Deliver us from Evil (59 page)

Lord Rochester did not answer. Lovelace's smile broadened, then he sighed and leaned back. 'Milady, too, infected with her own impatience, had been pacing like a wild thing all the length of our voyage; and our route, it was true, could have been a great deal more direct. Yet it was not only the secret of the text we had to solve; there were other mysteries as well, still dark and unsolved, at the very heart of my longed-for revenge. And so it was t
hat we had taken the ship to Lü
beck, across the North Sea and around the tip of Denmark; for it was to L
ü
beck that my father had dispatched Sir Charles Wolverton.

'But that, of course, had happened more than twenty years before; and our chance of picking up the trail, we knew, would be faint. Yet not hopeless - for we had already, before leaving for London, travelled to Portsmouth and looked through the records of all the L
ü
beck-bound ships. There had been, it transpired, only one on which my father could have placed Sir Charles - owned by an Englishman, a merchant in L
ü
beck - and this merchant, we had been told, though old, was still alive. To whom else would Sir Charles, a penniless arrival in an unknown city, have presented himself, if not such a countryman? And to whom else should we, pursuing Sir Charles, present ourselves, if not the same man?

'He did indeed prove old, but sharp still as well; and
I
knew at once, as
I
asked him, that he remembered our man.
I
recognised the shadow which passed across his face, for my father too had often looked the same, as though reluctant even to hear mention of Sir Charles. We could not, though, now permit the merchant his reticence; and so
I
left him to Milady, who had soon bled his memories dry. Yes, the merchant admitted, he did remember Sir Charles, who had arrived one morning appealing for help. The merchant, pitying him, had slipped him some gold; Sir Charles, displaying his gratitude, had then robbed the merchant, and fled the city b
ounds. In the forests beyond Lü
beck, there had been many other such fugitives, for it was that time of lawlessness, my Lord, of which the Pasha spoke to us, when Germany was plunged into universal war, and every bond of society had dissolved into blood. In such conditions, naturally enough, Sir Charles had prospered; and had soon become the leader of a notorious robber band. At length, so violent did its depredations grow, so dangerous to the city's trade, that the city fathers had been compelled to raise soldiers to destroy it; and yet in truth, although Sir Charles and his men had soon afterwards left, it appeared they had been bribed, not compelled, to depart. "And where did they go?" Milady pressed. The merchant shrugged. Somewhere towards the south, towards Bohemia, he thought, where the war had been fiercest and the anarchy worst; but beyond that, he could not be sure. Then he paused. "Ask along the docks," he advised, "along the Untertrave. If any of Sir Charles' band returned here to L
ü
beck, then that is where you will find them - for, like a midden, the Untertrave drains all the city's filth."

'Milady went there that same night.
I
did not accompany her. Weeks had passed since she had tasted fresh blood; and
I
had seen in her eyes the familiar glint of thirst. Returning to me the next morning, she seemed flushed and content; but not merely with her pleasures, for she brought news with her as well. In the very darkest and most desperate tavern, she reported, she had tracked down a veteran of Sir Charles' band, maimed and ancient, sitting alone. She had drawn him even deeper into the shadows and then, as with the merchant, had sucked his memories dry. There had been little of direct relevance he had been able to reveal; for he had been wounded before the band had even entered Bohemia, plundering a castle on the Saxon border; and had been left to guard it while his fellows had moved on. For months, though, none of them had returned; and the injured robber had begun to think the castle was his own. Then one night, galloping hard down the road from Prague, a single survivor of the band returned: one Konrad Haszler, Sir Charles' second-in-command. He had at once begun to raise guards, and order the castle refortified, as though in daily expectation of the coming of some foe. Yet for all the evident nature of his dread, he had never chosen to speak of it; and indeed, whenever his injured fellow sought to press him on the matter, Haszler had always been provoked into a violent fury. It had been at the height of one of these rages that he had ordered his comrade slung out into the road; and left him, crippled as he was, to crawl his way back home. Reduced to beggary, the inju
red man had struggled back to Lü
beck at last; but with no fond memories, you may be sure, of his former comrade-in-arms. Certainly, it had required little effort on Milady's part to persuade him to reveal the castle's name; for he had glimpsed, perhaps, in Milady's eyes, a hint of that danger which had reduced Konrad Haszler to such fear.

'We set off from Lü
beck that same morning. Although
I
was still much inconvenienced by the pain in my stomach,
I
had agreed that we should ride, for Milady was quite as good a horseman as myself and we were eager to make all the speed that we could. Once
Lübeck
had been left behind, though, the roads soon grew very poor; and the further south we travelled, so the worse they became. The countryside too seemed blasted and despoiled; and as we passed into Saxony, we began to see the shells of villages left utterly abandoned, the towers of churches toppled into rubble, the fragments of houses submerged beneath weeds. Yet the war had ended more than twenty years previously; and
I
wondered at its nature, and the scale of its horrors, which could have left such visible and enduring scars behind. And
I
wondered also, my Lord, at what the Pasha had told us - that such devastation would surely be witnessed again, and in England too, if the Angel of Death were not soon to be destroyed
..."
Lovelace paused briefly; his smile was very cold,
I
understand, of course, that such considerations have never weighed with your lordship; but with me, in my weakness, they weighed heavily indeed - for
I
was reminded, when
I
glimpsed the ruins where villages had once stood, of the horrors
I
had seen when
I
last went to Woodton

He paused again, and seemed to shudder. 'Beyond Pima,' he continued at length, 'the landscape grew ever more mountainous. We were drawing near now to Bohemia; and as we wound upwards,
I
imagined we were travelling through a frozen hell of rock, where all traces of humanity had been transmuted into stone, for the crags which overshadowed us wore fantastical shapes, as though they had been twisted and racked by a terrible pain. And indeed, all that day we saw not a single living soul; for evidently, so total had been the devastation along the road we were now passing that nothing had survived the sweep of ruin, save only the wolves. We would hear them sometimes, their howls sounding from the black depths of forests, howls answering howls, until all the mountains and ravines would seem to echo to their noise. We would then spur our horses faster; for
I
would wonder, against such implacable foes, what even Milady herself could achieve.

