The Gallows Curse (36 page)

    'Why
do you keep them?' Elena asked.

    'They're
my guardians, my pets. But they have other uses. They earn their keep as we all
do here. But I am fond of them and they are fond of me; they have to be for I
am their god. I bring them food and water and they know it. Who knows,' she
chuckled, 'maybe when I am late in coming they pray to me.
Panem nostrum
quotidianum da nobis hodie
— give us this day our daily bread.'

    There
was one more hunk of meat in the basket and Ma lifted her lantern and led the
way a little further on. The creature in this last cage was huddled down in the
corner, not pacing impatiently like some of the other beasts. Even when Ma
lifted the lantern Elena could not make out what it was, for its head, like
that of the lion, was covered with a great mass of tangled dark hair and its
body lay half buried in the straw.

    'Your
dinner, my pet,' Ma called, tossing the remaining piece of bloody meat into the
cage.

    The
creature slowly lifted its head and Elena clapped her hands to her mouth for
the blue eyes that glowed out at her from a face that was almost black with
filth and grime were unmistakably human. He was naked, but Elena was scarcely
aware of that for his body was so filthy that he might have been wearing a
garment woven from mud.

    The
man tipped forward and crawled towards the hunk of meat on his elbows and
knees. As he came closer to where

    Elena
was standing, she suddenly saw why he moved in such a curious way. His feet and
hands had been lopped off. The skin was twisted and scarred around the stumps
where the bleeding limbs had been dipped in boiling tar to seal the ends and
stop him bleeding to death.

    Elena
had seen mutilations before. A hand or nose or ear severed for thieving or some
other crime, but never had she seen a man so cruelly and deliberately maimed as
this. The wretch sat up and using the stump of one arm to lever the meat up
against his chest and his teeth to grasp it, he dragged his meal back away from
the bars.

    'You
are well?' Ma asked, surprising Elena with the gentleness of the question.

    The
man did not speak. His gaze darted from Ma back to Elena. It lingered on
Elena's face with such a miserable intensity that she wanted to turn away, but
found she couldn't tear her eyes from his. Then, as if he was suddenly
conscious of his nakedness, he hunched away from her, scrabbling with the stump
of his arm to pull a few wisps of straw across his groin.

    'Who
... who is he?' Elena breathed.

    'Have
you learned nothing, my darling? We none of us own our names in here. Here he
is known as my pet, nothing more. What does he need with a name?

    'But
come, I sent Luce to look for you a while ago. I've work for you tonight, my
darling, important work, and we must prepare you well. For the gentleman is
very particular in what he wants.'

    
Eels
— Eels are creatures of water and thunder, for they are quickened from the
slime of the fishes when the thunderstorms rage. Many mortals fear to swim
where there are eels lest they suck the swimmers' blood.

    The
fat of the eel when rubbed on the eyes gives mortal men the gift to see faerie
folk and those secrets which others would hide from their gaze. The livers of
the eel ease childbirth and their blood cures warts.

    If
they be dried in the sun, softened with fat, then stuffed with thyme and lavender,
they can be worn as garters to ease the pains of the joints which come with
age, or the marsh ague.

    But
if a wife wishes to cure her husband of drunkenness, then let her put a live
eel in his ale or wine and suffer the creature to die in there, and when her
husband drinks it, he shall never desire that drink again.

    The
Mandrake's Herbal

    Luce
lowered the chaplet of white roses as gently as she could on to Elena's loose
red hair.

    'There
now,' Luce murmured soothingly, 'they'll match that little white rosebud mark
you've got on your thigh. If he's a passion for roses, he'll love that.
Gentlemen love to find little hidden scars and moles, makes 'em think they've
discovered a secret.'

    She
adjusted the angle of the chaplet and Elena yelped as the thorns pricked her
scalp. Luce bit her lip and glanced at Ma, who merely shrugged.

    'You
heard what he said, he wants the thorns left on.'

    Luce
crossly examined her own hands which were scratched and bleeding from having
woven the crown. 'Wants to see these'n' all, does he?'

    'He
can see anything he likes, if he pays for it,' Ma said tartly. 'Now then, let's
have a look at you, my darling.'

    Elena
was finding it hard to breathe through the small holes in a wooden mask. She
peered out through the eye slits, already feeling the panic rising as it
pressed against her face. She couldn't understand why this man had demanded she
wore it. It was painted white. No features, no detail, just a smooth, blank
surface as if her face didn't matter, didn't exist. Only the flesh of her body
was important.

    Elena
squinted down at the fine bleached linen kirtle she wore. It was plain, but
hung smoothly to the floor, bounded by a girdle of scarlet silk. But she was
painfully conscious that beneath it she wore no shift, nor hose, nor shoes, and
she felt as if she was standing there already naked.

    Ma
nodded her satisfaction. 'Come then. He wants you ready when he arrives.'

    'But
please, Ma, tell me what he wants me to do,' Elena said desperately.

    'Very
little, I suspect, at least at the start. He'll do it all at first and then you
do whatever he asks.'

