Dave Duncan - Speak to the Devil

“No,” Wulf said firmly, determined to talk business here, where he was fairly confident of not being overheard, not wherever it was that Marek had been told to take them. He had come to consult Marek, and a lecture on emetics and purgatives was not what he needed. “A couple of days ago, Anton performed an incredible feat of horsemanship at the royal hunt.”

The monk’s face froze. “We always knew he was the best of us on a horse. Even Vlad-”

“I’m the best now,” Wulf said. “But I would never dream of trying what he did. It was almost miraculous.”

“Stop!” Marek whispered. His gaze raked the hall as if in search of listeners. “Not unless you’ve come here to stay.”

Now that was more like it: a specific warning.

“So much so,” Wulf persisted, “that a few hours ago he was summoned by Cardinal Zdenek and promoted to lord of one of the northern marches. The Pomeranians are about to invade, but there is a very slim chance that-”

“Please!” Marek squeaked. “Do not lay this burden on me!”

“I was told to lay it on you, Brother.”

“Told by whom?”

“St. Helena and St. Victorinus.”

The monk crossed himself. All the color had left his face. “Oh, please, please! You don’t know what you are doing!” He stared down at the table, avoiding Wulf’s gaze.

Wulf cut off Anton, who was about to interrupt. “Exactly. I don’t know what I’m doing, but you do, and I want you to instruct me. It was not Anton who bespoke the miracle, it was I. Whose Voices did you hear, Brother?”

“Satan’s!”

With a shiver, Wulf said, “How do you know? The Evil One introduced himself? Did you smell sulfur?”

“Of course not. The Voices told me they were St. Uriel and St. Methodius, but now I know they were demons sent from the pit to deceive me. Do not listen to your Voices, Wulfgang, oh, please do not! They are no saints. They will trap you. They will corrupt your immortal soul and drag you down.”

That was what the Church taught. What else could a monk say?

“How can it be evil to do good? I saved Anton from breaking his neck.”

“ You saved him?” Marek was becoming agitated. “No, Satan saved him, at your request. And I mean no insult to you, Brother Anton, but we mortals cannot judge what is evil and what is for the best. Only the Lord can do that. Do you remember the boy Hans? He cut a blood vessel and was bleeding to death. But I laid a hand on the wound and called out a prayer to my saints-as I thought then-and the bleeding stopped! He lived. A blessed miracle, we all cried. We were wrong!

“Still, my folly was not entirely evil. That was how the Church learned of my peril, and came and brought me here and led me to repentance and salvation.”

This was what he had been taught, anyway-for five endless years. Wulf wondered how Anton was taking it. Oh, where was that clever, cheerful, mischievous Marek they had once known? This sneaky, sanctimonious monk, who wanted to lead them to some place where his abbot could eavesdrop on their talk-this brother they had found was not the brother they had lost.

“I saved a dying boy! I felt so proud! Sinful pride. And his family were so grateful.” Marek paused, glancing from Anton to Wulf and back again. “Whatever happened to Hans?”

Anton said, “I forget which Hans it was, there are so many churls called Hans around Dobkov.”

“Hans the blacksmith’s son,” Wulf said glumly. “He raped a girl last spring. Ottokar hanged him for it. There is going to be a child.”

Again the monk made the sign of the cross. “Did I not just warn you? Anything the Voices do for you will turn to evil eventually, however good it may seem at first. That rape now weighs against my soul. How I mourn for that poor girl and her unwanted child! I will ask for my penance to be increased.”

“If you fast any more you’ll disappear altogether,” Anton snapped. “Do you have to give your portion to your abbot?”

Marek ignored him. “Wulfgang, Wulfgang! St. Bernard of Clairvaux taught us that hell is full of good intentions.”

“Then what is Heaven full of?”

“Good deeds and faith. You think you are doing good, but you cannot tell how much evil may follow from your appeals to the Evil One. The Voices offer you anything you can possibly want, just as the Enemy led Our Lord up the mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. Are you so strong that you can refuse temptation as he did, even after he had fasted forty days and forty nights?”

“There is a price,” Wulf said angrily, meaning headaches and belly pains. He did not want to hear any more of this.

“The price of witchcraft is eternal damnation.”

“You are speaking in circles. First you say that your miracle was good because it brought you here and saved your soul, then that it was evil because Hans sinned later. If I always do my best to use my talents for good, will those acts be held against me on Judgment Day?”

“I told you: asking for things becomes easier and easier. Soon you will stop trying to justify your requests. When did you first hear the Voices?”

“I don’t remember exactly. As a child.”

Marek nodded. “Your first sin was in hearing them at all. Did you understand what they were saying?”

“Not to begin with.”

“No, but your second sin was in listening to them. When did you begin to understand what they were saying?”

“Not long before the Dominicans took you away,” Wulf muttered.

“You were at the end of childhood, the age when we all start to lose our innocence. And when did you discover that they would grant your wishes? When did you first use a whispered little prayer to cheat at archery? To put a horse over a high jump? To make a girl kiss you?”

“Not that!” In truth, Wulf was scared of girls. Their smiles, their scent, their shape, all made him want to do forbidden things, and he believed the mind should rule the body, not the other way around. Until now he had succeeded so well that Father Czcibor seemed to disbelieve him when he made confession, cross-examining him until Wulf wondered if some of the servant girls had been making up stories about him, except he couldn’t imagine why they would.

“Little things like archery,” he admitted. “Yes, I cheated a bit, once or twice, to see if the Voices would help me. But only rabbits were hurt, not people. And I never let anyone see me.” Wulf waited for Anton to say that he hadn’t known Wulf could work miracles, as he had claimed earlier that morning. He didn’t.

Marek sighed. “The girls will follow. ‘It is love,’ you will tell yourself, and you will ask your Voices to bring her to you, or even to make her willing. When did you first ask for a real miracle, something that couldn’t have happened just by chance? Like when I healed the boy’s leg?”

“Two days ago at the hunt.”

“Ah. Tell me about the hunt.”

“Anton spurred down a very steep hill into a diabolical double jump. The riders who tried to follow him were all undone.”

“‘Almost miraculous,’ I think you said. So it was still deniable, if only just?”

“I suppose so.”

“But today?” The monk smiled slyly. “Anton spoke to Cardinal Zdenek a few hours ago. That’s what you said, didn’t you? How did you get here so quickly? We are a long day’s ride from Mauvnik here.”

“I Spoke. I asked.”

“So you rode through limbo from Mauvnik to Koupel? Two witnesses are all the Church needs now, Brother. One to testify at what hour you left the city and another to say when you arrived at the abbey door. Two witnesses and you will be condemned, both of you.”

“And then what?” Anton barked. “Did you take your vows voluntarily? The Church does not compel men to enter the cloister.”