by Patty Jansen
She and Anton followed the Shepherd Carolus down the aisle. Johanna gestured for Li Fai to come with her. He came, giving her a tiny comforting smile that warmed her.
She returned a polite nod, hoping it wasn’t too formal, or too informal, or that it would start rumours. He was only a business contact, right? Only a friend.
He followed her into the coach where they sat on benches facing each other without saying anything.
When the coach stopped, Li Fai reached for her hand. His skin was warm and dry, in sharp contrast with her hands, which were cold and sweaty.
He said, “Hey. You will be fine.”
Johanna nodded, trying to believe it.
“You saw the possible futures in the wood.”
She nodded again. Out of the three possible futures she had seen, there was only one she wanted.
She began, “Li Fai . . .”
But now Anton came to the coach door and opened it.
The Willems family lived in a moderate house in a relatively narrow street that connected two main canal streets. This far from the palace, the fires had spared or only slightly damaged most of the houses. Because this area had a high concentration of church families, many of them had fled after the occupation; and while a good number had returned, the fate of many others remained unknown. Both Master Willems’ parents had been killed by Alexandre’s barbarians, and he and his young wife had lived in the house ever since.
It was not a lavish or large place. Dark curtains obscured the windows on the ground floor. On the upper floor, some glass panes were broken or missing, replaced by small pieces of wood. Someone had scrubbed the steps even if they hadn’t been able to remove burn marks from the walls and servants’ door.
Johanna went up the steps to the main entrance. She dropped the knocker on the door and waited while Li Fai remained at the bottom of the steps.
And waited.
And knocked again.
The sound of voices drifted from somewhere. When she held her ear to the door, it seemed the sound came from inside the house.
She went down the steps to the servants’ entrance.
Voices came from inside that door, too, and when she knocked—no knocker here—someone opened the door quickly. A young maid, whose eyes widened when she saw Johanna. She dropped into a curtsy.
“Oh, Your Majesty. You should have knocked upstairs.”
“I did. No one opened the door.”
“Oh.” She put her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. Come in.”
She followed the maid into a dim hallway with a very low ceiling, and through a side door into the kitchen. It was not as big or well-appointed as the kitchen in Johanna’s house, and the ceiling was really low, making the room pokey and dark. A couple of pans stood on the stove and the cook was kneading bread at the table in the centre of the kitchen.
A couple of other maids and servants sat around the table. They all rose when Johanna came in.
“Sit down, Your Majesty,” said the groundsman, still wearing his coat. He indicated the chair he had just vacated, with a sideways look at Li Fai.
“It’s not necessary. I’m not staying long. I only came to see the shepherd. Shepherd Carolus came into the church to say that something was wrong with him.”
The groundsman and the maid exchanged a dark glance.
“Yes, you may well be staying long,” the groundsman said, his voice dark.
“What’s going on?”
The groundsman shook his head. “No one is quite sure, Your Majesty, but it’s not good.”
“Can I see him?” Johanna asked.
They exchanged worried glances.
The groundsman said, “I’m not sure that’s either a good idea or safe.”
“I’ve got someone with me.”
He glanced suspiciously at Li Fai. “I don’t know that it would help much.”
“Is he—forgive me for asking—but is the shepherd practising . . . magic?”
A few more uncertain glances.
“Don’t know if that’s the word, Your Majesty.”
“Nah,” the cook said. She hadn’t yet spoken. She was a stout woman with ample breasts and broad hips. “The word you want is exorcism.”
The maid exclaimed, “Anna, you don’t say—”
“It’s accurate enough,” the groundsman said.
“Have you seen any evidence of . . . strange phenomena?” Johanna asked.
“Nah,” Anna continued in the same blunt tone. “He just seems to think there are.”
The maid protested, “You don’t know—”
“Nah, I don’t know anything,” Anna said. She put flour-covered hands at her sides. “I’m glad I don’t know anything about this stuff. And that I don’t have to go up there to do any work.”
Johanna’s heart thudded. She felt that they knew more than they let on. “We’re here to help him. I think he’s been stubborn and has refused to seek help with this box he received.”
At the same time as the groundsman said, “What box?” the maid said, “Greetje said it had been sent to him by the Holy Father of the Belaman Church. She said he wouldn’t tell her what was in it.”
Anna and the groundsman glared at her. They were, perhaps, under instructions not to mention the box that the shepherd told everyone he didn’t have. Why did he think he could handle this alone? “I still want to see him.”
“The young master is not in a state to speak reasonably,” the groundsman said, his voice dark.
“I still want to see him.”
He nodded, gravely. “Come.”
He left the room and Johanna and Li Fai followed him. Anton stood in the hallway. He was too tall to stand up straight in this very low corridor.
“We’re going upstairs,” Johanna said.
“Do you want me to come?”
“Maybe stay close where you can come quickly if I call you.”
He nodded, his face grave. Johanna often wondered what her guards knew of magic. It couldn’t be much, but they had to know that she possessed it.
The stairs were at the end of the hallway and quite steep compared to the ones in Johanna’s house.
