"This is for you, 0 great one. My son and my lover, and the god of all fire."
There was a deafening crackkkk! and a bang like two cars colliding. For a split second Decker actually saw Chango-the orisha of thunder and lightning. Chango's hair flew up in all directions, showering thousands of glittering sparks. His eyes glowed like red-hot thunderstones. But what struck Decker more than anything else was his mouth, which seemed to have tier upon tier of jagged teeth, with caterpillars of lightning crawling on his tongue.
"Here!" Queen Aché said, taking out an apple and holding it up to him. "Take it, eat, my beloved Chango!"
But just as the crackling mask of Chango's head turned sideways, to take a bite of Queen Ache's apple, Major Shroud screamed out, "No! It's a trick! You can't leave my head, Chango! They'll kill me, and then you won't have anyplace left to hide!"
Queen Ache shrilled, "Lieutenant—now!"
Decker fired, and the Anaconda kicked in his hand. But
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Major Shroud swayed backward at an impossible angle, more like a swiveling shadow than a man, and the bullet only clipped the brim of his hat. Black crow feathers burst in all directions, but the bullet thumped harmlessly into the wooden bulkhead. The blazing vision of Chango instantly vanished, like a firework dropped into a bucket of water.
Major Shroud screamed at Decker in hysterical fury.
"Damn you! Damn you to hell! A Martin betrayed me in the Wilderness and now a Martin has betrayed me again! I will cut you into pieces for this, I promise you!"
"Chango!" Queen Ache cried. "Listen to me, Chango!" But it was obvious from the desperate tone of her voice that she had very little hope of tempting him back out of Major Shroud's head.
"You will surely die, Martin," Major Shroud fumed. "Not tonight, because your appointed day is tomorrow, the feast of Saint James Intercisus, and I can happily wait one more night until I come to kill you. I've waited long enough, God knows."
But then he turned to Queen Aché. "This santera, on the other hand, is a very different matter. She has perverted her religion and sullied the names of the saints. Look at the way she tried to trick Yemayá into betraying her only son and her only real love! Those who try to deceive the orishas must pay for what they have done, and pay with their lives."
Decker said, "Let her alone, Shroud. This was my idea."
"Revenge is revenge, Martin. Nobody can go unpunished for their sins, ever. That is the law."
"The law? What law? The law of the African jungle? The law of Santeria, and voodoo, and zombis? What law says that you can cut a pregnant woman's head off because her great-great-grandfather tried to stop you from committing a massacre?"
"The law of the earth, and of all things, and of natural
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justice. The law of Changó, who protects his followers against their enemies."
Decker lifted his revolver again, and aimed it directly between Major Shroud's eyes. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, sport, but there's a greater law than Changó's law, and it's called the law of the State of Virginia."
Queen Aché said, "No, Lieutenant! Don't shoot him!"
"I don't think he's given me a whole lot of choice, do you?"
Major Shroud's vaporous image appeared to slide sideways, like smoke caught in an unexpected breeze. "There is nothing you can do to stop me, Martin. Tomorrow you will die in the same way that Saint James Intercisus died. But so that you will fully understand what your fate will be, I will punish this santera in the same way."
"What?"
Major Shroud turned around, and as he turned around he disappeared, leaving nothing in the darkness but a twist of vapor. He disappeared from Decker's sight, but it was plain that Queen Aché could still see him, because she suddenly screamed out, "Changó! This is the daughter of Yemayá Changó!" But Major Shroud said nothing at all, and Changó didn't materialize. Queen Ache suddenly flung one arm up to protect her face and stumbled backward into the passageway.
"Queen Aché!" Decker yelled. "Get the hell out of here!"
He wildly waved his revolver from side to side but he couldn't see anything to fire at. He thrust it back into its holster and heaved himself up the last five rungs of the iron ladder. The jumbled light from his flashlight showed Queen Aché on her hands and knees, trying to scramble along the passageway over the mounds of crabs. She had dropped her
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candle and her bag of offerings to Changó, and she was whimpering like a beaten animal in terror.
"Shroud!" Decker yelled. He hauled out his revolver again and fired a warning shot into the ceiling. The explosion was deafening, and made his ears sing, and for a fleeting moment, in the gunsmoke, he saw the outline of Major Shroud's back, and an arm lifted. His flashlight caught something else, too—the long curved glint of a cavalry saber.
"Queen Aché! Get up! Get out of here!"
Queen Ache seized the wooden handrail at the side of the passageway, but the second she did so Decker heard a quick, sharp chop! and all of the fingers of her left hand were scattered onto the floor, still wearing her gold and silver rings. She screamed, and held up her bloody, fingerless hand. "Yemayá! What has he done to me? What has he done to me? Yemaya! Help me! Yemayá !"
Decker hurried into the passageway and knelt down beside her, his knees squelching and crunching into layers of putrescent crabs. He lifted up her hand and wound his handkerchief tightly around it, although it was immediately flooded dark red. She was juddering wildly, and staring at him in shock. "He took off all of my fingers. He took off my fingers!"
She gripped his shoulder with her right hand and begged, "Get me out of here, please! Get me out of here! He's going to kill me!"
Decker coughed and stood up and tried to lift Queen Ache from the floor. She clung to his shoulder with her good right hand, and was almost off her knees when Decker felt a violent blow against his back, as if he had been struck very hard with a walking stick. Queen Ache screamed again, and dropped onto her knees. "My fingers! My fingers! Yemayá, save me! My fingers!"
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She held up her right hand—and that, too, was left with nothing but the stumps of all five fingers, and all of them squirting blood. Christ almighty—now Decker knew what Major Shroud was doing. He was attacking Queen Ache with the Nine Deaths that Saint James Intercisus had suffered, just to show Decker what he could expect.
He groped his left shoulder blade and found that his coat was soaked with blood. Major Shroud had chopped right through Queen Ache's fingers, right through his coat and shirt, and into his trapezius muscle.
"Get up!" he yelled at Queen Ache. He thrust his arms under her armpits and hoisted her onto her feet. She was a good three inches taller than he was, and at least as heavy, and he almost dropped her back onto the floor. But he managed to wind her bloody left arm around his neck and grip her wrist to stop her from falling, and together they managed to stagger back along the passageway, tilting from side to side as they went.
At last they reached the forward hold. Decker was momentarily dazzled by a beam of light, but then he looked up and saw Hicks kneeling on the deck above them.
"Hicks! For Christ's sake, Hicks, give me a fucking hand here, will you?"
"Lieutenant? What's happening? You look like you're hurt."
"Just shine your flashlight on the steps, will you?"
Decker guided Queen Ache to the foot of the companionway. She was keening under her breath like a mourner at a funeral, and her knees kept giving way. "You're going to have to climb," Decker told her.