They chose the second stack and Rowan gave Alena half as they took turns to read aloud what they discovered.

"Already the rumors come from the desert that the Golden City of Carthuse lays in ruins, its people gone, and its water undrinkable," Alena started off.

"The warnings speak of a terrible illness, but others whisper of darker things. They all agree on one thing; let the desert claim that accursed place. King Mohaddid three as recorded by his scribe, Talmud," Alena finished the first letter.

"An army of one hundred men, from the legions of the accursed Roman oppressors, journeyed to the tombs in the desert where a city died in darkness. We warned them that those who venture there, never return, but they would not listen. Commander of the Pharaoh's high guard, Talmud of Egypt," Rowan continued with the next document.

"The Romans robbed the graves of fallen Pharaoh's. They stole from the black tomb all that they could, and they did not heed the warnings of wise men. Death would follow them — Commander of the Pharos' high guard, Talmud of Egypt," Alena read with a frown.

"The Romans returned the treasure, and they brought an army, but it would do them no good. Death will reap them all for their insolence. The Royal scribe, Mohammed of Siria." Each letter corroborated what they already knew.

"The Romans never returned, but the desert speaks of many men that move by night. They carried a heavy load, and the tombs are empty. How many more lives have the dead to reap before men learn? The Royal scribe, Mohammed of Siria," Alena read, and both of them wondered if the deserters stole the treasure after all.

"A dark army came from the desert. They could only come from one place, and they came laden heavily, silent, not like men back from the waterless waste. A tall man led them with his entire body covered, in layers of dark, and dense cloth, not even his hands or face revealed. He spoke to the merchant traders, commandeered three of their ships, and he loaded the treasure from the dark tomb in their bows. Twice those ships crossed the ocean to move the treasure. The Roman soldiers disappeared, and so did the sailors and merchantmen with them," Rowan hesitated when she read this, and her frown deepened.

"Someone spoke of a fortress on a jut of land at the edge of the sea. They found him drowned, and we asked no more questions. They must have gone from here to the closest shore, for their first journey was brief. For weeks after they left the bodies of the Roman dead washed up on the shore, bloated with no wound or reason for death. No shark, nor fish feasted on their flesh and among them were but one or two sailors. They were..." Alena sighed and rubbed over her face.

"Some part of it is missing, then: we burned them, and some of them screamed as they burned," Alena continued, and Rowan shuddered as she listened.

"This ends, to my friend Mohammed who once expressed an interest in these things, maybe you can add this to your collection and to that be an end to this. Greetings to you who watch and would read this letter," she concluded.

"I've heard of these people," Alena said as she replaced the letters in the order, that they found them, Rowan lowered her eyes but said no word. They were quiet for a long time. Back on deck Marcus looked caught up in some deep thought, and once they joined him, he changed their heading.

"Where are we going?" Alena asked, and he shrugged.

"The letter said the nearest land and mentioned a voyage not long in the taking. We will have a closer look at the charts when we go down," Marcus revealed. He noticed that a brewed in the east, but it blew away before the sky tinged with light.

During the daylight hours, they sat around the map Marcus chose. He drew his finger along a jut of coastline and Rowan frowned as she put her finger on it.

"There," she pointed out at the whim of a vague memory coming from somewhere inside herself, almost as if from a stranger.

"There used to be a castle here," Rowan experienced some odd shift in herself, almost as if she were two people. She was unaware that a single drop of blood flowed from her nose until Marcus caught it with his thumb.

Rowan seemed almost transfixed as she stared at the spot on the map, barely aware of Marcus as he cleaned her nose with his pristine white handkerchief. They spoke, but Rowan couldn't hear them past the roaring of her ears and the intrusion of something both alien and familiar.

"It stood on the bluff, sentinel to the coast. It belonged to a wealthy man, some called him cruel, and vindictive," Rowan rocked back and forth as she spoke these word. She'd become pale as death and sweat beaded her brow.

"One evening a stranger came. He walked past the guards, and they did not stop him. The dogs barked furiously, and with a single gaze from the stranger, they whimpered and whined. He walked past the guests to where this Ferdinand stood," Rowan continued with her mind caught in another time.

"Ferdinand was a blustering man, rarely quiet, but at the sight of the fair-haired stranger, the words halted on his lips. The newcomer beckoned, and Ferdinand followed. They two of them remained absent for a while, and when Ferdinand returned, he was like a man unable to wake from a dream," the other two looked at her as she continued, and they knew what she meant, they could see it in her.

