Emma’s heart lifted and her words started tumbling out of her mouth. “Have you seen him? Do you know where he is?”
“No, no one ever knows where he comes from but he is usually seen around Billingsgate. ‘Tis said by people that a restless spirit haunts it. No one will go near there now, even the Gentle Men and riders are said to avoid it.”
Emma looked out the window. Through the warped glass she could see a road curling away into the distance with houses leaning forward like giant oaks ready to come crashing down.
“Where is Billingsgate? Is it far?”
“’Tis not far. ‘Tis but a stones throw from here.”
“Will you show me?” Emma knew she was pushing her luck but she had to try it. Time was not on her side and she was becoming more aware of it as every day passed.
“I cannot. I have done too much already.” Elizabeth’s eyes flitted around the room as she responded. It was obvious to Emma that pushing any further would be pointless.
“Will you at least tell me how to get there?”
“That is easy. Leave this abode; head back east and follow the road as it bears right. Down there you will see a small inlet with three ships. They are deep-sea barks waiting to offload their cargo. They will wait there until the end of time and like everything in this place, rot as they do but head past them and you will be at the entrance to Billingsgate. Be careful, the docks have never been a safe place to go after dark and this world is no different. Take care not to make your presence obvious.”
Emma knew exactly where she meant. She had passed it on many occasions with Father Eamon and had looked over at the ships waiting at anchor. Their masts, poking upwards, swaying gently left then right at a slow metronomic pace always seemed to have a calming effect on her.
Emma rose from her seat and went to give Elizabeth a hug by way of thanks but Elizabeth drew back. The sleeves of her dress fell away and Emma recoiled in horror at the sight of her lower arms. They were covered in the same pustules as on her face as well as lesions.
“Oh my god, Elizabeth, what’s happened to your arms?”
“Please go, now! I must collude with you no more!”
Elizabeth rushed passed Emma but was careful not to touch her as she did so. She reached the door and flung it open. “I must ask you to leave now!”
“E..Elizabeth is there anything I..”
“Go, now! There is nothing else for you here!”
Tears welled in Elizabeth’s eyes and Emma headed for the door. As she walked through it she turned back, but Elizabeth’s eyes were fixed on the floorboards and she was already closing the door.
As it slammed, Emma tried to take in what she had just seen. Her feelings of shock were mixed with regret at her reaction. She wanted to go back in and apologise, though she knew that it would have done no good, but it worried her to see Elizabeth in this way. Instead she turned and looked down the street towards the bend in the road that led to the docks. She headed away from Elizabeth’s house and looked back only once but could not see any movement. It hurt her that she was suffering but then wasn’t everybody else in this place? Emma thought about how her time here had hardened her and she didn’t like it. If I get out of this place, I won’t ever leave another person in that situation again.
She made her way slowly down Thames Street towards the inlet until she found herself at the bend in the road. Here, St. Mary at Hill, a steep narrow passageway that led upwards towards Tower Street joined it. It sat opposite the inlet and its dark presence made Emma a little uncomfortable. She tucked herself in under the eaves of a large house that looked out over the ships and studied the ground ahead of her. The road peeled away until it stopped at the inlet. There it split into two and worked its way around the ships until it arrived at the rivers edge. By the ships were wooden cranes, their jibs pointing skywards as the masts of the ships swayed gently next to them, the sound of the waves lapping against their hulls slipping through the air.
Emma stepped gingerly out into the road and headed towards the first of the ships. The wood on the hull was rotting and its shredded rigging creaked in protest as it fought to keep the masts and their spars from toppling over.
A film of water and slime underfoot caused Emma to slip over. As she picked herself up she heard a groaning noise from the other side of the dock.
Jesus, what was that?
She froze and waited to see if it happened again but there was nothing, just silence. She got up; rubbing her bruised ankles and headed towards the river. Other ships sat at anchor waiting for spaces in the dock that would never become available. All were low in the water, weighed down by their cargoes of tobacco and spices from the new worlds.
The groaning noise drifted back across from the other side of the ships and Emma ducked behind some bales of wool that sat by a crane. She looked over to where the sound came from and saw a set of barrels piled against a wall. By them were four large kegs standing side by side next to a mixture of ropes coiled haphazardly in a corner.
“Don’t you worry, sweetie, ‘tis just the barrels groaning as they breathe.”
The voice caused Emma to spin round. A man was standing in the shadow of a large warehouse facing onto the Thames; he walked out into the open and Emma saw he was limping. He leant on a wooden crutch and seemed to be looking her over.
“Yeah, just the barrels, but ain’t all that’ll be groanin’ by the time we’re done with her. In’t that right, Unwin?”
The second voice came from the rigging of the whip that was now behind her. Emma turned to see another man, hanging about halfway down from the main masts crows nest. As she turned a hoarse laugh came from behind her.
“Yep, it’s been a long time since we had one as pretty as this one, Shandy. A long time.”
