Read The Alchemist's Door Online
Authors: Lisa Goldstein
The Alchemist's Door (13 page)
“We have our own dietary laws,” Loew said.
What dietary laws? Dee wanted to talk further, to ask more questions, but he remembered the last time he and Loew had
discussed Loew's God. Finally the rabbi shrugged and murmured a prayer. They both knelt awkwardly before the raised circle and began to eat.
discussed Loew's God. Finally the rabbi shrugged and murmured a prayer. They both knelt awkwardly before the raised circle and began to eat.
After supper he stood and began to pace. “I have to write Jane,” he said. “She's a sensible woman but she does worry. And Michael is barely a month old.” A terrible thought came into his mind. “Rudolf won't do anything to my family, will he?”
“Probably not,” Loew said. “But then I wouldn't have thought he'd imprison us either.”
“Waitâhe doesn't know we've moved. His message was delivered to our old lodgings. I'll have to keep him ignorantâI'll write to Jane care of Hageck. He'll know to send it on.”
Loew smiled grimly. “What about me?” he asked. “I've lived in the same house for years.”
“I don't know. God, I don't know. If we don't give Rudolf what he wants he'll keep us here forever, or kill us. And if we doâif we do the consequences don't bear thinking about.”
Night had fallen outside. He was suddenly too tired to worry about Jane, about Kelley. He lay down on the flagstones and then, curling himself up to conserve warmth, he prepared to sleep.
The stones were hard and uncomfortable and very cold. He could not remember a time since he had come to Prague that he had not been chilled to the bone. He would not be able to sleep here. He had lost the knack of it, had forgotten how one went about falling asleep. He would never sleep again.
But when he next opened his eyes he saw pale light suffusing the high window, though none of it was strong enough to reach the floor where he lay. His bones ached, and for a moment he thought he would not be able to turn his head. Then, moving slowly and painfully, he levered himself up to a sitting position.
Loew was finishing his breakfast. “The guards have been and gone already,” he said.
“Did they bring us paper?” Dee asked.
“I'm afraid not.”
Dee ate his breakfast, then sat back against the wall. A short time later the door opened and two guards stepped inside, different ones this time. “Come,” one of them said. “The emperor wishes to see you now.”
The guards led them back past the outbuildings and through the castle to Rudolfs throne room. Someone had prepared the wax tablets and set up the showstone on one of the tables. He looked around for Kelley and found him standing behind the emperor.
“When did you steal the stone from me?” he asked, unable to contain his anger at Kelley's betrayal. “And why don't you use it yourself, have a few words with your angels?”
Kelley said nothing.
“Look into the stone,” Rudolf ordered.
Dee prayed for a moment, then stared down into the stone's glassy depths. “I see nothing,” Dee said. He looked up at Rudolf. “I have never been ableâ”
“Silence!” Rudolf said. He turned to Loew. “Now you.”
But Loew failed to see anything as well. The showstone was a piece of glass, prettier than most, perhaps, but glass nonetheless.
Rudolf waved his hand. “Take them back,” he said to the guards. “We'll try again tomorrow.”
“But we can't see anything,” Dee said despairingly. “You might as well let us go home, you can see we're no use to youâ”
“I might just as well keep you here,” Rudolf said. “You might see something someday, after all.”
They were left alone for the evening and most of the next day, long enough so that Dee began to hope the emperor had given up on them. Then, as the weak light was fading from the high window, the guards returned.
They were marched to the throne room again, and Dee was made to look into the glass. Once again he could see nothing there, nothing but the mute glitter of the candles.
He thought of the demon Kelley had summoned. It was very close; he could feel it hovering in the far shadows of the room. They stood a heartbeat away from that other realm, a single step across the doorway. Why not, after all? Especially if the alternative was returning to their grim tower.
He reached out. He seemed to have always known how to do this. The demonâhis demonâleapt at him. He tried to deflect it, to turn it toward Kelley or Rudolf, but it engulfed him. He screamed in terror, and then, abruptly, his scream was cut off and he felt the demon take control of his voice.
