The Duende carried only a light cargo, twelve crew and seven passengers so was four days ahead of schedule when we sighted on the horizon an emergence of unavoidable query, a fracture in the otherwise silken Pacific. Its peaks and slopes glistened blackly, like the slick hide of a sightless thing dragged from the depths.
Our gentleman captain, much against the persuasions of his wife and the elder of his crew ordered that we set course for the island.
A pervasive and inescapable chill renewed within me with each metre closer we came. Merrin spoke quietly with the captain’s wife