Lord John and the Hand of Devils

by Diana Gabaldon

  He drew Hognose to a stop, turning his head from side to side, listening intently. He was sure he heard it--but what was it? No words were distinguishable above the moaning of the wind, but there was a sound, he was sure of it.

  At the same time, it seemed to come from nowhere in particular; try as he might, he could not locate it. The horse heard it, too, though--he saw the bay's ears prick and turn nervously.

  "Where?" he said softly, laying the rein on the horse's neck. "Where is it? Can you find it?"

  The horse apparently had little interest in finding the noise, but some in getting away from it; Hognose backed, shuffling on the sandy ground, kicking up sheaves of wet yellow leaves. Grey drew him up sharply, swung down, and wrapped the reins around a bare-branched sapling.

  With the horse's revulsion as guide, he saw what he had overlooked: the churned earth of a badger's sett, half hidden by the sprawling roots of a large elm. Once focused on this, he could pinpoint the noise as coming from it. And damned if he'd ever heard a badger carry on like that!

  Pistol drawn and primed, he edged toward the bank of earth, keeping a wary eye on the nearby trees.

  It was certainly crying, but not a child; a sort of muffled whimpering, interspersed with the kind of catch in the breath that injured men often made.

  "Wer ist da?" he demanded, halting just short of the opening to the sett, pistol raised. "You are injured?"

  There was a gulp of surprise, followed at once by scrabbling sounds.

  "Major? Major Grey? It is you?"

  "Franz?" he said, flabbergasted.

  "Ja, Major! Help me, help me, please!"

  Uncocking the pistol and thrusting it back in his belt, he knelt and peered into the hole. Badger setts are normally deep, running straight down for six feet or more before turning, twisting sideways into the badger's den. This one was no exception; the grimy, tear-streaked face of the young Prussian soldier stared up at him from the bottom, his head a good foot below the rim of the hole.

  The boy had broken his leg in falling, and it was no easy matter to lift him straight up. Grey managed it at last by improvising a sling of his own shirt and the boy's, tied to a rope anchored to Hognose's saddle.

  At last he had the boy laid on the ground, covered with his coat and taking small sips from the bottle of ale.

  "Major--" Franz coughed and spluttered, trying to rise on one elbow.

  "Hush, don't try to talk." Grey patted his arm soothingly, wondering how best to get him back to the bridge. "Everything will be--"

  "But Major--the red coats! Der Inglischeren!"

  "What? What are you talking about?"

  "Dead Englishmen! It was the little boy; I heard him, and I dug, and--" The boy's story was spilling out in a torrent of Prussian, and it took no little time for Grey to slow him down sufficiently to disentangle the threads of what he was saying.

  He had, Grey understood him to say, repeatedly heard the crying near the bridge, but his fellows either didn't hear or wouldn't admit to it, instead teasing him mercilessly about it. At last he determined to go by himself and see if he could find a source for the sound--wind moaning through a hole, as his friend Jurgen had suggested.

  "But it wasn't." Franz was still pale, but small patches of hectic color glowed in the translucent skin of his cheeks. He had poked about the base of the bridge, discovering eventually a small crack in the rocks at the foot of a pillar on the far side of the river. Thinking that this might indeed be the source of the crying, he had inserted his bayonet and pried at the rock--which had promptly come away, leaving him face to face with a cavity inside the pillar, containing a small, round, very white skull.

  "More bones, too, I think. I didn't stop to look." The boy swallowed. He had simply run, too panicked to think. When he stopped at last, completely out of breath and with legs like jelly, he had sat down to rest and think what to do.

  "They couldn't beat me more than once for being gone," he said, with the ghost of a smile. "So I thought I would be gone a little longer."

  This decision was enhanced by the discovery of a grove of walnut trees, and Franz had made his way up into the hills, gathering both nuts and wild blackberries--his lips were still stained purple with the juice, Grey saw.

  He had been interrupted in this peaceful pursuit by the sound of gunfire. Throwing himself flat on the ground, he had then crept forward, until he could see over the edge of a little rocky escarpment. Below, in a hollow, he saw a small group of English soldiers, engaged in mortal combat with Austrians.

