Annise snorted at the abbreviated report. “What! No mention of magicks, possession and necromancy?”
“No, not a twitch. The rest of the inquiry accepted my simple report and that of the earl. Except that Agryppa’s talents were mentioned as being of significant aid in the tracking of the miscreant.”
Annise shook her head. Typical! Her useless master gets the praise for all his arrogance and stupidity while those who took the risks get naught. The anger in her stomach roiled and soured the sweet wine. Impulsively her tongue sped ahead and spoke her secret thoughts. “Master Bryan, you can’t trust him. Agryppa will use you like he has us, pawns for his ambitions!”
Annise pursed her lips shut a second too late. Damn, what was going on? Where was her subtly this night? That was a stupidly bold and limping attempt at a warning. Damn. The doubts of alliance and trust should have been worked slowly into several conversations and then encouraged like a delicate flower with much, ahh, ‘watering’.
Master Bryan though tugged the tip of his beard as if distracted and pursed his lips. “I suspect so. Agryppa refused payment for his services. He claimed this affair was far from over.”
Now that was news, a doctor of physick refusing a payment. She’d seen Agryppa’s mansion at Blackfriars. He didn’t stint on ostentation. For a man with his diverse tastes expenses would be high. That mechanical model of the crystal spheres would challenge even an earl’s purse. Under more normal circumstances Annise would already be calculating her potential advantages.
Once more her tongue leapt ahead. “So the investigation continues?” Damn she sounded too eager.
And once more Master Bryan ignored the hint and shrugged his shoulders with a wry tilt. “I fear it does Mistress Athyney. You saw what the Moor and Jenny were doing to my lord Devonshire?”
Annise dropped her chin in a minuscule nod. He was fast. She’d thought that in the confusion of the affray he’d missed her snatching up the roll that held the Moor’s tools and demonic inks.
“That damned Moor had the same fate planned for me, curse him! A player’s puppet dancing to the whim of another—Satan rot his black soul!”
Annise saw the ripple of dark anger wash over Master Francis Bryan at the reminder of his potential fate. For an instant his eyes blazed with black fire. Then his poise and control quickly smoothed over the wild eddies of fury. She tried not to blink in surprise. This had happened in the earl’s chambers as well. At that time the wave of glowing fire had lasted long enough for Francis to wade through dark magicks and hack off the Moor’s hand. Hmm, if only she could get in touch with Volund. He’d be fascinated by this almost arcane ability. “So still no idea as to whom the Moor served or why?”
Master Bryan shook his head. “Tis common knowledge that my lord earl has Plantagenet blood, so maybe someone keen to advance the White Rose against the King? I could claim my Lord Cardinal. Agryppa intimated his involvement and I know he has a grudge against me, but...”
The rest didn’t need saying. Annise had been in Tudor England long enough to understand the realities of power. A man would be a fool to publicly denounce Wolsey, a royal official with the unlimited trust of the King. The evidence of complicity would have to be overwhelming, and from what she’d seen in the past, maybe even that wouldn’t be enough.
“Thus Mistress, I fear my, ahh, association with Doctor Agryppa must continue since he has promised further arcane protection.”
Annise tried not to grimace in sympathy. She suspected that the ‘association’ would be long on joint commitment but short on visible results. Yes, it did appear that out of this affair of Divining the Darkness, as the doctor pithily phrased it, he was the true winner.
At this point of the conversation their mutual dislike of Agryppa and thoughts of the future stuttered into an embarrassed silence. Finally Master Bryan shook himself, and with a full display of his court bred manners pulled aside a curtained tapestry, and escorted her to an alcove containing two plain chairs of state beside a small table. Annise once more stifled a gasp. The top of the table held a small tableau of a tourney. All the figures of knights and ladies were of sweet pastry, coloured and gilded. Several knights were jousting in front of a green–clad mountain and a sugar plate castle complete with fluttering banners. Annise was stunned. This was finer than any she’d seen for ages, even including when she held her own demesnes.
She happily settled in the opposite chair. Master Bryan refilled her glass and waved a hand over the magnificent subtly. “As I said earlier, my lord Devonshire was very generous in his praise of our efforts.”
“Hmm, so it seems.” Annise wasn’t a stranger to the fantastic displays of lords and princes at feasts. While this one wasn’t a baked peacock with gilded feathers, the small castle was replete with gilt and silver leaf roofing, and the figures of the tourney were delicately coloured like a stained glass church window. The confectioner was definitely a master of their craft.
Francis then drew her attention to the pastry hill behind the castle. It was shaped like the great mound at Avesbury except that it sported a small pennant at the top. “My lord requested that you search the mount.”
Annise hesitated for a moment trying to figure out if Francis was making a play at an oblique request for bed sports. Not that she would have objected, but courtiers usually couched invitations for the bouts of Venus in more flowery phrases like the troubadours of old. Feeling unexpectedly out of her depth she blushed slightly and used her belt knife to open up the heavy crust of the lid. Annise gasped at what was revealed. By the cunning craftsmanship of the pastry master within lay a moulded platter of gilded silver cradling a good handful of gold coins, finely minted nobles and angels mostly.
