Ink and Steel

Act III, scene i

Orlando:

Then in mine own person I die.

Rosalind:

No, faith, die by attorney. The poor world is

almost six thousand years old, and in all this time

there was not any man died in his own person,

videlicit, in a love-cause. Troilus had his brains

dashed out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he

could to die before, and he is one of the patterns

of love. Leander, he would have lived many a fair

year, though Hero had turned nun, if it had not been

for a hot midsummer night; for, good youth, he went

but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and being

taken with the cramp was drowned and the foolish

coroners of that age found it was ‘Hero of Sestos.’

But these are all lies: men have died from time to

time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, As You like It

Kit grunted as Will fell atop him. The hard landing broke Will’s startled shout, for all Kit cushioned them both as best he could without losing his grip either on Will or his rapier. Threads on Kit’s doublet snapped, pearls splashing, powdering between bodies and stones.

Will rolled, scrambling to his feet with the dagger at the ready, bad leg dragging. He turned, trying to cover Kit and still stay out of his way, and then hesitated, amazed. “Kit.”

Kit pushed himself to a crouch, wheezing. “Damme, but that was closer than I like them.”

“Where are we?”

“William, my love.” Will dismissed it with a half-formed judgment on Kit’s habitual extravagance.

“Faerie.” Kit dragged himself up the wall as if his ribs pained him.

Will winced.

“Drink nothing while thou here lingerest. Neither shalt thou dine, lest like Proserpine thou dost find thyself obligated to the underworld.”

“Faerie.” Will shook himself, a chill only half excitement crawling the length of his spine. “Why this course? With the Inquisitor dead, I don’t see why you left Baines and Poley.”

Kit straightened, consternation a furrow across his forehead. “I should have had Poley,” he admitted. “I couldn’t see Baines well enough to know if he was armed, and I didn’t dare risk keeping my back to him if he was. It was a mistake.”

“Why did we come here instead of going after Baines, then? And why was he talking to you like that?” The bitter taste of something half understood, which he understood no better when Kit glanced at the floor and turned away.

“Come along, Will. We’ll get you cleaned up a little, and I’ll see if you can be presented to the Queen. Or I suppose I could send you back through the Glass now, safe and sound in your lodging.”

“I’m in Faerie, and all you can think of is sending me home?” Will struggled to keep up; still shedding pearls like snowflakes from his shoulders, Kit caught Will’s blood-covered sleeve and helped. “Before I’ve seen the place?”

“You could lose your life in a night. Or be trapped here.”

“I’ll risk it. Just this once. For an hour. Why did you pass your chance at Baines?”

“Because I wasn’t sure I could kill him.”

“He wasn’t armed.”

“Christ wept!” Kit turned on Will with enough force that Will staggered a step. “I wasn’t sure I could kill him, Will. Why are you after me? I came to help, didn’t I?”

Perversity flared in Will. “Came to help. Aye. And where were you all the long last year, and the one before that, and the one before that? How did you know about Baines?”

“I read thy letter. You read my … oh. How did you… And this is the night he chooses to take it? Did you read any of the papers with it? Ben’s play?”

Kit shook his head. “I read the letter only, and panicked. And a good thing: you would not have wished to make an intimate acquaintance of Master Richard Baines.”

“I’m glad you have the poems.” Will hoped his voice hid his desperation. They moved through narrow corridors; with a little amusement, he realized, despite rich hangings and the smooth golden stone underfoot, that Kit shepherded him through the castle on the servants trails. Just as well. Will’s blood-soaked shoes left brush marks on the flags. The walls were almost translucent, glowing mellow amber. Will laid a hand on one, surprised to find it cool. “Do you suppose I could reclaim those? Ben has my other copy, and I don’t expect him back from Stratford for a month.”

“It may be a month gone by when you return home,” Kit said, and Will couldn’t miss the relief in his voice at Baines as a dropped subject. “But, aye, of course. May I keep the plays?”

“In addition to Ben’s,” Will answered. He ducked so Kit wouldn’t see his blush. “There’s two comedies of mine.”

“Oh?”

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Which Satan said he rather liked. Rather in advance. And As You like It,” Will said. “If thou couldst see the boys we have now, thou wouldst strangle me in my sleep for a chance to write for them.”

Kit changed the subject again, leaving Will to wonder at his discomfort. “Here’s my door. There’s half a chance hot water awaits thee, if I know the castle’s staff. I’m off to fetch Morgan. I won’t be above half an hour.”

“With blood all over thy breast?” Will asked gently.

Kit brushed at it with the backs of his fingers, scattering another pearl. “She’s seen worse,” he said. “Your poems are on the bed. Drink nothing, not even the water.” He shut the door before Will could thank him, or make sense of the ragged darkness in Kit’s expression.

Kit’s chamber was big enough for a Prince, the floor covered in a stunning extravagance of Araby carpets, the curtained bed broad enough for five.

I wonder who he shares it with,Will thought, and put the thought away. Tapestries and painted cloths muffled the walls; their subject was pastoral, and Will did not think Kit had chosen them. The aftermath of combat made him dizzy. He washed, then sorted his poems from the other papers and rolled them tight, finding a bit of ribbon in his purse to tie them with. Will breathed easier once those too-revealing sonnets were tucked inside his doublet; less easily when the door opened and Kit led a woman of middle years and black Roman beauty in.

A woman clad in a man’s white cambric shirt, riding boots, and green breeches that were almost trunk hose, cut tight and close to her hips and thighs.

“My lady,” Will said, making a somewhat unsteady leg, noticing Kit’s discomfiture as an adjunct to his own.

