Deliver us from Evil (64 page)

I
laughed bitterly. "Unnatural indeed, then, for her deceit to have been the offspring of such a dread."

' "And yet there was more at stake - yes - more even than you."
I
frowned. "
I
do not understand."

'Lightborn's smile broadened. "The Marquise had warned Milady, many months before, that she should return to London at that time you both duly did. A reason had not been given to her; and so when Milady glimpsed me upon Pudding Lane, she was prepared, in your absence, to agree to a meeting, for she was naturally eager to know-more. The terms were soon agreed. Milady - that when she had learned to read the script, she would deliver us the book. The Marquise - that she would reveal to Milady where Emily might be found, and the means by which the plague-dead might then be destroyed. A worthy bargain, sir, would you not say?"

I
gazed at him in silence, then shook my head. "Why did Milady not tell me all this?"

'Lightborn shrugged. "Only she can answer that. However" - he paused - "
I
can hazard a guess."

' "Why?"

' "Because doubtless she wished not to cripple you with horror." He glanced at the
mummia
glass. "For the Marquise, in Pudding Lane, had revealed something more."

' "About me?"

' "Oh yes." Lightborn paused, toying with my dread. "About the cause
..."
he murmured; "the cause of your pain."

I
clasped my stomach;
I
struggled to sit up. "Tell me,"
I
said.

' "It was something, perhaps, which the book alone could have cured. And so it had been agreed, between Milady and the Marquise, that when the book's power was opened and its secrets read, then the Marquise's first deed would be to heal you of your peril. Alas, though" - Lightborn shrugged - "she failed to keep her word
..."

'His voice drawled away.
I
knew that he was watching me very closely, and
I
turned my head.
I
could not grovel to him; could not afford him the pleasure of seeing me beg. "Tell me,"
I
asked suddenly, "why Milady could not have employed the book herself."

I
could sense Lightborn stiffening. "She did not have the strength," he murmured at last.

' "Yes,"
I
nodded. "For
I
remember now, how the Marquise taunted her with the memory of something which had happened before, when she had sought to read the book and thereby brought you back to life."
I
stared back at him. "What, do you think, could the Marquise have meant?"

'Lightborn smiled coldly. "
I
would not grow too concerned about Milady now. You have quite sufficient problems of your own." ' "Indeed?"
I
arched an eyebrow. Still
I
would not beg. 'Lightborn laughed suddenly. "Shall
I
tell you, then?" he asked. ' "
I
wish, sir, that you would."

'He leaned forward, and whispered in my ear. "The seed of that
...
thing . . . you met with at Stonehenge - it lies buried deep within you."

I
stared at him in mute astonishment; and yet
I
knew, even as
I
shook my head, that he had been telling me the truth.

' "You are pregnant," he continued, "with a great load of evil. For the seed - it is growing, and must soon be delivered."

'Again
I
shook my head. "Delivered?"

'Lightborn laughed with a sudden, naked delight. "Yes, sir - and by its own agency. For the time will come when your baby, Lovelace -your sweet, sweet child - will tear its way out through the mess of your guts, where it has been sheltering and growing all these many years. What else do you think your agonies have been, but a portent of the birth-pangs you must shortly feel?"

I
closed my eyes.
I
laid my hands upon my stomach. "Dear God,"
I
whispered. "What, then, is to be done?"

' "You must be sent away."

' "There is no hope?"

' "None. For before the book was destroyed, while you tossed in your nightmares in your room in Prague, Milady read the script and employed its power. She gazed at the foetus where it lay within your guts. She saw that the Marquise had been telling the truth - and that she recognised the creature, still unformed as it was." Lightborn paused, and leaned forward close to me again. "Did you not, sir, when you travelled to Wolverton Hall, glimpse dead things crawling in the darkness there, which smiled at you cunningly as they gazed upon your face?"

' "
I
did,"
I
whispered.

' "Smiles, no doubt, of recognition."

' "You truly believe
I
can be bearing such a thing?"

' "It is not
I
who believes it, but Milady."

' "Then
I
..."
I
swallowed;
I
closed my eyes. "
I
must .
..
kill
..."
I
clasped my stomach. "
I
must
...
stab this thing, this creature, where it lies."

' "
I
doubt, sir," Lightborn answered, "that you could murder it now. For think: all your powers, all the marks which have served to set you so apart - what has been their purpose, but to keep your child alive?"

' "Yet we cannot be certain. It is surely worth the attempt?"

' "Yes, sir, but not here."

' "Why not?"

' "Because that thing which you bear
...
it is imbued with the lethal nature of its parent. It is lethal, for instance, even to myself - even to Milady. Suppose, then, that your death does not serve to kill it? No, sir, no
..."
- Lightborn shook his head - "
I
cannot permit you to continue near us."

I
did not answer him.

'Lightborn suddenly smiled, and reached up to pat a beam overhead. "This ship is due to sail in the next half-hour for America. There is sufficient wilderness there,
I
would have hoped, for you to lose yourself and your bastard in. And if that should not prove possible -well - the Americans are all devout and Christian men. Who better to have confronting the Devil's spawn than God's own Elect?"

