"Your Majesty is well informed," I said politely. "But since that is so, you will know that my husband does not support the restoration of the Stuarts to the throne of Scotland." I prayed that this was what he wanted to hear.
Apparently it was; he smiled, raised my hand to his lips, and kissed it briefly.
"Ah? I had heard…conflicting stories about your husband."
I took a deep breath and resisted the impulse to snatch my hand back.
"Well, it's a matter of business," I said, trying to sound as matter-of-fact as possible. "My husband's cousin, Jared Fraser, is an avowed Jacobite; Jamie—my husband—can't very well go about letting his real views be made public, when he's in partnership with Jared." Seeing the doubt begin to fade from his face, I hurried it along. "Ask Monsieur Duverney," I suggested. "He's well acquainted with my husband's true sympathies."
"I have." Louis paused for a long moment, watching his own fingers, dark and stubby, tracing delicate circles over the back of my hand.
"So very pale," he murmured. "So fine. I believe I could see the blood flow beneath your skin."
He let go of my hand then and sat regarding me. I was extremely good at reading faces, but Louis's was quite impenetrable at the moment. I realized suddenly that he'd been a king since the age of five; the ability to hide his thoughts was as much a part of him as his Bourbon nose or the sleepy black eyes.
This thought brought another in its wake, with a chill that struck me deep in the pit of the stomach. He was the King. The Citizens of Paris would not rise for forty years or more; until that day, his rule within France was absolute. He could free Jamie with a word—or kill him. He could do with me as he liked; there was no recourse. One nod of his head, and the coffers of France could spill the gold that would launch Charles Stuart, loosing him like a deadly bolt of lightning to strike through the heart of Scotland.
He was the King. He would do as he wished. And I watched his dark eyes, clouded with thought, and waited, trembling, to see what the Royal pleasure might be.
"Tell me, ma chère Madame," he said at last, stirring from his introspection. "If I were to grant your request, to free your husband…" he paused, considering.
"Yes?"
"He would have to leave France," Louis said, one thick brow raised in warning. "That would be a condition of his release."
"I understand." My heart was pounding so hard that it nearly drowned out his words. Jamie leaving France was, after all, precisely the point. "But he's exiled from Scotland…"
"I think that might be arranged."
I hesitated, but there seemed little choice but to agree on Jamie's behalf. "All right."
"Good." The King nodded, pleased. Then his eyes returned to me, rested on my face, glided down my neck, my br**sts, my body. "I would ask a small service of you in return, Madame," he said softly.
I met his eyes squarely for one second. Then I bowed my head. "I am at Your Majesty's complete disposal," I said.
"Ah." He rose and threw off the dressing gown, leaving it flung carelessly over the back of his armchair. He smiled and held out a hand to me. "Très bien, ma chère. Come with me, then."
I closed my eyes briefly, willing my knees to work. You've been married twice, for heaven's sake, I thought to myself. Quit making such a bloody fuss about it.
I rose to my feet and took his hand. To my surprise, he didn't turn toward the velvet chaise, but instead led me toward the door at the far side of the room.
I had one moment of ice-cold clarity as he let go my hand to open the door.
Damn you, Jamie Fraser, I thought. Damn you to hell!
I stood quite still on the threshold, blinking. My meditations on the protocol of Royal disrobing faded into sheer astonishment.
The room was quite dark, lit only by numerous tiny oil-lamps, set in groups of five in alcoves in the wall of the chamber. The room itself was round, and so was the huge table that stood in its center, the dark wood gleaming with pinpoint reflections. There were people sitting at the table, no more than hunched dark blurs against the blackness of the room.
There was a murmur at my entrance, quickly stilled at the King's appearance. As my eyes grew more accustomed to the murk, I realized with a sense of shock that the people seated at the table wore hoods; the nearest man turned toward me, and I caught the faint gleam of eyes through holes in the velvet. It looked like a convention of hangmen.
Apparently I was the guest of honor. I wondered for a nervous moment just what might be expected of me. From Raymond's hints, and Marguerite's, I had nightmare visions of occult ceremonies involving infant sacrifice, ceremonial rape, and general-purpose satanic rites. It is, however, quite rare for the supernatural actually to live up to its billing, and I hoped this occasion would be no exception.
