Marriage is Murder

"Yes," Robert said. "It gives him at least half a chance."

"They moved the trap to the hold," Angus said quietly. "Do let me know if I need to get rid of it sooner than I anticipated."

"I'll do that," Robert said. "But I'm going to need as much information as possible before I mess too much with it. Until then, nobody plays around with it. That thing is deadly. Nobody goes into the hold without a partner. And I do mean nobody."

"Can I help you with something, Robert?" Jeffrey asked, after dropping his things in his cabin.

"We may well have to work in shifts," Robert said. "We'll have to watch him very carefully, and that does take a lot of focus. We might be better to take more frequent, shorter shifts. What do you two think? I need to examine that trap and make sure Khaat's going to be okay."

"Michael's feeding her firewhiskey," Angus said dryly.

"Good," Robert said. "Certainly can't hurt at this point."

"Go check the trap," Jeffrey said. "I'll stay close in case Jess needs help."

"Have Michael meet me in the hold," Robert said to Angus.

"The runes are an ancient language that hasn't been used for hundreds of years. The only place its found now is in old dark arts books. I must confess I have a few," Robert said. "The key was in reading the runes backwards to undo it. In its time, it wasn't an uncommon way for dark alchemists to create traps and weapons. Its just not one we see much anymore."

"And what the hell do you intend to do with it?" Jeffrey frowned.

"I can't just not deal with it," Robert said. "If this got to England, the damage it could do might be irrepairable. I have no choice. Jess, if I do anything stupid with that thing, you make sure you stay focused on Brian. No matter what. That's an order. Non negotiable."

He turned and left, heading for the hold.

Angus knew he had to hustle to get the message to Michael. He looked at Brant.

"You can join some of the crew in the kitchen if you like. Or--I have to send someone to update Edward. He needs to keep the kids longer than we planned. A couple hours out at sea and the whole thing has gone sideways already," he sighed heavily. He turned to head quickly up to the deck to go ask Michael to join Robert in examining the trap.

"He's in over his head," Edward frowned deeply. "He's got no bloody idea what he's doing, and he's going to get himself killed." He drew out a old muggle keychain with an anchor on it--a portkey to the ship itself. He shouted to the staff that he was leaving for a moment. "I'm heading to the ship," he said to Brant. "We need to go."

Meanwhile, Robert and Michael were examining the trap. Robert was exploring the ring itself and saw that it was set with raw titanium crystals set every few inches apart, all the way around.

"The magic fires from those," he told Michael.

"Yeah, I gathered that. And it's how their positioned that causes the beams to refract and create a top and a bottom for it."

"Inescapable," Robert said.

"Unless you just happened to be able to speak some archaic language backwards off the top of your head," Michael said, neither of them noticing Edward coming down into the hold with them.

Robert flipped it over where the runes were and fired at it.

"No!" Edward exclaimed, clutching tight at Robert and forcefully pulling him out of the way as the trap fired a defensive spell at Robert, causing a massive slashing spell across Robert's upper arm. Robert winced.

"Damn! Booby trapped?" Michael frowned.

"That could have been your head!" Edward said. "Are you out of your mind? You could have been killed. And you have three seers on board. Do you want to give them all a heart attack?"

"No, not intentionally," Robert shrugged.

"No experience with ancient weapons, have you?" Edward scowled.

"Actually, I have considerable experience. Just none quite like this."

"Obviously. Be glad Brant came to ask me to keep the kids longer, or you wouldn't be here right now."

"Thank you," Robert said. "It could be part of some sort of defense system, I suppose."

"Possibly, but it seems to me that you design a cage to hold someone you've captured. If you're a wizard, you'd think that a killing curse is far less messy and less time consuming," Edward said. "If I were creating such a thing, I'd be doing it to detain my enemy. To either torture them or to ransom them..."

"Or to buy time," Michael said. "It's impressive as heck, though."

"It certainly is. You wouldn't need more than one or two of them for a whole country of wizards to be intimidated enough to want to not mess with you much," Robert said.

"Ah, yes. The rumor of the superweapon," Michael said. Robert was silent for a long moment. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I want to go back down and look for more," Robert said.

"You should deal with the one you have before you go get more," Edward said. "It was created by forging. Titanium would need to be destroyed by smelting."

"Well, I'm sorry. I don't happen to carry smelting equipment in my pocket," Robert sighed. "Back up plan?"

"Take the crystals out to strip it of its power. Then, to destroy the ring, find a werewolf with a sledgehammer and a grudge?" Edward shrugged. "Should be harmless once the crystals are removed."

"Now, that I can do," Robert said.

"No, no, no," Michael said. "I'm the jewel thief. If anyone is going to tinker with stones or crystals and removing them, that's gonna be me."

"And if it tries to kill you?"

"It will," Edward said.

"Then bring the werewolf with the sledgehammer anyway," Michael said. "Look, I know gems. This is something I can do."

"I don't know how we'd find who built it," Edward said. "The possibilities are endless. It could be anyone in the last millennium or so--from the time that rune language was created. So, that doesn't narrow it down a lot."

"Its been underwater a long, long time," Michael said. "It's aged underwater, but its impossible to say exactly how much. And it wouldn't take much to cover up signs of it being moved on the sea floor."

"More than likely, whoever created it, set it there as a trap and then, over time, it was forgotten about," Edward said.

"Don't go for Jack until I know whether or not I can get the crystals out without anyone else getting killed," Michael said, studying the crystals intently.

"How do we help?" Robert asked.

"Just get the hell out of my way," he said quietly, focused. He drew out a small penlike tool and disassembled it to reveal some tiny tools that he resized to suit his needs. He worked very carefully, finding the crystals to be very, very sensitive and easily aggravated. He moved slowly, to try to not cause them to fire. After the first crystal, he seemed to figure out how to remove them, and the rest went easier.

He put them carefully on the floor together, away from the ring. When he had them all removed and he set the last one up against the first one, all of a sudden the glow from them went out.

"Well, I'll be," Edward frowned.

"They're part of a whole," Robert said. "Apart, they're deadly. Together, they're reassembled and diffused."

"Exactly," Edward said. "I can take those now. I'll take them to an alchemist I know who can destroy them now without risk. I think you're free to have the werewolf break up the ring just to be safe that its nothing more than scrap."