  "Austrians? You are sure?" Grey asked, astonished.

  "I know what Austrians look like," the boy assured him, a little tartly. Knowing what Austrians were capable of, too, he had promptly backed up, risen to his feet, and run as fast as he could in the opposite direction--only to fall into the badger's sett.

  "You were lucky the badger wasn't at home," Grey remarked, teeth beginning to chatter. He had reclaimed the remnants of his shirt, but this was insufficient shelter against dropping temperature and probing wind. "But you said dead Englishmen."

  "I think they were all dead," the boy said. "I didn't go see."

  Grey, however, must. Leaving the boy covered with his coat and a mound of dead leaves, he untied the horse and turned his head in the direction Franz had indicated.

  Proceeding with care and caution in case of lurking Austrians, it was nearly sunset before he found the hollow.

  It was Dundas and his survey party; he recognized the uniforms at once. Cursing under his breath, he flung himself off his horse and scrabbled hurriedly from one body to the next, hoping against hope as he pressed shaking fingers against cooling cheeks and flaccid breasts.

  Two were still alive: Dundas and a corporal. The corporal was badly wounded and unconscious; Dundas had taken a gun butt to the head and a bayonet through the chest, but the wound had fortunately sealed itself. The lieutenant was disabled and in pain, but not yet on the verge of death.

  "Hundreds of the buggers," he croaked breathlessly, gripping Grey's arm. "Saw...whole battalion...guns. Going to...the French. Lloyd--followed them. Spying. Heard. Fucking succ--succ--" He coughed hard, spraying a little blood with the saliva, but it seemed to ease his breath temporarily.

  "It was a plan. Got women--agents. Slept with men, gave them o-opium. Dreams. Panic, aye?" He was half sitting up, straining to make words, make Grey understand.

  Grey understood, only too well. He had been given opium once, by a doctor, and remembered vividly the weirdly erotic dreams that had ensued. Do the same to men who had likely never heard of opium, let alone experienced it, and at the same time, start rumors of a demoness who preyed upon men in their dreams? Particularly with a flesh-and-blood avatar, who could leave such marks as would convince a man he had been so victimized?

  Only too effective, and one of the cleverest notions he had ever come across for demoralizing an enemy before attack. It was that alone that gave him some hope, as he comforted Dundas, piling him with coats taken from the dead, dragging the corporal to lie near the lieutenant for the sake of shared warmth, digging through a discarded rucksack for water to give him.

  If the combined force of French and Austrians was huge, there would be no need for such subtleties--the enemy would simply roll over the English and their German allies. But if the numbers were closer to equal, and it was still necessary to funnel them across those two narrow bridges...then, yes, it was desirable to face an enemy who had not slept for several nights, whose men were tired and jumpy, whose officers were not paying attention to possible threat, being too occupied with the difficulties close at hand.

  He could see it clearly: Ruysdale was busy watching the French, who were sitting happily on the cliffs, moving just enough to keep attention diverted from the Austrian advance. The Austrians would come down on the bridge--likely at night--and then the French on their heels.

  Dundas was shivering, eyes closed, teeth set hard in his lower lip against the pain of the movement.

  "Christo
pher, can you hear me? Christopher!" Grey shook him, as gently as possible. "Where's Lloyd?" He didn't know the members of Dundas's party; if Lloyd had been taken captive, or--But Dundas was shaking his head, gesturing feebly toward one of the corpses, lying with his head smashed open.

  "Go on," Dundas whispered. His face was gray, and not only from the waning light. "Warn Sir Peter." He put his arm about the unconscious corporal, and nodded to Grey. "We'll...wait."

  Chapter 8

  The Witch

  Grey had been staring with great absorption at his valet's face for some moments, before he realized even what he was looking at, let alone why.

  "Uh?" he said.

  "I said," Tom repeated, with some emphasis, "you best drink this, me lord, or you're going to fall flat on your face, and that won't do, will it?"

  "It won't? Oh. No. Of course not." He took the cup, adding a belated "Thank you, Tom. What is it?"