"We have heard of your great skill, Madame, and your…reputation." Louis smiled, but there was a tinge of caution in his eyes as he looked at me, as though not quite certain what I might do. "We should be most obliged, my dear Madame, should you be willing to give us the benefits of such skill this evening."
I nodded. Most obliged, eh? Well, that was all to the good; I wanted him obliged to me. What was he expecting me to do, though? A servant placed a huge wax candle on the table and lighted it, shedding a pool of mellow light on the polished wood. The candle was decorated with symbols like those I had seen in Master Raymond's secret chamber.
"Regardez, Madame." The King's hand was under my elbow, directing my attention beyond the table. Now that the candle was lighted, I could see the two figures who stood silently among the flickering shadows. I started at the sight, and the King's hand tightened on my arm.
The Comte St. Germain and Master Raymond stood there, side by side, separated by a distance of six feet or so. Raymond gave no sign of acknowledgment, but stood quietly, staring off to one side with the pupil-less black eyes of a frog in a bottomless well.
The Comte saw me, and his eyes widened in disbelief; then he scowled at me. He was dressed in his finest, all in white, as usual; a white stiffened satin coat over cream-colored silk vest and breeches. A tracery of seed pearls decorated his cuffs and lapels, gleaming in the candlelight. Sartorial splendor aside, the Comte looked rather the worse for wear, I thought—his face was drawn with strain, and the lace of his stock was wilted, his collar darkened with sweat.
Raymond, conversely, looked calm as a turbot on ice, standing stolidly with both hands folded into the sleeves of his usual scruffy velvet robe, broad, flat face placid and inscrutable.
"These two men stand accused, Madame," said Louis, with a gesture at Raymond and the Comte. "Of sorcery, of witchcraft, of the perversion of the legitimate search for knowledge into an exploration of arcane arts." His voice was cold and grim. "Such practices flourished during the reign of my grandfather; but we shall not suffer such wickedness in our realm."
The King flicked his fingers at one of the hooded figures, who sat with pen and ink before a sheaf of papers. "Read the indictments, if you please," he said.
The hooded man rose obediently to his feet and began to read from one of the papers: charges of bestiality and foul sacrifice, of the spilling of the blood of innocents, the profanation of the most holy rite of the Mass by desecration of the Host, the performance of amatory rites upon the altar of God—I had a quick flash of just what the healing Raymond had performed on me at L'Hôpital des Anges must have looked like, and felt profoundly grateful that no one had discovered him.
I heard the name "du Carrefours" mentioned, and swallowed a sudden rising of bile. What had Pastor Laurent said? The sorcerer du Carrefours had been burned in Paris, only twenty years before, on just such charges as those I was hearing: "—the summoning of demons and powers of darkness, the procurement of illness and death for payment"—I put a hand to my stomach, in vivid memory of bitter cascara—"the ill-wishing of members of the Court, the defilement of virgins—" I shot a quick look at the Comte, but his face was stony, lips pressed tight as he listened.
Raymond stood quite still, silver hair brushing his shoulders, as though listening to something as inconsequential as the song of a thrush in the bushes. I had seen the Cabbalistic symbols on his cabinet, but I could hardly reconcile the man I knew—the compassionate poisoner, the practical apothecary—with the list of vileness being read.
At last the indictments ceased. The hooded man glanced at the King, and at a signal, sank back into his chair.
"Extensive inquiry has been made," the King said, turning to me. "Evidence has been presented, and the testimony of many witnesses taken. It seems clear"—he turned a cold gaze on the two accused magic—"that both men have undertaken investigations into the writings of ancient philosophers, and have employed the art of divinations, using calculation of the movements of heavenly bodies. Still…" He shrugged. "This is not of itself a crime. I am given to understand"—he glanced at a heavyset man in a hood, whom I suspected of being the Bishop of Paris—"that this is not necessarily at variance with the teachings of the Church; even the blessed St. Augustine was known to have made inquiries into the mysteries of astrology."
