The Devil's Looking-Glass Part 12

*Lies.' Strangewayes thrust with his rapier, missing Will by a hair's breadth as the older man stepped aside at the last moment. Will could see there was no reasoning with him. His pa.s.sion burned too strong for that. Snarling, Tobias thrust again, and this time Will's sword was at the ready and he parried. The clash of steel rang through the cabin.

Red-faced and puffing, Courtenay looked fit to burst at the display of disrespect upon his s.h.i.+p. *Shed one drop of his blood and I'll have ye keel-hauled,' he roared.

Strangewayes thrust again. Will deflected the tip of the sword with a flick of his wrist. Though he had some skill with the rapier, the red-headed spy was too raw, too consumed with emotion in a way that no true swordsman would ever be, Will saw. His bravado and arrogance had always seemed a s.h.i.+eld to protect his insecurities, traits Will had presumed he would eventually grow out of, given time and experience. Now he wondered if they would be the death of the other man before he had a chance to learn.

Driven by anger, Strangewayes prodded with his rapier as if he were poking a smith's forge. Will parried, once, twice, and at the moment when he could have easily disarmed the other man, he let his rapier fall. Courtenay gasped. Strangewayes' blade thrust true towards Will's heart. At the last, the younger spy caught himself, the tip of his rapier piercing linen. A rose bloomed on Will's s.h.i.+rt. Tobias's hand shook as he tried to drive the blade on, but in the end he could not bring himself to kill. *d.a.m.n you, Swyfte,' he muttered, blinking away tears of frustration.

*I am already d.a.m.ned. Would I be here watching friends suffer and die were that not so?' Will bit down, forcing himself to ignore the pain from the sword digging into his flesh. *There are few friends in this business, but we are all brothers. The bonds run deep. We would give our lives for each other, as John gave his life for the woman you love. No one would ever have called him a good man, but he was an honourable one, yes, even to the end. And honour has more value than gold, for it buys a man a clear conscience and a light heart.'

*And you think you are honourable?' Strangewayes spat.

*We all try to do our best in hard times. And sometimes we fail. That is the nature of men, is it not? And our failures are greater than others' because we play for high stakes, and we feel them more acutely. Know only that I would die for Grace, as would you.'

Strangewayes hesitated, torn between his impotent rage and his sense of honour. In the lull, Courtenay cursed, s.n.a.t.c.hed up the cudgel he kept by his trestle and clouted the younger spy round the head. Strangewayes pitched to the floor in a daze, his sword clattering across the boards. *Let that knock some b.l.o.o.d.y sense in ye,' the captain thundered.

*Leave him. He is heartsick and worried for the woman he loves,' Will said, aware of the irony in his words.

*This is my s.h.i.+p, not a Bankside stew,' Courtenay snapped. *My rules, Master Swyfte.' He paused, eyeing the fallen spy. *Yet I will show a little kindness on this occasion, as he's a friend of yours. But if he raises his blade in anger to one of us again, it's over the side with him.' He grabbed the scruff of Strangewayes' unders.h.i.+rt in his meaty hand and dragged him across the cabin, flinging him out of the door with a boot up his a.r.s.e. Will felt concerned that the humiliation might only make Strangewayes angrier, but he had more pressing matters to concern him.

*Keep an eye on that one,' Courtenay rumbled as if he could hear Will's thoughts. *He's still got too much of the spoiled child in him. If his temper gets the best of him again, you might find that steel going right through ye.'

Will shrugged, feeling the weight of his responsibility to Grace. *We will shape him to be a man, one way or another.'

b.l.o.o.d.y Jack grunted dismissively.

A warning call rang out from the topman and Courtenay and Will stepped out on deck to find the men leaning over the starboard side, pointing, brows furrowed. The captain barged his way among them, making a s.p.a.ce for Will. For a moment, shock lit Will's features. The ocean had turned brown as far as the eye could see, and the air was thick with a stink like wet dogs. Peering closer, he saw that the Tempest now sailed through a dense bank of seaweed, the glistening tendrils tugging at the galleon's hull.

