Dedication
To Jill
Epigraph
The key to hell picks all locks
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Part I: Departure
1 The Stranger
2 Sold for a Prayer
3 Rib Tooth Thumb Shin Dust Skull Tomb
4 Pestilence
5 The Stone Bridge
6 Saint-Peter’s-Step
7 Feast Day
8 A Fork in the Road
Part II: The Relic Thief
9 Tooth, the Second
10 A Bath
11 The Story of the Tear-Soaked Veil
12 Thievery
13 Thumb, the Third
14 A Little Boy with a Cold
15 Trouble
16 Angelus
Part III: Deceit and Calamity and Ruin
17 One Thousand Years of Devising
18 Downstream
19 Newly Hatched Chick
20 Kicked in the Shin
21 At Sea
22 The End of the World
23 Scrabbling
24 Dust, the Fifth
Part IV: Arrival
25 Red Beard and Gray
26 A Roughly Sketched Figure
27 The Heads of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
28 Skull, the Sixth
29 Brigands and Wolves
30 Tomb, the Seventh
31 Boyhood
32 Rib Tooth Thumb Toe Dust Skull Home
Map
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
I
Departure
1 The Stranger
This story, like another, begins with an apple. The apple in my tale was not ripe and tempting but wrinkled and old, too high to pluck and too stubborn to drop. It hung from a whip-thin branch, dancing in the cold March wind. The goats pranced around the tree trunk, bleating their frustration.
“Do not be so greedy, goats,” I called as I climbed. “You are so much like pigs that Cook will carve you into hams!” But I laughed as I scolded to lighten the threat. The branches clawed this way and that, for the orchard had not been pruned in two years, and the shoots were as tangled as bird nests. “Stop scratching me, tree,” I whispered. “I will not hurt you. I promise.” The apple tree was higher than I had supposed, but I am not feared of heights and I am not feared of climbing—you could climb a cloud, Father Petrus used to say, may God rest his soul. You’re a miracle, Boy, he would add, so often that I almost believed him.
Up I climbed, till my head was as high as the orchard. I could see the manor, guarding us from wicked men. “Goats,” I called, “I can see our shed!”
’Twas then I glimpsed the pilgrim. The goats could not see him because the ditches also had run wild these past two years. “He is tall, goats, and wears a brown pilgrim robe and cloak and wide hat, with a staff as tall as he, and he carries a pack on a long pole. Perhaps he journeys to the Holy Land, or to Rome to see the key to heaven.” I marveled at a soul so fortunate as to travel the earth whilst seeking God’s favor, and I waved. But the pilgrim did not wave back.
So I resolved to impress him. I walked along one branch and another without even holding a twig, for pride is the downfall of every soul. Closer I stepped to that apple . . . I leaped and snatched it, and I fell through the chill March air, but I am not feared of falling, and I tumbled on the cold ground with leaves on my hood and a laugh on my lips. Naught in the world is so joyous as the feeling of flight.
The goats pushed in: bah! they snorted. You should jump less and feed us more. The brown nanny snatched the apple from my fist and dashed off, her eyes gleaming with gluttony, for goats know well the vices.
I lay giggling at life and the goats and the bright cold day. ’Twould not be cold forever, and soon enough the apple blossoms would swell as life swelled already in the bellies of the goats. . . .
The pilgrim loomed over me, the brim of his hat blocking the sky.
Oh, he startled me. This was my orchard, a place for me and the goats.
“Who’s your master?” The pilgrim’s face was shadowed, his voice dark.
He did not even greet me. Should I greet him? Was it my place to?
“Do you speak?”
“Y-yes.”
“Where would your master be?”
I scrambled to my feet, brushing dead grass off my hood and goatskin and hose. The pilgrim had a dozen pilgrim badges pinned to his hat: the shell of Saint James, the head of Saint Thomas . . . goodness but this man had traveled far.
I pointed across the weed-choked ditch toward the manor. “There.”
