“I understand. You need not have come. But it’s important to speak to her tonight while we have a moment. Tomorrow, we should have our equipment from the Crown and we’ll move.”
They rounded a corner to see a figure before them twisting in the wind. The body of a man hung from a roadside gallows, hands tied behind his back. His head drooped on a broken neck. His eyes were open and staring at the dark ground below his bare feet. As he turned slowly about, a note was revealed pinned to his shirt: Housebreaker.
Aethelred dropped to a crouch and growled, his hackles rising along his spine. Simon rode closer and the stench of death ruined the late-summer sweetness. He could tell from the color and taut dryness of the face that the man had been hanging several days at least.
Kate reined in, listening to the sound of merriment beyond the trees. “Will they not cut him down at least?”
“Doubtful. I’m surprised resurrectionists didn’t take him; we’re not so far from London. But he’s no good to the surgeon now.”
“Barbaric.” Kate scowled. “Executing men and women and leaving them hanging like worthless meat.”
“I was a housebreaker,” came a dry voice from the gibbet.
Kate started and her horse reacted to her, neighing and clattering his hooves on the rocky path. The dog lunged at the cadaver’s dangling heels.
Simon looked up at the hanged man. “I beg your pardon?”
The dead countenance slowly revolved toward them with the creaking of the rope. As starlight hit the grey features, milky eyes moved. The lips quivered. “I said, I was a housebreaker. I struck a man with a maul, nearly killing him. And I stole silver from him.” The corpse continued to rotate. “I deserve to be here.”
Kate narrowed her eyes. “It isn’t a matter of your character; it’s a matter of ours.”
“You’re arguing with a dead man,” Simon interrupted. “That’s pointless enough, but there’s even less point in arguing with Ash.”
Kate grunted in annoyance at being drawn out by the reanimated presence of the vile necromancer.
The hanging cadaver seemed to chuckle though it came out more of a strangled gurgle. “I’m glad you found me, Archer.”
Simon took a deep breath and clenched his teeth. He tried not to think of his poor mother. Finally, he said, “The note you sent to Hartley Hall was fairly specific, Ash. Couldn’t you simply come by and speak as yourself?”
“I haven’t survived for centuries by letting others know my true identity. I called you out here because London is full of spies. I trust no one.”
“Even me?” Simon asked, coolly covering any reaction.
The cadaver moved quietly in the breeze. “We need to work together to bring Gaios down.”
“Why?”
“You know his agents are seeking the Stone of Scone. He wants its power.”
Simon feigned surprised interest. “For what purpose?”
“I don’t know, but it must serve his goal to destroy me. Don’t delude yourself, however. He won’t be satisfied with my death. Once I’m gone, he will mow through the magicians of this world like a thresher. He’ll come for you and your people eventually because he fears power. And he’s quite insane. You have no idea the carnage he is capable of wreaking.”
“I do actually. He’s reputed to have caused the eruption of Vesuvius.”
“Which is true, and he did it in a mere fit of pique. A temper tantrum that doomed thousands. His insanity is why Pendragon imprisoned him in the Bastille. Unfortunately the dim-witted mob freed him and his vile allies. That terrible moment cost Pendragon his life.”
“Gaios killed Pendragon?”
“He did.” The cadaver tried to nod for emphasis. “In Paris. He killed Pendragon, and tried to kill me. With one stroke he shattered the old Order of the Oak, which the three of us had founded centuries before. But it cost him. Gaios went into hiding, sending his Bastille Bastards around the world to do his bidding, waiting for the time when he would unleash his vengeance on me.”
“Why you?” Kate asked sharply. “If Pendragon was his gaoler, and he had settled that debt, what’s his quarrel with you?”
The hanged man was caught in the wind and began to swing faster. “I was Pendragon’s lover. Our great love threatened Gaios. He always feared we would join forces against him and take the Order of the Oak as our own.”
Simon spun the mare, trying to bring the restless horse under control. “Where is your Order now? Where are all the great magicians to help you?”
“Gone.” The corpse’s laugh was like dust from a tomb. “All of them cowards. Or dead. Gaios winnowed them in the years after Pendragon’s fall and drove others into hiding. He hated many, including your father, Miss Anstruther. If Sir Roland had cooperated with me, we might have exterminated Gaios, but your father refused my proffered hand.”
Kate smiled with satisfaction.
“You Anstruthers never change,” the cadaver said. “Proud and ultimately pointless. How is dear Imogen? There is an example of Gaios’s handiwork that your father could have prevented.”