Cursed

The narrative follows the crew of a grounded clipper off a tropical coast as they contend with a curse invoked by a witch-woman and the advancing war fleet she assembles to recover a local woman or destroy the ship. Onboard, officers and sailors, a doctor among them, debate navigation, face betrayals and make desperate plans while parley, skirmish and a pitched attack test loyalties. Supernatural visitations and visions of the past haunt survivors, prompting acts of self-sacrifice and wrenching choices. The story moves between sea action, island-settlement encounters, and intimate reckonings with guilt and duty, concluding with a tense effort to break the curse and a fragile new beginning.