Witchfall (20 page)

‘Is that all?’ Alejandro threw after him with a sceptical laugh. ‘I thank you for the warning, and shall be sure to sleep with a dagger under my pillow from now on.’

As Richard walked away, I saw for the first time that he was limping. Badly too, as though one leg was considerably shorter than the other. Alice had noticed his limp too and was crossing herself to ward off evil, for like many folk she feared that an imperfect body must be a sign of the Devil’s favour. For my own part, I did not think it a sign of anything but some misfortune in the past.

On the other hand, Richard was certainly rude and surly enough to be a servant of the Devil. But was his message from John Dee true? Could Alejandro’s life be in danger?

Master John Dee himself arrived, as promised by his apprentice, on Thursday evening at dusk. He came disguised as a travelling tinker, his pony’s sides clanking with pots and pans, his cloak patched and stinking of horse droppings, and with what appeared to be a dead badger strapped to his head. Calling at the back door with samples of his wares, he was taken in that way by a fascinated Bessie, and news of his arrival carried up to the princess by Alice while he rested by the kitchen fire.

William was sent down to smuggle John Dee and his apprentice across the darkening lawns to a place where the astrologer could stay unseen at Hatfield – a rough low hut about a quarter of a mile from the house, hidden amongst trees in an abrupt dip said to be the site of an old midden, or rubbish heap. Bessie had recommended it as a hiding place, not knowing the identity of this silent tinker, but eager to help her royal mistress to conceal him. I believe the hut had been built to house goatherds, when there were still goats kept around there, but the place had been long since abandoned and left to rot.

‘I cannot allow Dee to be recognized while he is staying here,’ the princess muttered, pacing her chamber while
she waited to be given the signal that all was quiet below. ‘No one would believe any meeting between us to be innocent.’

Since their meeting was far from innocent, I found this amusing. I bent my head to hide my smile though. The Lady Elizabeth had no sense of humour where her sister was concerned.

‘It is imperative that I consult with Master Dee while he is here, but we must be careful,’ she insisted, perhaps guessing my thoughts. ‘I am not sure how far we can trust the servants, though I believe old John’s two daughters are loyal to me and not the Queen. But my sister’s spies watch us even here at Hatfield. I feel their eyes on me every time I set foot outside the house.’

Once night had fallen, the Lady Elizabeth carefully wrapped herself in a hooded cloak, and went to see the astrologer.

Alice and I accompanied her through the shadowy grounds, with Alejandro as our guard and lookout. In case the house was being watched, we left by the back door and walked in darkness to the edge of the trees. Then Alejandro produced a tinderbox from under his cloak, lit the lantern for us, and we continued on into the woods.

It was the dark of the moon, when the nights are at their blackest, and the thin light of our lantern showed little but a circle of scrubground beneath our feet. My senses prickled as we came closer to Dee’s hiding place. The ground suddenly
sloped away there, steep and pitted with rocks, and the princess clutched at my arm for balance. The swaying light of the lantern touched on a hawthorn growing aslant on the slope, the faeries’ tree under which no man should fall asleep for fear of being taken. I took care not to touch it, but Elizabeth’s fingers brushed its leaves quite deliberately, the tree rustling beneath her touch, and I suddenly recalled that the hawthorn was associated with the house of Tudor.

There was a flicker in the darkness, then a door creaked open and I saw the goatherds’ hut right before us, a ramshackle building with ancient leaning timbers and mud walls. Dee’s apprentice stood in the doorway. Behind him a small fire smoked in the centre of the hut.

‘My lady,’ Richard muttered, and stepped aside for her to enter. He met my gaze as I followed the princess inside, and I wondered what I had done to offend him, his eyes were so hard.

Dee was waiting for us behind a roughly-made table, his head bent as he pored over an open book. He had removed his disguise and washed the dirt from his face and hands, but although the false beard and hair had gone, there was still a goatish stench about him. Or it could have been the hut’s previous occupants we could smell. I said nothing but wrinkled my nose, and saw Alice doing the same.

The astrologer closed his book and came forward to greet the Lady Elizabeth, bowing deeply.

‘I thank you for agreeing to see me, my lady,’ he murmured. ‘I did not wish to endanger you, given my recent incarceration at the Fleet, but I believe my visit here may be vital to your safety and to the future of England.’

‘Indeed?’ Elizabeth asked coldly, and I knew she was angry at having been put at such risk by his visit. Nonetheless, her powerful desire to know if and when she would ascend the throne was still stronger than her fear of discovery.

Dee gestured her to a low stool. ‘I am afraid this is the only seat in the place. The others must stand or wait outside, for there is little room to sit on the ground.’ His curious gaze dismissed Alice as unimportant, but hesitated on my face before moving to Alejandro. ‘Ah, the young Spaniard.’

‘Sir,’ Alejandro said stiffly.

‘My boy Richard tells me you did not much care for my message.’

‘I did not believe it, sir.’

Dee raised his brows in mild surprise. ‘Really? I was told of your death by a most reliable spirit, and that it would come soon. Or rather, that you would surely die if certain conditions were not met.’

My skin was cold. I saw Alejandro about to remonstrate with him and interrupted, ‘What were these conditions, Master Dee?’

Dee smiled, turning to me at once. ‘Nothing you could alter by knowing them, and indeed to know them might
prove dangerous. It is good to see you again, Meg Lytton, though I could have wished for a more congenial setting. So much power, so much potential . . .’ As he had done before, he took my hands, turning them over again to trace the lines on my palm. His gaze lingered on my finger, where the nail had been ripped away by Miguel de Pero. The torn skin had healed but was still discoloured, the fingertip a dull purplish red. ‘What happened here?’

‘The Inquisition,’ I murmured.

‘I see.’ Alejandro moved instinctively to my side, as though furious that the astrologer had dared to touch me, and Master Dee dropped my hands. ‘This young man is your protector?’

I could not at first reply. How to answer Dee truthfully without revealing our betrothal to everyone there?

Something in me balked at the thought of the Lady Elizabeth and her whole household knowing our private business, not least because I knew it would displease the princess to discover that her priest had fallen in love with one of her ladies. She might tease me at times about Alejandro’s attentiveness, but I guessed she found him quite attractive herself. Besides which, the princess made no secret of the fact that she preferred her female attendants to remain chaste like her – and uninterested in marriage.

I said at last, ‘It’s not like that,’ and caught a gleam of mockery in the eyes of his watchful apprentice. Damn him!
But the anger had cleared my head, and I answered more confidently, ‘Señor de Castillo is a soldier, as well as a novice. He protects us all.’

‘Señor, would you watch the door for us outside? We must not be disturbed,’ Elizabeth asked.

Alejandro bowed and left the hut without speaking, closing the door behind him quietly. But I had seen his hand clenched on the hilt of his sword, and knew how angry he was. Not being one to believe in this talk of spirits and stars, he probably thought John Dee was simply trying to scare us and make himself look more formidable as an astrologer. And perhaps it was safer for now if Alejandro held onto that belief, for his faith was like a great light shining in this darkness.

Elizabeth turned back to Dee, a deep concern in her face. ‘This is most worrying. I need Señor de Castillo by my side. He is a necessary barrier between me and my sister, and I would not lose his strength for all the world. What can be done to prevent this death, Master Dee?’

Apologetically, Dee spread his pale hands wide. ‘I cannot say for sure, my lady. The spirit was not at all clear in his message. But he did suggest that a sacrifice would be required if the Spaniard is to live.’

‘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.