Maxie’s Demon (14 page)

‘You don’t say?’ I let go the beard and sat back on the bench, absent-mindedly waving away a sudden smokiness in the air. I was cooling down rapidly, but I’d been pretty
angry – almost as angry as I’d been with Ahwaz—

No exploding phones or bandits rushing in to chop people up this time, though. A thought struck me, and I looked down suddenly. The table felt hot beneath my fingers. Where I’d been leaning there was a slight scorched outline on the scrubbed oak planking. It fitted my hand.

I blinked. That wasn’t where the smoke had come from, though. The old fellow
was making a funny noise. He was frantically trying to straighten out his beard. It had curled up into a tight springy cone, as if somebody had twirled it up in a giant red-hot curling tong.

It smelt like it, too; but that still wasn’t where the smoke had come from. An awful thought struck me. I felt my ears gingerly. They were burning; but I don’t think it was from being talked about.

Warty
Whiskers
was warily settling himself back at the table. ‘I guess,’ he remarked to the older guy, ‘that our friendship might prosper better if we made ourselves known to Master, ah, Maxie.’

‘Ah, a thought,’ nodded the old man, still tugging at his corkscrewed beard in a sort of absent-minded fluster. ‘Well, my good sir, at your other hand there sits my younger but still most apt and blessed brother
in learning, Sir Edward Talbot Kelley, late a scholar of Worcester College, Oxford, lately created knight of the Holy Roman Empire, and in his thirty-fourth year.’ Kelley half rose and bowed. ‘And before you sits all that there is of John Dee,
aetatis
two and sixty, with the rank of gentleman esquire and the degree of doctor of philosophy in the most venerable university of Cambridge, now Astrologer
Royal to her most puissant majesty the Queen Elizabeth.’

My eyes narrowed. ‘The Queen has an astrologer? I know Nancy Reagan did – but the Queen?’

‘And consulted most freely by all at the court, from my lord of Walsingham to the lowest groom.’

‘Walsingham? Wait a moment –
which
Queen Elizabeth?’

Kelley chortled. ‘Why, of England, man, where else? Is there another I haven’t had word of?’

‘Well,’ I said carefully, ‘yes, funnily enough. I mean, I’m thinking of the right one, am I? You know, Armada, body-of-a-weak-woman-but-heart-of-etcetera, slept here, Progresses? Good Queen Bess?’

Dee looked over his shoulder. ‘I, ah, should not put it quite so freely,’ he muttered. ‘Even in this somewhat out-of-the-way place. The intelligencers of the court …’

‘Oh, great.
Hey, you haven’t told
her she’s going to meet any tall, dark strangers, have you?’

The old boy looked uncomfortable. ‘Well – ahem! – as chance and the stellar motions would have it—’

Kelley chuckled. ‘So? She did encounter my lord Dudley’s nephew, the young Earl of Essex—’

‘Oh, him. Watch him. He ends up getting played by Errol Flynn.’

‘Gracious mercy!’ The old boy looked very alarmed for a moment, then confused,
then he cheered up. ‘Ah well, no matter for the moment, for I am out of her service awhile. Among other concerns, in the quest for you, young sir; and glory be to Heaven above that we found you!’

‘Yeah. I almost fainted with delight.’

The man Kelley chuckled again. ‘Sir, sir, ’twas not to be helped! We had to get word to you somehow, and it’s taken us these five long years since our previous,
ah, encounter!’

I blinked. ‘Five? Hold on a minute, that was only the night before last!’

Kelley grinned and winked. ‘Ah, sir, but that’s the way of this strange shadow realm. A night and a night for you; for us, a fistful of years!’

I sat back and stared. Five hundred years or five, they didn’t belong in the same time as I did. Or did they? They had accents, they spoke pretty oddly. I’d had
trouble understanding them at first, but now I seemed to be getting attuned or something. That was peculiar enough; and yet I believed them, as much as I believed anything in this weird place. This far, anyhow.

‘So how the hell
did you find me? Private eyes?’

