The Devil's Looking-Glass Part 17

THE CANDLE GUTTERED. Shadows flew across the chamber as the storm crashed against the tower like waves against a reef. In the flickering light, Will levelled his rapier and waited for the first of the Unseelie Court to crawl through the holes in the shattered ceiling. He could sense them, clinging to the rain-lashed roof as they waited for their moment. And then they would come like the storm, he knew, teeth and swords and talons, wild eyes and blood.

Dee clambered to his feet and lurched to an iron lever protruding from a slot in the flagstones. Gripping it with both hands, he wrenched it back. A deep grinding reverberated through the walls. *There,' he exclaimed. *The path through the maze is open.'

*Go, then,' Will replied. *The Tempest waits in the cove. I will hold them off.' Though death was closer than it had ever been, he set aside fear and doubt. He breathed deeply, bringing the stillness inside him. The storm faded away. The flickering light troubled him not. He was ready.

As Dee stumbled through the door, Will heard a distant shout, and another answering. Tapestries flapped in the gale. Rain pooled on the flags, soaking the age-old books. Still the Unseelie Court waited. Were they taunting him? Trying to frighten him? They knew what strategies worked from generations of torment at lonely farms and on paths through dark woods, but this time they would be disappointed.

The door crashed open and Carpenter and Launceston burst in, blades drawn. Behind them, Strangewayes stumbled, delirious. *Ignore him; he is less than useless,' Carpenter sneered with a nod. *He failed to discover Dee's paste upon the mirrors.'

*Ah, John, you are sharp as a knife, as always,' Will said with a flourish of his left hand.

The other man shrugged. *Only a fool would have failed to find it, sooner or later.' Muttering to himself, Strangewayes stumbled back out of the door.

Launceston eyed the holes in the roof. *So, they wait for their moment, like rats in a barn at night.' He shook his head and called, *You waste our time. Come now and be done with it.'

The candle guttered one final time and then winked out.

As the dark swept across the chamber, Will braced himself. He had the door at his back, Carpenter to his left, Launceston to his right, but they were at a disadvantage. The Fay always wrapped themselves in the night.

When the wind dropped for a moment, he heard the soft thud of someone dropping to the flagstones, then a second. He could sense the other presences in the room, like a yawning grave, but how many had entered he did not know. Gooseflesh p.r.i.c.kled on his skin as the chamber grew colder.

For too long a moment an unnatural silence hung and then Lansing's icy voice floated through the void. *This is what awaits you, a mere taste of death. No heavenly reward, no soothing fields of green or long-lost loved ones. An endless nothing.'

*Rea.s.suring words from the masters of deceit,' Will replied, one eyebrow arched. *Why, whatever I hear from your lips, I believe the opposite.'

*We speak the truth when it suits us,' Lansing replied. *What say you, Master Carpenter? Shall I tell a tale of weakness and betrayal? Or-'

*Your lies are wasted on us,' Launceston interrupted, unfamiliar pa.s.sion edging his voice.

Will swished his rapier from side to side. He was ready should the other Fay creep forward in the impenetrable dark. If he could keep Lansing engaged, at least he could pinpoint the Fay lord's position in the chamber. *What are you?' he asked. *In all the stories we are told, your form and nature change with the teller. Imps, sprites, spectres, bloodsuckers. Fallen angels and demons from the depths of h.e.l.l. Are you the devil's children?'

In the ringing silence that followed his question, Will thought he was being ignored, but then Lansing began, *You think this world belongs to man? We were here first.' Bitterness swelled his voice. *No man could ever understand our pain, our grief, our loss. You call us devils, but in truth we are angels. Saviours-'

Carpenter snorted with derision. *Our saviours?'

*This world's saviours. From our new homes under hill and lake and sea, we watched your slaughters and your brutality, the destruction you set in motion with barely a thought for consequence. When you put women and children to the spear, and burned others at the stake, and seared flesh with hot iron and put out eyes and lopped off limbs, we saw you were unworthy of this land that you inherited.'

*All men are flawed. But we deserve the right to aspire to greater things,' Will replied. Sensing a presence only a hair's breadth from his cheek, he whipped his rapier around, but the steel met only thin air. He felt cold eyes upon him nearby, and flexing fingers keen to tear out his throat or turn his innards to straw or stone.

*It is too late for that,' the Fay lord replied. *Perhaps . . . once . . . before you stole our Queen and meted out your atrocities upon our kind. But now this world will be better without the infestation of man.'

*A fight to the death, then,' Will said.

*'Twas always going to be that way,' Launceston sighed. *Could you imagine our two races living side by side? Let us be done with it, though the world burn down in the process.'

