though her voice was muffled by the interposed desk as she bent low to attack one of the drawers, "And this time?"
"From New England to New York on the last leg of a lengthy tour. Started some few weeks after we left London," Vastra added with much relief and then paused as she flicked back through the pages before saying, "carrying a cargo of manufacturing equipment from a factory."
"What sort of equipment, Madame?"
"Really, my dear," Vastra muttered and receiving a baleful glare over the top of the desk, continued, "Machinery from a refinery or so I would assume from the names herein."
"I'm sure you're correct, Madame."
Vastra rolled her eyes, "The drawers? Anything of use?"
Jenny did not lift her head but gave a grunt of frustration and flicked her hand over the few items that she had added to the desk. There was a clutch of ink pens and three more bottles of ink, one full and two empty, a sheaf of loose paper and a small book of poetry. Poetry of the nautical kind, Vastra thought as she glanced at the title.
"Ha!" Jenny said accompanied by the scratching of a desk drawer being opened, "Blimey." She straightened up and carefully placed a handgun on the papers, "Not that it did any of the poor sods much good."
"Indeed not, though telling that the good Captain had no time to take up his firearm."
"Was he good, do you think?" Jenny said with a nod towards the logbook.
"Competent, certainly," Vastra allowed, "and most concerned by the excessive weight of the cargo. It would appear that the actual weight was somewhat less than the perceived effect on the ship itself."
"Something looked lighter than it actually was? The owners trying to get out of paying their fair share, do you think?"
"Possibly, though I am not convinced the captain thought so. It appears to have been a difficult journey this last leg; they experiencing appalling weather while other ships they met reported no such inconveniences. Is there anything else, my dear?"
Jenny looked back to the drawer, "As a matter of fact, there is Madame," and pulled out a notebook.
Vastra took it and placed the prettily decorated little thing atop the logbook. "His personal diary," she flicked through a few more pages, "written in the form of letters...to his wife perhaps?"
Jenny made to speak but the sea gave a great gasping screech and the ship pitched violently. Vastra tumbled and Jenny held on to the desk with what remained of her might as the chair fell away behind her.
"Vastra!" Jenny shouted as the raging subsided. She shivered, suddenly aware that a great quantity of sea water had lashed down on her back. Glancing behind her, she found much of the stern window missing to leave a gaping hole looking down upon the oddly calm sea.
Then the ship rolled and Jenny was sent tumbling to the other side. She reached out a desperate hand to steady herself, her fingers sinking deep into the sopping planks. Another vision struck, this one shrouded in the darkness of below-decks. A space crowded with trunks and crates; a large hatchway set into a newly installed dividing wall; green, heavily scaled hands attacking it with wide blades; and then something that scared the creatures, something that sent even these monsters back to the deep.
The vision ended and Jenny snapped back to herself to hear Vastra saying something in her native tongue that she was certain must be quite rude Jenny smiled, it was so rare to hear her lover driven to expletives.
She righted herself with the help of the desk, "Vastra? Are you alright?"
Vastra pushed herself up, taking her feet with the help of Jenny's outstretched hand. She shook herself and shivered, "I believe the correct term is 'Bracing', my dear."
"The correct term is wet and cold, Madame. You sure you're alright?"
Vastra smiled into Jenny's concerned gaze, "I would prefer to be off this vessel but, yes my dear, I am well enough. And you?"
"I'd be better without these visions."
"You have had another one?" Vastra looked at her lover but Jenny waved the concern away and so she added, "There is at least one lifeboat still aboard. I believe we are close enough to land to row ashore. Come, my dear, let us see."
Vastra made to leave the cabin but Jenny held her back. She couldn't believe she was going to say this but the words tumbled out despite her reservations, "No, Madame, we need to go to the hold."
"The hold?" Vastra stared accusingly, "What exactly have you seen, Jenny?"
"Down, er, stairs -"
"Below decks," Vastra corrected.
"Aye, well, down there somewhere," Jenny pointed to the soaking deck, "there's something that these green things were trying to get at."
"In the hold?" Vastra considered, "You believe this to be the source of these occurrences?"
"Reckon it might be, though I've no idea what we're looking for."
"But if we can we must find it, my dear. I cannot imagine what the human authorities might make of such a thing."
"I've no idea what we might either but I suppose you're right."
"Then to the hold," Vastra said, though she looked Jenny up and down before moving for the door.
"Lovely," Jenny muttered but she was already following. After a few steps, she turned back to the desk and reached for the handgun. Vastra stilled her hand and Jenny pulled back, "You sure we won't need it? Those creatures were down there before, trying to get through a door or something."
"I doubt it would serve much purpose," Vastra said and then lead them out to the deck.
The strange light was brightening into what might be the dawn further off but was simply a different kind of eerie here on the ship. With the slight lifting of the darkness came the discovery that not all of the ship's crew had been dragged overboard.
A little way forward, previously lost to their sight during the driving storm that had engulfed the vessel, stood the ship's wheel. It was one of the overly large, old-fashioned wheels that had been common a hundred years ago and more. Lashed to the spokes, held firm with stout nautical ropes, was a man's body. There was no doubt that the man was dead, his back was raw with the deep welts of a vicious attack.