*Avast,' Courtenay bawled to his men. Once the sailors had trudged away from the rail, the captain leaned in to Will and whispered, *I told ye: right where we shouldn't be.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

THE SEA OF stinking brown weed seemed to stretch to the blue horizon. The Tempest sailed through the boiling heat as if she were ploughing a furrow in an autumn field. The seamen lined the rails, watching with uneasy eyes while they recalled all the fearful tales of that place they had heard in quayside inns across Europe.

Leaning out, Will glimpsed dark shapes weaving sinuously among the floating clumps of seaweed; eels, he thought. He glanced around for the land he presumed must be near.

b.l.o.o.d.y Jack shook his head. *No land here,' he said. *Not for days. This is the great Sarga.s.so, a sea within a sea. All around, the currents are the strongest you will ever encounter, but here s.h.i.+ps drift in this forest of weed, and grow becalmed. It is a strange place, sailors tell, haunted, and most give it a wide berth.'

*The weed will not hold us fast?'

*The wind, or lack of it, is the greater problem. The weed can snarl a rudder, at worst. It floats on the surface in vast mats. I have fathomed it meself here, and there is no bottom. A Spanish sea-dog told me how his vessel was becalmed for weeks in the middle of this stinking sea. To conserve their water, the crew were forced to throw the war horses o'erboard and feared they would not get out with their own lives. There is nowhere like it in all the oceans.' His brow furrowed. *And yet . . . My mind plays tricks with me. The last time I skirted the Sarga.s.so the weed looked different . . .' His voice tailed off. *It remains a mystery to me how that storm blew us so far off course.'

Will heard a troubled note in the captain's voice, but his attention was caught by the swimming shapes. One broke the surface, black skin glistening in the sun. As thick as a man's arm, the eel seemed to have a face akin to a baby's, with wide eyes and full lips that revealed a hint of sharp teeth. A strange mewling sound rose up, cut short as the thing darted back below the surface.

Courtenay recoiled. *G.o.d ha' mercy,' he hissed under his breath.

Will thought back to the white men-fish that swam beneath the surface of the frozen Thames and asked, *You have seen the like of that before?'

*Never. Nor have I heard word of such.' He crossed himself. *I do not believe this is the Sarga.s.so at all. It is some devil-haunted place we have sailed into.'

The sun beat down; the breeze began to fail. An uneasy mood descended on the men as the Tempest drifted through the reeking seaweed. Eyes flickered up to the sagging sails, watching for the moment when the breeze finally died and the galleon would be stranded there. The sea-hardened crew pretended not to notice those mewling noises rolling across the gently lapping swell. And with each hour that pa.s.sed the weight of apprehension grew until every man was suffused with a deep dread of what lay ahead.

When the sun was at its highest point, the lookout called. Three dark smudges emerged from the heat haze over the seaweed ahead. s.h.i.+elding his eyes against the glare, Will saw that they were barques. As the Tempest neared, he realized that there was no movement aboard. Two were little more than rotting hulks, listing low in the water, the sails but tatters. He did not recognize their design, but the crudity of the build suggested great age. Courtenay tugged at his beard, his brow creased.

The third s.h.i.+p sported a Spanish flag, hanging limply from the mainmast. Brown weed swelled up its hull. *I would investigate that barque,' Will said, pointing.

b.l.o.o.d.y Jack sighed. *I had a feeling you were going to say that, Master Swyfte.'

All eyes remained down when the captain asked for volunteers to board the Spanish vessel. Roaring in anger, he chose three men at random and they shuffled off to lower the rowing boat. As Will prepared to climb down the rope ladder to where the vessel bobbed, Strangewayes stepped up. A bruise bloomed on the side of his forehead. *I would accompany you,' he muttered, his expression sullen. After a moment's consideration, Will consented with a nod.

