Gena and Nina dropped on their knees beside the grave to offer a pray to their gods for Fransa.
"Do not waste your time praying for her," Jason told them. "She does not need your prayers for her departed soul."
"Why?" Gena demanded in anger and surprise, still on her knees.
"Because she has not yet departed this life," a quiet voice said from the shadows, and Fransa stepped into the light cast by the torches, still clad in her funeral robes. She had been unable to stay in the house alone. She was still afraid of the obeah, even though she knew he was a prisoner at the warehouse.
Gena screamed and collapsed over the grave. Makau paled and started forward, his hand reaching for his sword. He would send the spirit of the dead back to the grave.
Nina, Uma, Celania, the captain, and the slaves had all frozen like statues.
Jason stepped quickly between Makau and Fransa, staying his hand.
"Do not kill your daughter," he said.
"She is already dead," Makau snarled. "She should return to her grave."
"I am not dead, Father," Fransa said, holding her arms out to him. "I was rescued by the Warrior of Earth."
"Do you then also travel to the underworld to battle the gods?" Makau gasped.
"I didn't have to travel that far," Jason said with a laugh. "I only had to go as far as the temple, where she had been taken after the obeah removed her from her grave earlier. She was not dead, but under the power of powerful drugs that made her body resemble death. I assume these were administered by Ytsa when he masterminded the attack on her, but I have yet to find the answer. I tried to penetrate her mind when I found her body. It reflected a black wall. I should have realized it then, but a dead mind can reflect nothing. When the brain is dead, there is nothing to probe so there can be nothing to see. I was foolish. I should have known."
"What matters is that she is safe now," Makau said, hugging his daughter to his chest. "She owes you her life."
"Not her life, because she was never really dead, but her freedom was definitely at risk. If I had not found her in time, she would have been made a slave at the temple, made to serve Ytsa until he tired of her."
"What shall we do with him?" Makau muttered, his hand falling to his sword. "I would dearly love to separate his head from his body, but that would be revenge not justice."
"Hand him over to the council. He has to answer for two murders at least," Jason suggested. "Why not recommend he be returned to the members of the cult for their punishment? They tell me the old obeah was a just man. Their revenge could be interesting."
)
