CHAPTER I
Darkness came early to the streets of Southwark, even in summer. The jettied upper storeys of inns shadowed the great thoroughfares and turned its alleys into foetid rat-runs that hadn't known sunlight since King Henry's time. Mal kept his hand on his dagger hilt, scanning every doorway and alley mouth out of habit, though his thoughts were elsewhere. By his side, his companion continued his own side of the conversation unheeded.
"Hmm?" Mal said at last, looking round as Ned clutched at his elbow.
The younger man's features were indistinct in the gloom, but the irritation in his voice was plain enough.
"I said, it's worth a try. Isn't it?"
"No." Mal quickened his pace, forcing Ned to break into a jog-trot to keep up.
"Fifty shillings, Mal"
"Fifty-two."
"All right, fifty-two. Makes no odds if it's fifty or a hundred. Where else are you going to find that sort of money by Midsummer Day?"
"The answer's still no."
They walked on in silence for a while, Ned trailing at Mal's heels like a terrier after a deerhound. Despite the lateness of the hour, the streets teemed with Londoners determined to wring the last drop of pleasure from the evening. Dukes and bishops rubbed shoulders and more with sailors, whores, apprentices and players. The noise and stench were enough to deprive a newcomer of his wits, and the suburb's denizens ever ready to deprive him of his money.
"But you'd be good at it," Ned went on, when Mal halted to let a finely dressed woman and her maidservant cross the street. "You've got such an honest face."
"And I'd like to keep it that way," Mal replied in a low voice. "Getting branded in the ear isn't good for business."
The woman smiled at Mal and fingered the lace around her neckline. His eyes lingered for a moment on the curve of her breasts, then he shook his head regretfully. She pouted and walked off down the street, hips swaying.
"What business? You haven't had a job since Easter"
Mal stopped dead in his tracks and Ned ran into the back of him.
"What?"
"Shut up," Mal hissed, clenching his fist, thumb between first and middle fingers in the sign called "the fig". An ancient protection against evil, as well as a sign of contempt.
The crowds parted to reveal a group of man-like creatures, the tallest of them no bigger than Ned. They wore tunics of undyed wool, cream and dark brown woven in complicated geometric patterns, over breeches tucked into low boots. Silver-streaked hair hung loose about their shoulders or was braided like a girl's and threaded with beads. Most outlandish of all were their faces, painted in whorls of blue lines that disguised their not-quite-human features.
As the skraylings walked past, Mal thought he saw one of them turn and look up at him with slit-pupilled eyes. The skrayling's patterned face was somehow familiar, though his hair was more silver than No, he was imagining things; these foreigners all looked alike, didn't they? He raised his hand to make the sign of the cross and his vision shifted; the skrayling was not looking at him at all, was staring straight ahead in fact. Mal finished the protective gesture and shoved his trembling hand into his pocket.
"What was all that about?" Ned asked as the crowds closed behind the skraylings.
"Nothing," Mal lied.
"They're not demons, you know, whatever the Puritans say."
"You think they're wondrous faery folk of the New World?"
Ned shrugged. "Why not? You've seen their camp; tell me that's not magic."
Mal had no answer to that. He well remembered his first glimpse of the skraylings' stockade at night, lit by lamps of cold blue, violet and yellow that never flickered despite the gusts of icy wind blowing in off the Essex marshes.
"You should be grateful to 'em," Ned said as they set off again. "Since they set a bounty on rats, there's been scarcely a hint of plague in the city."
"You think killing rats made the difference?"
"Something did. Why else would they be paying a penny a tail?"
Because they want everyone to forget that skraylings don't get the plague? He added aloud, "Perhaps they're fond of rattail soup."
Ned pulled a face. "Even I'm not that desperate. Hey, that gives me an idea!"
"Another one?"
"We could buy us a terrier and set ourselves up as rat-catchers. They say a good ratter can kill twenty a minute."
"And where would we get the money to buy a dog?" Mal said. "Tom at the White Hart wanted ten-and-six for that scrawny pup the other day."
"It was a little runt," Ned admitted. "My money would have been on the rat. So, where to? The Bull's Head?"
Mal ignored him. He was trying to decide whether or not to pawn his rapier. Not an attractive option, since his livelihood depended on it.
"Bull it is, then." Ned grinned and rubbed his hands together.
Mal glowered at his friend, cursing himself for letting his mind wander. He had been idle too long. In a fight, carelessness like that would get him killed.
"Anywhere but the Bull, I beg you!" he said. "I have no desire to spend another evening listening to your actor friends reciting interminable speeches and slandering their rivals. I'm for the Catherine Wheel." He set off down the street again.
"And I've no wish to spend another evening listening to your old comrades' tales of death and glory," Ned shouted after him. "At least at the Bull I might earn a shilling or two on my own account."
"Please yourself, but you go alone. I'll not be your pander."
Ned groaned. "All right, all right, you win. But you're buying."
The Catherine Wheel was as busy as a brothel mattress, and twice as pungent. The only difference was, the fleas here had steel teeth. Tucked away in a courtyard off the high street, the Wheel saw few outsiders venturing through its low door. Even if they did, one look told them to step back outside and seek somewhere more congenial. Somewhere the patrons still had the usual complement of eyes and limbs, for a start.
The first empty seats Mal came to were opposite a lone man who was muttering an endless stream of oaths into his beer, mostly about the French and their filthy sexual practices. Ned rolled his eyes in protest so they moved on, Mal nodding to various acquaintances who inclined their heads in response but failed to beckon him over. They found themselves a table near the back door; the stink of the jakes wafted in whenever someone went in or out, but at least it was unoccupied. Ned said something that was drowned by the sudden roar from a group of dice-players nearby, and stamped off. He returned a couple of minutes later with two jacks of beer, grumbling under his breath.
"Right, you owe me a penny," he said, sliding one of the beers across the uneven tabletop.
Mal forced a smile. Ned's remark was too near the knuckle. He needed to earn silver, and soon. The fellow at the next table looked more respectable than most; he was apparently unmaimed and wore a well-cut frieze jerkin. Private armies might have been outlawed, but in a city where the watch was poorly paid and often infirm, a man with money and property to defend always had need of a few stout fellows who knew how to handle themselves in a fight. Mal tried to catch the man's eye, but he was deep in conversation with his companions.
Ned leaned across the beer-damp table. "Any prospects?"
"None so far."
"Well we need something to tide us over. And this time of year the city's full of fools just waiting to be parted from their money."