"He gathered his wife and his daughter around him, and they complained as he dragged them to the exit. His wife wailed, and the stranger bade Ferdinand stop," Rowan's words came with a strange monotonous cadence that caused Alena chills.

"Take only what you can carry on your back, the man ordered the wife. She made a bundle of her jewelry and ornaments, but when she moved to take her daughter by the hand, he prevented her," Rowan hesitated almost like she lost the connection to the memory.

"I said only what you can carry on your back, and you have made your choice, The girl fought, but to no avail. The woman wailed and screamed again, but her husband dragged her toward the exit. When she would not move, he slapped her. She fell on the ground and made it difficult for him to remove her from the room. He whipped her like a donkey until her pain forced to obey," Rowan started to shake, but they feared to touch her in case they startled her; since she appeared caught in a waking dream.

"Once outside, he came to himself, and all he had left was a single gold coin for all his riches. His wife hit pummeled him with her fists and screamed at him that he was a fool. He choked her into silence." Rowan blinked as if she were about to pass out, but her words didn't stop.

"To think I chose my family over my riches, he screamed into her face while she gasped and cried. They slept on the cold dark road that evening and when they woke someone robbed them of all but the gold coin. The man left his wife beside the road and went to the nearest town to get drunk. The next morning he woke to find his wife oddly silent, and the coin back in his pocket," Rowan's nose bled again, but this time it wasn't just a trickle.

"They say that no matter what he spent that coin on, he always woke with it tucked into one of his pockets. He was never again rich, but he lived well. When he died the coin disappeared, some say he swallowed it and that he had choked to death on it. Someone cut him open and found it lodged inside his heart with no explanation as to how it got there," she said with a frown as if something bothered her.

"They stole it, but the next morning the coin had disappeared and the body too," Rowan was sweating profusely, and she swayed before Marcus took her into his arms and held her. Her eyes slowly refocused.

Rowan shook as if she were freezing, her lips were blueish, but she only felt glad that shadowy other place had gone from her min. Her heart beat like a drum under Marcus's hand, and she seemed almost human then.

"How do you know?" He asked, and Rowan leaned back into him, almost unable to sit upright on her own.

"I just do," she admitted shakily, but something tore at her mind like nails over a chalkboard.

"The thing?" He asked sharply.

"No. It was like a memory of... some other me. Like a favorite story told to a child," Rowan explained as her body returned to normal, but she still felt weak.

"A fable?" Marcus asked.

"A story Marcus, a simple stupid bedtime story," Rowan snapped as she steadied herself and he let go of her with some reluctance. She seemed troubled and unsettled.

"A story someone maybe told you?" He asked, and her eyes settled on him with such sadness.

"No one ever told me stories," Rowan admitted as she turned her back on him.

"The castle is real, was real. This Ferdinand owned it. It should be easy enough to verify with church records. Small towns keep records for centuries," Rowan had steadied but seemed disconnected from them.

"Are you alright?" Alena insisted twice before Rowan pulled herself together and fully returned from the present. Marcus fetched the pigskin bag and steadied her hands when she almost dropped it. She took a few thirsty gulps before she could control herself, but the color was already returning to her face.

"I don't know what that was, and as helpful as it may be, I hope it never happens again," Alena said, and Marcus glanced at her. Whatever happened to Rowan affected her too, more than it affected him. Their bond was stronger than any sibling bond he ever witnessed before.

"It wasn't just a dream. I was there, and I could even smell the fire in the great hearth. I could see everything around me, the people, the furniture, the rugs on the floor, and the dogs by the door. It was all so clear, so real, but he was out of focus. All I could see was his eyes, our eyes," Rowan tried to clarify, but her words gave Alena, and Marcus a cause for concern.

"I didn't see through his eyes, but the eyes of another, someone who was and wasn't there. I think it was Helena, but it was as if she reached from the past to touch me," Rowan continued, and the truth of her words lay in her eyes.

"She knew she wouldn't be alive to give us her message, so she linked with us from the past, as did he. She wanted us to follow this path," Alena agreed, and Marcus fetched his charts to plot their course. Alena helped Rowan to her feet, and she was unsteadier than she should have been.

Alena helped her to undress and put her to bed while Marcus found his mind more on the tale Rowan told than the course he had to plot. Something about it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Marcus sensed danger ahead of them that might be unavoidable.

He overcame his reluctance with great difficulty. Marcus wanted to steer them away from this danger, away from people who could reach out to them from the past but suspected he would fail. He had to place his hope in the fact that if he could not protect them, that they would be strong enough to defend themselves.