Dark Fire (15 page)

‘Then I heard the screaming. I think it had been going on for a while but I hadn’t noticed. It was the horses, they’d seen those huge gouts of leaping fire and they were
terrified. I ran to them and they were kicking and flailing, trying to escape from the posts. I managed to calm them before they did themselves real harm, for I’ve a way with horses, and
thank God there were no more sheets of flame; what was left of the boat was sinking now. When I went back to the jetty it had gone, even the rope holding it had burned away as you can see. My
master was talking with the Gristwoods, who were looking pleased with themselves for all that their clothes clung to them with sweat. They began packing up their stuff.’ He laughed and shook
his head. ‘The river was quiet again, the boat had sunk and the fire on the water had gone out, thank Christ. It was like nothing had ever happened: except a thirty-ton crayer had been burned
to nothing in moments.’ Barak took a deep breath and raised his eyebrows. ‘And that’s it, that’s what I saw with my own eyes. Afterwards, when the Gristwoods had driven off
again, my master told me that what I had seen was called Greek Fire, told me how Michael Gristwood had found the formula at Barty’s, and swore me to secrecy.’

I nodded. I walked to the end of the jetty, Barak following. I looked down into the dark, heaving waters.

‘Were you at the second demonstration?’

‘No. My master commissioned me to find another, larger, ship, an old balinger, and have it taken here, but he attended that one alone. He told me the second ship was destroyed in exactly
the same way.’ He looked into the river. ‘So there’s the remains of two of them down there.’

I nodded thoughtfully. ‘So to get Greek Fire to work you need that apparatus. Who built it for them, I wonder, and where did they keep it?’

Barak looked at me quizzically. ‘You believe in it now that you’ve heard what I saw?’

‘I believe you saw something very extraordinary.’

A merchantman came into view, sailing up the middle of the river, a huge carrack returning home to London from some far corner of the world. Its sails were unfurled to catch the light breeze,
the high castellated prow riding the waves proudly. The seamen on deck, seeing us, shouted and waved; probably we were the first Englishmen they had seen in months. As the ship passed up to London,
I had a terrible vision of it aflame from end to end, the sailors screaming, no time to escape.

‘You know there are many who say the last days of the world are upon us,’ I said quietly. ‘That soon the world will be destroyed, Christ will return and the Last Judgement will
come.’

‘Do you believe that?’ Barak asked.

‘Not until now,’ I said. I saw another boat, tiny by comparison, pass the carrack and approach us. ‘Here’s our boatman, we must get back to London, look for that
librarian.’

W
E GOT THE WHERRYMAN
to take us on to Westminster, for the Court of Augmentations’ offices were housed in a room off Westminster Hall. We climbed
Westminster Stairs and paused in New Palace Yard to get our breath. The sun was high now; it was another hot day. The water in the fountain was low; I thought of pumps, siphons, tanks.

‘So this is where the lawyers come to argue,’ Barak said, staring with interest at the high north face of the hall with its enormous stained-glass window.

‘Ay, this is where the civil courts sit. Have you never been here?’

‘Like most honest people I keep clear of the place.’

He followed me up the steps to the north door. The guard, seeing my lawyer’s robe, nodded and we passed inside. In winter the interior of the giant stone building is icy, everyone
shivering except for the judges in their furs. Even today it felt chilly. Barak looked up at the giant carved ceiling and the statues of ancient kings by the high windows. He whistled, the sound
echoing as every noise did there.

‘Bit different from the Old Bailey.’

‘Yes.’ I looked down the hall, beyond the empty shop counters to the courts behind their low partitions, King’s Bench and Common Pleas and Chancery, the benches and tables
deserted and silent. Tomorrow the law term would begin and every inch of the place would be thronged. I remembered I was to argue against Bealknap here next week: somehow I would have to find time
to prepare. I looked across to a door in a far corner, from behind which a murmur of voices was audible. ‘Come on,’ I said and led Barak to the Court of Augmentations’ office.