Dee looked puzzled. ‘Eyes? Are they that infernal picture device of your era? No, sir; we cultivated the rare and refined art of scrying.
Which, if you have not heard of it, is divination by looking-glass. Although metal or stone polished may also be used, or even the surface of still water, so that it turn an image. Philosophically – that is, hermetically – all such images may be considered identical, or to be more precise universal, so that one has but to attune one’s thoughts to—’

Kelley coughed, and the old boy smiled. ‘Well,
well, it is an art too complex to explain this hour, and besides brother Edward is a greater adept than I.’ He patted Kelley’s shoulder. ‘An art I sinfully envy him! For in all our first researches I saw naught but my own foolish image, whereas very soon he fell entranced and held converse with spirits of light, and looked upon untold wonders, such as I could scarcely credit!’

He wagged his head
in innocent wonder, and I looked at Kelley with more interest. He had the kind of bluff, genial manner and rugged, open, rather boyish face that sets all my warning bells jangling.

‘Ach, that’s nothing!’ he laughed modestly. ‘A gift, not any doing of mine. And in truth it was of little use then for everyday concerns.’

‘Truth!’ chuckled Dee. ‘For that we had to pursue our researches further,
into these strange borderlands of the everyday world, Wheel or Spiral or whatever the pagans here call them. We chanced upon them first by noting that there were places where our experiments seemed always to fare better, where there seemed to be founts of power we could draw upon. So by searching out where the power was strongest, to which end I made a simple device, we pressed further and further
across the divide. That was what took us to this little-frequented region of the Welsh Marches in the first place—’

Welsh Marches? We were nowhere near Wales here. But did Dee realise that? It dawned on me that he might not be as clued-up as he seemed about this Spiral business – which would explain some of the cock-ups, anyhow.

‘And thence to
somewhere better!’ said Kelley enthusiastically.
‘Better by far! The breadth of Europe we searched out that power, till we found ourselves a place of truly surpassing potential. And one where we may pursue our researches in peace, untroubled by the persecutions of the churches and the ignorant men who stream into them! A place where natural philosophers have an enlightened patron, merciful and generous to those he protects. That we found! And there
we pressed our studies to the hilt!’

Dee wagged his beard. ‘Aye! Of a glorious sudden, I, I too could discern visions in the glass – although of this world only,’ he added a little sadly.

Kelley rubbed his hands. ‘Well, there we perfected and refined our rites, beyond those first stumbling essays. There’ll be no stumbling this time, I warrant you! And thence we have traced and explored along—’

For a moment they both looked almost embarrassed.

‘—along paths mystical and strange. And found that we could pass thus between the interstices of time and space, to wander at will between worlds and ages! In this fashion we have traced you and come to you this very day – and where from, think you?’

He looked at
me triumphantly. I shrugged.

‘From Bohemia! From the depths of Europe, in a few
short hours, by secret ways beneath the earth you could not conceive of!’

So much for travel broadening the mind. I wondered what he’d make of the Channel Tunnel.

‘OK, so now you’re here,’ I said, determinedly unimpressed. ‘Mind telling me just what it is you came for? Apart from scaring me half to death, that is?’

Kelley seized my arm and stared earnestly into my face. ‘Why, to liberate you,
of course! To bear you back thither, and there to lift from you this burden that has fallen to you by ill chance. And to draw blessings from it for all mankind!’ He sat back. ‘As ’twas we who laid it upon you, though all unwitting, ’tis we who can most safely lift it once again. Is that not so, brother?’

Dee nodded soberly. ‘That is so, brother.’

‘Well, bully for you!’ I said, still playing
it very cool. The more they talk about favours, the closer you read the small print. ‘Let’s get one thing straight, though – before I let you or anyone else lead me up any mystic paths, I’ll want to know what’s at the end of them! So, spill it – what’re you up to? What’s all this about?’

Dee looked concerned. ‘But have you not already understood? That is why you came here, was it not? To seek
some friend’s counsel? Have you not had … shall we say, curious experiences? Encounters that are past your power to explain?’

‘Apart
from you, you mean? Too bloody right I have. Enough to keep me in nightmares for the rest of my life!’

‘Nightmares?’ Kelley opened his mouth to say something, but Dee ploughed on regardless. ‘Surely not so severe! We imagined you confused and daunted, perhaps,
by what was so suddenly thrust upon you. The seeing of visions – the conferring of powers you could scarce control – even, maybe, the coming of strange and mighty visitants. Is this not so?’

That rocked me back a bit. ‘Well, yes,’ I admitted, ‘That was it, all right. Only the visions – the visitants – they really were bloody nightmarish!’

Kelley wasn’t laughing now. ‘Surely that was only the
– shock? The suddenness?’

