XII.
The gates of London stretched out in front of us. Bobby crept up and sat next to Arthur, his mouth open wide. I didn’t blame him, it was the most magnificent sight I had ever seen. The columns of stone, the huge doors of ancient oak, the noise of all the people inside.One of the guards walked over to the wagon and slapped Arthur on the back. “Arthur! Back from the land of the Scots already?!” Arthur laughed jovially and grinned.
“Yeah, made a bundle off them! Oh, and I found some new servants for my house.” he said, nodding towards Bobby and I. Jay was still curled up in the fabric, his eyes closed and his mouth slack. He had been remarkably quiet the entire journey.
“Hope they’re not the serfs that everyone’s been looking for! Did you hear about that?” The guard glanced at Arthur for a moment, then, satisfied that Arthur’s blank stare meant that he didn’t know, continued. “Yeah, it seems that Father Jonathan went to Lord Ryan’s manor, you remember Lord Ryan, he’s that kook who took a fancy for Persians if you know what I mean,” the guard winked, “Well, anyway, Father Jonathan was doing his regular routine, hunting out the corrupted and so on... He found two of them in the village, burned one at the stake, but before he could do anything to the other one, these two boys from the village freed him. That Persian was here a few days ago whining about it all over town. Anyway, two of them are pretty normal looking, but the one everyone’s looking for has a brand. A pitchfork, right here.” He pointed to the left side of his neck. “They say that he bewitched the other two, and that he has bat wings!”
Arthur took a look at us and shrugged. “Nah, these three aren’t the ones. But I’ll keep a look out. Can’t let those demons get loose, can we?” he said. Bobby gave me a nervous look. The guard stared right at us and shrugged.
“Yeah, they look normal enough. Anyway, see you at the tavern later then?” They exchanged a few token pleasantries and then Arthur nudged the horses on.
“That was Claude, he’s a good sort, even if he’s a bit slow on the uptake. He’ll probably be visiting tonight.” Arthur explained.
Bobby swallowed. “Do you know many of the guards?”
“Oh yeah, pretty much all of them. See them all in the course of my travels. Strange story about those serfs. Usually they don’t run off like that. That one they’re looking for must really be a powerful demon.” he said conversationally. Except it killed the conversation.
The streets were narrow and slanted towards a channel in the middle, where all kinds of rubbish floated. Nobles raced through the streets on horseback, with little heed to the people conducting their business. There were beggars who fought over every penny that was tossed to them, fishmongers who chopped their wares underneath a cloud of flies, and people with every sort of facial malady that could possibly exist. So overwhelming to someone who was used to the relative calm and quiet of manor and village life.Arthur pulled up in front of a nondescript house and reigned in the horses. “This is home sweet home!” he called out, jumping out of the wagon. It was magnificent, three stories of wood, timbers, and thatch. There were actually windows, even if they were small and shuttered. Bobby hopped out and helped Arthur with the horses. I crawled back to help Jay.
He woke up slowly, smiling when he saw me, a smile that quickly faded. “We’re there?” he whispered.
“Yeah, it’s so huge!” Watched him as he turned and looked, then smiled bitterly.
“Almost as large as Lord Ryan’s house.”
Arthur bounded over. “Come on! Let me show you what’s in my house!” he said. I got the impression that he hadn’t been around people very much during his trip to Scotland and wanted to show off his home. Which, I must admit, I was very excited about seeing.
I helped Jay out of the wagon and onto the streets. He leaned on me heavily, eyes pinching closed after every step. Arthur unlocked the door and then showed us in, grinning like a madman. “Welcome to my humble abode.” he said proudly, patting his stomach. We all trailed in. Jay’s head pretty much touched the ceiling, but he was too far gone to notice. There was actually some nice looking furniture, a table with two benches that ran its entire length, a few cabinets, a smattering of silver plate, and a tapestry on the wall. The tapestry was of inferior quality compared to the ones that Lord Ryan had brought back from Crusade, but it was better than most could afford. A generic hunting scene, two nobles out with their falcons. “You’ll sleep upstairs. My room is in the back, with the kitchen and the door to the stable. Go ahead and get settled in your room.” he said.
Our room turned out to have two mattresses, two blankets, and a small screen. I sighed. At least there was some privacy. I wondered what his other servants had been like, if they had been like us, serfs on the run, or merely down and out beggars from the street.
Jay collapsed on the mattress and pulled off the wimple, then tried to take off his gown. When he couldn’t manage to get it over his head, he made pleading eyes in my direction. “Paige, please help me...” he whimpered. I couldn’t refuse him. Took the gown off and he spilled onto the bed, as if all that was holding him together had gone. His face was flushed and his forehead was burning.
“Shit Jay, why didn’t you tell me you had a fever!” I yelled. He smiled slowly and closed his eyes.
“Not so loud, Arthur’ll hear.” he whispered. “Just tell him I’m tired from the trip.” I pulled the blanket over him and he curled into the warmth, seemingly content. But his grip on the blanket was so tight his tendons stuck out white against his already pale skin. I had no choice but to go downstairs and explain.
Arthur shrugged when I told him. “Women.” he said, slapping me on the back. “I’m so glad I never got married! The whores down at the docks are good enough for me! But I guess you have to get married if you live in a village, right? Or else the Lord gets a little antsy, eh?”
Bobby sniggered in the corner. “At least in a village you get the May Festival! All the girls are ready for a little action then, eh?” he said. Arthur clanged his glass against Bobby’s.
“So true, so true. That’s why I schedule all my trips to Scotland around then! If I’m lucky, I can hit all the May Festivals in one week!”
I shook my head and joined them in drinking.
A death-grip on my shoulder woke me that night. Jay was floundering in a sea of sweat. “Jay, what’s wrong?!” I whispered harshly, not wanting to wake Bobby yet. But Jay was beyond cognizance, his head twisted to and fro in a haze of fever. His eyes rolled back into his head and all he could emit were frantic gasps for air. Finally his hand left my shoulder and grabbed the mattress. Fingers tore at the chemise, revealing that the open wounds were surrounded by red, the brand mark was inflamed and swollen, he started screaming in utter agony. He tossed and turned in an effort to make things better for himself, but there was no relief.I ran to get him water, but he wouldn’t drink, he just spat it out and continued screaming. Finally I resorted to putting some cloth in his mouth in the hopes that he would just bite on it and let everyone else sleep. He did that, but his eyes were still wild and unfocused, his hands scratched at the mattress, and he kicked his legs ferociously. I held him down as he flailed about as one possessed.
It was as if he had let go of whatever was keeping him silent earlier and now he was vocalizing all of his pain. He had given up. Shit.