The seamen sculled away from the Tempest with hesitant strokes, their unsettled eyes darting around the waves of brown vegetation. Will sat at the prow, studying the path ahead. The weed bundled up ahead of the boat, the choking stink of it even thicker now they were surrounded by it. One of the sailors, a pockmarked, pink-faced man, cried out as one of the eel creatures leapt out of the water, disturbed by the oars. Its jaws snapped and its eyes swivelled towards them as if it knew what it was seeing. The men muttered prayers, rowing faster, but that only disturbed the creatures more. The sea on either side churned as they leapt up, mewling and crying in tones that were unsettlingly human.

*Fish, nothing more,' Will called out in a rea.s.suring voice, keeping his eyes fixed on the Spanish s.h.i.+p ahead. *Only fish.' The seamen continued to mutter. Strangewayes withdrew his hands from the sides of the boat and clasped them between his thighs.

In the sticky heat, they pulled alongside the larger vessel and one of the seamen hurled a grapnel over the rail. One after the other, they climbed. The s.h.i.+p was still, the only sounds the whispers of the hull. Will wrinkled his nose. An odd smell hung across the stained deck, like a butcher's shop on a summer noon. *Search below,' he said to the three men, who looked as if he had ordered them to leap into the sea. *Call out if you find anything of note.' He beckoned to Strangewayes, and strode to the captain's cabin, his hand resting on his rapier's hilt.

The cabin was no cooler. He sucked in a mouthful of stale air, casting an eye over the berth and the chart-covered trestle. By the compa.s.s a half-eaten biscuit lay in its crumbs next to a cup of wine. Strangewayes prowled around the trestle, eyeing the food as if it would bite him. *The captain left in a hurry,' he said.

*Abandoned his own s.h.i.+p?'

*Taken, then. By pirates.'

*Perhaps.' Will looked round, seeing no signs of a struggle. Dropping to his knees, he traced his fingers across the dusty boards, but found no bloodstains. He flicked open a chest under the broad window to reveal the gleam of gold plate, cups and coin.

*I do not like it here,' Strangewayes said, looking round the hot, gloomy cabin. *It feels haunted.'

At the trestle, Will pushed a quill and ink-pot aside and opened the captain's leather-bound journal. He ran one finger under the florid scrawl, silently translating the Spanish entries. *He speaks here of an isle of devils, and hearing the tormented cries of lost souls in the night.' He skimmed the pages and read on. *A city of gold. Manoa, he calls it. "No man may escape it, save that he traverses the labyrinth before the Moon-Tower."'

*If this city of gold exists, Philip of Spain will have sent a fleet of galleons to loot it,' the younger spy said.

*Perhaps.' Will recalled the Faerie Queen's words from her cell in London and her mention of a Tower of the Moon which kept open the way between their worlds. He continued reading the journal. *"Long hours were we caught in that maze, fearing what was at our backs. And yet the way became clear. Twice stare into the devil's face, then bow all heads to G.o.d. Thrice more the unholy must call. Again, again, again until the end."' Will reflected on the message for a moment, then tore out the page, folded it neatly and slipped it into his leather pouch.

Strangewayes wandered to the window and peered out into the west. *G.o.d has abandoned us,' he said in a low, desolate voice. *I fear what lies ahead.'

The pounding of running feet echoed across the deck, accompanied by the frightened cries of the seamen. Will stepped out to meet them. Eyes wide with fear, they gibbered and plucked at their clothes with anxious fingers. Will glanced towards the dark entrance to the lower decks, the door swinging slowly shut. *Survivors?' he enquired in a calm voice, his fingers folding round his sword-hilt.

*Voices,' the pockmarked man said breathlessly, looking over his shoulder at the closing door. *We were on the orlop deck and we 'eard 'em.'

*From the bilge?' Strangewayes enquired.

*From . . . from the other side of the hull.'

*In the water?' Will demanded.

The man nodded. *We heard their nails scratching on the keel, and their whispers-'

*What did they say?' Strangewayes snapped, grabbing the sailor by the shoulders.

*"Join us",' one of the other sailors whispered. His hands were shaking. *"Join us."'

Will pushed Strangewayes to one side and leaned in, tapping his head. *The mind plays strange tricks,' he said.

