Witchfall by Victoria Lamb Read Free Book Online Page A

embodiment of her spirit as you will get now, this long after her death.’
    Dee poured some ale from a flagon into his wooden bowl and sipped at it, then offered the bowl to me. I shook my head, still a little angry with the astrologer, and he smiled. ‘If you wish, I can teach you to work the spell yourself. It is apowerful magick for a woman, but I can see you are not without talent. You never know when it may come in useful to call a spirit to your side.’
    ‘I came here to serve my mistress, not to learn how to summon the dead.’
    ‘Wait,’ he insisted as I turned to the door. Dee set the bowl of ale on the table and beckoned me forward. ‘Look into the bowl and tell me what you see.’
    Did he intend me to scry for him? Curiosity brought me to the table’s edge, but I did not wish John Dee to know the extent of my skill. I pretended not to understand.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘If you are a woman of power like your aunt, not a country witch, then a simple act of divination should come easy to you.’
    The astrologer was taunting me, and I knew it. A child’s trick, goading me to play his dangerous game.
    Still listening for the guard’s return, I lowered my gaze to the bowl. I waited a while, trying to empty my mind of thought. Still nothing stirred in the cloudy liquid but the flicker of candlelight.
    My reflection looked back at me helplessly: a pale, wide-eyed girl, her face tense and unsmiling under a plain white cap. The silence dragged on. My eyes began to sting and my belly hurt in anticipation of his contempt. From somewhere in the depths of that vile prison I caught what sounded like a scream, muffled by thick walls. Some unfortunate captivebeing tortured in pursuit of a confession, guilty or not.
    At my side, Master Dee stirred at last, perhaps growing uneasy as he contemplated his fate, and I drew breath to admit my failure.
    ‘I cannot read the future, I do not have the skill.’ Suddenly I frowned, my attention snagged by some movement in the cloudy liquid. ‘Wait, what was that? I thought I saw something.’
    ‘Yes?’
    My gaze fixed on the bowl as the dark vision inside it swirled and shifted. With a chill sensation, I recognized what I was looking at. ‘I see a girl. A girl kneeling in a high lonely place. I cannot see her face, her head is bent. It is sunset and there are dark clouds on the horizon. At her back, I see—’
    I gave a horrified cry and broke off.
    ‘Speak on,’ he urged me, close at my ear. ‘Do not be afraid of what has been shown to you. These visions have no power to hurt you and may bring much secret information.’
    I shook my head and was relieved to hear the heavy tread of boots and jangle of keys outside in the corridor. It was the guard at last, returning to release me from this hellish place.
    ‘My time here is done,’ I muttered, averting my eyes from the bowl and hurrying to the cell door. I dragged on my gloves with shaking hands, banishing the vision from my mind. ‘I wish you good fortune when they come to question you tomorrow. And I pray you most fervently, Master Dee, to remember my mistress and the terrible hurt that might bedone to her by uttering the wrong word – even under torture.’
    This time John Dee did not attempt to stop me, and I was soon outside again in the night, gulping at the river air, desperate to rid my lungs of the foul stench of his prison cell.
    Alejandro was waiting for me near the river gate as he had sworn. He looked more Spanish than ever in the moonlight, his eyes keen and fierce as a hawk’s beneath his feathered cap, his cloak hiding a jewelled sword and the richness of his court suit. I remembered standing by another river bank in the daylight, listening to his proposal of marriage and promising to give him my answer in a year and a day’s time.
    His sharp gaze searched my face. ‘What is it? You look pale. Did the meeting go badly?’ He frowned when I did not reply. ‘Does the astrologer plan to betray the Lady