“I know because I hear things,” Mordechai said. The fear Dee had heard earlier was gone. “People tell me things when I travel. I daresay even Rudolf's forgotten about it, though.”
An animal chittered from somewhere, and another animal answered. Five or six of them ran at once, their paws skittering over the floor. Rats, Dee thought.
“Someone just told me an intriguing story, in fact,” Mordechai said. “Apparently there's a man in Prague who's making boots to give to the Messiah when he comes. Boots made of the finest, softest leather in the world. They say he's been working on them for five years.”
“Never mind that,” Loew said. “Why did you tell the soldiers you were me?”
“They were about to arrest you.”
“And you preferred them to arrest you instead? What did they do when they found out you weren't me?”
Mordechai laughed. “Their hospitality leaves something to be desired, it's true,” he said.
“Did they torture you?”
“Come, Rabbi Loew,” Mordechai said. “I'm far younger than you. Isn't it better this way?”
“But why did you do it?”
“Do you have any children?” Dee asked abruptly.
Mordechai was silent for a moment, dearly surprised by the question. “My wife and I have two, a boy and a girl,” he said. “I visit them as often as I can.”
“Just two?”
“What odd questions,” Mordechai said mildly. “Why do you ask?”
“There's a rumor you're Izak's father.”
“Izak? Oh, yes, Hanna's boy. A nice kidâI wouldn't mind having him for a son. But I always thought his father was Baruch the butcher.”
“How often do you visit Prague?” Loew asked.
“Every thirty-six days, if I can. Now would you mind telling me what all this is about?”
Dee heard Loew take a deep breath. “Do you know the story of the thirty-six righteous men?” Loew asked, watching the peddler intently.
“No. Waitâyes, I remember something. They're supposed to uphold the world, is that right? Keep the world from ending, something like that?”
“Yes.”
“I don't understand.”
“We thinkâwe have reason to believe that you're one of these men.”
Mordechai laughed. “Me?” he said. “No, that's impossible. I'm just an ordinary man, trying to make his way in the world.”
“You probably wouldn't know if you were, though.”
“I daresay no one thinks he's righteous enough. So by your reasoning anyone alive could be the man you seek.”
“You appeared on a list.”
“A list, was it? My name was on a list?”
“Not your name,” Loew said reluctantly. “It said âTraveler, Jewish Quarter.'”
Mordechai laughed again. “And I'm the only one who travels to the Quarter, is that what you're saying?”
“No, of course not. Comeâlet's leave this place and talk in the light. Surely the guards have gone by now.”
“Certainly.”
Mordechai climbed the ladder, cautiously lifted the covering, and pushed it out of the way. Dee winced at the loud groan it made, then winced again as the strong sunlight poured in. He spoke a few words and his light went out.
Mordechai pulled himself up to the floor of the tower. Dee went next; Mordechai gave him his hand to help him climb. Loew came after him, and the golem at the end.
They hurried away from the castle, all of them casting quick backwards glances as they ran. No one seemed to be following them. They went as fast as they could into the Lesser Quarter, the golem and Mordechai in front, Dee and Loew lagging behind.
They made their way past the outsized manor homes, nearly castles in their own right, that Rudolf's nobles had built for themselves. Dee slowed to a walk, struggling to keep Mordechai in sight as he headed in the direction of the river.
Suddenly Mordechai stopped. As Dee caught up with him he saw a group of men fanned out across the road, blocking their way. One of them, Dee saw with dread, was Kelley.
“Stop there,” Kelley said. He pointed to Mordechai. “That's the one, the thirty-sixth. Bring him to me. Bring the rest of them as well.”
T
WO MEN MOVED FORWARD AND GRABBED Dee roughly by the arms. “So you found him,” Kelley said. “The thirty-sixth. I don't suppose you were ever going to tell Rudolf.”
“How do you know who he is?” Dee asked.
“I saw him in the glass.”
“I thought you couldn't use the glass.”
“Yes, well, I've grown more adept since we last met. And I've gotten help.”
Now Dee saw something odd behind Kelley, some kind of distortion in the air. It looked as if a poorly-made pane of glass hung there; some of the men behind it seemed stretched to nine feet tall, others pinched to the size of gnomes. As Dee watched the disturbance swelled and grew and began to mold itself into the shape of a man.
“Your demon,” Kelley said, following his gaze. “I've managed to make him visible in this world. And did you like what I had him do in Trebona?”
“He's not my demon,” Dee said hotly. “You summoned him.”
“Come now, doctor. He's yours, bought and paid for. Who was it who said knowledge is worth any price paid for it? That is what you said, isn't it? You didn't say, âAny price except trafficking with spirits,' did you?”
