‘What kind of sacrifice?’ I demanded, and felt myself shiver before he even replied.
‘Human,’ Dee murmured.
Alice cried out and put a hand to her mouth. Beside her on the stool, the Lady Elizabeth drew a sharp breath, then crossed herself.
‘May it never come to that, God willing,’ she responded, and I could see that she was shocked and perhaps even a little disbelieving.
To me, it seemed inevitable. Of course it would take nothing less than a human sacrifice to save Alejandro from death. My fingertips buzzed painfully with the need to work magick, my scalp prickling as I tried to keep myself calm. My powers were running high that night, responding perhaps to the proximity of the great conjuror John Dee. I had not forgotten what Dee had shown me in his cell at the Fleet prison, nor the vision that had haunted me for months now, of the desolate place where I would kneel for my death, Marcus Dent behind me with an axe in his hands.
I wanted to scry in the dark mirror again tonight; beg Dee to show me what the stars held in store for Alejandro. But I must not forget why we were there – to allow the Lady Elizabeth to consult John Dee in safety and secrecy. Nothing else mattered.
In the uneasy silence, Dee unrolled a chart and weighted it down on the table with two large rocks. ‘Shall we look at your stars and their transits, my lady? You see here? This symbol represents the planet Mars, that has proved most troublesome to you this year. It provokes anger and conflict in a man’s chart and suggests marriage for a young woman. But in the chart of a princess, it may indicate war.’
‘War?’ Elizabeth looked startled.
‘A war between countries,’ Dee suggested, frowning over the chart, ‘or a war between sisters.’
‘And who will win this war?’
He studied the chart for a moment in silence, then conceded, ‘That is not shown. I can consult the angels on this question, however, for often when a chart is unclear they can provide enlightenment.’
Her brows rose. ‘What else?’ she asked icily.
‘Saturn may be a growing problem for you,’ he indicated a symbol on the chart, ‘both natally and in transit. As the planet swings around the zodiac, it will make a troubling aspect to your Moon in Taurus.’
I craned my neck to see what he was pointing at, but it was unclear. The crabbed black symbols were too tiny and intricate for me to make out. I had not been invited to view the princess’s horoscope so did not dare lean in to study it. But even from a distance of several feet I could see the powerful lines criss-crossing her diamond-shaped chart.
‘A dark spirit comes to haunt you,’ Dee concluded thoughtfully, tapping the house containing her Moon in the sign of Taurus as though it held all the answers.
‘A dark spirit?’ I repeated, staring at him in horror, and saw Elizabeth’s head swivel like an owl’s.
Angrily, the princess flicked her fingers at me to take a step back, and I had no choice but to obey. But my heart was beating fast. A dark spirit. A dark spirit comes to haunt you. What could he mean but the vile shadow-thing I had seen at Hampton Court?
There was sweat on my forehead and I wiped it away with my sleeve. The fire was so hot in this little space. My gown felt too tight and it was getting hard to breathe.
I had felt for several days now that the vile creature had followed us here from court, maybe some vicious Hell-spirit intent on destroying Elizabeth. But without proof I could hardly speak of my fears to the princess, or indeed to Alejandro. They would think I was mad. I had often wondered myself if I was mad, for what I had seen in the Great Hall at Hampton Court made no sense – except perhaps to an inflamed brain.
‘This is a subtle transit,’ Dee continued, ‘but a powerful one that may change you for ever. I urge caution though. Saturn is a malevolent planet and often the harbinger of death.’
Something was happening to me. I began to clench my fists as Dee was speaking. Then my mouth stiffened into a grimace, I could not control it. Everything in my body was reacting to his reading of the chart, the tiny hairs standing up on my arms and on the back of my neck, my stomach aching, my head throbbing with the pain of a megrim that had come on sudden and violent as a thunderclap.
I must have made some sound, because Elizabeth suddenly glanced round at me, exasperated. ‘Stand away from us, Meg! I do not need a village witch to interpret my horoscope. Astrology is not a woman’s skill but a man’s.’
I willed myself to obey. Yet I could not seem to move. I could hardly speak either, I felt possessed. My eyeballs were burning in their sockets, my tongue heavy and leaden in my mouth.