  "I told you twice, I'm not going to try and say the name of it again. Ilse says it'll keep you on your feet, though." He leaned forward and sniffed approvingly at the liquid, which appeared to be brown and foamy, indicating the presence in it of eggs, Grey thought.

  He followed Tom's lead and sniffed, too, recoiling only slightly at the eye-watering reek. Hartshorn, perhaps? It had quite a lot of brandy, no matter what else was in it. And he did need to stay on his feet. With no more than a precautionary clenching of his belly muscles, he put back his head and drained it.

  He had been awake for nearly forty-eight hours, and the world around him had a tendency to pass in and out of focus, like the scene in a spyglass. He had also a proclivity to go intermittently deaf, not hearing what was said to him--and Tom was correct, that wouldn't do.

  He had taken time, the night before, to fetch Franz, put him on the horse--with a certain amount of squealing, it must be admitted, as Franz had never been on a horse before--and take him to the spot where Dundas lay, feeling that they would be better together. He had pressed his dagger into Franz's hands, and left him guarding the corporal and the lieutenant, who by then was passing in and out of consciousness.

  Grey had then donned his coat and come back to raise the alarm, riding a flagging horse at the gallop over pitch-black ground, by the light of a waning moon. He'd fallen twice, when Hognose stumbled, but luckily escaped injury either time.

  He had alerted the artillery crew at the bridge, ridden on to Ruysdale's encampment, roused everyone, seen the colonel in spite of all attempts to prevent him waking the man, gathered a rescue party, and ridden back to retrieve Dundas and the others, arriving in the hollow near dawn to find the corporal dead and Dundas nearly so, with his head in Franz's lap.

  Captain Hiltern had of course sent someone with word to Sir Peter at the Schloss, but it was necessary for Grey to report personally to Sir Peter and von Namtzen when he returned at midday with the rescue party. After which, officers and men had flapped out of the place like a swarm of bats, the whole military apparatus moving like the armature of some great engine, creaking, groaning, but coming to life with amazing speed.

  Which left Grey alone in the Schloss at sunset, blank in mind and body, with nothing further to do. There was no need for liaison; couriers were flitting to and from all the regiments, carrying orders. He had no duty to perform, no one to command, no one to serve.

  He would ride out in the morning with Sir Peter Hicks, part of Sir Peter's personal guard. But there was no need for him now; everyone was about his own business; Grey was forgotten.

  He felt odd; not unwell, but as though objects and people near him were not quite real, not entirely firm to the touch. He should sleep, he knew--but could not, not with the whole world in flux around him, and a sense of urgency that hummed on his skin yet was unable to penetrate to the core of his mind.

  Tom was talking to him; he made an effort to attend.

  "Witch," he repeated, awareness struggling to make itself known. "Witch. You mean Herr Blomberg still intends to hold his--ceremony?"

  "Yes, me lord." Tom was sponging Grey's coat, frowning as he tried to remove a pitch stain from the skirt. "Ilse says he won't rest until he's cleared his mother's name, and damned if the Austrians will stop him."

  Awareness burst through Grey's fog like a pricked soap bubble.

  "Christ! He doesn't know!"

  "About what, me lord?" Tom turned to look at him curiously, sponging cloth and vinegar in hand.

  "The succubus. I must tell him--explain." Even as he said it, though, he realized how little force such an explanation would have upon Herr Blomberg's real problem. Sir Peter and Colonel Ruysdale might accept the truth; the townspeople would be much less likely to accept having been fooled--and by Austrians!

  Grey knew enough about gossip and rumor to realize that no amount of explanation from him would be enough. Still less if that explanation were to be filtered through Herr Blomberg, whose bias in the matter was clear.

  Even Tom was frowning doubtfully at him as he rapidly explained the matter. Superstition and sensation are always so much more appealing than truth and rationality. The words echoed as though spoken in his ear, with the same humorously rueful intonation with which his father had spoken them, many years before.

  He rubbed a hand vigorously over his face, feeling himself come back to life. Perhaps he had one more task to complete, in his role as liaison.

  "This witch, Tom--the woman who is to cast the runes, whatever in God's name that might involve. Do you know where she is?"