But the seaman shook his head furiously, having none of it. *This is a s.h.i.+p of ghosts,' he insisted. *We are doomed if we stay here. They will come for us-'

Will felt Strangewayes' eyes on him, but he did not acknowledge the look. *Let the dead whisper to the fishes,' he interjected. *We are done here.'

Sweating and red-faced, the seamen heaved the rowing boat back to the Tempest with furious strokes, their gaze never leaving the drifting seaweed. Will himself half expected to see hands rising from the surface or dead faces looking up from the pools of dark water among the vegetation.

Once they were back on board the galleon, Courtenay set the helmsman to steer a steady course west through the strange dead sea. The deserted Spanish s.h.i.+p fell behind them, but even then Will thought he could feel eyes on his back. For the rest of the day they creaked along under the unforgiving sun, and as twilight began to fall they broke out of the bank of vegetation and into open water. Will felt the mood lift, and not long after he heard Courtenay's throaty laughter rumbling across the deck as the crew began to sing.

Yet he found himself haunted by what he had read in the Spanish captain's journal. An isle of devils. Lost souls in the night.

With the red sun low on the horizon, he found his worst fears confirmed. Wreckage drifted on the swell ahead: a shattered hull, chests and barrels, masts tangled with rigging and ragged sailcloth. *Caught in the storm?' Will asked as Courtenay joined him at the rail.

The captain tugged at his beard in his habitual manner as he studied the shattered remnants. *Mayhap.'

They watched in silence until b.l.o.o.d.y Jack caught sight of a torn flag floating by: a red cross on a white background. *One of ours, then,' he said. Neither of them needed to express what lay heavy on their minds. The captain sent two of his men out in the rowing boat and in the dying light they returned with a sodden remnant of the captain's log bearing the s.h.i.+p's name: the Eagle, the carrack which had carried Dee and Meg. Will felt a momentary pang of despair.

Strangewayes appeared at their side, fresh from ministering to Grace. He looked tired and drawn; Will had not seen him eat since the storm. There had still been no improvement in her condition and Will's mood darkened further.

*Can there be survivors from such a wreck?' Strangewayes asked. *If Dee is lost-'

*This is not the time to speculate,' Will said, a little more curtly than he intended. For a moment, his thoughts turned to Meg, but he set them aside when the lookout cried, *Land ahoy!'

Courtenay's brow furrowed. *There is no land in these waters.' Yet when they rushed to the forecastle, they saw white-topped waves cras.h.i.+ng against a jagged reef, and beyond it the hazy outline of an island in the dying ruddy light. *Hard a starboard,' the captain bellowed to the helmsman, adding with a growl, *We'll not end up on the rocks like those other poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.'

Will gripped the rail, peering towards the island. He could make out a hilly, tree-covered central area, and grey cliffs to the south and north with a stretch of sandy strand directly ahead. *Dee could have washed up there,' Strangewayes said in a hopeful tone.

*Aye,' b.l.o.o.d.y Jack growled, raising the tele-scope to his eye. *He's as tough as a tanner's hide, that one. Wring his scrawny neck and he'd still keep on breathing. And I've wanted to do that a time or two. We'll sail to the north and drop anchor. Only a madman would try to cross that reef with night coming in,' he added without a hint of irony.

Will watched the darkening waves as the s.h.i.+p sailed astern. So much misfortune had afflicted them in recent days, he barely dared to hope for some small relief. Beside him, Courtenay cursed. *What afflicts that fool at the helm?' Once more, the island lay directly ahead. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the tele-scope from his eye and roared to the helmsman, *I said, hard a starboard!'

The Tempest turned a starboard again, but within moments Will blinked his eyes in the growing gloom and saw the island ahead of them once more. Courtenay's face darkened. *Will we never be out of these cursed waters?' he muttered.

Three more times they attempted to sail round the island's northern edge, and three more times they failed. *It seems,' Will said, *that this island is waiting for us.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

STREAMS OF TORCH-FIRE blazed through the dark of the London night. Alarmed cries rang off the high stone walls of the Palace of Whitehall as the guards raced across the courtyard, their boots clattering, weapons clanking as they ran. In the flickering light of the brands worried white faces were caught, eyes urgently trying to pierce the deep gloom around the Lantern Tower.

