The Scar-Crow Men

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR




‘THE SCAR-CROW MEN ARE SURROUNDING THE QUEEN,’ STRANGEWAYES hissed from the door to the Great Hall, his hood pulled up around his forest-green mask. ‘At least, I think they are those monstrous constructions. Who can tell?’

Will Swyfte pulled the young spy aside and peered into the vast chamber. Centre-stage, the figure menacing the maiden tore off his mask to reveal another beneath, this one a hideous concoction of animal fur and leaves. A cry rose up from the audience, and many of the women turned away, their hands covering their eyes.

‘I will protect you from yon fiend,’ the peasant called out, drawing a wooden sword.

While most of the court and the palace workers were held rapt by the players, a few circled away from the crowd, moving from different directions towards the Queen. On her throne, Elizabeth’s eyes fluttered and her head sagged. She seemed oblivious to the masque playing out for her benefit. Beside her, Elinor whispered gently in the monarch’s ear.

‘We must defend Her Majesty. Quickly, now.’ Will turned back to the antechamber where the other spies waited with Dee and Raleigh. Although he had replaced his yellow mask, Launceston looked a nightmarish sight, his grey cloak, doublet and breeches sodden and black, and a bloody trail across the flagstones behind him. Beside the Earl, Carpenter stood in his sapphire mask, despair and determination fighting for supremacy.

‘You may leave us,’ Will said to Meg, who looked disconcertingly innocent in her doll’s mask. ‘You will find it too much of a conflict to protect a monarch so reviled by some of your countrymen.’

‘You mean you cannot be sure which way my blade will turn.’ The Irish woman pulled her scarlet hood over her red hair. ‘But I will play my part.’

From under his cloak, Will drew the Corpus-Scythe and thrust it into the alchemist’s hands. ‘Here, doctor. Do what you can with this. Its magics appear mysterious to me, but the Unseelie Court believe it can withdraw the spark of life that animates the Scar-Crow Men.’

Dee’s eyes glowed with an insane glee. His cloak of animal pelts swirling, the magician clutched the bone artefact to his chest and ran into a shadowy corner of the antechamber.

‘Now we make our stand.’ Will swung open the door into the Great Hall. ‘But take care where you point your rapiers,’ he added, casting an eye towards Launceston. ‘We shall not be thanked for skewering good, upstanding members of the court.’

‘How do we tell who is friend and who is foe, then?’ Carpenter snapped.

‘We have no friends, John. Only those who will harm us, and those who merely despise us. Let them make the first move and then act accordingly.’

Immaterial but oppressive, Mephistophilis settled on Will’s back, hooking his invisible talons into flesh. The spy sensed the devil’s disappointment at the repeated failures to oversee a horrible death. Perhaps this was the time, finally.

Will pushed his way into the throng in the Great Hall with the others close behind. Those he presumed to be Scar-Crow Men were approaching the Queen slowly, so as not to draw attention to themselves.

Mournful pipe music floated through the trees under the fake moon. The players had frozen into a tableau, the peasant disarmed, the unmasked beast-man looming over the maiden. The audience applauded.

Darting around the edge of the hall, the spies reached the Queen before the Scar-Crow Men. With a serpent-like hiss, Elinor dipped a hand into the folds of her skirts.

Red Meg, who was nearest to the maid of honour, struck like a viper, grabbing the woman’s hair and yanking back her head so that her own dagger could flash across the exposed throat. The female spy contemptuously dumped the dying Scar-Crow behind the throne, its skin growing mottled and black with the marks of the plague.

For one long, ringing moment, horrified silence fell across the court. When the furious cries erupted, Will and the other spies had already surrounded the stupefied monarch, their rapiers drawn and ready to repel any attackers.

‘Treason!’

‘Murder!’

‘A plot!’

‘They seek to kill the Queen!’

The voices were drowned by the ringing of cold steel. All around the circle of spies, the men of the court raised their swords to protect their monarch. Will surveyed the array of freakish masks – dogs, pigs, harlequins, wolves, glittering ensembles of jewels and gold – and realized it was impossible to tell the Scar-Crow Men from their human counterparts.

‘Should they come as one we will be overwhelmed,’ Tobias whispered aside.