"They tried to get through the storm, that's for sure," Jenny said.
"I will study the logbook when we have time," Vastra said, "Now, the hold in general or a specific hatchway?"
Jenny thought back to the vision, though she knew very little of such vessels, "I'd say it was a secret compartment in the hold, Madame. Looked like it was new and put there for a purpose."
"Perhaps to keep these creatures away from whatever it contains."
"Nice thought," Jenny huffed but she followed Vastra as her companion hurried to a hatch and dropped down inside.
It took a little exploration before they found their way to the correct part of the ship. Exploration that lead them to discover the crew's quarters with their old-fashioned hammocks swinging wildly and more passenger and officer cabins. Jenny insisted on looking into each and often darted a hand down to pick something up from the ground.
"My dear?" Vastra said, somewhat exasperated by the delays.
"We'll need dry clothes and the like. We'll have to," Jenny hesitated, "borrow something from the passengers. Money too and these might help," Jenny opened her hand to display a number of gold coins.
Vastra stopped, studying them as best she could in the dim light. They were of an unusual design, certainly not of any denomination Vastra had ever seen. They were thick and precisely circled and even tarnished, it was clear that they were gold.
"Miss Ada was right, you would make an excellent Gleaner."
Jenny grinned, remembering the woman who salvaged the detritus of the Thames, "Everyone needs something to fall back on, Madame."
Jenny deposited the coins in her already clanking pocket and they continued until they were clambering down the slippery ladder to the hold itself. The stench was awful now, blood and terror mixed with human filth and the sea bed. Both women paled, though neither could see well enough to witness the others discomfort.
They sensed it though and Jenny placed a hand on Vastra's back. Whether to calm or be calmed she wasn't sure. Vastra steadied herself and allowed her tongue to flick out and taste the rank air. She rocked back in reaction and her tongue snapped home.
"Perhaps you might check the crates, my dear, while I seek out this hidden room."
Jenny nodded and began to consider the cargo. It was mostly large wooden boxes, lashed down securely against the movement of the ship. Jenny knew enough to know that shifting cargo could sink even the most stable of vessels. She doubted the Star Of Mauritius had been all that stable before this business began.
All of the crates, large and small alike, showed the same marque, that of the Atlas Company. There were a few larger trunks too, the property of the passengers themselves, but they were pushed into the far corners of the hold. Despite being so well secured, some of the crates had shifted and there were signs that some had overturned. Whether that was from the harsh movement of the sea or by the hand of the creatures, Jenny wasn't sure until she approached just such a crate.
It had broken free of its binding and tumbled into the crate to its side, that had tumbled in its turn and the whole area was a mess of splintered wood and soaking straw. Much of the wood showed scratch marks and there were a few green scales caught on the sharp edge of one such piece.
Jenny reached down and rummaged through the wet straw until she withdrew an object. Brushing it clean, she found herself staring at quite the ugliest thing Jenny had ever seen. It was some sort of carving of a squat, toad-faced little fellow with an evil grin on its thin lips.
Jenny dropped it back on to the pile and kicked away some more debris to reveal three more such pieces.
"It's not just machinery, Madame," she called out. Receiving no reply, Jenny turned to find Vastra nowhere in sight. She fought back a wave of panic and added, "Vastra?" in a sharper tone.
"Here, my dear," Vastra's voice came low and muffled from somewhere on the other side of the hold.
Jenny shuffled her feet free of the packing material and picked her way through the cluttered hold towards the voice and the sounds of grunting that she could now discern. They came from a large stack of boxes set against what appeared to be the far wall of the hold.
"You found it then, Madame?"
Vastra's voice was strained as she said, "I did, though the entrance appears to require your remarkable skills."
"Most things do," Jenny said and then added, "Best get out the way then, eh?"
Accompanied by more grunts and the sounds of her lover burrowing free from beyond the pile, Jenny looked around for another substitute for her lockpicks. Should have kept that knife with me, she thought, but smiled when her eyes fell on a few long nails that lay a little way off.
Jenny reached down and plucked the nails from their bed of damp straw, fervently hoping that they were not what had originally kept the ship's sides attached. Two were thick, ill-wrought things that might very well have been shipwright's nails but one was much thinner and better made. It would do nicely in a pinch and this, Jenny decided as she looked around, was most definitely a pinch.
As if reading her mind, Vastra said, "Fear not, we will make land soon enough."
Jenny smiled at the mucky green face that appeared out of an opening low in the pile. Vastra struggled to free herself without disturbing the crates but finally pulled her legs clear and stood.
"Not sure it can be soon enough but lets get to whatever's causing all this," Jenny said and leaned down towards the narrow gap.
Vastra held her back and with a, "Allow me, my dear," began pulling the smaller boxes from the top of the pile. Slowly, she cleared a much larger channel for Jenny, who could now see the hatchway in what was obviously a newly positioned bulkhead.
"Why didn't you do that for yourself?"
Vastra considered the question and gave an embarrassed little shrug, "It did not occur to me."
