Paul Doherty - The Midnight Man

‘Will we ever be free of it?’ Eleanor murmured. ‘Years ago I heard a story about a child who found an evil-looking toad in a field. The girl was so frightened, she killed it. That dead toad pursued her night and day, giving her no rest. The girl killed it time and again but the pursuit continued even after it was torched to ashes. The hapless, persecuted girl, to be eternally free of the torment, let her loathsome enemy bite her but escaped death by cutting away the venom-filled wound. Vengeance appeased, and the toad was seen no more.’

‘Mistress?’

‘Sometimes evil dogs our lives — a host of bats blacking out the sunlight.’ She leaned over and kissed Stephen on each cheek. ‘I do believe your master will free us from the evil which seems to hound our souls. But remember, Stephen, there will be a terrible price to pay.’ Then they were gone, two lonely figures shuffling into the gloaming.

Stephen returned to the taproom to find Cutwolf closeted with his master in the window-seat. ‘Sir Miles wants to know what our two guests told us,’ Anselm declared drily. ‘I have given Brother Cutwolf the gist of it. Sir Miles believes more mischief is afoot, but we also have an invitation to dine with him. You, me, Master Robert and Mistress Alice — it will be grand.’

‘My master is most appreciative of your work.’ Cutwolf, despite the heavy cloak over his mailed shirt and clinking war belt, was friendly enough. ‘The day after tomorrow, just before vespers, he insists that you sup with him.’ Cutwolf’s voice became teasing. ‘Master Stephen, you did ask about my master’s house. .?’

Stephen blushed.

‘And now,’ Anselm rose, ‘we have an appointment with a soul bound for God. Master Bolingbrok awaits us inside Saint-Olaf-all-alone.’

‘A small tavern, deep in White Friars,’ Cutwolf answered Stephen’s puzzled look, ‘as different from this as hell from heaven. Don’t be disappointed,’ Cutwolf added kindly, ‘Mistress Alice will be here when you return and remember, the evening after tomorrow, we have our festivities to celebrate.’

Stephen hid his disappointment. He gathered his cloak and sword belt with its long stabbing dirk and sought out Alice. He feverishly kissed her then joined Anselm and Cutwolf, already striding across the tavern yard. They went up through the constant drizzle towards St Michael’s, a dark mass against the cloudy sky. They paused for a while by the dripping gates of that evil-festering cemetery with its heap of tumbled stones and crosses. Anselm stood staring out over the desolation. Stephen, busy with his cloak and belt, his mind still full of regret at leaving Alice, felt the crowding ghosts close in. He gazed down the empty lane. Figures moved. A shadow rose out of a puddle; others followed. Restless shapes, as if a mob of demons and spirits, were mustering. Faint traces of song and conversation teased Stephen’s ear. A waft of heavy perfume came and went. A raucous voice shouted, ‘Harrow! Harrow!’ The air turned abruptly cold. Cutwolf clapped gloved hands on the hilt of both sword and dagger. Stephen caught his breath. He glanced towards St Michael’s. The cemetery was no longer just a stretch of moving grass. Tall trees now grew there bristling with thorns, their leaves like blades of red-hot iron. Near the lychgate a cauldron, seething with oil, pitch and resin, belched flames of black, smoky plumes. A huge snake, coiled round the cauldron, reared its ugly head and breathed out fiery sparks which assumed a life of their own. Somewhere in the darkness a filthy, grunting herd of swine rooted and snouted for food, their stench hanging like a heavy veil. The drizzle seemed to be raining down fresh horrors.

‘Stephen, Stephen!’ Anselm was shaking him. The novice broke from his nightmare, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in his own head. ‘Stephen,’ Anselm whispered, ‘I can feel the same. This night is as restless as an evil conscience in a tumbled bed. Something is about to happen. Pray God we keep safe!’ They walked on. Cutwolf drew sword and dagger as they left the thoroughfares of Dowgate. They entered the little, crooked, dog-legged alleys of White Friars, which ran under houses so dingy they’d turned black, and were so ancient and corrupt they had to be supported by wooden crutches. Now and again little knots of figures would break from wallowing in the dirt and dart like bats into the doorways or alley-mouths. Here human wolves alongside crime, filth and disease lurked in the shadows or behind dark doors leading down to even darker vaults and cellars. Underfoot the path was nothing more than slimy mud and stinking water. The dungeon-like doors and prison-like windows remained shut. Nevertheless, voices called and trailed. An occasional light flared and dimmed. Cutwolf was recognized, the two Carmelites noted as they made their way through the squalid, hellish maze of the needle-thin paths, their ill-dug sewers crammed with disgusting refuse.

Stephen had to cover his mouth against the constant, pressing, infected smell. He felt frightened. A hideous presence hovered close, hurrying breathless to his right then to the left, only to slip behind him like some threatening assassin. The sweat started on his body. Stephen fought the mounting panic until suddenly, without being bidden, Cutwolf broke into song, his harsh voice intoning St Patrick’s Breastplate, a powerful invocation for God’s help.

‘ Christ be with me ,

Christ behind me ,

Christ before me ,

Christ beneath me. ’

Anselm joined in. Stephen grew calm, and also took up the refrain:

‘ Christ in danger ,

Christ in the mind of friend and stranger . .’

The darkness thinned. The terrors receded as they swung into a narrow street and stopped before the ill-lit St-Olaf-all-alone, the creaking sign with its rough depiction of the northern saint almost hidden by dirt and grime. They pushed open the door into the drinking chamber, a gloomy place lit by the occasional taper glow. The taverner, standing by the board, recognized Cutwolf and snapped at the two oafs guarding the makeshift staircase built into the corner to stand aside. These gallowbirds, who rejoiced in the names of ‘Vole’ and ‘Fang’, stepped back into the darkness. Cutwolf led the Carmelites up into the stygian, stinking blackness along a narrow gallery lit by a lantern horn perched on a stool, and into a shabby chamber. Bolingbrok crouched by a pile of sacking which served as a bed. On this sprawled a narrow-faced man; in the mean light of the tallow candle his pallid, unshaven skin shimmered with sweat and blood bubbled between chapped lips as he clutched his belly wound, a soggy, gruesome mess.

‘This is Basilisk,’ Bolingbrok murmured. ‘Thief, assassin, God knows what else. Stabbed over a cogged dice and now bound for judgement.’ He leaned down. ‘Aren’t you, my bully boy?’

Basilisk could only gasp. ‘ Miserere! ’

‘Yes, yes,’ Bolingbrok replied. ‘I keep my eyes and ears open for the likes of Basilisk. He needs a priest. He couldn’t care now about this or that. He has told me one thing, even though he recognized me as a cast-off priest, a defrocked one. We have chattered, Basilisk and I, and he has confessed.’

‘To what?’

‘To being a retainer of the Midnight Man’s coven.’

‘As God be my witness,’ Basilisk still had his senses, ‘I was recruited over a year ago.’

‘And how do you meet?’ Anselm pushed his way forward to kneel by the bed. Bolingbrok gently withdrew, allowing the exorcist to lean over the dying man. ‘The day after every full moon,’ Basilisk gasped, ‘the summons is posted in terms only we understand. On the great post near the Si Quis door at Saint Paul’s. The date, the time and the place.’