The Gallows Curse

by Karen Maitland

  The boy glanced back to make certain they were alone, then he slid his fingers across the door until he found a small hole on one side. Now Elena understood the reason for the stick, for he wiggled it into the hole and she heard a latch being lifted on the other side. The boy slid in as soon as the door swung open, pulling Elena with him in such haste that she barely had time to duck to avoid hitting her head on the low archway.

  She found herself standing at the top of wide curved steps leading downwards. A terrible stench wafted up from below, that instantly made her eyes sting and water. It was the stench of a midden — shit, urine, rotting meat and something else she couldn't quite recognize.

  A single torch burned on the wall half-way down.

  'Come on,' Finch whispered.

  Seeing Elena hesitate, he slipped his little warm hand into hers. 'Don't be afeared. I'll look after you.'

  Every instinct was telling Elena to back out as quickly as she could, but she firmly told herself that if a little boy was bold enough to go down those steps, there couldn't be anything much to fear at the bottom.

  Elena pressed her hand to the wall to steady herself as they descended. The rough stones were dripping with water. They passed beneath the flames of the torch and at last she felt solid ground beneath her feet. They were in a long, low chamber that curved away to the left. The flames from the torch on the stairs barely illuminated the first few yards. The flagged floor tilted slightly towards a hole in the floor on one side of the chamber steps, more than big enough for a man to climb through, and the moisture from the walls ran in little rivulets towards it, falling in a pattern of loud, resonant drips into the dark maw below.

  But it was not the sound of the dripping that captured Elena's attention. She could hear something moving beyond the curve of the cellar wall, as if someone was shuffling through straw.

  'Is there someone here?' she whispered to Finch.

  She was answered by a low, deep-throated growl coming from somewhere ahead. She started back, but Finch was quicker.

  He darted past her and back up the stairs and, for a moment, Elena feared this was a trick, and he had lured her down to lock her in, but moments later he returned with a lit rush candle in his hand, carefully shielding the dim light from the draught of his movement with his other hand. He walked a few paces around the curve of the wall and held up the pitifully feeble light.

  'Look there.'

  The light did not penetrate far, but something caught it. Two great glowing spots blazed out in the darkness and, with an icy rush of fear, Elena realized they were a pair of eyes. The deep-throated growl rumbled again, echoing through the chamber, only to be answered by a snarl from somewhere deeper in the shadows.

  Elena gasped in horror and tried to run towards the stairs. She slipped on the slimy wet flags and, tumbling over, landed in a heap. She scrambled to her feet, trying to catch the boy's hand and pull him up the stairs, but Finch resisted.

  'But you haven't seen them properly yet. It's all right; they can't harm you. They're in cages. See?'

  He edged forward and Elena, her legs trembling, followed him, her hand gripping the small boy's shoulder ready to pull him back out of harm's way. Finch swung the flame to his left. A stout iron cage was set against the oozing wall and inside a large creature was padding back and forth in the small space. The floor of the cage was littered with large gnawed bones and, by the stench of it, a good deal of dung.

  Elena moved closer, trying to make out the grey shape in the smoking light of the rush candle. It turned its head towards her and snarled, baring its sharp white teeth. Elena had seen such a beast only once before in her life, and then it was dangling lifeless from a hunter's pole. As a child she'd been disappointed, for the dead creature had looked not much more fearful than a large dog, but now, as she saw the living beast and watched the muscles rippling in its shoulder, smelt its hot breath and felt the amber glow of its eyes fix on hers, she understood for the first time why men shuddered at the mention of a wolf.

  Without warning the wolf hurled itself at the iron bars. Elena stumbled backwards into something hard. She felt something snatch at her skirts and whipped round, almost falling again as she found herself staring into a second cage. She had never seen anything like it before. The creature reared up roaring, its massive paws clawing at bars inches from her face. The great head of the beast was surrounded by a mane of yellowish-brown fur. A long, black-tipped tail lashed angrily back and forth. Elena ran from between the two cages and flung herself back against the wall of the cellar, her heart pounding in her ears.

  'What is that beast?'

  'That is a lion,' a voice answered, but it wasn't Finch's.

  The tiny figure of Ma Margot was standing at the foot of the stairs. She held a lantern in her hand. In the light shining up from below her face became a grinning skull.

  With a cry, Finch dropped the rush candle on the floor and rushed to hide behind Elena, clinging to her skirts.

  'You're wise to hide from me, Finch,' Ma said sternly. You have not been given permission to come here.'

  The boy gave a little whimper. Elena slid her arm behind her and held his hand.

  'It's not the child's fault. I'm to blame. I made him bring me.' She tried to sound defiant, but her breathing was still ragged from the shock of seeing the creatures.

  Ma smiled, as if she didn't believe a word. 'You want to be careful down here.'

  She pointed to the great dark hole in the sloping cellar floor. 'Bottomless, that well is. They say the merchant who built this place thought his young bride was spending too much time with her confessor. He reasoned she couldn't have that many past sins to tell, so she must be committing new ones and he knew it wasn't with him. So he caught the young priest and brought him down here to do a little confessing of his own.

