Honor Among Thieves || Book Two

~8~

Some time later....

Sera stood on the stoop of Tia Dalma's shack trying her best to work up the nerve to knock on the door. A thick fog had settled in over the stagnant water with the setting sun, making the current situation all the more eerie, and she was certain she could hear things rustling in the surrounding swampy undergrowth.

As she lifted her hand toward the door, she looked over her shoulder to make sure Wolfie was still behind her. He and Rusty Pete were the only two accompanying her, but the latter had made it quite clear he was staying behind with the longboat even though the threat of lowlife thievery in this gods-forsaken place was not likely...

"Please don't be home." She muttered as she knocked on the door. "Please don't be home, please don't be home, please don't be home, please don't--"

The door flew open and Tia Dalma stood before her with a warm smile on my face. "Ah hello, little fish. It has been too long."

"Hello." Sera replied, flashing her best smile. "I received your message."

"Yes, yes." Her smile vanished. "And not a moment too soon. Come. We have much to discuss and much to do, but little time."

Sera hesitated a moment before stepping inside the priestess's shack. Wolfie followed after her but was stopped by Tia, who put a hand on his chest. "You must wait out here." She said sternly, a ghost of a smile on her lips as she let her eyes fall to the graying curls on his chest. "D'ere are matters I must discuss wit da Keeper. Privately."

Gulping, Wolfie took a step back and placed a hand where hers had been. "Y-Yes'm. I'll be...waitin' out here."

She slammed the door and returned her attention to Sera, who was eyeing a massive tooth dangling from the cieling. When she saw that Tia was watching her, she put a hand on her hip and gestured toward the blood-stained object. "How exactly did you come to possess that?"

"Not important. Go." She gestured toward a set of rickety steps. "Go to the room at de top of de stairs."

Sera stole a quick glance at the darkened room and gulped. "Why? I'm a busy woman, you know."

"Go."

Bristling at the tone of the obea's voice, Sera swallowed her protests and hesitantly made her way up the creaky steps. Once she stood outside the door, she noticed the only light came from a single oil lamp burning low on a chest of drawers that sat near the doorway. She also noticed the overwhelming smell of incense with an underlying scent of...decay.

"Okay." She called, peering down at Tia. "What now?"

"Go in."

"Of course." Sera grumbled under her breath, turning to face the room once more. "Of course I have to go in. There's no bloody telling what in Lucifer's name is in here." She snatched the oil lamp off the chest of drawers and pressed on, turning the flame up as she went. "Damn her. Damn this place. Damn this bloody room. Damn this--" She bumped into a chair and angrily kicked it away. "Damn that chair. Damn--"

A strangled gasp worked its way up her throat as she reached a bed, her stomach churning when she saw a corpse sprawled across it. Grimacing, she held the oil lamp near the head in hopes of making out a face. Maggots crawled in the eye sockets and the skin was turned a sickly grayish green color but the facial hair still remained.

A hat lay on the chest, the brim held in place by a pair of shriveled hands. Her curiosity piqued, Sera reached for the hat and held it near the warm glow of the lamp. An old memory tugged at the corners of her mind, faded with time and fuzzy with age, but she still recognized it...