Will was impressed by the resolve he heard in his former rival’s voice. ‘The great and good of the court are used to acting only in their own interests, Master Strangewayes. Each one here will first seek glory before they learn the advantages of humble teamwork.’

The words had barely left the spy’s lips when a man in a black and white embroidered doublet and a cherub mask lunged with his rapier. Will parried easily, but within a moment his blade was flashing in a blur to prevent three attacks at once.

The din of steel upon steel surged all around.

‘Can they not see we have our backs to the Queen and we are defending her?’ Carpenter snarled above the clash.

‘Their blood is up, and like any virgin boy in his first stew it has driven out their wits,’ Will called.

Distracted by one opponent, Strangewayes failed to parry a second and the rapier tore through the sleeve of his left upper arm, raising blood. He cursed loudly, but did not flinch from the fight.

Will parried low to his right, whipped up his sword to deflect a lunge from the cherub-masked man in front of him, and continued through to parry another thrust from a swordsman to his left. Barely had his steel stopped ringing when he returned once more to the first. On the next pass-through, he circled his rapier around the blade of his cherub-masked opponent and with a flick of the wrist disarmed him. The sword flew through the air, the women of the court scattering amid shrieks.

For long moments, Will saw only flashing steel and looming, garish masks. He heard only clash after clash until his ears rang. But then, rising above the clamour, came a high-pitched noise like a bow being drawn across a fiddle, the sound continuing on and on until his teeth were set on edge.

A man in a ram’s mask staggered, his hand fluttering to his forehead. Lurching back and forth like a drunkard, he pitched across the flagstones. The three swordsmen in front of Will hesitated and drew back a step, glancing at the prone figure.

Another man fell nearby, and a woman. Within a moment some twenty bodies were scattered across the hall floor. Dee had worked his magic. As the Scar-Crows dissolved into corpses, the masks hid the worst of the putrefaction but the exposed flesh of the hands and the rising stench sparked panic.

‘The plague!’ a woman screamed.

Will tore off his black mask and shouted, ‘Stay calm, good gentlefolk. Heed the words of Will Swyfte. I stand here as a loyal defender of our Queen. This is no mark of the plague, but a plot, now exposed.’

‘You have been charged with treason,’ a man called. ‘Why should we believe you?’

‘Swyfte speaks truly.’ A still-shaken Cecil lurched across the room towards the throne. As he eyed Will, the spy could see his master’s sharp mind turning, sieving, weighing, seeking out the advantage in this situation. A flicker of a smile crossed the Little Elf’s lips. Turning to the gathered court, he called, ‘Where is the Earl of Essex? Is he not here to protect Her Majesty in this direst moment?’ He shook his head in dismay, sweeping an arm to the gathered spies. ‘Then thank God for my trusty men. For they each suffered hardship and false accusations to see this plot exposed. Master Swyfte is a hero, as we all know. Could anyone here believe him traitor?’

Launceston sidled up to Will and muttered, ‘I could slit his throat before he reaches his chamber.’

‘We will keep that option in reserve for now, Robert, but thank you for your kindness. Sir Robert Cecil is here to test me and make me a better man.’

The other spies stripped off their masks. Will saw the relief in each face, apart from Carpenter’s. The scarred spy looked as if he would never smile again. The secretary called for the ladies-in-waiting to help the Queen back to her chambers to recover, and then beckoned to the man who was once again England’s greatest spy.

While the bodies were dragged away, the spies rested, exhaustion clear in every face. Cecil beckoned for Will to follow him.

‘This is a time for forgiveness and understanding,’ the hunchbacked man said as he led the way through the antechamber and up the steps to the first floor. ‘We have had our differences, you and I, but much of that was undoubtedly caused by the wilful mischief spun by the Enemy’s agents.’

Will knew Cecil would betray him in an instant, if there was some personal gain in it. It mattered little. That was the game, and they both knew the rules.

‘I am sure any differences that remain can be smoothed over, for a small monetary fee and an extended period of recuperation in Liz Longshanks’ Bankside stew.’

