Ink and Steel

Intra-act: Chorus

These things, with many other shall by good & honest witness be approved to be his opinions and Common Speeches, and that this Marlow doth not only holdthem himself, but almost into every Company he Cometh he persuades men to Atheism willing them not to be afeared of bugbears and hobgoblins, and utterly scorning both god and his ministers as I Richard Baines will Justify & approve both by mine oath and the testimony of many honest men, and almost all men with whom he hath Conversed any time will testify the same, and as I think all men in Christianity ought to endeavor that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped.

RICHARD BAINES, A note Containing the opinion of one Christopher Marly Concerning his Damnable Judgment of Religion, and scorn of gods word, recorded May of 1593

Baines lunged, shouldering Marley’s slender blade aside. A half second toolate; the edge of Marley’s doublet brushed his fingers, and Kit and the crippled playmaker hit the glass with no sound of splintering. They vanished as if they’d tumbled into peat-blackened water. Baines caught himself hard against the windowsill before he could follow, headfirst through shattered glass and the shutters knocked wide, into the garden below. Something in his elbow popped, and he grunted as he pushed back. Fray Xalbador’s blood slipped and stuck under the soles of his boots. “Damme.” Quiet and wry, an edge of admiration in it Baines would not have permitted Marley to hear.

“Christofer Marley,” Poley said, not releasing his dagger. “Jesus fucked Mary and Joseph. Nick wasn’t drunk after all.”

Baines pressed his palm against cool glass, tentatively. The sensation was mundane, diamond-shaped panes and strips of lead between. He strode acros sblood and stopped not far from Poley. “You sound like our pussycat, Robert. Such blasphemy.”

Poley looked up at him, blowing the hair out of his eyes. “I buried that man, Dick.”

“Aye, and he’s come back from the grave?” Baines rolled his shirt-sleeves up. “Put the damned dagger away, as it did you so much benefit last time. Are you sure you killed the right poet?”

Poley turned his head and spat. “I checked his brands before we buried him.”

“But that was no ghost managed the friar so neatly. And you saw the eyepatch: Ingrim struck him fairly and laid him down.”

The slender blond agent nudged de Parma’s flaccid corpse with his toe. “We’ll have to dispose of this.”

“We’ll wall him in the cellar,” Baines answered, already calculating the losses and advantages of the Inquisitor’s bloody death. “Damme, we’re short a sorcerer.”

“Aye. And moreover, it seems our Kit’s exhumed himself with a touch of the glamourie.” Poley raised a hand and rapped lightly on the window glass, tilting his head as if to assess the rattle of the sash against the frame. “The old bitch must have had him off overseas, or he’s been laying low. Still. As long as he’s living…”

Baines lifted his chin in comprehension. “We won’t have to enchant another, when the time comes. How did he survive a stabbing and a burial, then?”

Poley wiped his blade, unnecessarily, on his breeches and slipped the dagger into its sheath. “Sorcery? If he were a sorcerer, I would know it. A poet, yes, and a good one, but the real use of him was…”

Baines saw Poley’s eyes widen as he, Baines, hesitated. If the light were better, he imagined he would have seen Poley blanch. “You think Mehiel had something to do with it.”

“I think,” Baines answered, considering, “we may find Master Marley difficult to keep dead, if that is indeed what happened to him. An unexpected incidental result.” He shrugged. “But I mastered him once. Can do it again.”

“He slipped your lead once,” Poley reminded.

“Only because de Vere gave him too much rope.”

“Come, Dick. Help me wrap the friar so he doesn’t drip down the hall.” Baines crouched, dragging a woolen blanket from the bed. He lifted de Parma sbody by the sticky dark auburn hair, and heaved in unison with Poley. The little man was strong for his size.

“If our pussycat’s returned to my safekeeping, I can promise you that won’t happen again.”