  'He lowered the priest into the hole, to loosen his tongue, but when he came back a few hours later and hauled up the rope the merchant found it had snapped in two. The merchant's wife was beside herself when she heard the priest had drowned and threw herself down the hole after him. At least, that's what the merchant told everyone, which, like he said, proves they were guilty. But who's to say for sure, for their bones are still down there.'

  Elena shuddered and Finch pressed himself into her skirts more tightly.

  Ma watched them, a slight smile of satisfaction flitting across her mouth. 'I prefer it that no one comes here, for I would hate my poor creatures to be teased or goaded. But since you are here already you may as well see them.'

  She raised the lantern and Elena saw that in her other hand she carried a basket. As she approached the wolf's cage, his snarls changed to excited little yelps. Ma handed the basket to Elena. Elena, thinking it light, having seen Ma carry it easily with no effort, staggered under the unexpected weight of it.

  Ma pulled out a raw and bloody shank of mutton from the basket and tossed it over the top of the bars. The wolf seized it and dragged it off to the far corner of the little cage, where it began to gnaw at the bone.

  Ma turned around to the lion whose pacing had become even more excited. It rubbed its shaggy head against the bars and Ma stroked the rough mane before tossing a haunch to it too. The great cat lay down with the meat between its paws, licking the flesh with a great rasping tongue.

  'That is a lion?' Elena whispered. 'But I've seen lions on banners and they don't look like that.'

  'The golden lion, no doubt, King Richard's standard.' Ma chuckled. 'Men have a way of making the creatures they fear into gods. They put them on pillars, cover them with gold, worship them and by doing so think they have tamed them, but they will not be tamed. Beasts and monsters, God or the

  Devil, they're all the same, my darling, and they have only one purpose, to kill and destroy. Don't you ever forget that.'

  Ma led the way further round the curving chamber. Beyond were more cages. An eagle flapped its useless wings in one, in another a brown bear sat upright on its haunches, its piggy little eyes staring
with malice at them as they passed. Some of the creatures crouched in the shadows at the back of the cages, their fur as black as the tunnel itself, and Ellen could see little of them except their glowing eyes. But to each one Ma gave a portion of raw meat.

  'Why do you keep them?' Elena asked.

  'They're my guardians, my pets. But they have other uses. They earn their keep as we all do here. But I am fond of them and they are fond of me; they have to be for I am their god. I bring them food and water and they know it. Who knows,' she chuckled, 'maybe when I am late in coming they pray to me. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie — give us this day our daily bread.'

  There was one more hunk of meat in the basket and Ma lifted her lantern and led the way a little further on. The creature in this last cage was huddled down in the corner, not pacing impatiently like some of the other beasts. Even when Ma lifted the lantern Elena could not make out what it was, for its head, like that of the lion, was covered with a great mass of tangled dark hair and its body lay half buried in the straw.

  'Your dinner, my pet,' Ma called, tossing the remaining piece of bloody meat into the cage.

  The creature slowly lifted its head and Elena clapped her hands to her mouth for the blue eyes that glowed out at her from a face that was almost black with filth and grime were unmistakably human. He was naked, but Elena was scarcely aware of that for his body was so filthy that he might have been wearing a garment woven from mud.

  The man tipped forward and crawled towards the hunk of meat on his elbows and knees. As he came closer to where

  Elena was standing, she suddenly saw why he moved in such a curious way. His feet and hands had been lopped off. The skin was twisted and scarred around the stumps where the bleeding limbs had been dipped in boiling tar to seal the ends and stop him bleeding to death.

  Elena had seen mutilations before. A hand or nose or ear severed for thieving or some other crime, but never had she seen a man so cruelly and deliberately maimed as this. The wretch sat up and using the stump of one arm to lever the meat up against his chest and his teeth to grasp it, he dragged his meal back away from the bars.

  'You are well?' Ma asked, surprising Elena with the gentleness of the question.

  The man did not speak. His gaze darted from Ma back to Elena. It lingered on Elena's face with such a miserable intensity that she wanted to turn away, but found she couldn't tear her eyes from his. Then, as if he was suddenly conscious of his nakedness, he hunched away from her, scrabbling with the stump of his arm to pull a few wisps of straw across his groin.

  'Who ... who is he?' Elena breathed.

  'Have you learned nothing, my darling? We none of us own our names in here. Here he is known as my pet, nothing more. What does he need with a name?

  'But come, I sent Luce to look for you a while ago. I've work for you tonight, my darling, important work, and we must prepare you well. For the gentleman is very particular in what he wants.'

  The Evening of the 1st Day after the

  Full Moon, August 1211

  Eels — Eels are creatures of water and thunder, for they are quickened from the slime of the fishes when the thunderstorms rage. Many mortals fear to swim where there are eels lest they suck the swimmers' blood.

