‘Who sent you?’
‘Army chief of staff, sir,’ said a man at the front, ‘we’re here for your protection.’
‘With four of you we should be all right if I’m attacked by a small nation in here. Let’s get it over with, shall we?’
They passed through two more sets of doors, down another tight corridor and out into a wider, darker, danker area, where the roof was supported by tall pillars. Here there was no dancing, just songs from the men who sat chained, calls to Christ and for loved ones.
Someone sang a kontakion in a high, clear voice: ‘Though thou didst descend into the grave, O immortal one, yet didst thou destroy the power of Hades, and didst arise as victory.’
‘The wolfman’s hiding in here?’ Loys spoke quietly to Meletios.
‘No, in the tunnels below.’
Loys swallowed. This was clearly not the worst horror the prison had to offer. Another door, steps and a smell like a fist in the face.
Melietos took a torch off the wall, seemingly unbothered by the fetid air.
‘Down.’
‘Here?’
‘Still further.’
They descended the steps to a vision from a doom painting — the mouth of hell made real on earth — men lying wasting and dying in irons, too weak to call out, stewing in their own filth.
He was powerless to help these people and that made him angry. He could use his authority to get one released, maybe two, but he couldn’t order them all freed. Besides, they were there for a reason. The state would collapse if crimes went unpunished.
‘The tunnels are beyond, sir,’ said Meletios.
Every sinew in Loys’ body seemed to strain to return to the surface. A deep animal repugnance was in him, an instinctive need to withdraw from filth and disease. He steeled himself and followed Meletios over the bodies of the sick and the dead.
The room, an adapted natural cavern, was huge and it led away into denser darkness at its far end. As Meletios’s torch revealed more, Loys saw the roof dropped quite quickly. Only a narrow crack in the wall by the floor gave any indication it continued. The crack was nowhere near tall enough to walk through or even crawl. Anyone wanting to go within would have to writhe on their belly and trust they would not get stuck, or that the floor didn’t fall away into nothing beyond the limit of the torchlight. Loys picked his way among the bodies to examine it closer.
‘That’s the way down,’ said Meletios, ‘that’s where the sorcerer went.’
‘Why has this never been sealed?’ said Loys. ‘Can’t the prisoners escape this way?’
‘To what?’
‘To something other than this.’
‘They are chained,’ said Meletios, ‘as you can see. Even if they weren’t, that way offers only death. You can get lost, you can fall, or the ghosts of the passages can take you.’
‘All the more reason to seal it,’ said Loys.
‘It was sealed,’ said Meletios, ‘but God was angry and shook the earth to unblock it. It’s said it’s a path to hell and I have no wish to explore it.’
Loys had imagined the caves as tall and broad affairs, not like this. Was he going to pursue the wolfman into there?
Meletios saw his hesitation. ‘Would you like to go in, sir?’
‘Pass me your lamp.’
‘Or perhaps you’d like to interview the prisoners.’
‘Why?’
‘They were here; they may have seen something.’
Be careful. Beatrice’s words came back to him.
Meletios watched Loys with mocking eyes. He reckoned he didn’t have the stomach for it.
‘I will look within. You know the way — lead.’
‘I don’t know the way,’ said Meletios. ‘I don’t know the way at all. I’ve never been down there.’
‘Perhaps you should have. You’ve left a dangerous wolfman roaming in there.’
‘He’s no danger. We have two sets of strong doors between us and him.’
‘Go within.’
‘Six men died.’
‘So now you know they died. You said they might be lost.’
‘Lost, dead, it’s the same thing here. Will you not speak to the prisoners? One has seen him.’
‘Who?’
‘The scholar, the monk. Let me find him.’
Meletios raised his torch and peered around.
‘He was here, he was. Wait!’ Panic was in his voice.
He galumphed to the stairs, jumping over the bodies that obstructed his way, and went up. Very quickly he was back with a guard.
‘Where is he?’ Meletios was almost hysterical, shouting and gesturing as he pulled the man down the steps.
‘We have a number of monks in here.’
‘The special prisoner. The lady’s prisoner.’
‘The Norman Azemar?’ said the guard.
Loys felt all the breath leave him.
‘Yes, him.’
‘He should be here.’
The two men searched through the prisoners, turning them over where they lay, staring into wasted and pale faces.
‘What was that name?’ said Loys.
Meletios came to him and bent his knee.
‘On my life, sir, I speak honestly now and hope you will deal with me kindly. I understand there is a prisoner who you know here. I had hoped for you to discover him so I might win favour with you for bringing you to him and arranging his release. He has gone. That places me in grave danger.’
‘Who is this prisoner?’
‘Azemar, a Norman. He begged us to contact you when I admitted him. He says he is here to warn you. I-’
‘Why didn’t you?’ A cold fury rose up inside him. Azemar? His friend.
‘I was forbidden from doing so. An express order on high imperial authority.’
‘What was he doing here? Who…’ Loys was so shocked Azemar was in that awful place his thoughts failed him.
‘I am a servant and a jailer; I know nothing of these things.’
‘Are you a jailer? You seem scarcely capable of doing anything other than taking bribes. Why didn’t you come to me with this information?’
‘He remains here by the authority of the chamberlain. His sister put him here and she derives her right from him. I would be as good as dead if I told you about him. If you discovered him, however…’
Loys was convinced he had been played for a fool by someone. Why was Azemar in this prison? Unless he really had come to warn him about something and had been prevented from doing so. By whose hand? Was Beatrice in danger? No, Loys, think clearly. Whoever his enemies were they hadn’t struck at him yet. An assassination or an abduction in the emperor’s house would cause more trouble than it was worth.
He had to help his friend.
‘Forgive me.’ Meletios was actually on his knees.
‘So where do you think he has gone?’
‘There can be only one place, sir,’ said Meletios. ‘Down there, in the caves. He’s somehow slipped his bonds
