The Secrets of Life and Death (36 page)

‘It is time,’ he said, through clenched teeth, as if biting each word off. ‘The count has ordered your immediate executions.’

My throat made a sound that I have to admit was a whimper. My knees softened until only the guards gripping me under the arms held me up.

They bound our hands behind our backs and dragged us to the chapel. I was surprised to see the hooded men carrying our bags, perhaps they feared our belongings were contaminated. László nodded to one of our guards, who opened the door to the top of the stairs that led down to the dungeon.

He shrugged, catching my eye. ‘I am sorry. But we cannot allow that which you have done to be undone. It will be swift.’ He turned to one of the guards. ‘Bring me their heads.’ He turned to go, leaving us as if we had been calves to slaughter.

I wanted to scream at him, anyone, to spare me. I would like to think courage stopped me pleading for my life, but I couldn’t form a word. The guard to my left took my weight and started to pull me towards the stairs. Then I found my strength, and started resisting. I was overpowered, and half dragged, half thrown down the steps.

I fell upon the floor of the dungeon, crying out as my shoulder struck the stone. One of the hooded men snapped an order to the guards who departed, leaving just four men. We listened to their boots on the steps and I struggled to my feet.

The hooded soldier fastened an iron gate across the bottom of the stairs. He drew back his cowl to show himself as the stern Lord Miklós. The other, grinning as he revealed himself, proved to be Lord János.

He reached out a hand and grasped my forearm in a soldier’s greeting. I clung to his arm.

‘You did it! I doubted you, but there will be sons now,’ he said, in his poor Latin.

Miklós threw a key at him. ‘We have little time for congratulations. Let the priest and his men out.’

Konrad, squinting into the sudden light of a few torches, stepped out of his cell. He stood, looking back at Dee and myself with a hard expression.

‘You did it, despite my warnings. Better you were dead, than damned eternally.’

Miklós interrupted. ‘We will show your men the way out of the castle and assist your escape, if you will take the Englishmen with you.’

‘To Rome.’ Konrad stared into my very soul, with those black eyes.

‘If you choose. But you will not spill English blood on Istvan’s soil.’

‘The Inquisition?’ The words stumbled out of me.

Konrad’s voice softened a little. ‘I cannot help that. It is my duty to God and the Pope. Indeed, it offers your one hope for redemption.’

‘My family are in Krakow.’ Dee’s voice was as calm as if he were making polite conversation. ‘Master Kelley’s wife, also.’

Miklós turned to him. ‘They will receive five thousand crowns in gratitude from the king for your help in saving the countess.’ He drew out his sword, the metal screeching from its scabbard. ‘If Erzsébet lives, Nádasdy does not demand monies of the king in repayment of loans. She will bear sons, and the Black Bear will revert to being utterly loyal to the Báthorys.’

I stared at Dee. ‘But how will we get out of the castle? It is a fortress.’

Dee spoke to János. ‘I thought you were with Nádasdy’s men?’

‘My first allegiance is to my Voivode, Istvan.’

Konrad’s soldiers were arming themselves from the pile of discarded swords by the wall of the dungeon. János pulled one of them towards a shadowed recess on the wall. ‘Here. A tunnel to the outer courtyard. We have arranged weapons and horses there. You will have to fight, but some are my men, and under orders to be lenient, and to let you escape. Nádasdy’s troops will be taken by surprise, but be warned, they are battle-hardened and dangerous. If I think you are losing, I will despatch you myself, to avert suspicion.’

‘Why let us go?’ I realised what a stupid question it was as it left my lips.

He grinned, white teeth shining against his black beard. ‘It serves our line, our king, our Voivode. Because
we
are Somlyó.’

Jack was pulled into a fierce spiral, as the water drained down cracks that opened up in the floor. She, Mac and Felix were dropped onto fissures in the concrete. She lifted her head and looked around. The floor was spilt in half a dozen places, one of them breaching the countess’s protective barrier. She was hunched on the ground, squeezing Sadie’s arm from a deep cut inside her elbow, as if she were milking the last drops out of her. The girl was either insensible or dead.