    She
opened a door that led to a second chamber and waved her jewelled hand at
Elena. 'Come along, my darling. In here.'

    Elena
stared at the open door as a prisoner might look at irons in a torturer's fire.
She couldn't move. Luce slipped her arm through hers and tugged her forward.

    'You'll
see, it won't be half as bad as you think,' she whispered encouragingly. 'Some
of the gentlemen can be real sweetings. Know how to treat a lady, they do.'

    Elena
shuffled forward. The second chamber was larger than the one she had been
dressed in. Small tables were scattered around the room, bearing flagons and
goblets, platters of meats and honey-covered pastries and fruit. On one side of
the chamber was a raised wooden platform covered with a thick pallet that
looked as if it might be stuffed with feathers, not straw. Elena saw it and
shuddered. Was that where he would do it?

    On
the other side was a shallow marble basin shaped like a giant scallop shell,
large enough for two people to sit inside. A pole was fixed in the centre of
the basin, carved and painted with a riot of leaping dolphins, garlanded with
strange fruits and flowers that never grew above the waves. On top of the pole
was a giant carved fish, coloured gold and red. It hung over the basin, its fat
gold lips agape. Luce crossed over to it and pressed down on the fin of its
tail. At once a jet of water spewed from its mouth in a graceful arc on to the
pole and ran into the basin below. Luce laughed.

    'That's
enough, Luce, don't waste it, or we'll have to refill it,' Ma said, but she was
smiling with satisfaction. 'Now quickly, my darling. He'll be here soon.'

    You
have to get into the bath,' Luce urged. She helped Elena to step over the side
and then clambered in with her. 'Turn around and put your back to the pillar.'

    Ma
reached for something under a table, and returned to Luce carrying a long
length of rope.

    Elena
suddenly saw what they intended to do, and pushed Luce away, gathering up her
long skirts and trying to scramble back out of the basin.

    'Hold
her,' Ma barked.

    Ma
clambered in over the low lip of the basin, grabbing her arms and slamming her
back against the pillar so hard that for the moment Elena was winded. Before
she knew it Ma had pulled both her wrists back behind the pillar and Luce was
tying them tightly. Elena struggled and screamed as the rope was looped around
her waist and over her shoulders, cutting between her breasts and binding her
body to the pole.

    Breathless
from the struggle, the two women clambered back out of the basin and surveyed
their handiwork. In the struggle some of the thorns had pierced Elena's skin
and thin trickles of scarlet blood ran down from her forehead over the white
mask. She was sobbing now, panting for breath beneath the hot mask, begging for
them to release her, but she could see from their faces they would not.

    Luce
grimaced. 'Stop fighting, Holly, please. You'll only hurt yourself. It's just a
game, is all. Some men like to play the hero. I dare say all he wants is to
pretend he's rescuing you. If you play along, you'll enjoy it, you'll see.'

    'I
won't, I won't,' Elena screamed at her, her voice muffled beneath the wood. 'If
you want to enjoy yourself, you do this. But I won't play. I won't do what he
asks. I'll fight him. As soon as he lets me go I'll rip his face off.'

    Ma
nodded to Luce. You'd best go see if the gentleman is ready and then get back
and mind the gate. Talbot's attending to some business and he'll not be back
till late.'

    As
soon as Luce had closed the door behind her, Ma took a step forward, her hands
on her hips, and looked up at Elena.

    'Now
you listen to me, my darling. I've seen it all; tears and pleas don't move me.
If you don't please this gentleman, then you'll find yourself in the common
hall pleasuring the sailors and the shit-shovellers, most of them drunk and
stinking of the midden. Half a dozen of them a day, and you'll soon learn to
swallow your pride and that won't be all you'll swallow. But you can beg and
plead as much as you like; the gentlemen enjoy that. It quickens their blood.
But I warn you, the more you beg, the more he'll be spurred on to do.'

    Ma
looked sharply at the door, hearing the sound of a man's footsteps striding
towards the door. With a final warning gesture, she slipped through the
connecting door that led to the dressing room. Even as that door closed, the
main door to the chamber burst open. A tall cloaked figure stood squarely in
the open doorway, framed by the darkness of the passage outside. Elena bit back
a scream, for in the guttering candlelight his face was not the face of a man,
but the mask of a demon.

    'You
want me to come with you?' the eel man asked Raffe. 'I can show you where the
best fishing spots are. But I'll not be telling you where my eel traps are
laid, that's a secret I'll share only on my deathbed.'

    His
face creased in a weather-beaten, toothless grin and he tapped the side of his
nose, from which a large chunk was missing.

    He
loved to tell in gory detail, as old men do, how it was that one day, many
years ago, a giant eel had fastened on the end of his nose and bitten it clean
off. He was so old that no one could remember if that was the truth or not, but
as the years went by the monstrous eel grew so long and fat in the telling that
each new generation of children marvelled that the beast had only eaten his
nose, and not devoured the whole man.

    'I
want to go off fishing by myself. Get away for the night from Osborn and the
noise of the manor,' Raffe explained.