'Yet perhaps
I
should not have been concerned; for
I
was soon to have evidence enough of her powers. It was nearing sunset when at last we saw our destination ahead of us - th
e broken battlements of the castl
e rearing up jagged against the sky, so that they seemed as bleak and inhospitable as the mountain crags themselves.
I
found myself wondering again what it was that Konrad Haszler could have seen or done, which had led him to flee to such a godforsaken spot: something terrible, certainly, for as we drew nearer to the castle, we could see that the gateway had been freshly repaired and the gates firmly locked. Milady paused a moment. The faintest smile of amusement played across her lips. "Such precautions," she murmured. "And yet the worst of it must be for him, that he is likely to know how feeble they will prove."

'Then she spurred her horse forward, and together we cantered along to the gateway. Challenges greeted us from the watch-towers above; yet even as Milady glanced up, they were frozen mid-sentence, and without her having to utter a word,
I
heard the clattering of footsteps, and then the slithering back of bolts. Slowly, one of the gates was swung ajar; and at once Milady was passing through the gap.
I
followed her. She glanced round at me, then pointed to a tower rising up from the keep. A light was flickering at its very top. "There," she whispered; her delicate nostrils flared. "Even from this distance,
I
can smell his fear."

'And her senses, of course, were far too sharp to be in error. We found Haszler where Milady had said that we would, at the summit of a winding coil of stairs - his back pressed hard against the furthermost wall, a sword drawn and shaking in his hands. He seemed a brutal, grizzled, battle-scarred man; yet as he met Milady's eyes, he whimpered softly, and the sword fell with a clang upon the floor. He staggered sideways; and
I
saw how there was a large wooden cross upon a table, which he reached for and hugged very tightly to his chest. "He . . ." The man swallowed. "He has sent you, then?" he asked.

' "He?" Milady arched an eyebrow; then crossed with a measured pace towards a chair, the only one in the room. She sat down in it, and slowly removed her gloves; then fixed her gaze again upon the shuddering Haszler. "He?" she repeated lightly. "Tell me, sir, please, whom you mean by this 'he'?"

' "Ta
..
Ta . ." the man stammered. "Tadeus, Father Tadeus,
I
mean."

'Milady arched her eyebrow a second time. "Tadeus," she murmured. Then she shook her head. "No. Tadeus has been dead these several years."

"Dead?" Haszler stared at her in disbelief. "But he
..."

"Was an immortal? Yes." Milady smiled. "So he had thought, at least. But he was dabbling, it seems, in things greater than he knew.

And so that is why" - she leaned forward - "we have come to talk with you."

' "But
I
never
...
it was never me who knew
...
it was
..."
Haszler licked his lips. "You don't want me," he shouted suddenly, "you want Wolverton, and that bloody Jew!"

'Milady glanced round at me, and arched her eyebrow yet again; then she turned back to Haszler, and raised up a hand. "No, no, no," she purred. "Tell me from the start." Then
I
saw her golden eyes spark, and Haszler screamed despairingly. He dropped the cross as he fell to the ground, clutching at his head, as though Milady's stare were a venomous snake, darting through his sockets and spitting deep inside his skull. Then Milady smiled, and leaned back; and the gleam in her eyes was hooded once again. "Everything," she whispered. "We need to know it all."

'Haszler moaned. He reached for the crucifix, and hugged it again. "It was Wolverton," he muttered, "Wolverton met him first."

' "Met Tadeus, you mean?"

'Haszler nodded.

' "How?"

' "We had gone
...
it was after we had pillaged all the passes round here - we had gone into Bohemia, and met there with an army of mercenaries and Swedes as they were marching on Prague. So we joined with the Swedes, because we'd already seen how little was left in the countryside to plunder, and we thought we'd do better if the city could be stormed. But the siege was a hard one, and most of our band was killed, and then peace was signed and the invading army left. Those of us still alive, we wanted to go - but Wolverton refused. He had always talked of visiting Prague, for it had a dark reputation for sorcery such as was bound to have attracted him." Haszler swallowed; then lifted the crucifix, and pressed it hard to his lips. "For you must understand," he muttered, "that Wolverton had always been dreaded by the rest of us, as being a master of the secret arts - and indeed, he would not permit anyone to join with us, not until the new recruit had tortured a priest to death and been baptised with the blood into the faith of the Evil One. And to be sure, in return for such devotions, he seemed rewarded with success; for we had all grown rich by following him - and when he stayed in Prague,
I
was reluctant to abandon him,
I
and a few others - because we could sense,
I
think, that he was involved in some great project.

' "What it was, though, he refused to say - not for several months, anyway, during which we barely saw him at all, and the loot we had plundered began to run out.
I
was thinking we would have to leave, go back to the road; and then one night, as though Wolverton had been reading my thoughts, he came to me and tossed me a small bag of gold.
I
asked him where it had come from. Wolverton smiled; then he took me by the arm and led me downstairs. Waiting for us in the street outside
I
saw Kroger, the first person to have joined with me and Wolverton; and next to him, in the shadows, what appeared to be a priest.
I
was surprised; for Wolverton, as
I
have mentioned, was no friend to the Church. But then the priest turned, and
I
met his stare; and my blood seemed at once transformed into ice. For his stare, Madame
..."
Haszler swallowed, then paused. "His stare, Madame -it was exceedingly like yours."