The Devil's Looking-Glass

heads. We are assailed on all sides.’

‘But spring is here. The winter cold is gone,’ Raleigh replied wryly.

‘At least the damnable plague has finally departed. The order has been given to open the playhouses and inn yards so the Queen’s subjects have something to take their minds off their miseries.’

Raleigh closed his eyes, enjoying the breeze. ‘This play would have long since ended if not for the School of Night, you know.’

Cecil gritted his teeth. Loath as he was to give any credit to the secret society, he knew the other man was right. ‘But still no news of Dee from Swyfte and his band. Even the great resources of the School of Night cannot keep us alive for much longer.’

‘You plot and scheme from the shadows, as Walsingham did before you, seeing only the ends, but not the road that takes you there. How has that served you?’ The adventurer pulled the casement window shut and turned to inspect the bodies, his expression grave. ‘You and all your kind have lived a life of compromise,’ he continued, moving to each corpse in turn. ‘You said, not long ago, that the Unseelie Court whittled us down by degrees. But you and Walsingham have done that to yourselves.’

‘Watch your tongue, sirrah.’ Cecil glanced at the kerchief in his hand and, disgusted, threw it away as if it had burned him.

‘I know the agreement Walsingham made, which you perpetuated,’ Raleigh said in a cold voice. The spymaster flinched. ‘You think one life here or there makes no difference when weighed against the security of the Queen and all England?’

‘All is a balance—’

‘Look here,’ Raleigh said with passion, sweeping his arm across the fallen guards. ‘Where is your balance? Where is your security? Those poor souls you sacrificed suffered for naught. And the ones who were stolen, they suffered too.’

Cecil cast his eyes down.

‘As for Swyfte, why, no better man has served you,’ the adventurer continued. ‘Yet neither you nor Walsingham could find it in you to tell him what happened to the woman he loved? No, because then you would have had to explain why you allowed her to be taken, and for what reason. And the others too.’

‘It was a gamble,’ Cecil snapped, rage born of guilt rising inside him. ‘If it kept us safe, it was worthwhile.’

‘It did not.’ The adventurer took a deep breath to calm himself and walked to the door. He paused on the threshold and looked back. ‘Your compromises have failed to deliver what you hoped. You have failed. This world is changing fast, Sir Robert, and you are yesterday’s man. This new age demands better principles. Sooner or later it will be time to step aside and let those who measure themselves by a higher standard guide this nation to glory.’

Raleigh fixed his penetrating gaze upon the spymaster for a long moment, and then, with a flamboyant sweep of his cloak, he strode out. Cecil watched the space he had left behind as the shadows in the room slowly melted in the thin light. After a long moment, he strode to the door and called out. Two pikemen came running.

‘Find Sir Walter Raleigh,’ he ordered. ‘Tell him the Queen says he is no longer welcome here and escort him from the palace grounds. Should he resist, take him to the Tower.’

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

LANTERNS GLOWED DEEP in the hot night. Spikes of reflected light shimmered across the black waves as the silent fleet sailed towards the east. Haloes of green and red flickered around the grey-sailed galleons, the otherworldly illumination fading like marsh lights. Will watched the Unseelie Court ships, feeling troubled by the display of firepower.

‘Extinguish the lights, Master Dusteby,’ Captain Sanburne called. The lanterns winked out one by one and the Corneille Noire sailed on westwards, wrapping herself in the dark. Tense moments passed as Will and the others aboard held their breaths, but the Fay cannon was not trained upon them.

‘Even if they glimpsed us, we are insignificant,’ the spy said with a nod. ‘They have more pressing matters to hand.’

‘Dee,’ Launceston whispered, spectral in the gloom.

‘When you sent the magician back to England, you knew the Enemy would pursue him.’ Strangewayes narrowed his eyes accusingly. That gaze had barely left Will since the galleon had departed the island.

‘Was there any possibility that the Unseelie Court would let the prize they valued more than anything in our world sail away freely?’

The younger spy snorted. ‘And in no way did this enter your calculations as you dragged us all on your personal quest for destruction.’

‘You chose to come,’ Launceston interjected. ‘No one forced you. Indeed, we might have found more joy on this voyage if you had been left on that island.’

Strangewayes glared at the Earl.

‘To answer your question, Tobias, of course I knew the attention of the Unseelie Court would be drawn to Dr Dee, allowing us to sail quietly by,’ Will said with a grin, seemingly unruffled.

‘Then should we not have accompanied him? Two galleons could better fight off—’

‘Two galleons are neither here nor there against the overwhelming power of the Enemy.’ Will leaned on the rail, staring into the night. ‘The Tempest is the finest galleon in all the world, race-built and fleet. We would only have slowed her down.’

Gnawing on a ship’s biscuit, Carpenter added, ‘Courtenay has four days’ start, and he will give them a good fight if they want one—’

‘Against the Unseelie Court fleet?’ Strangewayes interrupted, incredulous.

‘—and with Dee in his right mind once more,’ Carpenter continued as if the younger spy had not spoken, ‘there will be magics and trickery aplenty if battle is joined. In truth, I would not wish to be on a Fay galleon.’

Will watched Grace walk up to the clutch of men, her brow furrowed in suspicion. ‘Why do you argue?’ she asked. She kept her voice light, but Will sensed in it a hint of caution for the one who professed to love her. She was more than aware of Strangewayes’ loathing for Will, and she had taken it upon herself to prevent any trouble from developing between the two men.

‘Nothing,’ Strangewayes muttered. He turned away, seeing the other men were closing ranks against him too. But Will sensed that not only Strangewayes but all there recognized that he had taken a gamble with the lives of men he knew; and indeed with England itself, for if he had truly sacrificed Dee to gain an advantage, all would be lost. They still trusted him, for now, but he wondered when they would begin to suspect he would sacrifice even their lives to bring Jenny home.

Will watched as the Unseelie ships disappeared into the night. ‘Enjoy this moment of peace. The Unseelie Court will become aware of us soon enough, and then we will feel the full force of their fury.’

‘You have a plan?’ Carpenter asked.

‘I always have a plan.’

For near three weeks, with the crew surviving on meagre rations, the Corneille Noire seethed under a merciless sun, heading towards the west away from the main trade routes. Though the compass remained reliable, Captain Sanburne would scowl and stare up to the heavens as the sunrise flipped from west to east and back again with no rhyme or reason. Will wondered if the land the Enemy called home was like the autumn mist on the Thames, flowing in and out of every nook and cranny along the crowded banks of the city. He took comfort from the fact that they sighted no other Fay vessels, and that only one Spanish treasure galleon crossed the blue horizon.

As they neared the New World, Will felt the obsidian mirror calling to him. Time and again, he found himself in one of the cabins with the looking glass on the trestle in front of him, hoping against hope that Jenny would appear before him. Only once did he catch a fleeting glimpse of her face. Her eyes seemed heavy with worry, and that only spurred him on. She lived, and that was enough. And soon he would bring her home or die trying.

As he climbed back into the sweltering sun from his latest attempt to use the looking glass, he glimpsed Meg watching him with a curious expression from the narrow strip of shade near the forecastle. It was as if she knew