this last cage was huddled down in the corner, not pacing impatiently like some of the other beasts. Even when Ma lifted the lantern Elena could not make out what it was, for its head, like that of the lion, was covered with a great mass of tangled dark hair and its body lay half buried in the straw.
'Your dinner, my pet,' Ma called, tossing the remaining piece of bloody meat into the cage.
The creature slowly lifted its head and Elena clapped her hands to her mouth for the blue eyes that glowed out at her from a face that was almost black with filth and grime were unmistakably human. He was naked, but Elena was scarcely aware of that for his body was so filthy that he might have been wearing a garment woven from mud.
The man tipped forward and crawled towards the hunk of meat on his elbows and knees. As he came closer to where
Elena was standing, she suddenly saw why he moved in such a curious way. His feet and hands had been lopped off. The skin was twisted and scarred around the stumps where the bleeding limbs had been dipped in boiling tar to seal the ends and stop him bleeding to death.
Elena had seen mutilations before. A hand or nose or ear severed for thieving or some other crime, but never had she seen a man so cruelly and deliberately maimed as this. The wretch sat up and using the stump of one arm to lever the meat up against his chest and his teeth to grasp it, he dragged his meal back away from the bars.
'You are well?' Ma asked, surprising Elena with the gentleness of the question.
The man did not speak. His gaze darted from Ma back to Elena. It lingered on Elena's face with such a miserable intensity that she wanted to turn away, but found she couldn't tear her eyes from his. Then, as if he was suddenly conscious of his nakedness, he hunched away from her, scrabbling with the stump of his arm to pull a few wisps of straw across his groin.
'Who ... who is he?' Elena breathed.
'Have you learned nothing, my darling? We none of us own our names in here. Here he is known as my pet, nothing more. What does he need with a name?
'But come, I sent Luce to look for you a while ago. I've work for you tonight, my darling, important work, and we must prepare you well. For the gentleman is very particular in what he wants.'
The Evening of the 1st Day after the
Full Moon, August 1211
Eels — Eels are creatures of water and thunder, for they are quickened from the slime of the fishes when the thunderstorms rage. Many mortals fear to swim where there are eels lest they suck the swimmers' blood.
The fat of the eel when rubbed on the eyes gives mortal men the gift to see faerie folk and those secrets which others would hide from their gaze. The livers of the eel ease childbirth and their blood cures warts.
If they be dried in the sun, softened with fat, then stuffed with thyme and lavender, they can be worn as garters to ease the pains of the joints which come with age, or the marsh ague.
But if a wife wishes to cure her husband of drunkenness, then let her put a live eel in his ale or wine and suffer the creature to die in there, and when her husband drinks it, he shall never desire that drink again.
The Mandrake's Herbal
The Marsh Creepers
Luce lowered the chaplet of white roses as gently as she could on to Elena's loose red hair.
'There now,' Luce murmured soothingly, 'they'll match that little white rosebud mark you've got on your thigh. If he's a passion for roses, he'll love that. Gentlemen love to find little hidden scars and moles, makes 'em think they've discovered a secret.'
She adjusted the angle of the chaplet and Elena yelped as the thorns pricked her scalp. Luce bit her lip and glanced at Ma, who merely shrugged.
'You heard what he said, he wants the thorns left on.'
Luce crossly examined her own hands which were scratched and bleeding from having woven the crown. 'Wants to see these'n' all, does he?'
'He can see anything he likes, if he pays for it,' Ma said tartly. 'Now then, let's have a look at you, my darling.'
Elena was finding it hard to breathe through the small holes in a wooden mask. She