Quintessence Sky (29 page)

Ramos felt dizzy, like the whole earth was
spinning with him at the center. Though perhaps it was just the
foundations of his life that were spinning. He should walk away
right now. He had met this man, and heard his thoughts; he
shouldn't get any more entangled. It would mean his life, and
Antonia's life as well. But if they could get to the heart of the
matter . . . then Antonia's life might be saved.

The next step, however, was to share with Dee
what he himself knew, and that was a line over which he could not
return once he crossed it. It was one thing to meet with another
astrologer in a library and talk about the stars. It was quite
another to share state secrets with a man he knew to be a spy. In
the end, he didn't hesitate very long. He wanted answers, and he
wasn't finding them himself. Not fast enough, anyway. Already, from
only ten minutes conversation with Dee, he had learned more than he
knew before. He needed a collaborator.

"Come," Ramos said. "I have some things to
show you."

RAMOS paused at the cellar door. On the way,
he had prepared Dee with the history of the
San Salvador
and
its voyage from Horizon, the wonders the sailors had returned with,
and some of what he had so far discovered. Dee merely raised an
eyebrow at the story of the
Ignis Dei
and its role in the
burning of Charles Shiveley, and Ramos remembered that Elizabeth
had already seemed to know. Had she learned it from Dee? Or had she
been the one to tell him?

This was the point of no return. So far, he
had only exchanged some philosophical banter with a member of the
court. To lead him into the secret cellar, however, was advancing
into willful disregard of the king's command. He descended first,
to be sure neither Barrosa nor the king was already there, and when
he found it deserted, returned for Dee.

Ramos showed him the animals, the gold, the
shekinah and pearls. He explained how he had come upon the idea for
the
Ignis Dei
, and demonstrated the power of the invisible
bird's saliva. Dee became more and more animated, ruminating on the
nature of matter and the likelihood of other planes of existence.
When they reached the bell-boxes, Dee agreed with him instantly
that the quintessence connection that joined the boxes must be of
the same kind as that which joined people with the stars of their
birth.

They were interrupted by the sound of a door
opening and footsteps descending the stairs. Both men froze. They
were trapped; there was no other way out of the cellar, and no
place to hide. Ramos had not yet mastered the bird's trick of
invisibility. It could only be one of two men on those stairs, and
either one meant disaster.

It was Barrosa. He reached the bottom before
he noticed them, and he froze as well, joining the tableau of
shocked discovery. Then he laughed.

Dee laughed as well, and the two men
embraced. Ramos watched them, still unable to move, his mouth
slightly agape.

"I told you we could trust him," Barrosa
said.

Ramos sank into a seat, feeling weak. "I
don't understand."

"I told Dee you loved truth more than
politics. I told him you were smart, that we needed your mind, and
that you would understand the importance of considering the
question of the novas without political interference. But I never
dreamed . . .!"

Ramos was starting to feel like he'd been
tricked. "Dreamed what?"

"I've been sneaking around, meeting with Dee
for a month, but I never dreamed of actually bringing him down
here. I barely even told him about these things; I just dropped
hints, because I knew if any breath of them leaked out, the king
would know I was the source. The risk was just too great. And here
you are, the first time you meet, giving him the full tour!"

"I have to know the truth," Ramos said.
"Antonia . . ."

Barrosa clapped him on the shoulder. "I know,
old friend."

Comprehension dawned. "You!" Ramos said.
"You're the one talking to Elizabeth. That's how she knew so much
about me."

Barrosa nodded with a chuckle.

"But . . . why? You're a Spaniard. Why spy
for an English woman?"

"This has nothing to do with politics. It's
no conspiracy to put Elizabeth on the throne. But she's not like
other monarchs. She cares about what's true, not just what serves
her interests. She's not content with shallow, thoughtless
explanations that protect the status quo. And she knows people." He
indicated Dee. "She brought us together, and she'll find more. If
the madness is just a curse from God, there's nothing we can do
about it. But if it's a natural phenomenon, based on quintessence,
then just maybe it's something we can understand and do something
about."

Ramos thought of Antonia, and he knew this
was the right course. But how could the right course be contrary to
the ways of God? Unless God wasn't on the Church's side after all.
Ramos felt seasick, as if the solid deck he thought he was standing
on was now pitching up and down in the wind, liable to capsize
without warning. Who was he anymore? The masts of his life were
split and tumbling on either side, and yet he felt oddly sure that
he was heading in the right direction.

"Count me in," he said.

RAMOS continued to visit Elizabeth,
ostensibly to hear her confession. He grew more and more in awe of
her, a young woman barely more than a child, yet wiser than her
years, and with the strength of a lion. He continued to try to
convince her to recant and swear allegiance to the Roman Church,
but she refused.