A voice inside me was whispering, Look at the horoscope. Look at the stars. Speak to the lines they draw across the chart. Look to the transits.
The small hut began to burn in my vision. My gown had caught fire, I was going up in flames. I would be consumed for all eternity, damned as a witch. The shadows danced crazily about the walls, heaving up and down like a tidal river in flood.
I stared, fixed and intent on the princess’s horoscope, and heard the voice inside shouting, Look to them! Look to the lesser and the greater lights!
Elizabeth stood. Her face was contorted, as though she too was possessed. ‘I commanded you to stand away, Meg! Why do you not obey? Don’t make me dismiss you from my service.’
Dee met my eyes for a moment in silent warning.
I stepped back, gasping and trembling, my blood thundering at my temples.
I had not shouted. I had not even spoken. My gown was not on fire. The room was smoky and warm, but pleasantly so. Whatever powerful creature had possessed me for those few moments of madness had left me empty. I slumped against the wall, limp and used-up, a weak-minded fool who had allowed herself to be violated.
‘Elsewhere in the chart,’ Dee continued more quietly, his voice so low so that I could hardly hear him, ‘I fear that the transit of Venus to your natal Jupiter may bring you too much into prominence at court this winter, when it might be better to lie quiet in the country.’
They spoke together in murmurs for some time while I pressed my back against the wall of the hut, feeling sure I must be mad. The voice in my head had gone, but for those few seconds it had utterly consumed me, left me wrung out like a cloth, my body so cold away from the fire that I began to shiver.
Alice stood fretting and white-faced by the door, not looking at me any more. I was not surprised. My odd behaviour must have frightened her, left speechless, staring like a madwoman at Dee’s horoscope. I tried to catch her eye but Alice bent her head to examine her own foot, looking as though she wished she was anywhere but here, stuck in this dangerous place with a crazy witch and a man who had already been arrested once as a suspected traitor. In the end, I gave up trying to bring her round and focused on the astrologer instead, catching the occasional remark whenever Dee raised his voice.
Richard came in from outside, stamping mud off his boots. It had been a damp start to the autumn and some of the grounds were still flooded from the last heavy rainfall.
‘Your priest is not very talkative.’
I glared at him, but was glad of the excuse to give up my vain attempt at listening to Dee. ‘Alejandro is not mine,’ I whispered, not wanting to disturb the horoscope reading again, ‘and he’s not a priest either. He’s a novice.’
He shrugged. ‘Still not very talkative though, is he?’
‘Perhaps you said nothing to interest him.’
‘Or perhaps he’s an arrogant fool who will one day need my help and won’t get it.’ Dee’s apprentice came very close to me in the cramped, smoky hut. I longed to shrink away, finding his presence disturbing, but did not want to give this boy the satisfaction. His skin was swarthy, like a Celt’s, and his eyes were almost black. He narrowed them now, watching me. ‘You have courage, don’t you? I admire that in a woman.’
I did not reply, looking back at him coldly.
Richard seemed to mistake my stillness for encouragement. He seized my chin and wrenched my head towards th
e firelight, studying my face. ‘I doubt your priest would ever be interested in what I have to say. But I know something that might interest a witch.’
‘Take your hands off me!’
‘Easy, girl, I was only looking. I don’t bite.’ His hands dropped away, yet he did not move, still standing so close we were almost touching. ‘Not unless you beg me to.’
He was laughing at me.
My temper flared and I stepped away. I spread my fingers wide and pointed at him, opening my mouth for a curse that would teach this rude, black-eyed, upstart apprentice a lesson.
Suddenly I was flat on my back, my ears buzzing as though filled with bees, unsure exactly how I had got there. My body hurt though. My back was aching, and I felt dizzy and badly winded as though someone had punched me in the stomach.
I tried to sit up and the beamed ceiling of the hut swam violently above me. Laying my head back down on the rough ground, I closed my eyes and tried to regain control. That vile black creature on the ceiling at Hampton Court. Was it here again now? Was that thing the unknown force that had suddenly knocked me off my feet?