“I didn't call him up, Iâ”
“Well, it doesn't matter now. You were the one who brought him to Prague, anyway. You thought you were running away, but in fact he was leading you here step by step.
The door opens here, you know. This is where he's the strongest.”
Yes, of course, Dee thought. I already know that. But Kelley wanted to talk, wanted to show his old master what he had accomplished by himself. And the more he talked, the more chance they had that something might happen. That, maybe, Mordechai might escape.
“So you weren't the one to make him visible, as you claimed,” Dee said, cutting off whatever Kelley had been saying. “It would have happened anyway, as the door opened wider and he became stronger.”
“Nonsense,” Kelley said. “I learned the spells, I spoke themâ”
Kelley turned, somewhat nervously, to look at his demon. He's not in complete control of it, Dee thought. That's interesting.
The demon had become more solid as they spoke. Dee glimpsed a face for a moment: red eyes, scaly skin, two great fangs jutting upward from the bottom row of its teeth. Then the shape wavered and became a bundle of bones loosely tied together. The bones were thin as twigs and the color of ebony, sucking in all the light around them.
Suddenly Dee remembered his visit to Kelley's house, how he had had to face what he feared most in the world, his nightterrors. He tried frantically to think of something pleasant, something to banish the evil. Jane.
The shape distorted again, and he saw a hellish mix of fangs and scales and Jane's lovely eyes and hair. It was the worst sight yet, so terrible that he cried aloud.
Everything turned black. The demon moved within him. He felt himself, his soul, his spark of awareness, sink down and nearly gutter out, smothered by the demon's presence. It feeds on fear, he thought. It knew I was afraid. It was behind everything
that happened in Kelley's house. His heart pounded so heavily he was afraid he would die.
The demon forced his eyes open, then worked his legs, turning him in a small circle. The two men holding him had apparently run away. His muscles moved without his volition; it felt as though snakes crawled inside him.
A crowd had started to form, drawn by the noise, or perhaps the scent of magic. Everyone stood still, looks of horror on their faces. He saw Magdalena and Izak and Mamugna. And was that Erzsébet next to them? The demon turned him again and he caught a blur of motion at the corner of his eye; someone or something stood high up in a tower overlooking the street, someone familiar.
“Not the best body I could have chosen,” the demon said. It laughed horribly, contorting Dee's face into an unfamiliar grimace. “An old one, about to die. I'll have to choose someone else. Who will it be, I wonder.”
The demon turned him again. It stopped when it came to Magdalena. Dee realized with shock that the demon saw Magdalena as she really was, a young healthy woman.
As Dee continued to look at Magdalena, unable to turn away, he felt himself growing aroused. Horrible pictures filled his mind. He saw himself forcing her to the ground and tearing off her clothes, saw her scream and try to push him away. In his vision her cries only served to madden him further and he fell on her and thrust himself into her, a lecherous old goat defiling a beautiful maiden.
It's the demon, he thought. The demon is putting these dreadful pictures in my mind. It's jealous of us, of our flesh, of the things we feel with our bodies.
The demon laughed again. It had read Dee's thoughts, insinuating itself into all the secret places of his mind, ferreting out all those things he kept hidden from the world.
Someone was speaking. He strained to hear it over the
pounding of his heart, the song of blood in his ears. Hebrew, he thought. Someone saying something in Hebrew. Loew, chanting the psalm against demons.
He had forgotten Loew in his terror. “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust,” Loew recited. “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
Nothing happened. The demon continued to stare at Magdalena. Dee's tongue protruded and licked at his lips, sinuous as a snake. “Yes, I like that one,” the demon said. “I think I'll have her.”
Magdalena stared back at the demon, her head high. She looked proud, unafraid, but Dee wondered if she was remembering the man who had used her and then given her to others, the last time someone had taken control over her body. And then another thought came, one that Dee would have banished immediately if he had been in his right mind. Take it away, he thought. Let it possess someone else, even Magdalena if it has to. Just get it out of me, give me my body again.
“I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him,” Loew said. He sounded frantic. He had come nearly to the end of the psalm and the demon had not left Dee's body.
Magdalena continued to gaze steadily at the demon, showing it herself, her unswerving truth. Dee waited, not daring to hope for anything. Suddenly he understood what she was doing. Fear drew the demonâand she had gone through fear and come out on the other side. There was nothing more anyone could do to hurt her.
He willed himself to be calm, to follow her example. His heart still pounded horribly, but he was able to make a clear space in his mind. At that moment he was able to understand something. Fear drew the demon, yes, but so did lies.
And he had lied, to the demon and to himself. The pictures in his head had not been put there by anyone; they had been there all along. He had admired Magdalena, had thought her
young body beautiful, had entertained, though never for more than a second at a time, thoughts of taking her to his bed and having her for himself.