*And there is man in essence,' Lansing whispered. *Let us be done with it.'

Trusting his instincts, Will lashed his rapier downwards. The blade sliced into one of the Fay creeping towards him through the dark. A furious howl filled the chamber. Beside him, he could hear Launceston and Carpenter putting their blades to work, and cursing at their inability to see. As he swept his sword back and forth, a haunting song reached his ears from the stone steps beyond the door, the words growing clearer as the singer neared. A woman's voice, it was, and it could only be Meg.

*There were three ravens sat on a tree, They were as black as they might be.

With a down, derry, derry, derry, down, down.'

Dee's potion still gripped her, Will thought, and he called out to warn her away, but still she sang.

*Then one of them said to his mate, Where shall we our breakfast take?

Down in yonder green field, There lies a knight slain under his s.h.i.+eld . . .'

Notes of sadness and regret drifted out through her lilting voice. Even the Unseelie Court seemed entranced, for Will sensed them pause in their attack. When the door swung open, candlelight glowed. Glancing back, he saw Meg framed in the archway. Bafflement filled him; he saw no trace of stupor in her face. But then he noticed her smile, darkly triumphant, and he recognized the Meg of old, when such a smile preceded a length of b.l.o.o.d.y steel. Yet her eyes were filled with the deepest sadness, and that puzzled him.

*His hounds they lie down at his feet, So well they can their master keep.

His hawks they fly so eagerly, There's no fowl dare him come nigh . . .'

. . . she sang, and then she raised her candle up so her red hair was all aglow, and beckoned behind her. The roar that echoed up the stairs would have chilled even the most hardened warrior. Will thrust Carpenter and Launceston to one side. On the other side of the chamber, the Fay crouched like cornered animals, mouths black slashes in their bone-white faces.

Something thundered up the stone steps. Will glimpsed only a flash of oily black skin and fierce white eyes as the Mooncalf bounded past him with a full-throated roar that made his ears ring. No male could fail to be entranced by Meg, he laughed to himself, and even this wild beast danced to her tune.

As a tumult of rending and tearing, howls and shrieks erupted, the three spies tumbled from the chamber. *Your surprises always come with a sting in the tail, Mistress O'Shee,' Will murmured.

*You can thank me later, my sweet,' she replied, *and fulsomely, I would hope. But let us not tarry here. Fierce though the Mooncalf is, I fear he is still no match for a pack of those predators.' A shadow crossed her face, and Will thought he glimpsed there a hint of regret, or guilt, that she had sent the beast to its doom. Perhaps her heart was not as hard as she liked to pretend.

Carpenter and Launceston hauled the barely conscious Strangewayes to his feet and the five spies made their way down the steps to the mirror maze, each trying to shut out the awful sounds a as if a bear were being set upon by a pack of dogs a coming from the chamber above.

*Fear not for Dr Dee,' Will told the others. *He has gone on ahead, safe and sane, I would hope.' But as they pa.s.sed the final looking gla.s.s, he grabbed Red Meg's hand and slowed her descent. *What was that creature?' he asked.

The Irish spy looked away, her voice but a whisper. *The captain of our s.h.i.+p, transformed by Dee's deviltry to be his servant when first we washed up on these sh.o.r.es.'

Now Will thought he understood her dismay. What suffering had that man endured, should his wits have remained in his new misshapen form? And what corresponding monster lurked in Dee's heart that he was capable of such a thing?

Launceston caught his arm. *We have an opportunity here,' he breathed. *Our Enemy are engaged at the summit of this tower. It would be good if they could not leave. I have little stomach for nigh-on three months of sea battles all the way back to England.'

Will understood the Earl's mind. He turned to Meg and asked, *Would there be such a thing as a powder store in this place?'

She smiled.

Down winding steps and into the dank cellars, they ran in her wake. And in the lowest point where water pooled and rats as big as cats ran from the light, she threw open a door to release the bitter reek of powder. Six barrels stood by one wall. *Where they came from, I do not know,' Meg said. *Many things were left behind by whoever occupied this place before us.'

*'Twill suffice,' Will said with a grin. He nodded to Carpenter and Launceston, who found a chest containing ample fuse. Once they had laid a long strand, Will took out his flint. *Now,' he said, *let us see how hot those devils like their h.e.l.l.'

CHAPTER FORTY.

WILL AND THE other spies raced from the door at the foot of the tower into the bl.u.s.tery night. The rain had stopped, but the encircling trees thrashed in the gale. As they splashed through pools of rainwater, the spies saw torches dancing in the dark along the edge of the courtyard ahead of them. Will caught a momentary glimpse of Dee sweeping towards the lights. Courtenay's voice boomed out: *Finish off those dead b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Hack them to pieces.' Swords rose and fell, glinting in the flickering light. Without the help of the Fay, the remainder of the ghastly pirate crew didn't stand a chance.