“It’s a bit of a pleasure to see Marley flustered.” She snorted like a mare and scanned him lengthwise, shaking her head hard enough that the peridot clusters in her ears tangled in the escaping tendrils of her hair. “The legendary William Shakespeare,” she said, and turned to Kit. “A little unprepossessing, isn’t he?” Her smile softened the comment into a flirtation; Will didn’t understand why Kit blanched and leaned heavily on the edge of the clothespress.

“My lady,” Will said, feigning hurt, “I am accounted the most charming of playmakers.”

“Given thy competition,” I do not wonder, she said. Her hips moved marvelously under the tight dark brocade as she crossed the carpet. Will kept his eyes on her face, the green-black eyes she never lowered.

“Wert injured?”

“No,” he said. She reached up and tilted his face side to side, clucking her tongue. Despite himself, her fingers stroking his beard, the scent of her skin like mint and citrus, he couldn’t help but smile. “What is t? You sound exactly like my wife.”

“I hope that’s a better compliment than if I said you sounded like my husband.”

“Tis the greatest compliment I can offer,” Will said as she stepped away. “Do I pass inspection, madam?”

“You seem unhurt. We’ll talk of the other things later.” Before he could do more than startle, she moved toward the door. “You washed your hair, at least. I’ll see you clothed; we’ll present you to the Mebd tonight, after supper.”

Kit cleared his throat. Morgan turned to him and smiled, and Will’s breath swelled his throat for a moment as he tried to decide if the smile was a lover’s, or that of an indulgent guardian.

“My boon, my Queen,” he murmured. Her chin lifted, and the smile grew amused. Of course. A little show of feeling in her pockets, until Kit touched his collar.

Will realized that the other poet had changed clothes, or his shirt and doublet at least, and washed the rusty red spatters from his hands. He keeps clothes in her rooms. That answers one question. Or does it?

Morgan laughed and unpinned something winking gold from the cambric of her shirt, coming back to Will. “Have you a place for an earring, Master Shakespeare?” He lifted his hair, showing the bit of silk that kept the hole from closing. Kit nodded when Will caught his eye, and so Will ducked his head and let her untie the cord and slip it from his ear. A little gasp as she tugged the hole open and slipped something into it: a substantial ring, warm from the heat of her bosom. “There,” she said. “A favor from a lady. A favor that will permit thee, Master Shakespeare, to come and go from this land to that land as thou wilt, without years cut from thy life whilst thou in Faerie dwelleth.” Kit came forward beside her, rubbing at his eyepatch as an exhausted man might rub his eye. As Morgan stepped back, Will touched the earring, feeling heavy gold swing. “A rich gift, Your Highness.”

“We have a special love of poets here,” she said. “Don’t we, Sir Christofer?” She turned to kiss Kit on the cheek. Will saw his friend pale, but Kit did not step away, and in fact smiled as if at a favor. The door shut behind her, concealing the sway of her hips, and Will touched the earring again. “Do you trust this?”

“Her word is good. When you can get her to give it.”

“An impressive woman.”

“If thou knowst what’s wise,” Kit said, “that will be the last time thou thinkst so. Come, lay thee in my bed and rest. I’m too long slept, myself: I’ll sit and read thy Jonson’s plays while thou dost slumber, and wake thee when thy clothes arrive.”

Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, Hero and leander

Once Will fell into exhausted slumber, Kit dragged the fireplace armchair to the window for better light, muttering amiable profanity as ornately worked legs snagged on the carpets. Taking up the remaining papers, he settled down to study. Jonson’s play he set aside, for perusal when his concentration improved, while he spread the sheets of Will’s comedy across his knees and held them up, unfolded one by one, to read.

Five or ten leaves in, he stifled laughter against his sleeve and read faster. At the end of the third act, he turned the already-read pages over and laid them on the floor, sitting back in the chair to regard their slumbering author. He gazed for long minutes, blinking thoughtfully, and at last picked up the remaining sheets to read: more slowly now, and with attention.

“Ganymede, eh?” But it was no more than a murmur, the shape of a name on his lips. He read the play twice over before he set it aside, and then he stood and paced the width of the room once or twice, stealing glances at Will now and again, shaking his head each time. Will showed no signs of stirring, sleeping the sleep of utter weariness, and Kit at last stopped pacing and returned to the window and Jonson’s play. The wit was sharp, the rhyme fitting, if the tone a little dismissive of both players and audience but Kit could not concentrate long enough to read a page complete. He laid them aside and picked up Will’s play again, thumbing through it to read a line here and there. Again shook his head, and again laid the papers aside. At last, in frustration, he stood and fetched a bundle, thread, and a needle-book from the clothespress: a task to busy his hands enough, he hoped, to silence the breathless longing that had sprung painfully to life in his breast.

Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, As You like It

Will found himself turning and turning again, trying not to stare at on eimprobable being after another as Kit led him through the soaring hall. It took concentration not to crowd Kit for the transitory feeling of safety the brush of his shoulder gave. Will stole another look at his friend’s ragged cloak, almost a motley, a panoply of richest fabric stitched with a tight and tidy hand. Court garb in Faerie. Will looked longingly at the wine in his glass, but set it on the edge of the table.

“Go ahead and drink,” Kit said. You’ve a Queen’s surety you may return home without fear. The Fae keep their word. And now, come and meet my lover.”

“Another one? Haven’t you enough problems?”

“Mix with the men of power and rise.” Kit shrugged. “They teach that at Cambridge, too.”

The banter, the sparkle. It was tinsel, Will thought, understanding. There’s a reason no one ever let you on a stage, Marley.But as Kit led him forward, he followed on.