will not deter him.'
This time Don Alanzo knocked Will to the floor.
'Please,' Grace sobbed, wringing her hands.
'I so vow!' Philip said firmly.
'I will do anything you ask. But please ... please ... do not hurt him anymore.'
Philip nodded to Don Alanzo, who guided Grace to the door as Will struggled to his feet. By the time he had shaken off the effect of the blow, Grace had gone.
'And so the torture begins,' Malantha said.
'And you save my life?' Will sneered, spitting a mouthful of blood.
'Once she has done her duty, we will allow you to live,' Malantha replied, 'although you will be in no state to enjoy it. We will ensure your friend gets to see how you work. Inside. In your mind, when you scream and cry and beg for us to take her life instead. And then you will know she must live on with the knowledge of what she saw, and it will never leave her.' She raised her arms in a flamboyant request for applause. 'My brother proposed your death, I know, but he lacks my assured touch in these matters.'
'An honourable man,' Will accused Philip, who made to leave. 'Wait. You have an aspiration to higher wisdom,' Will continued.
'What do you mean?' Philip asked suspiciously.
'The design of this building, your great monument, is based upon the Temple of Solomon, as described by Flavius Josephus.'
'You are an educated man? And a spy who deals in death and deceit?'
'I am a man of contradictions, like all men,' Will replied. 'My point being that you would not have chosen this design, nor selected the statue outside that door, if you did not aspire to the Jewish king's great wisdom. Then rise to it. There is still time to walk away from the path you have chosen.'
'The war I fight is a just one. I have the support of the pope himself. God, Master Swyfte, is on my side.'
'If God is on any side, it is certainly not the Devil's.'
A tremor crossed Philip's face, but before it could spread, Malantha stepped behind him, her hand rising to caress his neck out of sight of Don Alanzo. But she kept her icy eyes on Will the whole time, flaunting her power.
Philip's face hardened. 'This world will be a better place when England is crushed.'
'Our differences are clear, but what we share is much stronger,' Will pressed. 'I ask one final time, not as Protestant to Catholic, nor as Englishman to Spaniard, but as a man to another man, as members of the great brotherhood of men, I ask you again, turn away from the path you have chosen. Or else you must suffer the consequences.'
Philip gave a weak, boyish laugh. 'You stand before me in chains ... on the brink of humiliation, and pain, and death ... and you give we an ultimatum?'
'You should kill me now. It is the only way you will be safe,' Will replied calmly, seeing in Philip's eyes that he would not be swayed.
Philip laughed again, but with an unsettled note, before stepping to the door near the altar that led to his private quarters. Before he left, he turned to Malantha and said, 'You will come to me tonight?'
'Of course,' she said.
A simple smile leapt to the king's lips and he hurried out, closing the door behind him.
'Now the children have left, you can be about your adult business,' Will said.
'We have no need to sully our hands with your blood at this point,' Malantha replied archly. 'For now, only one thing remains to be done.'
Barely able to stop himself shaking with emotion, lion Alanzo loomed over Will. 'The time for talk has passed. The end of Philip's Enterprise of England and the end of this business begins this night. And your end too. I leave with your friend, Grace, within the hour, to join our Armada and to continue to England.'
'What do you plan?' he demanded.
'We will affix the Silver Skull to your friend's head and when she is delivered to England she must choose, between her country and the man she loves,' Malantha intoned. 'Release the power of the Skull, or see you torn apart as we discussed.'
'You will do that anyway.'
'We will,' Malantha said.
'Grace will choose England,' Will stated.
'You truly believe that?' Malantha nodded when she saw the response in Will's eyes. 'And in this way we will destroy everything.'
CHAPTER 41
ising up like a spectre, Launceston slit the guard's throat, holding his head back by the hair so the gush of arterial blood avoided his uniform. Once the guard's convulsions had ended, Launceston stripped him naked and wrapped the uniform tightly in his cloak.
As they emerged from the dark of the rough land still scattered with the detritus from El Escorial's construction, Carpenter and Mayhew discarded the rattling stones they had used to attract the lone sentry from the approach to the palace. In the shadow of the monolithic building, they studied the clockwork maneuvers of the guards once again.
Carpenter's throwing knife drove deep into the temple of the second sentry. Catching the guard before he fell, Carpenter dragged him back into the shadows, away from the torch under which he had stood.
When the sentry's uniform was secured, Mayhew selected a young guard who had broken off from the patrol to urinate on the edge of the wasteland. But Mayhew's clumsy approach dislodged a shower of rocks down a slope to splash in a muddy pool. Whirling, the guard saw Mayhew as he stumbled towards him, and struggled to lower his pike at the same time as he forced his manhood back in his clothes.
As Mayhew desperately threw himself forwards, the pike head ripped a gash across his cheek. His pained cry shocked the guard so much he dropped both his weapons. Wild with fear that the noise would bring other guards, Mayhew flailed into the sentry. Thrashing together on the ground, Mayhew eventually managed to clamp his hands around his opponent's throat. Spitting and gasping and clawing at Mayhew's face, the guard continued to fight while Mayhew increased the pressure.
Consumed by his desperation, he continued to choke the guard long after any motion had ceased. Carpenter and Launceston finally dragged him off and shook him roughly.
'Steady yourself!' Carpenter hissed vehemently. 'You are going to be the death of all of us!'
Once Mayhew had calmed, Launceston rested his hands on his associate's shoulders and said, as if offering friendly advice, 'At even the first sign that you are allowing your emotions to run free, I will slit your throat and leave you for dead. Do you understand?'
Mayhew nodded.
Carpenter continued to flash murderous glares at Mayhew as they took the final guard's clothes and wrapped them securely in Mayhew's cloak before dumping all three bodies in the bog.
'What if he does not come?' Mayhew asked.
'This is the hour, this is the night. If he is able, he will be ready for us,' Launceston replied. 'And if he is already dead or disabled, then we look for the Silver Skull, and then the girl.'
'And leave him here?' Carpenter pressed.
Launceston nodded. 'We are ready?'
Crossing the wasteland, they were all acutely aware they only had a little time before the sentries were missed and the alarm raised. Further down the slope towards the village, they found their location by nose alone.