“Hmph.” He turned, staff in hand, and started off. “Well? Take me there.”
“Oh! Yes . . . milord.” I should add milord, to be polite.
“And stand up straight.”
My cheeks flushed. Why did he notice? Why did everyone notice? “I am,” I whispered.
“Hmph. A hunchback. You can walk at least.” He snapped his fingers at the pack he had been carrying, the pack on the end of the pole. “Bring that for me. And careful: ’tis worth more than you are.”
I hurried for the pack, unsure whether to hold it in my arms—was it truly worth more than me?—or to balance the pole on my shoulder as the pilgrim had. The goats gathered around, but I held the pack out of reach. No telling what a goat might do.
I set off after the pilgrim, keeping my head down. Everyone’s a hunchback when they hunch.
He strode toward the manor, not asking the route, but he did not need to, for the goats had marked the path in their way. I followed, the pole tangling in my legs. He moved so fast I had to trot.
“What do they call you?”
I sensed him staring at me, and wished he wouldn’t. “Boy.”
He snorted. “What does your mother call you?”
“Haven’t got a mother.”
“Ah. Pestilence.”
“Never had one.”
“Never?” he asked mockingly.
I shook my head. Father Petrus hadn’t been a mother, though he’d come close. He was the one who named me Boy. Never reveal yourself, Boy. . . . He hit me when he spoke this, to make certain I minded.
“What of your father?”
I shrugged. The manor had more than one child without a pa.
Beneath the wide brim of his hat, his eyes caught the light. “Ah. The face of an angel and body of a fiend—I suppose that defines a boy right enough.”
“Not a boy. Boy. That’s my name.” I did not care for the words he tossed about. I did not care for people calling me anything other than Boy.
We passed the huts, or what was left of them. The pilgrim walked straight, not following the swerve in the trail, for even the goats avoided the huts.
In the first hut—now a blackened scar full of two years’ weeds—had lived a shepherd, God rest his soul, who played a pipe. He had promised to teach me, but pestilence took him away before he could. Perhaps he lived now in paradise, piping.
The second hut once held a widow and her son. They perished, too, the both of them. They went to sleep but never did they awaken, and their hut was now only four charred posts. Please, I prayed. Heavenly saints, see them into paradise.
I crept past the final hut, its thatch rotting and doorway dark. No one had been left to burn it. In that place lived the family that called me a monster, even the smallest who barely could talk, and the mother laughed when her children threw stones.
I tried to pray for them as I passed, but the words would not form in my mind. My fingers reached beneath my hood for the s
car on my scalp. May God forgive my absence of mercy.
“Both hands with that pack, Boy,” the pilgrim ordered, his boots crunching on the frosty grass.
Quick I snatched my hand back. I did not like this pilgrim. I did not like a man who saw what he needn’t and did not fear what he should. This pilgrim man was dangerous.
2 Sold for a Prayer
The pilgrim broke a path through the ditch. I hurried after him, the goats close behind me, for the ditch had been known to shelter wolves.
There stood the manor on its hill, vineyards draped around it like a fine lady’s skirts. “Sir Jacques is there.” I pointed. “Milord.”
“Take me to him.”
“But—” What to say? I swallowed. “Yes, milord.”
The goats held back as we climbed the hill. We were none of us welcome at the manor—I because of my hump, and the goats because they irked the dogs. We had been welcome once, for milady enjoyed the goats’ spunk and my service, but milady was gone now, milady and her three sweet babies, and another woman made the rules.
The dogs ran up when I entered the courtyard; we were great friends, the dogs and I. They kept their distance from the pilgrim, however, for dogs are wise to strangers. I hunched inside the wagging circle, holding the pilgrim’s pack away from their curious noses. Keeping an eye out for stones.