About halfway, there was a little landing where the stairs switched back in the other direction. The only thing Johanna could see about the upper floor was that it was dim and dark.
The groundsman gestured. “It’s the last room on the left. You will find it easily.”
Johanna became aware of an eerie sound: first a slap like that of a wet cloth on stone and then a grunt. “What is that noise?”
“Trust me, you’ll be sorry you asked that question.”
Chapter 21
* * *
JOHANNA SLOWLY CREPT up the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. A couple of the risers creaked badly, but the noise upstairs didn’t stop. In fact, now that she was closer, it became louder.
A slap followed by a grunt, slap, grunt, slap, grunt.
Li Fai followed close behind. His face showed little emotion. He held his hand in the pocket of his jacket where his dragon box would be.
Johanna carried her box in her handbag and wondered if she should take it out, too.
She stopped on the first step after the landing. They were now out of view of the groundsman and Anton but couldn’t see much more of the upstairs corridor than a section of wall and the large grandfather clock that stood there.
The noise continued. Slap, grunt, slap, grunt, slap, grunt. It was nothing like she had ever heard before. The groundsman’s words still echoed in her mind, and with every step she became more convinced that she would be sorry for asking what it was.
Li Fai had stopped next to her. He extracted the dragon box from his pocket. The dragon figure on the lid glowed with orange light. He was about to open it—
Johanna put her hand over the top of his hand.
He looked up and met her eyes.
How could she ever have thought that his face was unemotional? The expressions were subtle but that di
dn’t mean they were absent: concern, alertness, determination.
A moment passed in which neither of them moved. Johanna wanted to say what the wood had shown her that might happen between them, but she didn’t know where to start. She wanted to taste his lips before going to face the evil that might kill her, or him, or both of them. But all she could do was stare at him as his unusual dark eyes looked back at her.
She wanted to touch him, but was too scared that he might get angry. That he would be upset or, scariest of all, would remind her that she was married and that this was most inappropriate. That he didn’t feel the same things she did.
Meanwhile that horrible sound continued upstairs.
Slap, grunt, slap, grunt, slap, grunt.
“We must go,” Li Fai mouthed.
Johanna nodded, feeling the magic moment slip through her hands.
Li Fai went first, Johanna following close behind. Up the last flight of stairs, into the hallway.
At the very end of the hallway a door stood open. A glow of firelight came from the room, casting a rectangle of orange light on the floor and opposite wall.
Johanna and Li Fai edged down until Li Fai was almost at the rectangle of light and could see into the room. He beckoned Johanna over. She peeked past him.
The room was bathed in firelight. All around the walls, on tables and cabinets that held books and statues and other objects, stood candles with flapping flames. They were all church candles, too, representing a fortune in good quality wax.
The shepherd stood in the middle of the room with his back to the door. He had stripped the shirt off his upper body. It hung around his waist. Unlike Roald, he was quite broad in the shoulders. He held knotted ropes in both hands and took turns flinging each rope over the opposite shoulders and slapping it across his back. The ropes hit his skin with a wet slap, and each time, he let out a grunt.
His entire back was raw and bleeding, his hair loose and soaked with blood. Each time he flung the rope, a spray of blood flew from the soaked fibres onto the walls and floor.
The smell of it hung in the air.
Johanna raised her hand to her mouth, swallowing hard to keep the bile down.
She didn’t think she made a noise, but he must have heard her because he turned around.
His face glistened with sweat. His chest looked no better than his back. Blood ran down his chin, down his neck and over his chest.
“What are you doing here?” His voice sounded raw.
“I . . . I’m sorry. I was going to . . . Why are you doing this?”
He took a few steps to the door. Johanna backed into the opposite wall. He bent over her and bellowed in her face, “What are you doing here?”
Johanna was unable to say anything except utter a tiny squeak. She was fighting to keep her dinner down and to keep the black spots from her vision. She was aware that something warm and glowing orange landed on her shoulder.
The shepherd froze and then backed away, staring at Li Fai’s dragon.
“What are you doing?” Johanna asked again.
“It’s a church matter.”
“Beating yourself raw is a church matter?”
“It’s none of your business! Why don’t you go back to your nice palace and let me deal with this, huh?”
“Since when has it been all right to speak to your queen like that?”
The shepherd snorted, flung the ropes onto the table in the middle of the room and put on his shirt. Spots of blood soaked into the fabric at his back. His hands trembled while he did up the buttons.
“You received a parcel from the Belaman Church,” Johanna said. The dark-coloured crate stood behind him on the table.
He gave her a what? look.
“It contains an ancient relic from the church that the Most Holy Father Severino returned to you, now that the Belaman Church has cast our church out.”
“You don’t have to tell me what it contains. I’m dealing with it.”
“It is a thing of dark magic. How do you think you can deal with it by killing yourself like this?”
He said nothing, didn’t move, didn’t acknowledge her question. By the Triune, she was feeling terrible all of a sudden.
“Why hide it? Why pretend that you don’t have it? Why not call for help?”
He just stared, his mouth twitching. Drops of sweat rolled over his forehead.
