Michael Jecks - City of Fiends

He could not help a muffled sob though, and feeling something sharp again, he cast an eye behind him in the gloom.

And then he screamed for real, and fought his way through the hole once more, just as Sir Charles reappeared.

Thomas didn’t care. He raced back into the house – getting as far away as he could from the grinning face in that dark hole, the grinning face of the skeleton in shreds of clothing.

Smythen Lane

The house to which Sir Richard was directed was a small, shabby affair halfway down the narrow street, and as the knight strode along the cobbles, he was thinking about the man he sought.

If it was the one who had ridden off with Sir Charles after the fight, then Sir Richard had seen him when he rode at Sir Richard with a spare horse for Sir Charles. At the time, Sir Richard had gained the impression of a slender youth with a brown thatch of hair. Not the sort to inspire fear in a man. Sir Charles, of course, was a different matter.

‘Edgar, this man is not as dangerous as Sir Charles, I deem. You and I should be able to capture him. But if Sir Charles is with him, we need to worry about him first.’

‘I understand,’ Edgar said. He had a nonchalant attitude, but Sir Richard had seen Edgar fighting often enough to be assured of his skill and speed.

The watchman knocked hard, and Sir Richard grasped his sword. There was no answer, and he told the man to break down the door. ‘We can’t let him run out the back,’ he snarled.

Under the combined efforts of the watchman and Edgar’s boots, the timbers were soon broken in pieces, and the three men rushed into the small building.

‘You, upstairs,’ he shouted to the watchman. To Edgar, he jerked his head. ‘You, with me out to the yard.’

They hurried through the place. There were only two rooms downstairs, and in the second a family was eating, sitting on the floor. They said nothing as Sir Richard and Edgar hurried past, a group of four children and two adults, all with the same thin, weary faces, eyes grown enormous from starvation.

Outside they found a tiny yard, and Sir Richard immediately spotted a man struggling to climb over the rear wall. Sir Richard blundered on, but Edgar overtook him, springing up onto the wall and flinging himself over.

He had left Sir Richard behind. There was the sound of running feet and Edgar set off after him on his soft leather boots. A figure darted left, and Edgar followed.

The man was clearly in view now. A thin fellow, with a haggard expression and clothes that spoke of days and nights in the open. Edgar smiled to himself. This would be easy.

He lengthened his stride. Edgar was well-fed and fit, and the man he chased was neither. Already he was flagging, and Edgar slowed slightly too, keeping a watchful eye on him, to ensure that this wasn’t a feint designed to mask a sudden attack.

It was not. Ulric suddenly tripped and fell headlong. Edgar drew his sword and waited for him to recover. Ulric sobbed in the dirt where he lay, his face inches from a pile of horse droppings. They were behind the fleshfold, and the roadway was a darkened mass of excrement, made more liquid by the urine of all the cattle that passed by.

‘I wouldn’t want to be lying there myself,’ Edgar said.

‘Kill me here,’ Ulric wept. ‘I can’t live on.’

‘Why?’

‘I was with Sir Charles and his men when they killed the Bishop. I will be hanged anyway. Please, just finish it.’

He looked up, and Edgar saw the resignation in his eyes. It was strangely touching. ‘How did you meet with Sir Charles?’

‘Henry Paffard paid me to take a message to him. It told Sir Charles where the Bishop was and where he was travelling next. Sir Charles used that to hunt him down and slay him. I’m guilty of being a party to that. And then, I was with him when he raided the Bishop’s mansions, too.’

‘Did you dislike the Bishop for a reason?’

‘Me? No! I thought he was a good man – like the last, poor Bishop Walter. I used to work for him and I liked him. I was only a messenger – but when I had delivered the message, I was stuck with them.’

‘Why do you think Henry Paffard was involved with Sir Charles?’

‘I heard Sir Charles say that the treasure he’d collected was to go to Paffard, and the money he paid was to support the old King, Sir Edward of Caernarfon.’

Edgar gazed at him, his eyes narrowing. ‘You know that Sir Charles went to see Paffard today?’

‘Yes. I was outside the gaol when he went in.’

‘He killed Paffard.’

‘ No !’ Ulric’s face crumpled as he took this in. ‘So I can’t even prove he used me as a messenger? I am ruined!’

‘Where is Sir Charles now?’

‘I don’t know. We were going to Paffard’s house when the Hue and Cry started behind us. He told me to come up this way, but I wanted to go home first and hide. I hoped I would be safe, but nowhere is safe now.’

Edgar lifted his sword, and Ulric flinched, shutting his eyes before the final blow.

‘Oh, in the name of Christ,’ Edgar said. ‘Killing you would be like strangling a kitten. Go in peace, boy, and don’t take dangerous messages again.’

Ulric slowly opened his eyes and stared in amazement. ‘You mean it?’

‘And lie, boy. When someone asks you where you’ve been, say you went to visit a friend in Tiverton or Tawton. Say that you were away drinking all the time. After all, Henry Paffard cannot accuse you of joining in the gang now, can he? And Sir Charles will have more on his mind than your offences. I think you will be safe. I won’t punish you more.’

Combe Street

‘Sweet Mother of God, Phil! What have you done!’ William screamed. He watched as the body of the priest kicked twice in its death-throes and then was still. ‘Quick! Let’s get away from here!’

There was a shriek of horror from a few yards away, and while William knew he ought to move, to grab Philip and bolt from this road, his legs wouldn’t respond. His mind was slammed into a blankness so intense he could not conceive of escape.

‘You go, William,’ Philip said. He was not looking at the priest, but at the smug face of Gregory Paffard. ‘You didn’t hear that, did you? Father Laurence still loved her. Not you!’

‘I never thought he did love me. Is that what you thought? You poor fool,’ Gregory jeered. ‘And now you’ve killed him. You’ve made my life easier, Philip. Thank you.’

‘Phil, come on! You can’t kill him, you have to get away from here! With me, now.’

William was close to sobbing as he pleaded with his brother. There was something so ineffably grim about the idea of remaining here, while the bailiffs and porters and Watchmen all congregated. They would die, both of them. That was when he realised. Philip intended to die here. He was not going to run away, because his mind was wholly bent upon the man before him. His aim had been to kill Gregory, and while Laurence had taken the blow intended for his victim, the error had not deflected him from his original purpose.

‘Phil, no!’ William groaned, but he could see he was too late.

Philip’s face wore a look of tragic determination. His was a mind torn by the loss of the woman he had loved, as it was by the death of his mother. And now, the representative of the family that had impoverished him and ruined his mother’s last days was here before him. He stepped forward, slowly, like a cat stalking a bird.

‘You should go,’ Gregory said. ‘I am entitled to protect myself, churl. You come for me, you strummel patch? Worthless whorecop. What do you want from me, eh?’

‘Your life,’ Philip said, and crouched, his knife before him. ‘You can at least afford that.’