  The fat of the eel when rubbed on the eyes gives mortal men the gift to see faerie folk and those secrets which others would hide from their gaze. The livers of the eel ease childbirth and their blood cures warts.

  If they be dried in the sun, softened with fat, then stuffed with thyme and lavender, they can be worn as garters to ease the pains of the joints which come with age, or the marsh ague.

  But if a wife wishes to cure her husband of drunkenness, then let her put a live eel in his ale or wine and suffer the creature to die in there, and when her husband drinks it, he shall never desire that drink again.

  The Mandrake's Herbal

  The Marsh Creepers

  Luce lowered the chaplet of white roses as gently as she could on to Elena's loose red hair.

  'There now,' Luce murmured soothingly, 'they'll match that little white rosebud mark you've got on your thigh. If he's a passion for roses, he'll love that. Gentlemen love to find little hidden scars and moles, makes 'em think they've discovered a secret.'

  She adjusted the angle of the chaplet and Elena yelped as the thorns pricked her scalp. Luce bit her lip and glanced at Ma, who merely shrugged.

  'You heard what he said, he wants the thorns left on.'

  Luce crossly examined her own hands which were scratched and bleeding from having woven the crown. 'Wants to see these'n' all, does he?'

  'He can see anything he likes, if he pays for it,' Ma said tartly. 'Now then, let's have a look at you, my darling.'

  Elena was finding it hard to breathe through the small holes in a wooden mask. She peered out through the eye slits, already feeling the panic rising as it pressed against her face. She couldn't understand why this man had demanded she wore it. It was painted white. No features, no detail, just a smooth, blank surface as if her face didn't matter, didn't exist. Only the flesh of her body was important.

  Elena squinted down at the fine bleached linen kirtle she wore. It was plain, but hung smoothly to the floor, bounded by a girdle of scarlet silk. But she was painfully conscious that beneath it she wore no shift, nor hose, nor shoes, and she felt as if she was standing there already naked.

  Ma nodded her satisfaction. 'Come then. He wants you ready when he arrives.'

  'But please, Ma, tell me what he wants me to do,' Elena said desperately.

  'Very little, I suspect, at least at the start. He'll do it all at first and then you do whatever he asks.'

  She opened a door that led to a second chamber and waved her jewelled hand at Elena. 'Come along, my darling. In here.'

  Elena stared at the open door as a prisoner might look at irons in a torturer's fire. She couldn't move. Luce slipped her arm through hers and tugged her forward.

  'You'll see, it won't be half as bad as you think,' she whispered encouragingly. 'Some of the gentlemen can be real sweetings. Know how to treat a lady, they do.'

  Elena shuffled forward. The second chamber was larger than the one she had been dressed in. Small tables were scattered around the room, bearing flagons and goblets, platters of meats and honey-covered pastries and fruit. On one side of the chamber was a raised wooden platform covered with a thick pallet that looked as if it might be stuffed with feathers, not straw. Elena saw it and shuddered. Was that where he would do it?

  On the other side was a shallow marble basin shaped like a giant scallop shell, large enough for two people to sit inside. A pole was fixed in the centre of the basin, carved and painted with a riot of leaping dolphins, garlanded with strange fruits and flowers that never grew above the waves. On top of the pole was a giant carved fish, coloured gold and red. It hung over the basin, its fat gold lips agape. Luce crossed over to it and pressed down on the fin of its tail. At once a jet of water spewed from its mouth in a graceful arc on to the pole and ran into the basin below. Luce laughed.

  'That's enough, Luce, don't waste it, or we'll have to refill it,' Ma said, but she was smiling with satisfaction. 'Now quickly, my darling. He'll be here soon.'

  You have to get into the bath,' Luce urged. She helped Elena to step over the side and then clambered in with her. 'Turn around and put your back to the pillar.'

  Ma reached for something under a table, and returned to Luce carrying a long length of rope.

  Elena suddenly saw what they intended to do, and pushed Luce away, gathering up her long skirts and trying to scramble back out of the basin.

  'Hold her,' Ma barked.

  Ma clambered in over the low lip of the basin, grabbing her arms and slamming her back against the pillar so hard that for the moment Elena was winded. Before she knew it Ma had pulled both her wrists back behind the pillar and Luce was tying them tightly. Elena struggled and screamed as the rope was looped around her waist and over her shoulders, cutting between he
r breasts and binding her body to the pole.

  Breathless from the struggle, the two women clambered back out of the basin and surveyed their handiwork. In the struggle some of the thorns had pierced Elena's skin and thin trickles of scarlet blood ran down from her forehead over the white mask. She was sobbing now, panting for breath beneath the hot mask, begging for them to release her, but she could see from their faces they would not.

  Luce grimaced. 'Stop fighting, Holly, please. You'll only hurt yourself. It's just a game, is all. Some men like to play the hero. I dare say all he wants is to pretend he's rescuing you. If you play along, you'll enjoy it, you'll see.'