Jack staggered to her feet, and raced over the edge of the circle, now useless. Rage surged through her, threaded with exhilaration. Filled with the desire to tear into the old woman like the bag of rags she appeared to be, a last moment of caution made her veer towards Sadie. She ignored the huddled monster, and swept Sadie into her arms. She caught sight of Felix, kneeling over the prostrate McNamara, and carried the girl over to him.

‘Here. Look after her.’

Her fading compassion for the girl was swept away as she turned to see the woman drain the last of the harvested blood from the cup. She looked different, younger, her arms stretched out as if she was energised. Jack could feel something of the same energy, and wondered what a whole cup of blood would do, if one mouthful made her feel eight foot tall. There was something subtle about the face … the features. With horror, she realised the woman now looked a lot like Sadie.

The woman started to chant, slowing Jack’s progress as the protective wall was built back up. Jack looked around the building. Three of the four summoning circles were charred and useless, but the remaining one was beginning to glow with a soft orange light. W
hat’s left, flood, tornado, earthquake …

She looked for the sword. She saw a gleam of metal and vaulted over flood-dumped wreckage to reach for the blade. As she touched its cold flatness, the inscribed words started to glimmer with her new energy. She turned to confront the woman and held the sword high, preparing to charge.

‘Stay.’ The woman held up a single finger and Jack’s arm weakened, the sword dropping to the floor. ‘You are young, powerful. Don’t you see what I can give you?’

‘You can die.’ Jack’s thoughts seemed strangely single-minded, with just a whisper of concern left to wonder if the others were dead.

‘You can live. Live as long as you wish.’

‘By feeding off people like a fucking vampire?’

‘By the use of careful transfusions. I don’t kill people. I only take an occasional revenant, who would die anyway.’

‘They call you a monster.’ She pushed forward a step, a second, before a gesture from the woman stuck her like a fly in amber.

‘Look at yourself, Jack. You are beautiful now, not that withered, cooling corpse you were. I can show you more. I can show you the whole world. No more circles, no more potions. Riches and freedom. Immortality.’

‘You killed all those girls.’

The woman shrugged, her hands still weaving the spell that was binding Jack in its mesh. ‘Personal pleasure. I was experimenting.’

Even as Jack’s limbs became heavier, she was aware of the glow building in the circle. She could hear Felix’s voice, shouting.

‘Jack, listen to me!’ He seemed very far away, but something made her turn her head. She could see him kneeling, holding Sadie, the inquisitor crawling on the ground in front of him.

She looked back, feeling her own body sway a little with the movement of the countess’s now youthful hands – Sadie’s hands. She stared at the undulating fingers, while Felix’s words sank into her mind like wine into a napkin.

‘You aren’t like her … she was always a sadistic serial killer. You have a choice.’

‘I was dying, Felix.’ The words drifted out of her. She clenched her fingers on the sword, feeling the hilt cut into her palm. ‘I’ve been slowing down for years.’

‘We’ll work it out. Mac will help.’ His voice became roughened. ‘Sadie’s dying, Jack. We need to get out of here, get help. I can’t move them both by myself. I need you to help me.’

She could feel the heat through her damp clothes. She glanced at the summoning circle, seeing the flame filling the cylinder. It reached blazing fingers along cracks in the circle, perhaps looking for a big enough one to get out.

‘Jack.’ The voice of the witch cut through her thoughts and gave her a moment of clarity. ‘Join me and leave the mortals.’

‘Let them go.’ She found the words mumbling through her slack lips. ‘I’ll come with you. I have nothing here to keep me, except coldness and death. Take me instead. But let them go. They are nothing to you.’

Over her words, Jack could hear the wail of sirens.

The countess waved one hand and Felix hoisted Sadie into his arms. McNamara staggered, and fell. Felix disappeared into the doorway, then returned for the inquisitor.

‘Jack. Come on.’ He had one hand stretched out to her.

The witch was triumphant. ‘She is mine, now.’ The light from the flames was almost blinding, white hot, and Jack realised her clothes were steaming, and smoke was rising from the floor around the elemental. ‘The fire devas will burn away the evidence and we will have a new life.’

‘Run, Felix.’ Jack stared at his hand: broad, square-fingered, brown. She had known him only a few days, but she knew exactly how it would feel, if she reached over for it. ‘Run
now
.’

