“Why
would these so called dark forces of yours want to do that?” the
Captain asks. “To play with our minds? Where would the
profit lie? And why are my wife and child unaffected?”
“I'll
answer your last question first if I may?” Phoebe replies.
“Mermaids and sirens are not to the fore in the superstitions of
your wife and child. I'd imagine they've been having troubles of
their own.”
“The
girl has been having nightmares,” Briggs speculates.
“Well
there you are,” she says triumphantly, “The child has bad dreams,
no doubt your wife is similarly afflicted with some private hell.
But you and your crew, however, why even the most sceptical of sea
dogs know the stories only too well.”
“That
doesn't explain why?”
“No,”
she tells him, “It doesn't. And the sorry truth of it is that
there is no reason for it, save there are those in the Weft who would
find such activity a thing of entertainment, to play with the crew of
a twice named ship. There are those who would find that
entertainment indeed.”
