It had been a slow journey north from Norwich along poor tracks and through areas roaming with footpads ready to rob the unwary traveller. Will had broken his trek at an inn where he had been warned repeatedly not to venture anywhere near Wykenham. Haunted, the locals said. The ground still wet with blood. The cries of the dying heard in the quiet of the night.
But Will had to know the meaning of the final cryptic comment hidden in his friend’s play. You will find the truth in Wykenham.
Was Griffin Devereux, Bedlam’s most terrible resident, responsible for Kit Marlowe’s murder? Was that death linked to the scores who had been slaughtered in Wykenham, or to the devil that the poor, mad soul appeared to have conjured?
Nothing good could surely come of a journey to that haunted village, but he had to know the truth to put Kit to rest in his heart.
Will felt the spectre of his old friend creep back into his mind, as it had repeatedly since that evening at Nonsuch when the Unseelie Court had been forced into retreat. In the thin grey light of the following morn, the spy had stood over Marlowe’s grave in Deptford Green listening to the wind from the river singing in the branches of the churchyard yews. Memories had surfaced, of drunken nights and intense debates about God and politics, but mostly Will had thought about the mysteries that had been threaded through the playwright’s life. Though they had been the best of friends, there was so much that the spy had never seen in Kit. In truth, Will wondered, had he been a poor companion? Had he been obsessed by his own troubles and ignorant of the deep currents that had swept Marlowe into the arms of the School of Night?
And was that why the playwright had cursed Will with a devil that tormented his thoughts and drove him towards an early grave? The spy had thought it an aid, but as Mephistophilis gripped him tighter by the day, he began to wonder otherwise. It would not be long until an end came, he was sure, and his soul would be damned.
Even if that were the case, Will missed his old friend deeply, missed the kindnesses, missed the only man who had understood his life. He could never blame Kit.
As the spy followed the rutted lane around a bend, he saw the silhouette of a church steeple against the starry sky and the low outlines of what appeared to be houses. All was dark.
His horse trotted on.
The trees thinned out as he neared Wykenham, but on one great gnarled oak on the outskirts the spy noticed that a piece of timber had been roughly nailed. Dismounting, Will led his steed over and struck a flint to a handful of dry grass and twigs. The flames fanned up, the orange glow illuminating his brooding face as he leaned towards the timber and read what had been marked there in pitch.
Keep out. The devil is here.
As the spy climbed back on his horse and rode the last length of lane into the village, his skin began to prickle. He felt unseen eyes upon him and an unsettling atmosphere, like the tension before a storm. On the soft night breeze, what sounded to Will like whispers were caught and distorted, but it might have been just the wind in the eaves. A door banged. The shriek of the hunting owl floated across the still street from the yews in the churchyard.
Where to begin the search for clues? The spy tied up his horse and strode into the middle of the street, turning slowly. Long, yellowing grass grew against the timber and daub walls. Panes were shattered and doors hung ragged.
Investigating the nearest home, Will smelled damp and mildew. Pieces of furniture remained in place, stools, benches, a trestle spattered with bird and rat droppings, and flasks and knives stood ready for a meal never to be completed.
Only ghosts lived in Wykenham.
Moving from silent house to silent house, he neared the church where rumour said the greatest atrocity had been committed. The wind moaned through the yews as if to welcome him.
Standing at the lychgate, Will was caught by a movement on the edge of his vision back along the moonlit street. Whirling round, he searched the shadows. All was still. Yet he was sure he had seen someone dash across the way, keeping low.
A door banged, and again, and again, the rhythm matching the beat of the spy’s heart.
At the far end of the village, near where he had left his horse, a shadow bobbed from an open door and was gone in the blink of an eye. Another appeared at the edge of a house on the opposite side of the street. Now he was seeing movement everywhere, as if the dead of Wykenham were gradually waking.
Drawing his rapier, the spy counted at least seven figures slipping in and out of the shadows along the street, all of them converging upon him.