*Take cover,' Will yelled as he ran. The captain and the crew gaped. Waving his hand to force them away, he shouted again, and this time the men scattered beyond the lip of the courtyard. When Meg struggled to keep up in her skirts, Will swept her into his arms without missing a step.

*How das.h.i.+ng a protector,' she teased, flicking her hair away from her face.

*Even in the face of death, Meg?'

*Especially then.'

As they reached the edge of the courtyard, the night cracked in two. Fire blazed across the sky, the earth shook and the thunderous explosion sounded like a hundred cannon. The force of the blast flung the spies down the incline from the courtyard. Chunks of masonry rained about them. Ahead of a wave of smoke and dust, fire-flakes of wood and parchment spun by.

Coughing, Will staggered to his feet, throwing one arm against his face as protection against the choking fog. He found Meg, leaning dazed against a tree, and dropped beside her, taking her slender hand. He felt his fears subside as her eyelids fluttered open. She smiled when she saw his face. *The angels have come to claim me,' she said wryly.

The spy pulled her to her feet and she half fell into his arms. *Our lives are hard fought, Meg, but the richer for that,' he said. Blowing a strand of auburn hair from her face from the side of her mouth, she rolled her eyes, feigning aloofness, but Will sensed the warmth between them.

As the smoke and dust cleared, they searched in the gloom among the trees until they had rounded up everyone and gathered at the end of the courtyard. From somewhere in the trees, Courtenay's bellow a.s.sured them that he too was hale and hearty. Will turned to survey the wreckage of the tower. The wavering torchlight revealed a jagged stump licked by flames beneath a plume of black smoke reaching up to the lowering clouds. Of the Unseelie Court and the Mooncalf, there was no sign, nor did he expect one.

Courtenay strode into the circle of torchlight with Dee and Grace by his side. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Will's accusing glance and said, *She insisted on coming ash.o.r.e. Filled with fire, that one.'

*I am glad to see you well,' she said as blithely as if she had met him in the palace gardens.

*Grace,' Will sighed, *you are a fine bundle of trouble. Can you not stay out of harm's way just once?'

*I can well look after myself, Master Swyfte,' she snapped, stepping past him to tend to Strangewayes, who sat on the low stone wall with his head bowed. *A fine thing to be scolded for worrying about close friends and loved ones,' she called back.

Will shook his head wearily and turned to Dee, who seemed to have recaptured some of his vitality along with his wits. His back was straight, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng with intelligence, his stride purposeful, but still Will worried that he might slip back into insanity. *I have had enough of cowering away like a whipped cur,' the alchemist exclaimed, jabbing a finger at the spy. *My blood is up, and I am ready for the fight with those pale-skinned b.a.s.t.a.r.ds back in England.' He paused, then added, *If Elizabeth will have me, and if that hunchbacked plotter Cecil isn't whispering in her ear to have me sent away to the darkest parts of the realm.'

*We need you, doctor. And the Queen needs you,' the spy rea.s.sured him.

Dee nodded curtly, satisfied. *I need the sun on my face.' Glancing up at the clouded night sky, he spun on his heel. Off to work his magics, Will guessed. The island mirrored the alchemist's mood.

While Courtenay's men took the captured pirate Jean le Gris, still limping from the wound in his thigh, back to the Tempest to face justice, Will sat with Carpenter and Launceston, watching the dark sky. Steadily, the wind dropped until an eerie stillness lay over the woods. It seemed that all of nature was holding its breath. The storm clouds overhead scudded away without a whisper of a breeze and after a moment a silvery glow lit the sky on the eastern horizon.

*At last,' Carpenter muttered. *I thought this night would never end.'

Launceston pursed his lips, watching the light shade to gold. *Four hours, I would say.'

*Four hours until what?'

*Until I have to listen to you bemoaning the oven heat that beats you down to the deck and wis.h.i.+ng it was night again,' the Earl sniffed, walking away.

Carpenter hurled a stream of abuse at the other man's back. Laughing to himself, Will stood and went in search of the sorcerer. As he walked, he sucked in a deep breath, relieved that this long night had ended far better than he could have hoped when he first set foot upon the island. Along the path to the beach, he found Dee resting beside a moss-draped statue of a nymph. *You have completed your ritual, then, doctor?' he asked.

*That business came so much easier when I was hiding behind the walls of my madness,' the old man grumbled.