Emma felt a creeping revulsion rise in her as she took in the situation. The one called Shandy was dropping through the rigging with all the dexterity of a man who had spent his life at sea. The one called Unwin was making his way forward from her other side and she realised she had been caught in a crude pincer movement. She looked around her but she had her back to the Thames and there was nothing at hand to defend herself with.
She looked at them and decided that Unwin was the best bet for passing as he was only doing half the speed of the other man who was now halfway down the gangway that ran from the ship to the dockside. Emma set herself low to the ground and thrust herself forward in the same way she had when she had run track events for her university.
The man called Unwin was caught by surprise as she pushed passed him but he managed to catch her trailing leg with his crutch and Emma felt the searing pain of the dockside cobbles as they collided with her knees for a second time in five minutes. She forced herself to stand but she was only halfway up when she felt all the wind knocked out of her lungs by a sudden impact on her back. It became obvious within seconds that the impact was caused by one of the men as a pair of hands worked their way around her waist.
Had they managed to wrap their way around her arms at the same time then they may have got their way but as it was they were free and Emma managed to twist and thrust an elbow behind her before forcing her head backwards. Her aim was good and she was rewarded with a howl as the grip around her loosened. She kicked out and found her target again, this time eliciting another howl. As she got up, she heard a scream from behind her but this was from further back and it was one of terror not pain.
“No, please, I’m sorry. We was only having a bit of fun.”
Emma turned to see the man called Shandy cowering on the floor and Rodolfo towering over him. She couldn’t hear what he was saying but his eyes were glowering down at the crumpled form below. Her attention was dragged from them by the sound of groaning. Immediately in front of her Unwin was lying on the floor with both hands covering his nose. Emma felt the blood rush to her head and ran forward landing a well aimed kick directly between his legs. The howl that came from the man was several decibels higher than the previous one and
she drew some satisfaction as tears start to roll down his cheeks. He tried to speak but was unable to get past the coughing and sobbing.
Emma heard another scream as Rodolfo lifted the man called Shandy off the dock floor and with a final curse threw him into the Thames. The screams followed him all the way in and Emma rushed across to see what had happened to him but had to stop before she followed him in.
“Emma, what brings you here, child? How did you know how to find me?”
“One of the residents told me.”
“Hmm…I always knew that this place would not last forever. Well that’s how but it still doesn’t answer why.”
Emma hesitated. She had all this planned in her head but now that she was standing in front of him, she didn’t know where to start.
“We should get inside and when we do, you can tell me why it is that you are here.”
Rodolfo led Emma into the warehouse that Unwin had used to hide himself whilst he had watched her. It was empty except for a set of ladders to the floor above. Rodolfo led her up and towards the back of the building. There Emma saw a table and chair as well as a bed. On the table was a scroll of parchment, a quill and a half-melted candle.
“Sit, child.”
Emma sat on the seat and waited for Rodolfo to stop pacing the floor. When he did, he turned and faced her.
“Now tell me, why would you risk the docks to find me.”
Emma struggled to find the words to explain. How would he react? Would he help or would he be like Father Eamon, a stickler for rules and etiquette? Somehow Emma doubted that.
“Rodolfo, I have a…favour to ask of you.”
Emma felt the familiar tingle of nerves in the backs of her hand as she waited for his response.
“Well I cannot say yay or nay until I know what it is, can I?”
Well at least he hadn’t said no which was a relief but the next bit was the hard bit.
“Rodolfo, when we first met, I was in this realm but when we spoke afterwards I was in the blitz. How do you manage to travel between the realms?”
The question seemed to catch Rodolfo off guard and he paused before answering. “Why would you ask such a question, child?”
“It’s been something I’ve been curious about since we spent that night in the department store.” Emma lied.
“No, no I think not. You would only ask such a question if it served a greater purpose.”
Emma groaned, had he seen through her that easily? How did she proceed from here? Well she might as well try to appeal to his better nature.
“I do have a reason, you are right but, please, could you tell me before I tell you why I’m asking?”
Rodolfo thought for a moment and Emma tried to read his expression but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Then he came to a decision.
“Would I be right in thinking that you have a theory to this?”
Emma felt a weight lift off her shoulders as he replied; maybe there was a chance after all.
“Well, err, from what I know you just disappeared and no one knew what happened to you. I’m guessing you didn’t get here by dying and aren’t restrained to one realm because of that.”
A half-smile spread across Rodolfo’s face and he continued his pacing. “When Isabella disappeared, there was no reason for me to stay with the camp but I did. I decided to dedicate my life to try to understand what happened to her. It took me years but in that time I discovered many things that completely changed my perception of what it meant to be alive. I discovered forces at work that went way beyond what we had understood and I eventually managed to get an idea of what had happened to her and why.