Dimly I heard Elizabeth exclaim in horror, then opened my eyes to find that John Dee had come to stand over me.
The astrologer helped me to my feet. ‘What happened?’
I shook my head, staggering slightly. ‘I . . . I don’t rightly know, sir. It felt as though something threw me across the room.’
Dee turned to look at his apprentice accusingly. ‘Richard, did you do this?’
It seemed like the stupidest question to be asking at such a moment, and I stared blankly at the astrologer. Of course his apprentice had not thrown me to the ground. Was the man a fool? Could he not tell this had been some kind of supernatural attack?
To my amazement, Richard did not deny his master’s accusation. He shrugged, watching me through the smoke. ‘The witch was about to curse me. What was I supposed to do?’
‘Duck,’ John Dee suggested drily. ‘Now, why don’t you three young people wait outside until we are finished? And don’t forget to apologize to Meg, Richard. Or I may be tempted to send you back to the gutter where I found you.’
It was considerably cooler outside the hut. Banished while Dee finished his consultation with the princess alone, I stood a little way from Alejandro and tried not to register his brooding stare. Yes, he was angry with me, as well as angry with Richard, and it was something we would need to deal with before long. But for tonight, the only thought in my head was, How on earth had Richard done that?
‘What happened in there?’ I demanded, staring at Dee’s apprentice. I saw Alejandro’s head turn. ‘Are you a witch?’
Richard was fiddling with the pin on his cloak, which had become entangled in its folds. He looked up at my question, raising his eyebrows. ‘I beg your pardon? Do I look like a witch?’
‘I don’t know, what does a witch look like?’
‘Nothing like me, that’s for sure.’ His face turned hard as granite, giving nothing away. ‘I can see you at the end of a hangman’s rope though, Meg Lytton. Best be careful what you say.’
I considered trying to force him to answer me with magick. A spell to reveal the truth. Then I remembered his trick of knocking me flat on my back, and changed my mind. My aunt had often said there were many paths to the truth. Rather than continue to argue and make him angry, it might be better to try another route.
I smiled, leaning close to him. ‘Don’t worry, I understand.’
‘You do?’
‘I was afraid to admit it myself at first. There’s no shame in that. Not when our kind are hunted down like wild animals, then hanged from a gibbet for all to see.’ My voice grew warmer, drawing him in, making him drop his guard. For a moment the soft light from the lantern glowed brighter, a shining circle of protection against the darkness. Our eyes met. ‘But you are amongst friends. You may speak freely here. We will not betray you.’
‘You think I’m afraid?’
‘We are all different, Richard.’ My voice was honeyed, seeking to ensnare him in the spell. Eyes, voice, words, breath. My hands moved slowly, tracing an ancient sign in the air. ‘Those of us who are given the power must choose our own road. I do not judge you for yours.’
But Dee’s apprentice was wholly unaffected by the spell, observing my efforts with what I knew to be scorn. My heart sank as he bowed with a mock flourish. ‘I am glad to hear it, mistress. Did you bring anything to drink, or can you perhaps conjure me up a large cup of ale? I’m parched.’
Alejandro had been listening to this exchange with a puzzled expression, his brows knitted together. Now he came forward. There was a threat in his voice. ‘This boy is a witch?’
‘Less of the boy, if you please, Señor Priest.’ Richard smiled coldly, showing his teeth. ‘And no, as I have just been at pains to demonstrate, I am not a witch. Though I do possess certain powers. Powers a mere woman could never hope to understand.’
‘Oh, I see,’ I muttered, trying to rein in my temper. ‘And what are these powers? Where did you learn them?’
Richard looked at me with undisguised contempt. ‘I did not need to “learn” them, as you might learn a mathematical table or a foreign language. They were mine by right of birth. Some have been worked upon by practice and study, it’s true. Master Dee helps me with that. But most of my powers are natural and come to me from God.’
At this, Alejandro gave a snort of disbelief.
Shooting him a look of acute dislike, Richard continued, ‘Master Dee tells me he has never met anyone else with such powerful God-given gifts, that I am a true adept.’
‘But what can you do?’ I demanded.
