The Silver Skull Read Online Free PDF

time for your games."

    "This is not a game!" the man protested. "I dare not speak! I fear for my life!"

    Will pressed the tip of his knife a shade deeper for emphasis. "Fear me more," he said calmly. "I will whittle you down a piece at a time-fingers, nose, ears-until you choose to speak.
    And you will choose. Better to speak now and save yourself unnecessary suffering."

    Once the rogue had seen the truth in Will's eyes, he nodded reluctantly.

    "You saw what happened out there?" Will asked.

    "I was woken by the sounds of a brawl. From my window, I saw a small group of cloaked travellers set upon by a gang of fifteen or more."

    "Cutthroats?"

    The man nodded.

    "Fifteen? At this time? They cannot find much regular trade in this area to justify such a number."

    "It seemed they knew the travellers would be passing this way. They lay in wait. Some of them emerged only after the battle had commenced."

    This information gave Will pause, but his prisoner was too scared to be telling anything but the truth. "Who were these cutthroats?"

    The man shook his head. "I did not recognise them. But if they find I spoke of them they will be back for me!"

    "I would think they now have more important things on their minds. What happened?"

    "They surprised the travellers." He hesitated, not sure how much he should say. "The travellers ..." He swallowed, looked like he was about to be sick. "They turned on the cutthroats.
    I had to look away. I saw no more."

    "The faces of the travellers?"

    He shook his head. "They moved too fast. I ... I saw no weapons. Only the slaughter of three victims. It was madness! The other cutthroats fled-"

    "And the travellers continued on their way?"

    "One of them was different ... his head glowed like the moon."

    "What do you mean?"

    The man began to stutter and Will had to wait until he calmed. "I do not know ... it was a glimpse, no more. But his head glowed. And in the confusion, two of the cutthroats grabbed him and made good their escape into the alleys. He went with them freely, as though he had been a prisoner of the travellers."

    "And the travellers gave pursuit?"

    "Once they saw he was missing ... a minute, perhaps two later. By then, their chances of finding him would have been poor."

    The frightened man had no further answers to give. Out in the street, Will summoned Leicester away from his men's ears.

    "The prize the Enemy stole from the Tower was in turn taken from them by a band of cutthroats," Will told him. "Put all your men onto the streets of London. This threat may now have gone from bad to worse."

CHAPTER 3
    SPECIAL_IMAGE-00012.jpg-REPLACE_ME

    SPECIAL_IMAGE-00122.jpg-REPLACE_ME ,ill clung on to the leather straps as the sleek black carriage raced towards the Palace of Whitehall, a solitary ship of light sailing on the sea of darkness washing against London's ancient walls.

    Lanterns hung from the great gates and along the walls. From diamondpane windows, candles glimmered across the great halls and towers, the chapels, wings, courtyards, stores, meeting rooms, and debating chambers, and in the living quarters of the court and its army of servants. At more than half a mile square, it was one of the largest palaces in the world, shaped and reshaped over three hundred years. Hard against the Thames, it had its own wharf where barges were moored to take the queen along the great river and where vast warehouses received the produce that kept the palace fed. Surrounding the complex of buildings were a tiltyard, bowling green, tennis courts, and formal gardens, everything needed for entertainment.

    The palace looked out across London with two faces: at once filled with the sprawling, colourful, noisy pageantry of royalty, of a court permanently at play, of music and masques and arts and feasting, of romances and joys and intrigues, a tease to the senses and a home to lives lost to a whirl that always threatened to spin off its axis; and a place of grave decisions on the affairs of