Read Online Tamburlaine Must Die by Louise Welsh - Free Book Online Page B

difficulties.' `And in return??

    'Bring
us Raleigh.' Raleigh changes any room he enters. Sometimes it is as
if a window has been opened. Sometimes as if a door has slammed.
Soldier, sailor, spy, Raleigh has lived many lives since he left his
father's farm. Alchemist, courtier, bard, not so long ago he was the
Queen's darling. He still trails a touch of her magic, though he
forsook her favour for the love of a lover long past a maid.
Adventurer, chronicler, knave. Tall and spare, Raleigh has the curly
hair and rose-gold sheen of the boglanders he ran to ground in
Ireland. But he is more muscled than they. His body is a canvas for
fine fabric, and you can be sure that when courtier Raleigh bridged a
puddle for the Queen, the cloak he forfeited was a fine one.

    Raleigh
is all style and some substance. His pointed beard has a natural curl
that men who spend an early morning hour with a barber and hot tongs
can never quite achieve. A large pearl bobs recklessly from his left
ear, reminding us of the buccaneer beneath the poet. He is high and
low. He can rape and kill, woo and versify. He has thrown bishops
from their livings and gilded the way to new worlds. Raleigh is the
most calculating of men, and reckless with it.

    Raleigh
is a fine pirate and a bad spy. He's adept at fiction and poor at
deceit. He can weigh smoke. Challenge God. He keeps company with
wizards and magi, earls and the Queen's advisors and finds they are
the same men. He has dealt in slaughter and massacres. Settled
Virginia and lost the new world. He is the conquered man who will
write history and so win the last battle, a fine friend and a better
enemy. I sat back in my chair and shook my head.

    `I
have enough enemies without adding Raleigh to the ranks.'

    `Raleigh
is more general than foot soldier. How do you know he's not
marshalling what remains of his powers against you right now?? 'He
has no need.'

    `He
might if rumours suggested you were about to betray him.'

    I
remembered the old gaoler's advice. His hints of powerful men who
might buy my life with theirs. My thoughts had drifted on that tide
more than once. But if talk was already circulating of how I might
damn Raleigh, I was as good as wrecked. I feigned bravado and said,
`I'm not so desperate I'd conjure the betrayal of a man I hardly
know. All that stands against me are vague rumours which, having no
substance, will die of their own accord.'

    The
old man nodded to his assistant, who rose in wordless understanding
and retrieved the document he had been signing when I entered. He
laid it before me with the assurance of a man revealing a trump card.

    There
in front of me were all my blasphemies of the night before, black on
white, crawling across the page. The clerk who transcribed it had a
fine hand. But his twirling capitals and curving curlicues were
nothing to my flourishes. The pace of the evening was in my talk. It
was a shame it had not been illuminated by the monks of old. They
could have punctuated the text with gilded cups of ale. Here one
drink sponsoring mild dissension, a second embellishing the theme, a
third, fourth, fifth promoting profanities which might hang me. My
own words ripped at my body, a stone in my stomach, claw at my
throat. The sensation seemed like an augur of the gallows and the
quarterman and for the first time in this strange adventure I
panicked. I snarled, `What lies are these?

    And
moved to grab the page, but the younger man was quicker. He whisked
the paper swift from beneath my reaching fingers. As my palm hit the
table the old man moved, faster than I could have guessed, stabbing
his knife into the back of my hand, with no more hesitation than if
it had been a lump of wood or slice of fruit. He marked his aim,
slick-sliding into the difficult channel betwixt the bones, straight
through it seemed. I roared and the knife withdrew as fast as it had
pierced. The servant who'd first brought me dived into the room. He
took in the scene, relaxing as he noted it