To the west, the lightening sky flickered with folds of a rainbow of illumination. Will felt reminded of the green lights he had seen in the northern skies in Scotland. *What is that strange display?' he asked, his brow creasing. *More of your magics?'

Dee glanced up, the odd radiance playing in his eyes. *This island stands on the boundary between the world we know and whatever lies beyond.'

*The place where the dead go?'

*Some call it such. Since our most ancient times we have always looked to where the sun sets . . . the light fades . . . and thought it the home of those who have moved on. When I was a boy, my father told me about the boat that waits by the sh.o.r.e to ferry the souls of the newly departed across the great wide ocean for judgement. And then, on the night he died, I saw the boat waiting and his own pale shade walking the lane from our house.' He shook his head as if to dispel the memory, and looked away. *It is the home of the Unseelie Court,' he said in a quiet voice.

Will sensed a confusion of thoughts in the old man. Dee had spent his days probing the great mysteries that enveloped life, and here was one of the greatest, a puzzle that wrapped up life and death and grief and yearning, the promise and threat of greater powers than man's, and all man's fears about the purpose of life.

*What if,' Dee had said to him once, staring deep into the blazing fire in the Black Gallery, *man was only placed upon this world as sport for higher powers?'

Without another word, the old man trudged down the path towards the sh.o.r.e. Will was about to follow, but heard Courtenay calling him. With a sigh, he returned to the courtyard where a few men had been sifting through the wreckage of the tower for anything that could be salvaged.

*Le Gris's men have been released from their torment and can now face their just rewards in Heaven or h.e.l.l,' he said, cracking his knuckles. *Another triumph for England's finest. By noon I will have charted a course for the island of Hispaniola to take on fresh water and supplies. And if we encounter any Spanish dogs, it will be a joy to despatch them after the things we have battled these past weeks. And then to fair Albion. With a good wind, Dee can be rebuilding our defences with his cursed sorcery before the bluebells have gone from the woods in Kent.'

*May good fortune watch over you, Captain Courtenay,' Will said, clapping a hand on the other man's arm. *You and your crew have earned the Queen's grat.i.tude, and a joyous release in the stews of Bankside.'

Courtenay's eyes narrowed. *You speak as if you are not sailing with us.'

The spy glanced back to the dancing lights in the western sky. *It was never my intention to return to England. I am a lost soul, captain, and I must find my way to the land of the dead. This morning I will take le Gris's s.h.i.+p and a skeleton crew and sail to the home of the Unseelie Court. Nothing shall stop me finding the answers I seek. And then I will bring the walls of that fortress cras.h.i.+ng down, though it cost me my life.'

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE.

THE RIBBON OF white sand glowed in the morning sun. Sparkling blue sea lapped in the cove and a cooling breeze rustled through the woods as the two men wandered along the sh.o.r.e. The intoxicating scent of the large pink flowers on the spiky-leaved shrubs along the treeline drifted down to meet the salty air.

*You are a fool,' Dee growled. The skirts of his purple robe swept a wide path along the beach.

Will felt an unfamiliar lightness now he had finally given voice to the inevitability of his destination. *If it is foolishness to want an end to the torment of unanswered questions, then so be it.'

*The answers may be worse. Have you thought of that?'

Will shrugged. *It is a gamble I am prepared to take.' If only the alchemist knew how much he had risked, he thought. How long it seemed since that night in the Liverpool rooming house when he had first started to form his plan. The sight of Jenny in the obsidian mirror had let loose a rush of desperate emotions and thoughts, as if the dam holding back all those years of misery had suddenly broken. He still felt surprised how little it had troubled him to put the Queen, and all England, up as his stakes in his great gamble. Never would he alone have been able to ama.s.s the fortune necessary to fund a galleon to sail to the New World in search of Jenny. But once Meg had told him that was Dee's destination, he knew he could trick the Crown or the School of Night into giving him what he needed. And so he had let the alchemist go, knowing full well that the old man could have fallen into the Unseelie Court's hands and everything he held dear been washed away in a tide of blood. All for Jenny.

*You have always been a gambler, Swyfte, with your own life and with others'. That recklessness will be your downfall.' Though the tone of his voice was accusatory Dee's look was not unkind.

*My life was blown off course that day a the day the person I cared for more than any other disappeared,' the spy replied, looking to the far horizon. *I have made do as best I can, but not a day has pa.s.sed when I have not thought of her. I am trapped in a maze where my mind keeps me in one place, and I would be free of it. What happened to her that day? Why was she chosen, and not me? Has she suffered? Has she endured-' The words caught in his throat. *These questions haunt me.'

Dee snorted. *You speak as if these things matter.'