not show you any mercy. He'll do things to you you can't even imagine, terrible cruel things. If you want to live, he has to die now, tonight, afore he's the one that's coming for you.'
He pushed her out into the street. Turning, she could just make out his dark outline standing in the shadows watching her, but only because she knew he was there. She shivered and walked slowly up the street.
The leet of Mancroft appeared to be no different from the rest of the town. The shutters on the shops were fastened for the night and the market squares were empty save for dogs and cats scavenging among the bones and rubbish that clogged the open ditches. A few men passed her, and she remembered to lower her face, pulling her hood down. Most of the men were clean-shaven, but she could not help glancing curiously at those with long beards, though unlike the Christian men, the Jews averted their eyes from her.
She turned right as Talbot instructed. The street was much narrower here. The doors and shutters of the houses were tightly fastened and only the faintest chink of candlelight glowed through knot-holes here or there. The street seemed even darker than the thin ribbon of blue-black sky above. She felt trapped, caged like a beast driven into a tunnel. A black shadow was rolling up the street behind her like a huge wave, obliterating every spark of light. She began to run, not knowing what she was running from except that she knew she had to reach the end of the street before it touched her.
She had burst out from between the houses and had run into the wide open market square before she could force herself to stop. She doubled forward, panting, grasping her side as a sharp cramp seized her. An old man hurried up to her, his wispy grey beard rising and falling in the wind as if it breathed on its own. He glanced at her neck, and she realized he was looking at the silver amulet.
'Has someone hurt you, my daughter?' His eyes showed concern, but there was weariness in his voice as if it was a question he had been forced to ask many times.
She shook her head.
He frowned. 'Let me take you to your home. A young woman should not be walking alone at night. We are not safe in the streets of our own town any more.'
He peered at her more closely. 'Perhaps I know your family? Your father's name, what is it?'
She turned and hurried back the way she had come.
Your amulet, daughter,' she heard the old man call behind her, 'you should cover it on the streets. The goyim, they will see it.'
As soon as she re-entered the street, she heard the music. It must have been playing when she ran past, but only now was she conscious of it spilling out into the street with a babble of laughter and noise. She glanced up. A carved wooden figure swayed above her in the wind. A lantern had been hung so as to illuminate the mermaid, but the shadows it cast only served to make the creature more fearsome. Her tail and body were covered all over in green scales, even her menacing, pendulous breasts. Each of the wild tangled locks of her hair ended in the head of a writhing sea serpent. But it was her face that was most hideous with its black, hollowed- out eyes like a corpse's left for the crows to pick at, and lips drawn back in a terrible smile to reveal rows of needle-sharp teeth.
Elena could hardly tear her gaze away, but finally she edged away from the mermaid and into a courtyard behind the inn. A narrow flight of wooden steps rose from among a clutter of small shacks and lean-tos. Elena glanced upwards to the narrow walkway above. A thin arrow of candlelight shafted through the shutter of the single chamber beyond. He was already there, waiting for her.
Elena drew back as a girl emerged from behind the inn. She crossed the courtyard, two empty flagons trailing in her hands, and disappeared inside one of the wooden huts. She emerged a few moments later, balancing the brimming flagons on her hips, in the way a woman might carry young children, as she crossed back to the inn. As soon as she disappeared through the door, Elena ran for the stairs, knowing that once she had served her