The signs may have shown you the way here as they did me.”

Alec dropped his gaze. The captain gave the impression he had embarked on some great and marvelous adventure. Alec had no desire to go along. He tried to decide what best to do. Again he warned himself not to antagonize this man. He must hang on to the lingering belief that the captain, despite his supernatural beliefs, meant him no harm.

“Do you mean the legend has to do with horses?” Alec asked.

“Very much so,” the captain answered. “My people looked upon horses as gods returning to earth in animal form. They ran in terror before the mounted Spaniards, believing them to have supernatural powers that enabled them to control the god-horses.

“However, my great ancestor, the chief guide to de Avilés, knew the horses were animals and, according to his records, wanted a mount of his own. De Avilés promised him a horse if he would betray his people by leading the Spaniards into the swamp where the Caribs were hiding. This he did quickly and with no remorse.

“During the attack, the Caribs in their terror and need called upon Koví for help. They asked him to destroy those who had gained control over the god-horses. It is written in the records that Koví answered by bringing swift death to the invaders, and upon my great ancestor fell the most dreadful fate of all. Upon him and his family the curse of Koví, a fear and suffering worse than death itself, would forever remain.”

“That’s primitive nonsense,” Alec said.

“Perhaps I would think as you do,” the captain answered, “if Odin had not convinced me otherwise. When I arrived in Haiti a month ago, he was dying. I found him on the floor of his hut, his body twisted in agony and his flesh as cold as death. I thought him dead until I opened his eyelids and found him staring at me in mortal terror. He seemed to know who I was, for his twisted body, which I had thought paralyzed, uncoiled with the lithe movement of a snake, and he jumped to his feet.

“I hardly knew what he was up to when he grabbed the figurine from my hand. As I have told you, I often hold it when I’m under any kind of stress or strain. I attempted to get it back from him, telling him who I was, but he continued to look at me in horror, as if he believed some terrible thing about me. It was then, too, I realized that his twisted body was not unlike that of the figurine.

“He began to speak in a kind of monotone, never taking his eyes from mine. I barely understood him. It sounded as if he were warning me of something from which there was no escape. There were only a few intelligible phrases that I could make out and ‘the curse of Koví,’ repeated over and over again.

“As the moments passed, I found that to understand his mutterings really didn’t matter much to me. I had become very dizzy, almost to the point of fainting, which had never happened to me before. It was a shaking experience. Lights seemed to flash from behind my eyes. My ears drummed to the sound of his monotone. I didn’t collapse but I came very close to it.

“I don’t really know how long it went on. When I recovered my senses I found myself sitting across from him on the dirt floor, my legs folded as were his, and strangely conversing with him as if we had known each other a long time.

“He seemed to know why I had come to Haiti, more than I understood myself, actually. He knew that I am a professional horseman.