‘No it frigging was not! Not just, anyhow.’

He sounded concerned. ‘But did they … threaten you in any way?’

‘Yes – no! Maybe – no! Christ, I don’t know what to think!’

The old man nodded. ‘When you tell of a nightmare, it loses its power to frighten, does it not?
Primo,
my young sir, we must hear clearly what has been happening to you.
Secundo,
we may then tell you
how we plan to relieve you of it – and to reward you as best we can. Young sir, will you not relent, and place some trust in us?’

He sounded sincere; but then I had a nice line in that myself once. Still, I was just bursting to tell somebody about all this – somebody who’d credit it, anyhow. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘I’ll spill the lot.’

It didn’t take long in the telling, but they nodded and hummed
as sagely as if I were some distinguished lecturer, only chipping in when I left any detail out. Intelligent questions, too – about the wind that night, the individual bandits, that kind of thing. I had to admit they were an impressive pair, Dee a little woolly but obviously full of knowledge, Kelley sharp and practical. I know brains when I see them, but there was more than that here. You could
imagine you were dealing with a theoretical physicist and the engineer who puts his projects into practice. That made things a little uncomfortable for me. I couldn’t entirely cover up just what I was and what I’d been doing, no matter how many naked truths I tried to dress up.

Or give them a nattier G-string, anyhow.

Dee shook his head sympathetically and tut-tutted, but I could see him getting
sniffier and more high-minded. Kelley just chuckled good-humouredly. When I finally ground to a halt, though, he glanced at Dee with obvious deference.

The old man
sighed, and plucked at the corner of his dark garment, gown or whatever it was. ‘Well, young sir, I do indeed regret what you have suffered. Again I offer you our apology. Yet more of this trouble has been of your own making than even
I suspected. Indeed, you may in a sense be the author of it!’

‘The
author?
You mean I dreamed it up? Listen, you crap-headed old hearthrug—’

‘Be calm, sir, please!’ Dee rapped his stick on the ground. He had more command than I’d have expected. ‘I have heard you out! Will you not hear me?’

I subsided, and
he nodded. ‘Good! I do not seek to mock you. That these … encounters happened, I do most
firmly believe. Yet I believe also that the understandable terror they inspired has caused you to … to paint some aspects in hues darker and more, hmmn, demonic than they merit. Think!’ he said, as I opened my mouth to shout. ‘Think again of what has truly happened to you, each time! Why, you have received help, have you not? And in answer to even your lightest thought! You were saved. You were
most mightily succoured!’

I was tempted to ask if I still was being suckered, but he wouldn’t have got it. ‘Well, maybe – but Christ, if that’s being saved it’s nearly as bad as getting caught! Anyhow, it probably wasn’t just for me – I mean, who’d bother—’

Dee raised his brows. ‘Have you not heard, perhaps, of guardian angels?’

I stared. Then I laughed, dislodging the last scraps of sausage.
‘
Angels?
Come off it, doc. If those bozos off that boat came from heaven, I don’t want to know, right?’

‘But I do, Master Maxie,’ said Dee, and sat back calmly against the settle. ‘I do.’

He smoothed his beard thoughtfully. ‘All my long life I have sought and dispensed knowledge, and still sought more. The labour I have spent would have profited me far more in other occupations. Why, ask you?
Because I would find some way to breach the boundaries of our mundane world. Some straighter path to the fountainhead of creation, through which the ills of mankind could be overcome and all men live as brothers.’

The same old dream.
Only maybe it didn’t seem so daft five hundred years back, who knows? Not me. I’ve always thought the citizen who first said all men are brothers was probably Cain.

Dee was looking out into infinite distances. ‘To this end I have delved into every branching of art and philosophy. In the deepest mathematical arts I have found some promise that such a thing might be, and in the writings of such illustrious astrologers as Master Tycho of Denmark. Yet it was only when I looked beyond them, to such savants of bygone years as Masters Ramon Lull and Pico della Mirandola,
and beyond them the great Henricus Agrippa and his master Trithemius Abbatus de Spondheim – only then did I begin to see the gateway. But opening it – ah, that had to wait until the coming of my young friend Master Kelley. I said, did I not, that he has from the beginning held converse with other realms?’

No wonder Kelley’s face seemed familiar. He’d have made a brilliant double-glazing salesman.
Or a pyramid seller. He was smiling modestly now, leaving the talking to Dee.