*Find it!' Sir Robert Cecil bellowed. A sheen of sweat glistened on the spymaster's forehead despite the wintry chill that had reached long into spring. *Slay it without a moment's thought.'

He whirled as a low snarl rumbled out from a corner of the courtyard, a sound that would not have been out of place in the Queen's menagerie but which he knew came from something that walked like a man. A moment later the growl echoed from the other side of the square. So fast, he thought, quaking.

The torches whisked around in confusion. In the gloom, stars of ruddy light danced off burgonets and cuira.s.ses. The spymaster glimpsed a pale face frozen in the wavering flames, mouth ragged with horror, but it was gone in an instant. Another man dashed past him, yelling in fear. Round and round he spun, caught up in the visions flas.h.i.+ng before his eyes a a stabbing pike, a guard staggering back, clutching his head, a blood-spattered burgonet bouncing across the cobbles a until he grabbed at his chest where his heart was pounding fit to burst.

Those inhuman snarls seemed to be echoing all around, as if there were a host of the things and not just one.

Another face flashed by, torn and b.l.o.o.d.y. The guard stumbled in the dark and lay still.

Cecil cried out in a fury born of fear, demanding his men do something, anything, to end this slaughter.

And then, as the snapping and snarling reached a new pitch, the b.e.s.t.i.a.l cry was cut off with a strangled gurgle.

*To me,' the spymaster bellowed. As the surviving guards gathered around him, their combined torchlight lit a chaotic scene. Fallen bodies, gleaming pools of blood and scattered cordwood where the intruder had attempted to tear through the towering bonfire surrounding the Lantern Tower to free the Faerie Queen. *Is it dead?' he barked. He needed to show that he was not afraid, but his hands would not stop shaking.

*'Tis gone.' The voice floated out of the dark. Cecil s.n.a.t.c.hed a torch and stalked towards the sound. The flames lit a man dressed in a costly sapphire doublet and breeches, the face half turned away. He gripped a rapier dripping black blood and his cloak covered a still form on the cobbles. *Send your men away. They should not see this.'

The spymaster recognized the intruder and waved the unnerved guards away. Once they had gone, Sir Walter Raleigh stepped out of the shadows into the circle of light from Cecil's torch.

*If Her Majesty knew you were here . . .' Cecil began.

*And will you tell her, so that I can relate how I achieved what your impotent band could not?' The adventurer stooped to wipe his blade on the already bloodied cloak. *A foul thing,' he said, turning his nose up at the twisted shape beneath the folds. *There have been many of them?'

*In recent times, too many.' Cecil pressed the back of his quivering hand against his mouth, steadying himself. *The Unseelie Court may not be able to set foot upon this still protected part of England, but that does not prevent them from sending their agents in to engineer disaster.'

Raleigh sheathed his rapier. *But the Faerie Queen still resides in her tower-prison and the bonfire is still piled high to roast her like a suckling pig. All is well in the world.'

Cecil snorted, his laughter bitter. *How much longer can we go on? Those fiends whittle us down by degrees. And now you are here.'

Raleigh bowed, sweeping one arm out with ironic flamboyance.

*Your secret society, your School of Night, seeks to use this calamity to your own ends,' the spymaster continued with contempt. *While the Queen's government is distracted and out of joint, you step in and seize power. Is that how it is?'

*Sirrah, you wound me. We in the School of Night are all good Englishmen, loyal to the Crown.'

Cecil paced around the other man, looking him up and down. *Then why are you here, risking the wrath of the Queen? You have not yet earned your way back into her favour.'

*In these darkest hours, the School of Night will stand shoulder to shoulder with you-'

The spymaster laughed again. *To worm your way into the heart of government. To learn our secrets, things that you can put to good use should we survive this catastrophe.'

Raleigh tapped the form under his cloak with the toe of his shoe. *And that matter of survival is still in doubt. For now, can you refuse our aid? We have knowledge, we have wealth, when the coffers of England are near empty. And we have some skills you may be able to use.'