I rather dimly recalled that St. Augustine had indeed looked into astrology, and had rather scornfully dismissed it as a load of rubbish. Still, I doubted that Louis had read Augustine's Confessions, and this line of argument was undoubtedly a good one for an accused sorcerer; star-gazing seemed fairly harmless, by comparison with infant sacrifice and nameless orgies.
I was beginning to wonder, with considerable apprehension, just what I was doing in this assemblage. Had someone seen Master Raymond with me in the Hôpital after all?
"We have no quarrel with the proper use of knowledge, nor the search for wisdom," the King went on in measured tones. "There is much that can be learned from the writings of the ancient philosophers, if they are approached with proper caution and humility of spirit. But it is true that while much good may be found in such writings, so, too, may evil be discovered, and the pure search for wisdom be perverted into the desire for power and wealth—the things of this world."
He glanced back and forth between the two accused sorcerers once more, obviously drawing conclusions as to who might be more inclined to that sort of perversion. The Comte was still sweating, damp patches showing dark on the white silk of his coat.
"No, Your Majesty!" he said, shaking back his dark hair and fixing burning eyes on Master Raymond. "It is true that there are dark forces at work in the land—the vileness of which you speak walks among us! But such wickedness does not dwell in the breast of your most loyal subject"—he smote himself on the breast, lest we have missed the point—"no, Your Majesty! For the perversion of knowledge and the use of forbidden arts, you must look beyond your own Court." He didn't accuse Master Raymond directly, but the direction of his pointed gaze was obvious.
The King was unmoved by this outburst. "Such abominations flourished during the reign of my grandfather," he said softly. "We have rooted them out wherever they have been found; destroyed the threat of such evil where it shall exist in our realm. Sorcerers, witches, those who pervert the teachings of the Church…Monsieurs, we shall not suffer such wickedness to arise again."
"So." He slapped both palms lightly against the table and straightened himself. Still staring at the Raymond and the Comte, he held out a hand in my direction.
"We have brought here a witness," he declared. "An infallible judge of truth, of purity of heart."
I made a small, gurgling noise, which made the King turn to look at me.
"A White Lady," he said softly. "La Dame Blanche cannot lie; she sees the heart and the soul of a man, and may turn that truth to good…or to destruction."
The air of unreality that had hung over the evening vanished in a pop. The faint wine-buzz was gone, and I was suddenly stone-cold sober. I opened my mouth, and then shut it, realizing that there was precisely nothing I could say.
Horror snaked down my backbone and coiled in my belly as the King made his dispositions. Two pentagrams were to be drawn on the floor, within which the two sorcerers would stand. Each would then bear witness to his own activities and motives. And the White Lady would judge the truth of what was said.
"Jesus H. Christ," I said, under my breath.
"Monsieur le Comte?" The King gestured to the first pentagram, chalked on the carpet. Only a king would treat a genuine Aubusson with that kind of cavalier disregard.
The Comte brushed close to me as he went to take his place. As he passed me, I caught the faintest whisper: "Be warned, Madame. I do not work alone." He took up his spot and turned to face me with an ironic bow, outwardly composed.
The implication was reasonably clear; I condemned him, and his minions would be round promptly to cut off my n**ples and burn Jared's warehouse. I licked dry lips, cursing Louis. Why couldn't he just have wanted my body?
Raymond stepped casually into his own chalk-limned space, and nodded cordially in my direction. No hint of guidance in those round black eyes.
I hadn't the faintest idea what to do next. The King motioned to me to stand opposite him, between the two pentagrams. The hooded men rose to stand behind the King; a blank-faced crowd of menace.
Everything was extremely quiet. Candle smoke hung in a pall near the gilded ceiling, wisps drifting the languid air currents. All eyes were trained on me. Finally, out of desperation, I turned to the Comte and nodded.
"You may begin, Monsieur le Comte," I said.
He smiled—at least I assumed it was meant to be a smile—and began, starting out with an explication of the foundation of the Cabbala and moving right along to an exegesis on the twenty-three letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the profound symbolism of it all. It sounded thoroughly scholarly, completely innocuous, and terribly dull. The King yawned, not bothering to cover his mouth.