' "No,"
I
said suddenly, "
I
will not go there.
I
will not go to America."

'Lightborn tutted. "You have no choice." ' "Milady
..
."

' "Milady?" Lightborn laughed. "But she agrees with me, Lovelace, that it is the best policy by far." ' "She is not here now?"

' "You know her love for you. She would not have endured to see your departure."

' "
I
want to see her first."

' "You cannot." As he said this, Lightborn drew a knife;
I
struggled to evade him, but
I
was too weak to move and he aimed the point of the blade at my throat. "You will, sir, go to America," he hissed. At the same moment, there came a sudden shouting from the dock, and Lightborn angled his head, then slipped his knife back in his belt. "It is later than
I
had thought," he said jauntily. "Your ship is due to depart." He rose to his feet; then paused suddenly, and reached within his cloak. "Here," he murmured, as he drew out a further flask of
mummia.
"This is all that is left." He laid the bottle by my feet.

'More cries came from the deck overhead; and
I
felt the ship starting to rock and move.
I
gazed up at Lightborn. "You will tell her
..."

'He nodded, even as he turned and left me.
I
watched him depart. "You will tell her?"
I
shouted after him again; but he was gone by now and, if he heard, he did not turn round.
I
gripped the bottle tightly as
I
lay doubled up, alone.

'...
Marblehead, a place of great wickedness and lechery.'

17th century New England pamphlet

T
he effects of the
mummia
lingered for the next few days, so that
I
was able to rise at least, and have some consciousness of things other than my gnawing - my ever-gnawing - pain.
The Faithful Pilgrim
was not a large ship, and yet there were upwards of a hundred souls aboard her, Puritans all, bound for a New World. Their leader was a bony, black-clad man, much given to comparing his people to the Israelites, and London to an Egypt damned by plague and fire. The name of this self-anointed Moses was Mr Fortitude Sheldon; and he reminded me somewhat of a Wiltshire man
I
had known - an old friend of my father, Mr Webbe. Yet Mr Sheldon had taken for himself the best cabin in the ship - something which my father's friend would never have done - and in the violence of his hatreds, the severity of his judgements, there seemed little of that compassion which
I
recalled in Mr Webbe.

'Nor, as my pain began to worsen again, did Mr Sheldon's compassion grow any more evident. The very opposite, indeed - for seeing my weakness, his manner grew increasingly peremptory, until at length he gave me an order as though
I
were his servant, or a child. Outraged by his impudence,
I
struck him. The blow was feeble, and yet he staggered; and his thin face grew very pale. Then he cried damnation upon me, and shouted out to the Brethren that
I
should be seized, and bound upon the deck. My clothes were stripped from me, and flung into the waves - "For they are the silks of Babylon," Mr Sheldon cried, "fit only for a brothel, not this vessel blessed of God." Then he saw my naked chest; he sobbed a cry of prayer and all the gathered Brethren at once began to moan.
I
gazed down; and saw for the first time that my nipples were oozing a watery blood. "Oh, be warned!" Mr Sheldon cried. "Be warned! For what are such marks, if not those of the Beast? Let the lash be applied to his back, and richly, that his stripes may bear witness to our most loving zeal!"

'It was done straight away as Mr Sheldon had commanded. Later, now dressed in the black homespun which all the Brethren wore,
I
was dragged to his cabin and flung down at his feet. Mr Shelden gazed at me with a look of holy approval. "So must you expect to be served," he nodded, "until all the stains of your former life are washed away, and you are rendered as clean as was Naaman by the waters of Jordan."

I
clutched at my belly and, despite my agony,
I
laughed. "You cannot know what you say."

'He frowned at me. "Are you spotted so foully, then, that you may truly not be cleansed?"

' "
I
know, sir,"
I
answered him, "that
I
cannot be redeemed by your god, nor by anyone's, perhaps."

'As before, when
I
had struck him, his face grew very pale. "
I
see, sir," he hissed, "that as a serpent you have been smuggled here, into the very bosom of our godly fellowship. Well" - he leaned down close beside me - "your purposes must be scotched. Let us see what toil may not achieve with you, blessed toil, and the guidance of prayer. And if still you should prove to be inveterate chaff - well then, sir -you must be swept into the fire!" '

Lovelace paused, and half-smiled. 'Of course,' he continued, with the faintest of shrugs,
'
I
might easily have struck him again. But
I
chose not to - and indeed, in the weeks to come,
I
was to accept the yoke of his pious tyranny, to toil and pray as he commanded me to do, until he came almost to believe
I
might indeed be spared the final sweeping. It may be that, even in the depths of my agony,
I
found the strength to smile at Lightborn's jest, so wittily, so cruelly made, which had seen me restored to my former homespun, praying to my former God down upon my knees - even as
I
bore within my guts my hellish load. And it may be also, as the weeks began to pass, that
I
grew to welcome speaking the familiar scriptures, the words which
I
had learned in my parents' home and had once - as they had done - truly believed. Yet neither of these reasons would have served to stay my hand, had there not been a greater, more certain one as well: that
I
did not wish to tempt Mr Sheldon's threats - that
I
did not wish to die.'