Johanna looked into the dimness of the room. Now that her eyes were used to the darkness, she could make out the vast collection of objects on the cabinets that stood against the walls.
A shelf contained statues of stone, clay and wood. Some represented various forms of the Triune, others were single figures.
A velvet-lined tray contained jewellery made of silver. There were pendants, medallions and rings for fingers much bigger than hers with the Belaman cross, or skulls. Another tray had teeth and bones, and much-thumbed books that almost fell apart with age.
A soft red glow edged the rim of the open crate. Johanna had first thought that this was from the fire and all the candles, but now she realised that the light radiated from inside the box.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” she said.
He said nothing so she stepped past him into the room.
“Don’t touch it.” His voice sounded raw. “Don’t look at it, in . . . your condition. Greetje . . .” His voice wavered. “Look at what it made me do! She sneaked in here when I wasn’t looking, she let that terrible thing set its magic loose on her and our child.”
“Greetje is fine,” Johanna said. “Your boy is fine.”
“Boy?”
“He was born yesterday. She had a very hard time, but she’s much better today. She is wondering why you haven’t been to her.”
His eyes were wide, the whites shot through with blood. “Because I’m bewitched! Because I will contaminate her!” He was trembling so much that he could barely stand. “I can’t see her. I need to destroy this thing first.”
“Then accept our help.”
The shepherd glanced sideways at Li Fai, whose dragon had returned to his shoulder.
“He’s a magician.”
“So am I and so are you. We are going to need magic to defeat this thing.”
“Magic is forbidden by the church!” His eyes grew wide again. “My great teacher the Shepherd Romulus always said that the world would be a peaceful place without magic. It was magic that killed him, magic that did all this to our town!” He spread his hands.
“Probably, but magic exists, and it’s not going away. There is no point in denying it—”
“It is evil!” Spit flew from his mouth. He picked up the ropes and started hitting himself again.
Both Johanna and Li Fai jumped forward. Johanna made for his left arm, Li Fai grabbed his right side. He struggled, uttering a beastly growl.
The rope dripped blood over the front of Johanna’s dress. Her hands almost slipped off his arm with his sweat.
She yelled at him, “Stop doing that! There is no point.”
“I am evil. I am tainted, not worthy to be the Triune’s servant.”
Li Fai said, in his soft voice, “Evil is never born. It is made out of despair, poverty and ill treatment.”
The shepherd blinked at him. His eyes showed whites on all sides.
Johanna said, “Calm down. It’s this evil thing that has made you have these thoughts—”
“It’s in the Book of Verses! This evil thing is a sign from the Triune, sent to me to demand my repentance.” The sweat was dripping off his face. “It’s . . . it’s . . . a punishment for the times I’ve used the evil in me to my own advantage.”
“So that’s what it’s all about? You’re still denying your own magic?”
“Magic is a force from the Lord of Fire.”
“Stop being so stubborn. Some of us are born with it. There is nothing in the Book of Verses that says all magic is evil.”
“There is! It says in—”
“We’ll have that discussion once we
’ve destroyed this relic. We cannot do that unless we use magic.” She stepped sideways to pass him. He grabbed her arm. Johanna used the little trick that Kylian had shown her: she grabbed hold of his wrist with her free hand and twisted. Her arm came free.
“You cannot fight evil with evil. It’s . . .” His eyes rolled back in his head. His knees buckled. It surprised Johanna so much that she couldn’t hold on to him. He crumpled to the floor.
Johanna met Li Fai’s eyes in a moment of horror. By the Triune, what now?
She shook the shepherd’s shoulder. His hand flopped about. He uttered a low moan.
Well, that wasn’t part of the plan. They were likely to need the shepherd’s magic. “Come on. Wake up!”
Now she became aware of a low hum that made the floor vibrate. She met Li Fai’s eyes. “What’s that?”
Li Fai went to the table and looked over the rim of the box. As he did so, a red glow pulsed from inside.
Johanna gasped.
Li Fai jumped back. The little dragon on his shoulder shrieked and jumped into the air. It hovered over the box, hissing at its contents.
Red light pulsed back.
The dragon hissed again.
Red light flashed in response, stronger than the previous time.
“Can you stop it doing that?”
Li Fai snapped his fingers. The dragon snorted a puff of flames and came back to his shoulder.
“What can we do now?” Johanna shivered. She thought of the tentacled blob with the pulsing light inside. Was there even a way they could safely destroy this thing?
She was going to ask Li Fai, but he was staring at the shepherd. A pale mist surrounded his head.
A slight breeze wafted into the door and made the mist swirl in the direction of the table.
“No,” Johanna said. That mist was his essence, and the thing in the box was going to suck it up, and become stronger.
She jumped in front of the misty tendrils, but they wound their way around her. Never mind destroying the relic, the first question was: how could she keep it from getting stronger?
Crude measures were needed. Greetje had said something about a lid . . . There it was, leaning against the wall. She ran a few paces across the room and grabbed the lid. Her fingers met with the soft fabric of the lined inside. She turned the lid so that side faced down, kept it between the red glow and her face, and slammed it over the top of the crate.