All Night Awake (85 page)

“Humans are all that is, and their heart our reign,” the crone completes. The thread measured out upon her lap is now white, but through it shines a single strand of pure gold.

Curtain Call

W
ithin the too-solid city of London, in a shabby room in Southwark, close to the play houses, Will Shakespeare turned in his bed.

He need never be afraid of Nan again, he thought, in his sleep. He had stood up to the Queen of faerieland, he had dared the wrath of the darkest of evil villains.

As soon as he finished this poem, as it ever was, he’d go visit Stratford, and see Hamnet and Judith, and Susannah. Aye, and his sweet Nan again.

He turned in bed again. He wasn’t quite sure why, but all of a sudden he knew he could finish the poem, too. And it would be admired and great, and live through the ages, long after Will himself had died.

In that space, neither asleep nor awake, where sometimes men know truths otherwise unknowable, Will thought he’d got something from Marlowe, some legacy bequeathed with the poet’s last breath.

It felt right to take that legacy, and Will would make sure those words lived through him and that he made them good.

He, who’d once said he’d have no words but his, now felt beholden to carry on Kit’s words and Kit’s work and make them dazzling-bright as Kit would have -- for when a man's verses could no longer be read nor a man’s good wit heard, it struck a man more dead than a great reckoning in a small room.

Will turned in bed and slept on, certain of the future and of his own ability.

* *

Outside, in the shabby street of Southwark, life ground on, the bawds went to bed, and the artificers woke and manned their workshops.

The threat of pure evil had been lifted from the neck of humanity, where it had rested like a naked sword. The spheres spun on, as they’d been meant to do for eternity.

In his palace the king of faerieland made ardent love to his joyful wife.

And the man who’d known about the threat and done what must be done to diffuse it slept on in his shabby room, and dreamed of poetry.

About the Author

Sarah A Hoyt has published over twenty novels and a hundred short stories. If you enjoyed this book, please look in Baen's webscriptions page for her Shifter's series (
Draw One In The Dark, Gentleman Takes a Chance
) or her science fiction (
Darkship Thieves
.)  For more of her fantasy, look for
Heart of Light, Soul of Fire
and
Heart and Soul. 
Those interested in historic mystery might wish to check out Sarah's
Musketeer Mysteries
, under the pen name Sarah D'Almeida. Her contemporary mysteries, under the name Elise Hyatt are
Dipped, Stripped and Dead
and
A French Polished Murder.

For samples of all of Sarah's work, check out Sarah's website at
http://sarahahoyt.com
.