Sir Jacques sat in the sunny spot to which he was carried whenever the day was fresh enough to release him from the stink of his bed. No matter how the servants fussed—no matter how milady had fussed whilst she lived—Sir Jacques refused to wear a cap. Perhaps the cloth chafed, or perhaps what was left of his mind wanted the world to see his suffering. From across the courtyard I could see the dent in his skull—the dent kicked into his head on the day of that fateful joust. He stared at naught, drooling.
“Ah,” said the pilgrim. “Your master.”
I nodded, relieved I would not need to explain.
The dogs sniffed at the pilgrim, their noses twitching. Now I could smell it, drifting through the cold air: a sour scent I did not care for.
A voice screeched toward us: “I will slap you blind if I see you wasting good eggs. . . . Who’s this?” Cook came to the kitchen door, wiping her hands on a gown. Milady’s, that gown had been, though the seams were now let out and sour milk stained the cuffs.
The pilgrim bowed his head but—I noticed—did not remove his hat. “Good morning, madam. I am Secundus, a humble pilgrim.” The word humble twisted in his mouth and came out crooked.
The dogs buried their heads under my elbows: Boy, Boy, we don’t like that man, Boy.
“I’ve no donations for pilgrims,” Cook snapped. “Find your bread at a public house as the law allows.” She knew her law, Cook did.
Secundus smiled a smile that was no smile at all. “I pilgrim to the feast day of Saint-Peter’s-Step.”
Saint-Peter’s-Step? Saint-Peter’s-Step was a great town three days away! The lame journeyed there seeking miracles. Sideways I studied the sour-smelling pilgrim. He did not look lame.
“What of it?” growled Cook.
His eyes gleamed. “I should like this lad to accompany me. This boy who climbs so well.”
The pilgrim wanted me? Me? To travel three days away?
Boy, Boy, that man scares us, he does, the dogs whispered.
He scares me, too, I whispered back.
“Boy?” Cook scoffed. “He’s useless.” She’d called me worse names, she had. She’d said more than once that my monster hump had brought the pestilence upon us.
Secundus gestured to the pack in my arms. “My parcel burdens me. I would he carried it.”
The pack had no weight at all! Naught he said rang true. Pilgrim he might be, but this man had sin stitched into his soul.
Cook’s eyebrows rose. “A servant you’re wanting? Well, I’ll need payment for his absence. Someone must care for the goats.”
“If he is as useless as you claim, he will not be missed.”
Cook frowned. She did not like her own words used against her.
“A child so young, so innocent . . .” The pilgrim sighed. “The merciful Church allows him to pray for another in his stead—and a feast-day prayer carries special virtue. Tell me, dear woman: do you know anyone who might be in need of a blessing? A sinner seeking relief from the fires of eternal damnation?”
Cook’s lips went white. She glared at Secundus, and at me, and she could not help but look over at Sir Jacques so helpless and drooling—her master till she made him her husband.
How did the pilgrim know?
“A prayer and a donation, of course.” Secundus smiled a cold smile.
Cook stomped back into the kitchen.
The pilgrim tapped his fingers against his staff, his nails clicking on the wood, not at all flustered by Cook’s snapping and growling and stomping. I hunched beside him, my mind a whirl. One two three days to Saint-Peter’s-Step, and one two three back. That made one two three four five six days. How would I survive six days with this man?
Boy, Boy, what is happening? the dogs asked. We’re worried, Boy, Boy!
I scratched their ears. You’re not the ones who should worry.
“Two hands on that pack, Boy.”
The pilgrim seemed to see everything. I gripped the pack, shivering.
Cook hustled out with a silver cup engraved with a stag: Sir Jacques’s toasting cup when he yet could speak. She jammed the cup into my hands. “My donation. Don’t let him”—gesturing to the pilgrim—“do naught with it. Not sell it or touch it or use it himself. Pray for Sir Jacques, Boy. Pray for our king, the good king of France. And pray . . .”
I looked at her. Tell me, Cook. Tell me the words I should say so God forgives you. I did not speak these words, but perhaps she saw them on my face. She’d seen them before.