Leaning closer Francis Bryan picked up one of the glittering coins. It had a soft buttery yellow sheen in the candlelight. “Yes, as I said the Earl was most appreciative of his rescue from dark thraldom. I fear that Agryppa gained a similar amount so…”
The shrug said it all but Annise didn’t care. It had been ages since she’d been rewarded and, and this unexpected gift felt so unsettling.
“My lord was most moved that you ruined your fine gown in the race to save him. Thus he felt this could be some recompense for ragged scarlet, even though he found your bare legs rather fine.”
Annise returned a glowing smile. This held enough for two new gowns at the least. Now an intriguing thought cropped up. Was the earl making a play for her via Francis or was he his own petitioner? As a tease she moved onto another field of curiosity. “What of the second punk, Jenny I think her name was? How does she stand with the earl?”
“Ahh, now that’s a tender subject.”
“How so?”
“It appears that Jenny Watkins is, ahem, a pursuivant of the Earl’s, as, ahh, as was Gwen into various court matters. To be sure of no further sorcery she’s been given a post in one of his lordships houses in Devon.”
To Annise that sounded eminently sensible. However the reminder did raise one more important matter. “The Moor…?”
Master Bryan frowned and shook his head. “No, no sign of a body. I’ve offered a five shilling reward to the wherrymen. The tide was just turning so who knows, the corpse could be past the bridge or wedged in the piers.”
Annise returned a smile at his wan hopefulness. The Moor had vanished but she suspected the dark fiend would surface again. As for whose bidding he moved, well next time she’d be prepared. Vengeance was a great motivator. In the meantime the mood had moved too much to the pensive. Annise reached into her trailing sleeve and pulled out a small parcel wrapped in a piece of fine linen. “I have a gift myself. I believe Master Bryan you may have mislaid this.”
The courtier gave a puzzled shrug and with deft fingers untied the simple corner knot. Out spilled a small gold cross and two lengths of broken chain. “What…?”
Annise smiled wickedly at his amazement. As she’d proved she was no fool. It had been a simple matter to track down the Cardinal’s man, Smeaton,
and with adroit use of bribes amongst the lower servants, draw out the hints of the lever to be used against Francis Bryan in this plot. It was actually rather poignant and she felt spoke more than the act of the slaying—the cross, his own left with the possessed Gwen as a final solace. Anyway she enjoyed the last part of the little play this evening. Striking that smirking Smeaton had been reward enough. “Why Master Bryan, surely you need a new pursuivant? I can suggest someone with all the skills you require and possibly not quite so prone to possession by dark sorceries. Of course there could also be other benefits to our, let us say, association?”
Master Francis was proving to be a quick study. He didn’t even pause a moment before he was bowing over her hand and giving it the most tingling of kisses. Come what may, for future peril or darkness, Annise pushed it aside. She was going to enjoy the present and Francis had the most excellent manners—and shoulders.
“Oh, and call me Annise…Francis.”
***
Francis Bryan, Mistress Annise, Richard, Doctor Agryppa and the disreputable Jasper Bottoph will all return soon in Darkness Distempered.
Historical Note
The main character of this series is a real member of Henry VIII’s Court, Sir Francis Bryan. According to Sir Thomas Cromwell he was the ‘Very Vicar of Hell’ and responsible for more mischief and lewdness than the rest of the King’s gentlemen put together. It has been said that on arriving in one town he demanded of the Mayor and town council ‘a soft bed and a hard whore’. For those of you who’ve watched the series The Tudors, the portrayal of Sir Francis may not be that far off the truth if accounts are to be believed. However apart from being a notorious womanizer and Tudor rake Sir Francis was also a man of culture and learning. He was accredited as being a passable composer of verse by his contemporaries and Henry VIII did use him for a number of secret missions both in England and on the continent. My rendition of the politics and rivalry of the Royal Court is based on the work of a large number of Tudor period historians from David Starkey to Derek Wilson. A list of Tudor sources is available on my Red Ned Tudor Mysteries Blog.
The inclusion of tattooing as a tool of enchantment and magicks is based on period beliefs in both the Christian west and Moslem east along with older Celtic traditions, and the list of sources is too long to include. The projector of coloured light used by Doctor Agryppa as the device to “Divine the Darkness” is an early magic lantern or image projector as pictured at the front. The first credible reference to a device like this, as could be expected, is in the notebook of the master of Renaissance devices, Leonardo Da Vinci. Heron of Alexandria was a Greek engineer and inventor. His work, Catoptrica, dealt with the mechanics of optics, and like most of his other works, was at least a fifteen hundred years ahead of his time.
Now for Annise, she’s not quite the traditional Vampyre is she? As to more information on their skills, abilities and drawbacks I suggest you read the next story The Darkness Distempered where more of their secret and arcane world is revealed. And as for the mechanics of magicks well…I leave that to the viewer.
Blogging at
http://rednedtudormysteries.blogspot.com/
http://prognosticationsandpouting.blogspot.com
A website detailing a comprehensive list of Tudor sources will be available in the near future.
Regards
Gregory House
Darkness Divined (Dark Devices) Page 17