  "Oh, yes, me lord." Tom had put down his cloth now, interested. "She's here--in the Schloss, I mean. Locked up in the larder."

  "Locked up in the larder? Why?"

  "Well, it has a good lock on the door, me lord, to keep the servants from--Oh, you mean why's she locked up at all? Ilse says she didn't want to come; dug in her heels entire, and wouldn't hear of it. But Herr Blomberg wouldn't hear of her not, and had her dragged up here, and locked up 'til this evening. He's fetching up the town council, and the magistrate, and all the bigwigs he can lay hands on, Ilse says."

  "Take me to her."

  Tom's mouth dropped open. He closed it with a snap and looked Grey up and down.

  "Not like that. You're not even shaved!"

  "Precisely like this," Grey assured him, tucking in the tails of his shirt. "Now."

  The game larder was locked, but as Grey had surmised, Ilse knew where the key was kept, and was not proof against Tom's charm. The room itself was in an alcove behind the kitchens, and it was a simple matter to reach it without detection.

  "You need not come further, Tom," Grey said, low-voiced. "Give me the keys; if anyone finds me here, I'll say I took them."

  Tom, who had taken the precaution of arming himself with a toasting fork, merely clutched the keys tighter in his other hand, and shook his head.

  The door swung open silently on leather hinges. Someone had given the captive woman a candle; it lit the small space and cast fantastic shadows on the walls, from the hanging bodies of swans and pheasants, ducks and geese.

  The drink had restored a sense of energy to Grey's mind and body, but without quite removing the sense of unreality that had pervaded his consciousness. It was therefore with no real surprise that he saw the woman who turned toward him, and recognized the gypsy prostitute who had quarreled with Private Bodger a few hours before the soldier's death.

  She obviously recognized him, too, though she said nothing. Her eyes passed over him with cool scorn, and she turned away, evidently engrossed in some silent communion with a severed hog's head that sat upon a china plate.

  "Madam," he said softly, as though his voice might rouse the dead fowl to sudden flight. "I would speak with you."

  She ignored him, and folded her hands elaborately behind her back. The light winked gold from the rings in her ears and the rings on her fingers--and Grey saw that one was a crude circlet, with the emblem of St. Orgevald's protection.

  He was overcome with a sudden sense of premonition, though he did not be
lieve in premonition. He felt things in motion around him, things that he did not understand and could not control, things settling of themselves into an ordained and appointed position, like the revolving spheres of his father's orrery--and he wished to protest this state of affairs, but could not.

  "Me lord." Tom's hissed whisper shook him out of this momentary disorientation, and he glanced at the boy, eyebrows raised. Tom was staring at the woman, who was still turned away, but whose face was visible in profile.

  "Hanna," he said, nodding at the gypsy. "She looks like Hanna, Siggy's nursemaid. You know, me lord, the one what disappeared?"

  The woman had swung round abruptly at mention of Hanna's name, and stood glaring at them both.

  Grey felt the muscles of his back loosen, very slightly, as though some force had picked him up and held him. As though he, too, was one of the objects being moved, placed in the spot ordained for him.

  "I have a proposition for you, madam," he said calmly, and pulled a cask of salted fish out from beneath a shelf. He sat on it and, reaching out, pulled the door closed.

  "I do not wish to hear anything you say, Schweinehund," she said, very coldly. "As for you, piglet..." Her eyes darkened with no very pleasant light as she looked at Tom.

  "You have failed," Grey went on, ignoring this digression. "And you are in considerable danger. The Austrian plan is known; you can hear the soldiers preparing for battle, can't you?" It was true; the sounds of drums and distant shouting, the shuffle of many marching feet, were audible even here, though muffled by the stone walls of the Schloss.

  He smiled pleasantly at her, and his fingers touched the silver gorget that he had seized before leaving his room. It hung about his neck, over his half-buttoned shirt, the sign of an officer on duty.

  "I offer you your life, and your freedom. In return..." He paused. She said nothing, but one straight black brow rose, slowly.

  "I want a bit of justice," he said. "I want to know how Private Bodger died. Bodger," he repeated, seeing her look of incomprehension, and realizing that she had likely never known his name. "The English soldier who said you had cheated him."