It was no surprise that Augmentations had obtained a dispensation to open on a Sunday. Responsible for the sale of hundreds of monastic buildings and for the pensions of the former monks, there
was no busier place in the land. Inside there were counters on two sides of the room where clerks dealt with enquiries. A gaggle of anxious women in sober dresses stood arguing with a
harassed-looking clerk.

‘Our abbess was promised the High Cross,’ one of the women was saying plaintively. ‘That she might have it to treasure, sir, a memory of our life.’

The clerk gestured impatiently at a paper. ‘It’s not mentioned in the surrender deed. Why d’you want it anyway? If you ex-nuns are still meeting together for papist services,
that’s against the law.’

I led Barak on past a little group of well-dressed men poring over a ground plan which showed the familiar shape of a monastic church and cloisters. ‘It’s not worth a thousand if
we’ve to bring the building down,’ one was saying.

We came to a counter marked ‘Pensions’. There was nobody there. I rang a little bell and an elderly clerk appeared from behind a door, looking cross to be disturbed. I told him we
wished to trace the address of a former monk. The man began to say that he was busy, we should call back later, but Barak delved in his doublet and produced a seal with Cromwell’s coat of
arms. He slapped it on the table. The clerk looked at it and at once became servile.

‘I’ll do anything I can, of course. To help the earl—’

‘I’m looking for one Bernard Kytchyn,’ I said. ‘Former librarian at St Bartholomew’s Priory, Smithfield.’

The clerk smiled. ‘Ah yes, Barty’s – that’ll be easy. He’ll collect his pension from here.’ He opened a drawer and, producing a massive ledger, began leafing
through it. After a minute he stabbed at an entry with an inky finger.

‘There it is, sirs. Bernard Kytchyn, six pounds and two marks a year. He’s listed as chantry priest at St Andrew’s Church, Moorgate. It’s a wicked scandal, sir, the
chantries being allowed to stay open, priests still mumming Latin prayers for the dead day after day. They should bring the chantries down too.’ He smiled at us brightly; as we were
Cromwell’s men he would expect us to agree. I only grunted, however, and turned the ledger round to check the entry.

‘Barak,’ I said, ‘when I go back to Chancery Lane, I suggest you go and find Kytchyn, tell him—’

I broke off, as the door behind the clerk opened. To my astonishment Stephen Bealknap stepped out, a frown on his thin face. ‘Master clerk, we had not finished. Sir Richard Rich requires—’ He broke off in turn as he saw me. He looked surprised, his eyes meeting mine for a second before angling away.

‘Brother Shardlake—’

‘Bealknap, I did not know you had an interest in Augmentations pensions.’

He smiled. ‘I don’t usually. But there . . . there is a corrodian, a pensioner with right of residence, attached to my property at Moorgate. It seems I have taken on responsibility
for him too. An interesting legal problem, is it not?’

‘Yes.’ I turned to the clerk. ‘We are finished now. Well, Brother, I shall see you the day after tomorrow.’ I bowed to Bealknap. The clerk replaced his book and ushered
Bealknap back to his room. The door closed behind them.

I frowned. ‘Corrodies are attached to monasteries, not friaries. What’s he really doing here?’

‘He mentioned Rich.’

‘Yes.’ I hesitated. ‘Could Cromwell have the clerk questioned?’

‘That would be difficult, it would mean Sir Richard Rich would get to hear of it.’ Barak ran a hand through his thatch of brown hair. ‘I’ve seen that pinch-faced old
arsehole before somewhere.’

‘Bealknap? Where?’

‘I’ll have to think. It was a long time ago, but I swear I know him.’

‘We must go,’ I said. ‘Joseph will be waiting for me.’

I had arranged for Simon to bring Chancery and Sukey down to Westminster so that we could ride back from Westminster to Chancery Lane, and he was waiting by one of the buttresses by the east
wall, sitting on Chancery’s broad back and swinging his newly shod feet. We mounted, leaving him to walk back at his own pace, and set off.