Will’s blood thundered in his head as the shapes crept nearer. He was ready for a fight. Looking around for a place to make a stand, he sensed someone behind him. Turning, he was confronted by another shadow stepping free from the gloom beneath the lychgate.
The last thing the spy heard was a low voice saying, ‘You have found hell.’
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
Will came round on his knees in the darkened nave of the church, amid the faint scent of old incense and with the moonlight breaking through the stained-glass windows. His wrists ached from where he had unconsciously chafed them against the ropes binding him to a roughly constructed timber cross-frame. His head throbbed, more with anger that he had allowed himself to be taken like a novice than from whatever potion had been used to still his senses. And that failure would undoubtedly cost him his life, for Marlowe’s killer — or killers — would never allow him to walk free. He yanked hard at the bonds and rattled the frame furiously, but they held tight.
When the spy looked down, he saw a circle had been inscribed around him with some kind of pigment the colour of blood. Magical symbols were scrawled on the outside and four stubby, unlit candles had been placed at what he presumed were the cardinal points.
Peering into the dark, he thought he glimpsed movement. ‘Reveal yourself,’ he shouted, his voice laced with cold rage.
Footsteps echoed off the flagstones. A figure emerged into a moonbeam, the familiar face dappled by the reds, greens and blues of the stained glass. Dressed in a black half-compass cloak over a fine black doublet embroidered with silver crosses, Thomas Walsingham, second cousin to the old spymaster, Sir Francis, bowed. When he rose, he tugged at the tip of his beard and gave a lopsided grin. Will had not seen him since they had stood together beside Kit’s grave on the day of the funeral in Deptford Green.
‘You are a long way from your grand new home in Chislehurst,’ the spy noted.
‘Needs must when the devil drives.’
Will could contain his anger no longer. ‘You were Kit’s friend,’ he spat.
‘Yes, I was. And patron too, as you well know.’ In the flicker in Walsingham’s eyes, Will saw the hint that this rich, elegant man had been more than a friend.
‘Do ye still need us?’ a voice called from somewhere near the font. Three figures emerged from the gloom. After the patron’s appearance, the spy was not surprised to see any of them.
Sullen-faced and grey of hair, Ingram Frizer would not meet Will’s eye, as he had refused to do in that warm room when he made his claim of self-defence at the inquest into Marlowe’s murder. Beside Frizer were the other two key players in that mockery of an investigation: the moneylender Nicholas Skeres in a shabby brown doublet, and Robert Poley, the spy and cunning deceiver. Poley wore an old black cloak that hung down to his ankles.
‘Take yourselves back to your business. This matter is near an end.’ The patron dismissed the three men with a flutter of his hand.
‘There are too many spies,’ Will muttered, unable to hide his bitterness.
Walsingham nodded. ‘We are good at our deceits. Sometimes so good we can even forget what is real and what is a lie.’ A shadow crossed his face.
‘So, a conspiracy, then.’ Will strained at his bonds.
‘A conspiracy indeed. There is no other way to describe the School of Night.’
‘You are one of them?’
Tugging his beard once more in thought, the patron replied, ‘We are man
y. Though we are not all known to each other, so there are mysteries and secrets among us, too. Raleigh and the others at Petworth had no idea of our involvement in this matter. It had to be that way. We could not risk word of our plans leaking out.’
‘I see that clearly. They would be less than pleased to know you had murdered one of their own.’
Walsingham gave a sad smile. ‘You think poorly of me. Understandable under the circumstances, but it still stings. I always admired you, Master Swyfte. You were a good friend to Kit. You made his life richer and provided a light to guide him through the darkness. For that, I thank you.’
Will was stung by the incongruous tenderness in the patron’s voice. There was love, certainly, a confirmation of what the spy had seen in the man’s eyes earlier.
Clapping his hands together, Thomas gave a silent laugh at the spy’s expression. ‘You have questions. Of course you do. But they are not for me to answer.’ He gave another bow accompanied by a flamboyant sweep of his arm. ‘Perhaps we will meet again, Master Swyfte, in another place.’