“So all the fools are here,” the demon said. Its voice was whispery and rasping; it sounded like stones on the shore grating together as a wave rolled out to sea. The two guards ran from the room. “King Rudolf, my compliments. You have surrounded yourself with the greatest group of rogues and lack-wits in the history of the world. Not one of them is capable of making his own breakfast, let alone the Philosopher's Stone.
“And Master Kelley.” Dee felt himself nod to the other man. “It's good to see you againâI have a fondness for Judases. Tell me, how much did the emperor offer you to betray your friend? How much is that chilly house of yours worth?”
Where is Loew? Dee thought desperately. Why doesn't he recite the psalm? He felt himself drowning under the demon's weight. He would lose consciousness, lose his soul, be unable to step back across the threshold into life and light and sound.
“We are looking for the thirty-sixth righteous man,” Rudolf said. He seemed undaunted by the demon's presence.
“There are no righteous men,” the demon said. “There is no goodness in all the world. You are on a fool's quest.”
“It won't tell us,” Kelley said. “It wants the same thing we doâto find the man and kill him and remake the world according to its wishes.”
“Ah, Master Kelley, what a clever man you are,” the demon said. “Though, unfortunately, just not clever enough. You've tied your fate to the wrong manâRudolfs brother Matthias will triumph and take the throne. And then where will you be? Selling elixirs from a stall in the road, I don't doubt. And that's if you're lucky.”
“No!” Rudolf said. “No, that's not true. I won't let it happen!”
“Such pride,” the demon said. “But Matthias knows all about your sins. I warned you when I spoke to you last, remember? All your mistresses, your illegitimate children ⦠Matthias will have you declared unfit for the crown.”
“It won't happen!” Rudolf said. His calm had deserted him; he was enraged, lunatic. “It won't!”
Suddenly Dee felt the demon loose its hold. The strength left his muscles and he collapsed to the floor.
“Hello again,” Rudolf said with the demon's voice. “I knew if I maddened him enough I could find a way in.”
“Do something!” Kelley said. “Get rid of it!”
“Yes, of course, get rid of it,” the demon said. “You didn't mind when I possessed your friend Dee, or Dee's daughter.”
“Last timeâyou spoke some sort of chant, some spellâ” Kelley said to Loew. He looked on the verge of rushing from the room; only his expectations from the emperor seemed to be keeping him there.
Dee stood up carefully. “Let's go,” he said hoarsely. “We can escapeâthe guards are goneâ”
“You can't go,” Kelley said frantically. “You can't leave it here, loose like thisâyou have to send it back.”
“Unfortunately your friend is right,” the demon said.
“Your former friend, I should say. You can't leave me here. Who knows what I might do, especially now that I control one of the most powerful men in the world? It's a hard choice, isn't it? Run and leave me here, or stay and return to prison.”
“Your former friend, I should say. You can't leave me here. Who knows what I might do, especially now that I control one of the most powerful men in the world? It's a hard choice, isn't it? Run and leave me here, or stay and return to prison.”
Suddenly Dee understood why Loew had not exorcized the demon earlier. He needed an open window, somewhere for it to go. Dee spoke a few words. Glass shattered in a distant room.
Loew seemed to understand immediately; he began the minor-key melody Dee had heard once before. Rudolf opened his mouth, closed it. Expressions ran like water over his face. Dee watched, sickened, as Rudolf fought with the demon for control.
Loew's voice grew louder. Rudolf said something but it was drowned by Loew's chanting. “Help,” Rudolf said weakly. “Help me.”
Dee relaxed; the demon was leaving. Or was this one of its tricks?
“Get it out!” Rudolf said. “Ah, God, get it out of me!”
Loew sang one final phrase. Rudolf slumped in his throne. “I want that thing out of my kingdom,” he said. His voice was thin but as assured as ever. “You brought it here, Master Kelley, now you send it back wherever it came from.”