When the days grew hot, Philip and Mary moved
court to Richmond Palace for the summer. Removing anything from the
cellar was a terrible risk, but Ramos decided it was worth the
gamble. John Dee's mother was still alive and living in Mortlake
High Street, not far from Richmond, so Ramos and Barrosa and Dee
decided to set up headquarters there. Ramos moved Antonia to
Mortlake and began to spend most of his time there, when he was not
expected at the palace. Ramos and Barrosa smuggled in as many
things as they dared so they could expand their experiments beyond
what the cellar would allow.

The first thing Ramos tried was the bell-box
again, this time with Barrosa and Dee with him. He was desperate to
talk to the Horizon colonists, to find out what they knew, and to
warn them of the ships heading their way.

They tried the lever again and again, but
with no response. The bell never rang. Either the colonists were
dead, or had fled, or were afraid he was their enemy and so refused
to answer. They might even suspect that the connection had been a
ruse to gain their confidence or discover their position. He knew
it wouldn't be easy to gain their trust, but it would be impossible
if he could never speak to them.

Ramos told Barrosa and Dee about the brief
conversation he'd had with what he assumed were Horizon colonists.
They were as astonished as he, especially since the bell-box
connection to
La Magdalena
didn't work that way at all.
Pressing the lever rang the bell on the other side, which was
miraculous enough, but it couldn't transmit a person's voice. The
boxes looked the same, and seemed to be of the same design. What
was different?

"They're the same on this end," Dee pointed
out. "That doesn't mean they're the same on the other end."

Ramos snapped his fingers. "Of course. The
colonists must have improved the design. But how?"

It took them three days to figure it out.
Once he knew it was possible, Ramos was relentless in trying to
discover the secret, and of course, he didn't have many options to
try. It did occur to him the colonists could be using some tool
only available on the island, a special plant or something taken
from a Horizon animal, but that didn't stop him. He tried
everything he could think of, until at last, despite Barrosa's
warning of the dangers and the likelihood that the box itself would
be destroyed, he carefully tipped a drop of vitriol into the
glowing heart of the ironfish skull.

The void sprang into being, small at first,
but glowing.

"Hello?" Ramos said. "Hello? Is anyone
there?"

CHAPTER 19

MATTHEW and Parris ran at the head of the
line wending its way through the forest toward the distant
mountains. They needed to reach the foothills, at the edge of which
lived the red manticores, the tribe most accepting, if not exactly
welcoming, of the human presence on the island. Whether they
realized it or not, the Spanish were their mutual enemy. He needed
to convince them of that fact, and enlist their help. If he could
convince them to help find Catherine, or at least learn for certain
if she was dead, so much the better.

The line was spreading out. With enough salt,
they could run without growing tired, but they had long since used
up whatever reserves their bodies held. At least there were no
injured, since even without a supply of salt, their bodies healed
almost immediately. Matthew's father lagged somewhere at the back
of the line. Ferguson, on the other hand, walked at the front,
sometimes even pressing ahead of Matthew, as if he were leading the
way.

Finally, as it grew dark again, Matthew
called a halt to the column. They would have to spend the night
under the stars. They posted sentries to watch for the many enemies
that could do them harm: the manticores, the Spanish, or even
nocturnal predators. Matthew volunteered for the first watch.

When the light of the blazing sun finally
disappeared, leaving the forest lit by rays of ethereal starlight
slanting in from the west, Blanca found him. Most of the colonists
were asleep, or settling down for the night. Tomorrow's journey
would be even more difficult: uphill into the foothills of the
mountains.

"Blanca," he said. "About the other night. I
don't think we—"

"Never mind about that. I brought you
something." She held out a broken piece of wood. "He's talking
again."

"What? Who?"

"The man from England."

Matthew's mind felt blurred with exhaustion,
and it took him a moment to figure out what she was talking about.
"Tavera, you mean? The one from the orphaned bell-box?"

She nodded. He couldn't read her expression
in the starlight shadows.

"But it was all destroyed," he said. "The
jawbone, the box, it was all swallowed up in the void. The end of
the thread was still there, but it wasn't attached to anything, and
now it's all burned away."

"Remember how I threw a piece of wood into
the void?" she said. "I kept the other piece in my pocket. I still
have it, and just now, while I was running . . . I heard him
talking."

Matthew took the piece from her and turned it
over in his hands. Another mystery. A piece of this wood had been
thrown into the void. Like any living or formerly-living thing, the
two pieces would have been joined by a thread, one side in the
void, the other side in the world. But when the void had snapped
shut, what had happened to the thread?