"Daft bat," Jenny muttered and Vastra resolutely ignored.
Vastra stepped aside as her companion approached the door, dropped to her knees before the imposing barrier and set to work on the locks. They proved troublesome and engendered much dark muttering but soon enough Vastra heard the familiar grunt of triumph and Jenny rose to her feet.
Vastra beamed at her, "A true artist, my dear."
They forced the swollen door open. The ship gave a long, low moan in protest but the floor remained relatively stable and there was no sudden darkening or ominous fanfare. Jenny would not have been surprised by either.
Inside the temporary hold appeared much like that outside with crates of various sizes stacked and bound tightly. The binds here were not of rope but of chain and they were secured to the planks below with deeply embedded rings. It was dark, of course, but not nearly so dark as the women had expected. There seemed to be a strange crispness to the darkness, a light within it that filled the space and raised the hairs and scales of their necks.
The stench, however, was even worse and the air crackled with static. Jenny's face wrinkled and she looked to Vastra to find her lover's lips pursed determinately.
"You start over there, Madame," Jenny indicated a pile closer to the entrance and then further away, "and I'll start here."
They began searching and Jenny felt her skin tingling at the odd sensations that haunted the space. She could only imagine what Vastra's scales felt like and glanced back often to her companion.
"I am quite able to continue, I thank you," Vastra said without looking back and then, "All of these crates are marked as those outside, though with additional instructions to be shipped on to a Mr Henry Wilcox."
"Same here," Jenny said, checking a few boxes at her feet. She could barely shift the binds, much less open them but then she came across a pile of very strangely shaped items that had broken free and added, "Something here, I reckon."
Vastra joined her as Jenny hefted a piece of piping from its place amongst the pile. It was very different from any of the other items and bore no marks or instructions. Jenny tilted it one way and then the other, her skin tingling where she held the too-warm pipe. It was carefully sealed at both ends, though with each tilt there came a faint shuffling sound.
Vastra took the pipe and eased the stopper from one end. She slid out a heavily wrapped package and began to peal back the leather around it. The static grew worse and the strange crispness to the air began to glow. Jenny looked around nervously and even Vastra hesitated.
"Let's get on with it, eh?" Jenny said. She held her hands out to catch whatever was within as Vastra tipped the pipe up and pulled away the last of the wrapping. With a gasp of disgust, Jenny muttered, "Bleedin' 'ell that's ugly, " before she could stop herself.
The strange object was about the size of a newborn child and seemed to squirm in Jenny's hands like an infant, though it was made from a heavy green stone. As Jenny stared it's shape seemed to shift and warp...an elephant's head...a sea creature...something unknowable and shimmering with evil. As it changed, flecks of gold danced within and the weight increased and decreased in her hands.
Jenny felt herself being sucked into the thing, her vision blurring until the hold was shrouded in mist with Vastra's urgent words far, far away.
And then her vision cleared as if her mind had been thrown through the vortex. She was on a seashore, the water gently lapping at golden sand. A child was a little way off, reaching down for something that had washed up with the tide. Jenny wanted to scream a warning yet could do nothing but watch as the scene blurred and warped around her.
A church full of fevered worshippers; strange symbols daubed over the previously immaculate tapestries and statues; the villagers chanting in a strange tongue. Then the village itself, rank and decaying like its people; the fisherman's boats beached and rotting but the market stalls filled with bloated, black fish. And finally a priest back at the water's edge, a small, green statuette held in his hands, raised high above his head and then cast into the sea from whence it came.
The vision shifted as the object touched the water and Jenny's vision blurred once more. She was in a candlelit room, little more than a stone cell with a small wooden bureau and a stool. A monk sat and worked fervently over a beautifully illuminated manuscript. He was nervous, always glancing back to the door, his hands shaking despite his concentration. The door opened.
And Jenny was in a dark cavern, deep beneath the ground. Rivulets of brackish water wended through the dense rock as the path dropped ever down. Yet another priest but this one in strange vestments. He too carried the object, cradled in his arms like the most precious child in the world. He glanced over his shoulder and Jenny saw the odd shape of his face. It was as if he was not quite human in his features and as he moved she realised that he waddled.
There came a shout from further up the passage and the priest hurried as best he could with his shambling gait. More shouts and the light cast from a number of flambeaux soon followed. Jenny watched as a group of soldiers caught up with the man. They were British and wore recent, if not current, issue uniforms.
With the soldiers was a tall man in civilian clothes and a long cape who carried a sizeable handgun of some strange design. He called out to the priest and waved the gun at his back. His words were heavily accented and Jenny thought he was American. As he shifted his feet, Jenny saw that he had an old, tattered manuscript tucked carefully into his waistcoat.
The American raised his gun to fire but the priest lifted the object and it began to glow dangerously. There was a loud screeching sound and much shuffling and moaning from further down the passage. The soldiers hefted their rifles despite the limited space. There was the strange sound of paper fluttering through the air.
Another shift and there were scales and teeth and wide, serrated blades.
"Jenny! Jennifer!"
And then Jenny toppled into the safety of warm, strong arms.