She let every corner of her being infuse with the cruelty of what the witch had done to Sadie, the rage of losing her childhood, her anger at not being told about the power of blood. She could waver the sword to chest height but no more. As she focused, another feeling crept in, warming her frozen muscles. Love for Maggie and Charley, for the animals who had shared her life for so many years, for the man who would not be banished by the threat of the monster. Summoning everything she had, she pulled her arms up like loading a bowstring, and with one explosive hack, let the sword fly.

It hit the fiery being with a boom, breaching the circle, and tendrils smashed through the confinement. The thing grew as Jack started running, and the heat and sound chased her as she leaped over the altar. The witch turned to face her own creation.

Felix had taken cover in the lee of the entryway, supporting the inquisitor, sheltering from the searing heat. The witch’s chanting grew into a screech as she tried to control the elemental she had raised, but her shrill voice was lost in the roar of the fire. Jack stumbled into the anteroom, and Felix slammed the heavy door behind her. The fire elemental in the church withdrew the air along the floor so fiercely Jack could feel it racing around her feet, as if it would suck her under the door. A moment’s pause in the complete darkness, then the whoomph of an explosion deafened her. The whole room was lit in orange light from every crack around the door, and the heat sent them scuttling around the corner of the wall. Jack saw the inquisitor holding Sadie’s body, her eyes half open. Before she could go over to the girl, Felix reached long arms and crushed her against him.

The first rapid-response officers rounded the corner into the open doorway of the porch. At the same time, the fireball exploded down the nave, carrying with it the splayed body of a woman as if she were dancing on tiptoe, fingers stretching for the arches of the roof. It plunged greedy fingers towards the two men as they stared, frozen momentarily in the act of turning away, as it burned away her floating hair in an instant, tentacles of flame exploring the hollows of her face. Clothing wrapped her nakedness for a second or two in coiling, oily smoke, then was incinerated. She sucked in one glowing breath as her eyes shrivelled into her skull, her skin blackened and crazed over her scarlet body. Her shriek mingled with the roar of the flame as it drew the oxygen back from the porch, the searing vacuum plucking at the men’s uniforms as they staggered back, dropping close to the still-cool flagstones. As they scuttled back like beetles, one saw her body turn and drop, falling in a wave of sparks that sent one pseudopod of heat towards him, scorching off his eyebrows and burning his face before he buried it under his jacket. The men ran, crawled and fell, holding their breath against the skin-searing heat, until they turned the corner onto the grass outside. More screeches, these mechanical, rose as something inside the church started to fall. The crash lit every window and for a moment, the churchyard glowed orange, before smoke obscured everything.

Felix gave himself a few seconds of holding Jack, hiding his face against her hair, before he looked around. The door was on fire, the heat becoming unbearable. Mac was crouched over Sadie, silhouettes against the red flicker of flame. There was an entrance, probably to a sacristy, opposite the one to the nave. Another crash was followed by a finger of flame, reaching in around the solid door.

‘Bring Sadie!’ he shouted to McNamara, gasping in a lungful of smoke before he raced for the haven of the dark archway, dragging Jack by the arm.

He had no idea whether McNamara had heard, but as he slid into the cool darkness, stumbling over things on the floor, he heard someone coughing behind him. Smoke had followed them into the sacristy, exploring the ceiling and obscuring the top of a window lit by a street light nearby. The door behind them slammed shut.

Felix fumbled along the window wall, and his hand found the recess of the exit, the studded planks
…
on one side, a hinge … he trailed fingers to the other side, found the keyhole. He coughed, spat soot. He rattled the handle but it didn’t budge. Felix could hear McNamara beside him, his breathing laboured. Then, the light of a small torch illuminated the man’s face. Jack had fallen to her knees beside Sadie, and was crouched on the floor, coughing.

‘The child is dead.’ The man’s voice was as scratchy as his own. ‘We have to get out, the church is burning down. Let me see the lock.’

Felix knelt beside the two women, and looked at Sadie, lying among what looked like builders’ tools and old chairs. Her face was paper-white in the thin glow of the torch, her eyes closed, her elfin features softening to grey as the light moved. He lifted the girl’s shoulders up, her head heavy onto his arm. He thought, but couldn’t be sure, that she sighed.