Meanwhile, I was turning over alternatives in my mind. This man had threatened and attacked me, and tried to have Jamie assassinated—whether for personal or political reasons, it made little difference. He had in all likelihood been the ringleader of the gang of rapists who had waylaid me and Mary. Beyond all this, and beyond the rumors I had heard of his other activities, he was a major threat to the success of our attempt at stopping Charles Stuart. Was I going to let him get away? Let him go on to exert his influence with the King on the Stuarts' behalf, and to go on roaming the darkened streets of Paris with his band of masked bullies?
I could see my n**ples, erect with fright, standing out boldly against the silk of my dress. But I drew myself up and glared at him anyway.
"Just one minute," I said. "All that you say so far is true, Monsieur le Comte, but I see a shadow behind your words."
The Comte's mouth fell open. Louis, suddenly interested, ceased slouching against the table and stood upright. I closed my eyes and laid my fingers against my lids, as though looking inward.
"I see a name in your mind, Monsieur le Comte," I said. I sounded breathless and half-choked with fright, but there was no help for it. I dropped my hands and looked straight at him. "Les Disciples du Mal," I said. "What have you to do with Les Disciples, Monsieur le Comte?"
He really wasn't good at hiding his emotions. His eyes bulged and his face went white, and I felt a small fierce surge of satisfaction under my fear.
The name of Les Disciples du Mal was familiar to the King as well; the sleepy dark eyes narrowed suddenly to slits.
The Comte may have been a crook and a charlatan, but he wasn't a coward. Summoning his resources, he glared at me and flung back his head.
"This woman lies," he said, sounding as definite as he had when informing the audience that the letter aleph was symbolic of the font of Christ's blood. "She is no true White Lady, but the servant of Satan! In league with her master, the notorious sorcerer, du Carrefours's apprentice!" He pointed dramatically at Raymond, who looked mildly surprised.
One of the hooded men crossed himself, and I heard the soft whisper of a brief prayer among the shadows.
"I can prove what I say," the Comte declared, not letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. He reached into the breast of his coat. I remembered the dagger he had produced from his sleeve on the night of the dinner party, and tensed myself to duck. It wasn't a knife that he brought out, though.
"The Holy Bible says, ‘They shall handle serpents unharmed,' " he thundered. " ‘And by such signs shall ye know the servants of the true God!' "
I thought it was probably a small python. It was nearly three feet long, a smooth, gleaming length of gold and brown, slick and sinuous as oiled rope, with a pair of disconcerting golden eyes.
There was a concerted gasp at its appearance, and two of the hooded judges took a quick step back. Louis himself was more than slightly taken aback, and looked hastily about for his bodyguard, who stood goggle-eyed by the door of the chamber.
The snake flicked its tongue once or twice, tasting the air. Apparently deciding that the mix of candle wax and incense wasn't edible, it turned and made an attempt to burrow back into the warm pocket from which it had been so rudely removed. The Comte caught it expertly behind the head, and shoved it toward me.
"You see?" he said triumphantly. "The woman shrinks away in fear! She is a witch!"
Actually, compared to one judge, who was huddling against the far wall, I was a monument of fortitude, but I must admit that I had taken an involuntary step backward when the snake appeared. Now I stepped forward again, intending to take it away from him. The bloody thing wasn't poisonous, after all. Maybe we'd see how harmless it was if I wrapped it round his neck.
Before I could reach him, though, Master Raymond spoke behind me. What with all the commotion, I'd rather forgotten him.
"That is not all the Bible says, Monsieur le Comte," Raymond observed. He didn't raise his voice, and the wide amphibian face was bland as pudding. Still, the buzz of voices stopped, and the King turned to listen.
"Yes, Monsieur?" he said.
Raymond nodded in polite acknowledgment of having the floor, and reached into his robe with both hands. From one pocket he produced a flask, from the other a small cup.
" ‘They shall handle serpents unharmed,' " he quoted, " ‘and if they drink any deadly poison, they shall not die.' " He held the cup out on the palm of his hand, its silver lining gleaming in the candlelight. The flask was poised above it, ready to pour.
