Mark Chadbourn - The Silver Skull

"Do not accuse me!" Mayhew jabbed his finger at each of them in turn. "I needed air and some time to gather my thoughts!"

Carpenter toyed with his knife, his eyes flickering between Will and Launceston, who also had his hand on his hidden dagger.

Will stepped before Mayhew to calm the situation. "We need to know you will not drag us down to hell, Master Mayhew," Will said calmly. "Your absolute support is required in this work. We cannot afford your personal weaknesses to lead us to disaster."

"Or what? What will you do?" Mayhew raged. "Kill me? Do it! Nothing can be worse than this life!"

Without hesitation, Sister Adelita stepped by Will and took Mayhew's hand. He was surprised and unbalanced by her touch, his anger dying in his throat. "You have troubles," she said. "I have spoken to your friend here, and I understand what you do. It is God's work, and that is never easy, but the rewards are shared by all."

Tears sprang to Mayhew's eyes, and he blinked them away quickly before the others saw it as a sign of weakness. "I do not do God's work," he replied quietly. "I am weak, and I am not up to this."

Sister Adelita looked to Will and said, "Let me speak with him in private while you make your arrangements. If you wish me to make recommendations to Father Celino, I will."

Will agreed, but he had already started to formulate a plan. Once Mayhew had been led away, Carpenter said vehemently, "He will be the death of us, I tell you now."

"Then let him stand in line. There are more pressing matters that could lead us to the grave," Will said.

"How long are you going to keep protecting him?" Carpenter snapped.

"Till I am certain he is a danger to us. I am not so quick in taking the life of a fellow as you, Master Carpenter."

"No, but you are quick to abandon them."

"You know I thought you dead."

Bristling, Carpenter made to confront Will until Launceston stepped between them. "Is this how it will be? We do the work of the Enemy and the Spaniards ourselves?"

"Listen to the voice of reason, Master Carpenter," Will said.

"Besides, I can slit Mayhew's throat in an instant if he truly becomes a problem," Launceston continued.

Will sighed. "Enough talk of slitting and cutting and stabbing the people we know. Let us direct our attention to the matter at hand."

Sister Adelita emerged with Mayhew shortly after. Whatever she had said to him, he had calmed considerably and was contrite. Offering his apologies, he promised not to give in to his weaknesses. "It was a momentary lapse," he said.

After Will had ordered de Groot to make arrangements for their urgent departure from Cadiz, Sister Adelita guided them along a circuitous route to the cathedral that avoided all the busy areas and the plaza in front where they guessed the foot soldiers would still be watching. A side door used by the cathedral staff was open. Sister Adelita ushered them inside.

The cathedral was cool after the heat of the day, and at that time was still and quiet. Soon, Will knew, it would be bustling with merchants arranging business and the local people at their devotions or lighting candles for loved ones at sea. The stained-glass windows cast jewels across the flagstones, and the great vaulted roof high overhead caught and magnified every sound with the perfect acoustics of the medieval builders. Will silently cautioned the others to move with extreme quiet.

Like all the Catholic cathedrals Will had seen, the chapels were filled with paintings and relics, gold chalices, crosses, and other iconography that showed the great wealth of the Church.

Mayhew, Carpenter, and Launceston slipped into hiding places along the nave, while Will waited in a small chapel close to the high altar. Nodding to Will, Sister Adelita stood in the nave and called loudly for Father Celino. He emerged with a lazy gait, a tall man with a Roman nose, heavily tanned, and with jet black hair despite being in his fifties.

"Sister Adelita, is there a problem?" he asked with a note of concern. "I did not expect to see you here."

"Yes, Father. It is about my brother," she replied, her head bowed.

"Don Alanzo? Is he well?"

"I am worried about him, Father. I have not heard from him and I would know where he is so I can seek him out."

"Your brother is in Seville, Sister," Celino said with an aloof manner. "As always, he is engaged in important matters. He would not wish to have his affairs intruded upon by one such as you."

"Then you cannot tell me who he sees?"

"Of course not!" Celino snapped.

Will caught Launceston's eye, who waited like a spectre in the shadows behind a stone column, and he passed on the sign. Instantly, Carpenter, Mayhew, and Launceston darted from their hiding places and grabbed Sister Adelita, who screamed as she attempted to fight them off.

"What is this?" Celino raged. "Leave her alone! Help! Help us now!"

Drawing his knife, Will glided silently to Celino's side and whispered, "Silence, Father, or it will not only be her blood that stains the flags."

Celino fell silent. "Who are you?" he asked gravely.

"English cutthroats who think nothing of spilling Spanish blood."

Celino blanched.

"Kill her," Will said.

"No!" Celino cried, but Launceston and Carpenter were already dragging Sister Adelita into one of the chapels. Her screams rang off the walls, until a moment later there was only silence.

"Lock the doors," Will instructed Mayhew, "so we are not disturbed."

Grabbing the priest roughly by his cassock, Will threw him across the altar. His head bounced off the table and his eyes grew wide with fear as he began to intone a prayer.

"Do not waste your breath, Father," Will said. "No higher power will save you, and none on Earth either."

Blood pumped through Will's head as he stared into Celino's face. All his repressed fears about Grace rushed up, and his rage at the suffering heaped on an innocent person, and his frustration that he could not move faster and harder to find her.

"You would dare harm a servant of God in His very house?" Celino uttered.

"There is a woman under my protection whose life is at risk. I would dare anything, Father."

"What about your eternal soul?"

"My soul was lost long ago."

"But God-"

"I care not for God!" Will snapped. "The things I have seen ... the pain that has been heaped on the people I know ... If there was a God, would he allow such things to exist? This religion tears us apart when we should be joining together to fight greater threats."

"The word of the Lord brings comfort-"

"And pain and suffering to many who have suffered the whip of the Catholics, or the persecution of King Henry's church. This world will be consumed by the flames of hell and you will still be arguing over whose Bible is stronger."

Celino saw something in Will's face that made him even more terrified. He began to intone another prayer until Will cuffed him forcefully across the face.

"I have questions, Father, and I am not in the mood to be resisted." Will moved the tip of his knife slowly across Celino's cheek to touch his lower eyelid. The priest's breath caught in his throat. "If the answers I receive are not to my liking, I will cut out this eye," Will continued. "And if you continue to live out your fantasy of being a martyr, I will cut out your other eye. And then I will whittle you down little by little until there is nothing left. We shall see whose will is stronger."

Celino began to whimper and struggle in the panic that consumed him. Slipping the tip of his knife into the priest's nostril, Will ripped up through the flesh. Celino howled as blood spurted across his cassock and onto the altar.

"Pay heed to that pain," Will said. "It is nothing compared to what is to come. Are you ready to answer my questions?"