“At the start I went back to Siena. I spent some time studying the ancient texts kept there. My eyes were opened to a great many things and, eventually, I realised I had to travel further to increase my understanding of what was being laid out in front of me. I set out for Rome, in the hope of studying at the Vatican library but on the way I was waylaid by men who tried to stop me. Poor fools, if they had known that in their efforts to kill me they were actually setting me free, then I am sure that they would have thought twice about it. I managed to escape them and knew that it was no longer safe for me in those lands so I went into hiding. During my time in hiding, I heard rumours of a way into the afterlife that did not involve dying.
“Gypsies and travellers spoke of a cave that could be used to transfer between worlds. It took me years to track down the source of this rumour and it was the devils own job itself to find out the truth but when I did, I knew that I must find this cave. If the stories were correct then it was high up in the Carpathian Mountains and would require a superhuman effort to find.
“In the end I found it but it took me a further three years. When I got there, I spent six months preparing myself for the journey I was to undertake. I ate only berries and melt water until my body was nothing but skin and bone and then I set myself in a trance. A crevice opened up and I was shown a way into this world. What you see here is my spirit but because my body is still alive and my connection to it constant, I am able to travel to different realms the same way you travel back to the land of the living, all that I have to do is place myself in a particular area that I know is shielded from view in the realm I wish to travel to.
“Now I have kept my part of the bargain it is time for you to tell me why you have gone to all this trouble to hunt me down.”
Emma took a deep breath and went into the reason why she had come looking for him and why it was that she was determined to go after Taryn. When she was done, Rodolfo sat on the end of his bed. He rested his arms on his knees in the way that she had seen Father Eamon do on so many other occasions and stared at the wall before letting out a deep sigh.
“Emma, child, what you are suggesting is a fools errand. I understand your love for Taryn, she was your friend from childhood and those bonds are nigh impossible to break but what you wish to do has never been done and even if you were to try it, Newgate Gaol is a fortress which cannot be easily breached and, if nothing else, you are destined for greater things. It would be madness to hand you to the enemy.”
Emma felt deflated but not defeated. She had hoped that Rodolfo would help her and there was no doubt that his participation would have made things a lot easier but as it was she would have to go it alone and think of a different plan.
“Well thank you. I won’t waste any more of your time.” Emma got up and headed towards the ladder.
“Heed my words, Emma. Do not do this.”
“Don’t do this? How can I not? Taryn’s in there and I’m partly responsible. I’m going ahead with this with or without your help.”
Rodolfo grumbled under his breath. “You say the right words, child, but you know not of what you speak.
“What have you been told about Newgate Gaol?”
Emma went quiet. For all her planning she had never really considered what might face her if she was to get in.
Rodolfo’s brow creased at Emma’s hesitation. “Hmmph, I thought so. You remember I spoke of the Cado Angelus?”
Emma nodded.
“Well Newgate Gaol is their domain. From there they terrorise and subjugate all who are condemned to that place.”
Doubts started to creep in to Emma’s mind. “If that’s the case, why don’t the guides kick them out?”
This brought an ironic smile in response. “Why indeed. Have you heard of the treaty of Cordoba?”
Emma nodded. “Father Eamon told me about it.”
“Yes but did he tell you that the treaty that was agreed to and that which was signed was different?”
“No.” Emma looked at Rodolfo, her doubt now replaced with confusion.
“I thought not. It is not surprising. To understand why, you must understand the circumstances surrounding the treaty signing.
“Whilst it was true that the Cado Angelus wished for a truce, it did not mean that was the end of their ambition.
“The night before the treaty s
igning, under cover of darkness, a Cado Angelus agent slipped into the signing chamber and made subtle changes to the wording. Nothing that would have been picked up should someone do a quick read through the following morning, but enough that once the treaty was signed the Cado Angelus turned the twilight plane in to the place you see today.
“There never used to be time limits to initiates stays in this plane. It used to be that they stayed here until they finished their tasks and then moved on. Time was irrelevant in this. Once the treaty was signed all that changed. The changing times you walk through, the creatures released after dark. All this is a result of the Cado Angelus’ duplicity at the treaty signing and if they had their way this is how your old world would be as well.”
Emma went to ask a question but Rodolfo raised his hand.
“I have not got to the bit you must consider. The icing on their cake was Newgate Gaol. A clause in the treaty allowed them a small presence in the plane. Using this they took over Newgate Gaol and it is now what you see today.
“You ask why the guides do not kick them out? It is because they are barely strong enough to hold on to what they have now. Did you not see how far and wide they had to stretch to get enough people to fight the Soul Gorger?
“You may be on the right side, Emma, but that is no guarantee you are on the winning side.”
Emma mulled over Rodolfo’s words. They brought clarity to her thought that had been missing before. Sitting on a hessian sack she worked through all the possibilities that her actions could have before standing back up.
“I understand everything you say and I realise this is going to be difficult but I’m not going to change my mind. I have to do this.”
Rodolfo looked like he might explode with frustration and went to argue back but this time it was Emma’s turn to stop him. “My mind is made up. Will you help me?”
Isabella's Heiress Page 29