‘In hell?’ the spy growled.
‘Hell is all around us. I aspire to somewhere greater.’ And with that, Walsingham swept down the nave and disappeared into the dark.
The spy returned to his attempts to break his bonds, but they were tied too tightly. Gasping for breath after his exertions, he did not hear another figure approach.
‘Hello, Will.’
He was so shocked by the gentle voice that he was convinced his heart would stop. In front of him stood a ghost. Wrapped in a hard-wearing cloak, Christopher Marlowe sported the same sad smile that Will recalled from the last time they had met. His brown hair was a little longer, but the fuzz on his chin still resembled that of a youth. The spy gaped, trying to find words that could express his whirlpool of emotions and thoughts.
The playwright held up a hand, his face darkening. ‘I have been a poor friend to you. I put you through great suffering, but it was all necessary, if you will only let me explain-’
‘I saw your body.’
‘You saw a body.’ Kit sat on the edge of a splintered pew. ‘A poor soul, a seaman, beaten to death outside an inn on the river and transported to Mrs Bull’s house by my good friend Thomas Walsingham and his associates. The sailor had the great misfortune to resemble me in size and shape if not in features. But once his brains had become a caul across his face, none was the wiser.’
Will flashed back to the hot room on that June morning, remembered glancing at the body on the floor when the blanket was thrown aside to reveal the wound to the jury. His grief had prevented him from lingering upon the gruesome sight, and who else in that place would have paid it more than cursory attention? None of them knew Marlowe personally. They might have seen rough engravings in pamphlets, perhaps, but who would remember the features? In the end, it had come down to Frizer, Skeres, Poley and Mrs Bull to confirm the identity of the victim.
The spy grinned. ‘It was a conspiracy.’
Marlowe’s features lit up as he saw the warmth in his friend’s face. ‘It was. A conspiracy to save my life. And what better place to hide than here, in haunted Wykenham, desecrated by my good friend Griffin Devereux, where no man dare set foot.’
‘To escape the death planned by your enemies.’
‘The Unseelie Court had placed me on their list for the killer of spies. I had seen and knew too much of their plot to live. And the Privy Council had decided I was a threat to the very stability of the nation and had to be removed forthwith. Execution was only a matter of time. I have always been skilful at making enemies, less so at conjuring friends. But then the ones I have are worth more than any man could want.’
Will shook his bonds, grinning. ‘Set me free. I would knock you on your arse, and then drink your good health.’
With clear sadness, the playwright shook his head. ‘I cannot do that.’
‘Why not? Set me free, you coxcomb.’
Marlowe leaned forward so he could look his friend full in the face. ‘The consequences of my actions must play out. There is no going back from here. If your presence in Wykenham tells me the Unseelie Court have been defeated, as I hoped once I had alerted you to the plot, then well and good. But the Privy Council, and Cecil in particular, will not rest until I am dead and gone.’
‘I will not let him harm you. I will petition the Queen-’
Shaking his head, the playwright smiled dolefully. ‘My only hope for peace is to leave my old life behind.’
Will thought for a moment. ‘A new identity?’
Marlowe nodded.
‘Kit, what about your reputation?’
‘My reputation.’ Laughing, the playwright jumped to his feet, declaiming like one of his players, ‘That is like the air. But my writing, Will, that means the world to me. If I could not write, I could not live.’ Bending down, he held out a hand passionately towards the spy. ‘But I have made plans, coz. I have a friend, a good man, a playwright of some talent. We will collaborate on many great plays, and though they will be published and performed in his name, I will still have had a part in that grand creation and that is enough for me.’ Spinning around on his private stage, he glanced over his shoulder and smiled shyly. ‘Look out for them, Will. You will know them when you see them, wise and cultured friend that you are. And I will hide in them many clues and messages in wordplay and in code. And I will even give mention to my saviours and the future salvation of this nation, the School of Night. See if I don’t.’