As we passed Charing Cross, I noticed a well-dressed woman on a fine gelding, her face covered from the sun by a vizard. She was attended by three mounted retainers, with two ladies walking
behind carrying posies and looking hot. The woman’s horse had stopped to piss and the party was waiting till it had finished. As we passed she turned and stared at me. Her vizard, framed by
an expensive hood, was a striped cloth mask with eyeholes and the blank, masked stare was oddly disconcerting. Then she lifted the mask and smiled and I recognized Lady Honor. She looked quite
cool, though the mask must have been stifling and women’s corsetry is an unkind thing in hot weather. She raised a hand in greeting.

‘Master Shardlake! We are met again.’

I reined Chancery in. ‘Lady Honor. Another hot day.’

‘Is it not?’ she replied feelingly. ‘I am pleased to have met with you. Will you come and dine with me next Tuesday?’

‘I should be delighted,’ I said.

I was conscious of Barak at my side, his eyes cast down as befitted a servant.

‘The House of Glass in Blue Lion Street, anyone will tell you. Be there at five. It’s a sugar banquet only, it won’t go on late. There will be interesting company.’

‘I shall look forward to it.’

‘By the way, I hear you are representing Edwin Wentworth’s niece.’

I smiled wryly. ‘It seems all London knows, my lady.’

‘I’ve met him at Mercers’ Company dinners. Not as clever as he thinks he is, though good at making money.’

‘Really?’

She laughed. ‘Ah, your face went sharp and lawyerly then, sir. I have piqued your interest.’

‘I have the girl’s life in my hands, Lady Honor.’

‘A responsibility.’ She grimaced. ‘Well, I must get on, I am visiting my late husband’s relatives.’

She lowered her vizard and the party moved off. ‘A fine-looking piece.’ Barak said as we rode on.

‘A lady of natural distinction.’

‘Bit too pert for me. I like a woman who keeps her place. Rich widows are the devil for pertness.’

‘Know many, do you?’

‘I might do.’

I laughed. ‘She is out of your league, Barak.’

‘Out of yours too.’

‘I would not be so impertinent as to think otherwise.’

‘
She’ll
never fall to beggary.’

‘The great families don’t have the assured places they once held.’

‘Whose fault’s that?’ he said roundly. ‘They fought each other in the wars of York and Lancaster till they near wiped each other out. I say we’re better off under
new men like the earl.’

‘He still likes his earldom, Barak. A coat of arms is everyone’s dream. Marchamount has made a joke of himself round Lincoln’s Inn trying to persuade the College of Heralds he
has people of gentle birth in his background.’ A thought struck me. ‘I wonder if that’s why he is cultivating Lady Honor. Marriage to someone of birth—’ At the
thought I felt an unexpected pang.

‘Got his eye on her?’ Barak said. ‘That could be interesting.’ He shook his head. ‘This chasing after status among the high-ups, it makes me laugh.’

‘If one aims for gentlemanly status one aims for a higher way of life. Better than a lower.’

‘I have my own lineage,’ he said with a mocking laugh.

‘Ah, yes. Your father’s trinket.’

‘Ay, though I keep quiet about my blood. They say the Jews were great bloodsuckers and gatherers of gold. And killers of children. Come on,’ he said abruptly. ‘I’ve to
find this Kytchyn fellow.’

‘If you find him, ask him to meet with me tomorrow. At St Bartholomew’s.’

Barak turned in the saddle. ‘At Barty’s? But Sir Richard Rich lives there now. My master wants him kept out of this. And your friend Bealknap mentioning his name worries
me.’

‘I must see where the stuff was found, Barak.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Very well. But we have to be careful.’

‘God’s death, d’you think I don’t realize that?’

At the bottom of Chancery Lane we parted. As I rode up the lane alone I felt suddenly nervous, remembering how we had been followed yesterday and seeing again those bodies in the Queenhithe
house. I was relieved to approach my gate. As I did so I saw Joseph approaching from the other end of the lane. His shoulders were slumped, his face sad and preoccupied, but as he saw me he smiled
and raised his hand in greeting. That heartened me; it was the first friendly gesture I had had since the trial.

A
S
I
REINED IN BESIDE HIM
I saw that Joseph looked tired and hot. Simon had not yet returned, so I
bade Joseph go indoors while I led the horses to the stables.