Free The Silver Skull by Mark Chadbourn Page B

his eyes. "He does not trust me, Will. And in our world what is not trusted often meets a bloody end."

    "It will pass, Kit."

    Angrily, Marlowe put the toe of his boot under the stool and flicked it across the room where it crashed against the wall. The man who had stirred looked up with bloodshot eyes.

    "Out!" Marlowe yelled at him. "Fetch me the ordinary! I am hungry." When the man had lurched away to find the vintner for the Bull's daily stew, Marlowe rounded on Will. "As children we walked in summer fields and dreamed of the wonders that lay ahead. Yet we sold those dreams, and our lives, to defend England against something that can never be defeated, which waits, quiet and patient and still, until we let our guard slip, as it always will, and then we are torn apart in a gale of knives and teeth, unmourned even by our own. Mistrusted by our own!
    Look at what this business has made us, Will! See what we have become! We cannot trust those closest to us. We fear death from Enemy and friend alike. We are alone, waiting for that moment when it all ends. Where is the comfort in this world?"

    "There is little for the likes of us, Kit. We live our blighted lives so others can sleep soundly in their beds. You know that." Will watched the hopelessness play out across his friend's face and it troubled him. He had seen it many times before on others and in every case it ended the same way, an insidious despair that found its roots in the very nature of their Enemy, spreading like bindweed until every part of a person was choked by it. He had seen men kill themselves, others throw themselves into danger with no care for their lives, and revelling when they met their end. More simply setting in motion their own demise through their quiet actions.
    "If this matter was not so grave I would not have troubled you, Kit. Time away from this business ... a lost week or more in one of your dens of iniquity will help you regain your equilibrium."

    "Yes, of course, Will," Marlowe lied. "I am tired, that is all. Forgive me."

    Though he feared the repercussions, Will pressed his friend for information. Marlowe was right: their business allowed little softness or compassion. The war was everything, and everyone was a victim.

    Marlowe ran a hand through his hair as he steadied himself. "A gang of rogues near the Tower over night? No. There are no gulls there for them to prey upon. They would be near the stews or ordinaries, the baiting rings and taverns and theatres."

    "They came upon the Enemy as they slipped away."

    Marlowe shook his head; it still did not make sense to him. "The villains of London are an army, with generals and troops who march to order and follow detailed plans and strategy.
    They do not wait for their next meal, for they would starve."

    "You say they knew the Enemy would be passing by?"

    "Perhaps. As we have spies everywhere, so do they. A guard at the Tower, sending word as the Enemy took their moment. A Silver Skull would be a valuable prize, even if they did not know its true worth. I pity the poor sod who wore it for they will have cut it free by now."
    Marlowe made a slitting motion across his throat. "Who was he?"

    Will shook his head. "This was not a random occurrence, then."

    Marlowe shook his head slowly too.

    "Then who is the general? Who could place an agent in the Tower?"

    "The gangs of London are countries within a country. They have their own spies, yes, and their own forces to keep them secure. They even have their own land where a criminal can find refuge, and no one-not even the queen's own men-can touch them. In Damnation Alley and the Bermudas and Devil's Gap. By the brick kilns in Islington, and Newington Butts and Alsatia.
    Cutpurses and cutthroats, pickpockets and tricksters, the coney-catchers and head-breakers. Who would dare such an act? Why, all of them, Will."

    Glancing through the window to where Nathaniel waited by the carriage, Will saw the inn yard now bright as the sun moved high