His arms aching, the spy settled back against the wooden cross-frame. ‘Then you will tell me where you live, under what name, and we can meet on dark nights, and drink, and-’
‘No, Will.’ Serious-faced, Marlowe squatted on his haunches so he could look his friend in the eye once more. ‘Cecil knows of our friendship. If there is even a hint I am still alive, he will get to me through you. Or he will, at the very least, punish you … torture you … for knowing my whereabouts. I will not see you suffer.’ He swallowed. ‘Suffer more.’
‘The devil.’
‘Believe me, Will, I would not have inflicted such a terrible thing ’pon you if it had not been the last recourse. To risk your very soul … what kind of monster am I?’ In the grip of self-loathing, the playwright wrapped his arms around his head.
‘Kit …’
‘But I knew your name was on that self-same list, and that the killer of spies would claim your life soon.’ Marlowe looked up, his eyes rimmed with tears. ‘If I had got to you first, I could have explained everything. But there is no doubt I would have been murdered in the process by that foul Hunter that has stalked me half my life. No, I had one gamble and I had to risk all. Griffin and I had talked about the conjuring of devils, and I knew that through that spawn of hell I could both warn you and protect you, if only for a short while. The devil was your servant as well as your curse, was he not?’
Will nodded, stung by the pain his friend was feeling.
‘Good, good.’ The playwright wiped his tears away with the back of his hand and put on a bright grin, though his eyes still told the spy another story. ‘And here you are! Alive and well!’
‘And damned. But I have survived to see you again-’
‘And you will continue to live, free of your curse.’ Marlowe jumped to his feet and pulled out his flint, lighting each one of the four candles in turn. ‘I conjured the devil and I can free you from him.’
The spy laughed heartily. ‘Then all’s well that end’s well.’
Marlowe paused behind Will’s back, his voice growing hollow. ‘But no devil will return to hell without a prize.’
Straining to look round, the spy asked, ‘What do you mean?’
‘I must take your devil upon myself. ’Twas always my plan.’
Will felt a chill reach to the very heart of him. ‘It will force you to an early grave and drag your soul to hell. You cannot!’
‘I must.’ Marlowe danced back in front of the spy. He looked as if a weight had lifted
from his shoulders. ‘This is my gift to you. A free life, and a long one, if any spy may have such a thing. And a chance to make your own mistakes, not carry the burden of mine.’
‘No, Kit. I shall not allow it,’ Will shouted.
‘In this, you have no say.’ The playwright cast one sad, sideways glance at his friend and then walked along the nave into the shadows.
Will raged and cursed, and in the spaces between his oaths he heard Marlowe muttering some incantation, his voice rising and falling in a rhythmic cadence. The world spun around him and he thought he glimpsed angels and demons swooping out of the darkness, and heard the haunting music of a pipe player. Smells came and went — strawberries, rose petals and then the suffocating stench of brimstone. Choking and coughing, his skin prickling, he felt a burden drop from his back, and his heart sang. He was free. A shadow moved beyond the red circle.
His face drained of blood, Marlowe stumbled back up the nave weakly, but he was smiling.
‘Damn you, Kit,’ Will croaked.
They both laughed at that, despite themselves.
‘Tell me,’ the playwright asked, ‘did you see your Jenny?’
The spy nodded.
‘The devil takes the form of a heart’s desire that we consider unattainable. And in this way it inflicts the greatest pain.’ Though the shadow appeared insubstantial to the spy, Kit was smiling at it, tears stinging his eyes once more.
‘What do you see?’ Will whispered.
Marlowe looked from the shadow to Will, but his smile did not alter. ‘I see my heart’s desire,’ he replied quietly, ‘but as unattainable as ever.’ Throwing his arms wide, he waited. The shadow crossed Will’s vision, and his friend gave a deep shudder.
‘Kit, why did you do this thing?’ the spy croaked.
‘’Tis no sacrifice, my good friend. I see you well. And that is all the reward I would ever need.’ The playwright walked around his friend one final time, snuffing out each candle in turn. The darkness swept back in. It felt colder, though Will knew it was only his heart.
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