Richard’s glance was dry. ‘You mean, besides flattening you like a buzzing fly before you could work your woman’s magick on me?’
‘You did what?’ Alejandro came fiercely between us, his hand on the hilt of his sword, his dark stare fixed on the apprentice’s face.
The difference in their heights was more noticeable now, the Spaniard easily taller and more broad-shouldered than Richard. Alejandro was also the more angry of the two, his temper rarely roused but far more intense than my own. He meant every word when he was angry, and that determination was what made him dangerous.
‘I swear to you, sirrah,’ Alejandro growled, ‘you hurt this lady, I will make you hurt in your turn a thousand-fold.’
Richard glared back at him. ‘Try it, priest.’
His sword was halfway out of the scabbard before I could intervene. My hand gripped Alejandro’s right arm. ‘Stop, Alejandro! Put up your weapon. We must not fight amongst ourselves, we are all here to serve the Lady Elizabeth and keep her safe from harm. Or had you forgotten your promise of allegiance?’
The two young men stood staring at each other by the pale light of the lantern, face to face, like two rams poised to lock horns in battle.
To my relief, Alejandro’s good sense seemed to return. He took a deliberate step backwards, and sheathed his sword again. I could see from his eyes that he was still burningly angry, but in control of himself.
‘Don’t touch her again,’ he muttered, but directed this remark to the air rather than the apprentice, so it wouldn’t need to be answered.
Alice had covered her face with shaking hands during their abrupt confrontation, but peeked again now. ‘Oh good, you’re not killing each other. Please don’t start fighting.’ She sat down heavily on a fallen tree trunk. ‘I can’t bear men who shout. They remind me of my father.’
‘Forgive me,’ Alejandro said unevenly. He looked at me, then away. ‘I lost my temper.’
‘Well, I’m not sorry,’ Richard remarked, seeing my expectant glance, ‘so don’t expect me to apologize. The priest started it.’
‘He has a name,’ I reminded him.
‘Yes, and I’ll stop calling him “priest” when he stops calling me “boy”,’ Richard promised, and crossed himself with utter solemnity. ‘I swear on my life.’
Alejandro’s jaw clench
ed. He turned to face him again, the anger back in his face. ‘Are you blaspheming now?’
This time I put a hand on Alejandro’s chest and pushed him away. Forcefully. ‘Look, why don’t you go and stand over there by Alice?’ I suggested, and shook my head in disbelief. I couldn’t understand why he had become so tense and aggressive since Richard’s arrival. The last thing we needed was to fight amongst ourselves and risk drawing dangerous attention to John Dee’s presence here. ‘Go look for spies. Guard the doorway. Please, Alejandro.’
Reluctantly, he obeyed me and at last I was able to speak to Richard without interruption. I led Dee’s apprentice a few feet away from the hut, out of the narrow circle of light cast by the lantern we had brought, so we could talk without being overheard. All the same, I was careful not to arouse Alejandro’s temper by standing too close to Richard.
‘So, these powers. You can push people away with your mind, like you did with me before? You don’t need to use words?’
Richard frowned, not understanding. ‘Words?’
‘Spoken spells.’
‘I told you, I’m not a witch.’
I digested that, confused. I had once or twice managed a familiar spell without using words, but in general my spells tended to work better when accompanied by exhortations and commands in Latin. That ancient tongue just seemed more in tune with the natural universe.
‘What else can you do?’
He folded his arms across his chest, staring at me broodingly. ‘Why should I tell you? You give me nothing in return.’
I hesitated, wary now. ‘What do you want in return?’
‘That depends what you want to give me.’
I was annoyed by his mocking replies. ‘This isn’t a game, Richard.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Isn’t it? That’s a pity, I was just about to break the rules.’
‘What are your other powers?’
He contemplated me in silence for a moment, then shrugged. ‘I can speak with spirits.’
I shuddered, remembering my terrifying interview with Dee in his cell. The astrologer had conjured my aunt’s spirit against my wishes; I had looked into her dead eyes and felt real fear. Such spells were neither right nor natural, though they were a great show of strength by the conjuror.
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