‘Enjoy your time, Master Swyfte, for I will have need of you shortly. The Earl of Essex will no doubt remain a buzzing fly in my ear, and I must show Her Majesty that my network of spies is worth more than his.’ The secretary came to a halt at a window overlooking the hunting grounds. ‘I have half a mind to recruit his man Strangewayes. It would annoy the Earl no end.’

‘I would advise against that, Sir Robert. Tobias Strangewayes is a hothead, unreliable, inexperienced—’

‘And I am sure that under your training, Master Swyfte, he will blossom into an exemplary spy.’

Knowing there was no point in arguing, Will curbed his irritation. He peered out into the night and saw the ghostly flames melt away. ‘It is over,’ he said.

‘For now. But we have much work to do to rebuild our defences. The Unseelie Court may strike again, quickly, while we are in disarray. We must never let down our guard.’ Cecil eyed Will askance. ‘I know you dislike me, Master Swyfte, and you feel I am a poor substitute for Sir Francis Walsingham, but I will never allow England to lose this war. We shall defeat the Enemy, whatever it takes.’

Will saw that Cecil believed his own words, but the spy had other things on his mind. He asked baldly, ‘Did you, or the Privy Council, have Christopher Marlowe killed?’

‘Your friend was a threat to England. He had blasphemous views, and treasonous ones too. He had grown apart from the policies of Her Majesty’s government and we could not allow such a famed playwright to express those views publicly.’

Long-suppressed anger surged in Will. He gripped the hilt of his dagger, ready to thrust it into Cecil’s heart.

But the hunchbacked man shook his head and held the spy’s gaze. ‘It was the Privy Council’s intention to have Marlowe sent to the Tower, that is true. But no murder was sanctioned. When news of his death reached us, we were as surprised as you.’

Will couldn’t deny what he saw in the spymaster’s eyes. ‘Kit was not slain by Rowland. The manner of death was different … no ritual marks or cuts. So who killed him?’

Cecil held his hands wide. ‘Marlowe moved on the edges of our society, among thieves and cut-throats, and though he was sent as a spy, he began to enjoy the life of those circles. Death comes quickly and easily there. It may well be that his ending was as meaningless as the circumstances suggest. An argument, over a few pennies.’

‘I cannot believe that.’

The secretary shrugged; there was nothing more he could say.

‘I will not rest until I discover the truth,’ Will stressed. ‘Somewhere, Kit has a hidden enemy.’ The spy turned and strode down the stairs, blood pumping in his head. He had answered every question that had plagued him since the business began, except the one that mattered most.

In the antechamber, Meg waited, a splash of scarlet in the candlelight. She came over to Will and kissed him gently on the cheek. ‘So, you trusted me to stand next to your Queen and not put a knife in her back. What has happened to you, Will Swyfte?’ she asked wryly, her green eyes gleaming.

The spy didn’t know the answer. Everywhere he looked, the world was changing, and few of his old certainties remained. ‘A flask of sack will put the world aright,’ he replied. ‘Will you join me?’

‘Are ye asking me to step out with you, then?’

‘I have a love, Red Meg. She has taken my heart and I cannot offer it elsewhere.’

Will expected the Irish woman to be offended, but she only laughed. ‘Men are such simple folk, and you expect the world and feelings to be just as simple. The heart is harder to navigate than the high seas, Master Swyfte.’

‘What game are you playing now, Meg?’

The woman laughed again, catching herself with a hand to her mouth. ‘We have trust between us now, yes?’ she asked.

The spy thought for a moment, and nodded.

‘Then that is enough for now, and I will ask no more. Let us see where the winds blow us.’

‘I will not abandon Jenny. Do not waste your time hoping.’

The Irish woman gave only an enigmatic smile.

Before he could question the woman further, Nathaniel hurried up, clutching the sheaf of papers that was Marlowe’s play. ‘Will,’ he began breathlessly, ‘I have deciphered the final section of Kit’s hidden message. It is as obscure to me as that business with roses and fathoms, but you may make sense of it.’ The assistant handed his master an ink-spattered parchment.

Will read the final part of the playwright’s secret communication. The meaning was indeed curious, but one word leapt out at him: Wykenham, the ghost village, where devil-haunted Griffin Devereux had slaughtered the entire population in his search for hidden knowledge.