“I had nothing to do with it,” Kelley said. “It was Doctor Deeâ”
Dee did not stay to hear more. He ran from the room, hoping Loew would have the wit to do the same. “Guards!” Rudolf called. “Guards, bring my prisoners back!” But the guards had fled when they first heard the voice. Dee had a moment in which to get free.
He glanced behind him as he ran and saw that Loew was following. They rushed headlong through the rooms of the castle, passing the emperor's wonders on either side of them
with every step. Candles shone from the walls, their flames reflected in sheets of gold and silver behind them, though the rooms were empty of people.
with every step. Candles shone from the walls, their flames reflected in sheets of gold and silver behind them, though the rooms were empty of people.
Finally Dee stopped, panting, unable to run any farther. Loew had slowed as well. It's hopeless, Dee thought. Look at us, two winded doddering old men. How can we hope to outrun an emperor?
Still, they had lost the guards, at least for the present. He strained to hear beyond the rasp of his breathing. They began to move again, walking this time, going as silently as they could.
“Thank you,” Loew said, whispering.
“For what?”
“For breaking that window. That's a useful trick.”
“I'll teach it to you. And thank you for reciting that psalm.”
A short while later they came to a long hallway with doors on both sides. “Which way?” Loew whispered.
“I don't know. Wait.”
Dee peered into the nearest room. Books lined the walls from floor to ceiling. He saw books made of leather and velvet and satin, books bound in maroon and brown and black and orange, huge books locked with iron clasps, threadbare books with broken spines, books squeezed into shelves or balanced on top of each other. He went inside.
“That's not the way out,” Loew said. “We have to get goingâ”
His voice trailed off as he followed Dee into the room. “Look at this,” he said reverently, lifting out a book tooled in gold. “
De Arte Cabalistica.
I've never seen a copy.”
De Arte Cabalistica.
I've never seen a copy.”
“And here's a book on Zoroastrianism,” Dee said excitedly. “And an illustrated herbal. And lookâCopernicus's book,
On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres.”
On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres.”
“Do you believe him?” Loew asked. “That the earth travels around the sun? It flatly contradicts the Bible.”
“But his calculationsâ”
Footsteps sounded outside in the hallway, recalling them to where they were. “Quickly!” Dee said, guiding Loew to a shadowy corner behind a table.
The footsteps paused at the library. Dee held his breath. Two men looked inside. “I thought I heard something in this room,” one of them said.
The men raised their torches; light played over the spines of the books near the door. “There's nothing here,” the other man said. They studied the room a minute longer and then walked on.
Dee and Loew looked at each other, shamefaced, two old scholars who would drop everything, who would even risk their lives, for a good disputation. Then they both began to smile. For the first time since his disastrous visit to Loew's house, Dee's feeling of kinship with the other man returned.
They stayed hidden until they could no longer hear the men, then left the library and continued down the hallway. One of the doors led to a vast room and they went through it.
This room opened onto other rooms, and others beyond that. Dee had not realized how enormous Rudolf's palace was. And each room held pieces of the emperor's collection. They passed fossils and coins, skeletons and stuffed animals, mirrors and orreries. Once they were startled by a loud ringing sound; a clock in the room with them had started to chime the hour. As if in answer all the clocks in the collection rang out, a cacophony of bells high and low, near and far. Then there were two bells ringing, then one, and then all the sounds faded into silence.
As Dee entered one room he saw a man sitting at one of the tables at the far end. He jerked back. “What?” Loew whispered, coming up behind him. “What is it?”
Dee put his finger to his lips, then gestured toward the open doorway. Loew looked inside. “My God,” he said softly. “It's Rudolf.”
The king sat motionless, studying one of the objects on the table in front of him. Dee could barely see it in the dim light; he thought it might be a seashell. They watched for long minutes, neither daring to move, as the king contemplated his treasure. Then they turned and left as quietly as they could.
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