“Pray for me,” she said, not meeting my eyes. She flicked her skirts—milady’s skirts. Milady, who now burned in torment because Cook had not sent for a priest. “Promise you will.”
“I promise,” I vowed. Cook was not someone to be on the wrong side of.
“And,” Secundus added, “a coin for our journey? We must eat.”
“Boy don’t eat.”
“I do. And then I will see him to the altar to pray for your soul.”
Fire danced from Cook’s eyes. . . . With a hiss, she tossed a coin to the pilgrim.
How did he know?
He slipped the coin into his purse. “Come, Boy. We have leagues to travel.”
I looked at Cook: “Please . . .” That is how frightened I was: I would admit it even to her.
But Cook only glared; her sharp eyes looked me up and down, and looked up and down the pilgrim, calculating the value of the badges pinned to his hat, and of his worn leather boots. “I’ll want to hear every detail. Now if you’ll excuse me, pilgrim, I’ve many tasks waiting.” She slammed the door in my face, and in the face of the pilgrim. Still I could hear her through the walls: “Did you attend to the bread? I see you didn’t. . . .”
I must obey Cook. Cook, who saw all and who never stopped tallying. Who judged that a silver cup would buy her entrance to heaven. I must follow this man and do as he told me. ’Twould only be six days. I could manage that many days, perhaps, if I was brave.
Secundus was halfway across the courtyard—goodness, he moved fast. I hurried after him, the dogs loping beside me.
Too late I heard a heavy step. A shadow fell across the cattle shed door.
The dogs melted away.
“Well, look who’s here,” sneered Ox. Only a few years older than me, he was, but man-sized, with a man’s voice.
I ducked, and though I gripped the cup and Secundus’s pack and his pole, my fingers still reached for the scar beneath my eye. The big scar. It had bled for days.
“Monster’s made himself somebody’s pet,” purred Ox, for though Ox was as big as a bear and as dumb as a boulder, he was cruel as a boar, and I was his favorite prey.
The pilgrim stopped,
studying Ox chuckling at his own jest, and motioned for him to approach.
Ox’s chuckle faded, and his small eyes darted about. He had no choice but to shuffle forward.
All this I watched like a mouse trapped with two vipers.
Ox was big, but he was not tall. Not as tall as Secundus. Not as . . . scary.
Quick as a slap Secundus moved, jamming his staff under Ox’s jaw. Ox’s head snapped up, and he stared with shocked wide eyes.
My head came up, too. Never had I seen someone take on Ox.
“You strike me as a sinner.” Secundus spoke quietly. “Do you protect the weak, or the strong?”
Ox licked his lips. “I . . . I dunno.”
Secundus waited. I waited, biting my cheeks in fear. The sun held its place in the sky.
Ox’s eyes darted in my direction. “Mebbe I . . . don’t.”
“Don’t do what?”
“P-protect the weak.”
“Ah.” Secundus smiled a smile of ice. “Then you are most definitely a sinner.” He paused. “Do you know what happens to those who do not protect the weak?”
Ox tried to swallow.
“They go to hell.” The pilgrim’s breath steamed in the cold air. He leaned close, his voice quiet. “Shall I tell you what hell is like?”
With the smallest of gestures Ox shook his head.
Secundus stepped back.
Ox collapsed like a broken puppet.
“Come, Boy. Leagues to walk.”
Ox clutched his throat, his eyes on the pilgrim. He did not call me a monster. He did not throw stones.
I hurried after Secundus. This pilgrim scared me, he did. But at least he did not call me names. He did not throw stones. In fact, he challenged the stone throwers. He’d frightened the worst stone thrower of them all, so much that great big Ox collapsed like a broken puppet.
He had power, this pilgrim. And already his power was touching me. Transforming me as a rotten apple infects its neighbors.
I should have kept my eyes forward, I knew. But as I left the courtyard, I turned back to Ox and did something I had never once in my life dared to do.
I stuck out my tongue.