He collapsed to the ground. The demon was gone. He drew a shaky breath, barely in control of his own body.
Then he remembered the demon's last words. No, he thought, horror filling him. I've failed her like everyone else. He twisted to look at Magdalena.
One of Kelley's men laughed; Dee realized with relief that the demon had taken over him instead. Kelley's other men scattered, understanding finally that it could come for any one of them. Mordechai was free now, but he made no move to leave.
Dee sat up. There was a sharp pain in his forehead. He put a hand up and it came away covered with blood. He must have hit the cobblestones when he fell.
More people were joining the crowd, taking the place of Kelley's men. Some he recognized from the alchemists' tavern, Sendivogius and László and others. Mamugna's dogs whined at the edges of the crowd, their tails down. Erzsébet stood at a distance, biting her fingernails.
He remembered the movement he had seen in the tower. He glanced up and flinched in pain, but not before he had recognized the man. King Rudolf stood there, staring down at the street. The magic had drawn him too.
“This one is not very interesting either,” the demon said, its deep voice coming from the mouth of Kelley's man. “Who else is there? Who wants to be next?”
Another man jerked an arm. His eyes grew wide with terror. Then the woman next to him did a horrible wrenching dance. A man began to pull out his hair. One of the dogs growled and snapped at Mamugna, its lips drawn back in a snarl.
The demon was working its way around the circle, taking
over each person or animal in turn. Three people stood between Mordechai and the demon, then two. The man next to Mordechai thrust a finger in his eye and screamed in pain.
Dee held his breath. What would happen when the demon took control of Mordechai? It had promised to kill the thirty-sixth man and remake the world according to its desires.
But Mordechai stood unmoving. A woman on his other side chewed on her fingers, drawing blood. Some people were impervious, then. Mordechai and Magdalena, and who else? Rabbi Loew was next in the circle.
As Dee watched, horrified, Loew threw back his head and laughed a deep gravelly laugh.
LOEW BRACED HIMSELF, WAITING FOR THE DEMON TO TAKE over his body completely. Nightmarish pictures filled his mind, the man destroying his eye, the woman biting her fingers. Then these were replaced by worse things, horrors drawn from his own imagination.
But to his surprise nothing more happened, though he felt the demon's presence in his mind. He wondered why. Could it be because he was a good man, even a righteous man? Could that make him somehow safe, able to withstand possession? Because he was a good man, he knew thatâbetter than almost everyone in the Quarter, better even than the chief rabbi.
Then why wasn't he chief rabbi? Why did the folks of the Quarter withhold that honor from him? He could do so much good for the townspeople. He couldâif Mordechai were gone he could remake the town the way he wanted, could finally put his ideas into practice, could see to it that all the laws were obeyed the way they should be.
The demon looked at Izak with Loew's eyes. Izak, for example, he thought. If he had control of the Quarter and everyone in it he would see to it that Izak never left, that he
stayed in the town and lived his life out unmarried and repentant, content with his lot. He saw that Izak and Magdalena were standing near each other. He would put an end to that immediately; Izak must not be allowed to become familiar with such a woman, someone who, according to her own words, had lived on the streets, a plaything for any man to come along.
Mastery, he thought. That was what he wanted, what he needed. Now he saw other pictures: Rivka looking downcast, as a woman should, her usual bold expression gone; Baruch the butcher confessing his sins; the golem docile and following his every command. He saw everyone in the Quarter filing into the streets and crowding the synagogue, saw himself preaching, telling them what they were and were not permitted to do. And if everyone listened to him, if they followed all of God's commands, perhaps the Messiah would even come ⦠.
All this could be his, the control, the mastery he had always wanted. He had only to get rid of Mordechai, toâto killâHe came to himself with a start. What had he been thinking? How could he even contemplate killing a man, especially this man? The demon had tempted him, had put these dreadful ideas into his mind.
Though it had been a pleasant picture. If anyone were to be given control over the Quarter it should be him; he had always known that. He had had a vision of how things ought to be done for a long time.
A long time, he thought. The demon had not given him these ideas, then; they had always been there, at the edges of his mind, growing stronger as time passed. He was no better than Rudolf, really; he too wanted to remake the world in his own image. Perhaps that was what had prompted him to create the golem in the first place.
He shuddered. The action seemed to push the demon
from him. He fell back against a wall, unable to move, chastened by what he had discovered about himself.
DEE WATCHED AS THE DEMON LEFT LOEW'S BODY. THE CROWD had thinned, leaving only Mordechai, Izak, Magdalena, Erzsébet, and a few others. And Rudolf, Dee saw with a start. The king had come down from his tower.
The demon circled the crowd again, taking over one person after another. A strange green fire began to spiral upward, crackling loudly, lifting hair and loose clothing into its vortex. Kelley was speaking something, and so was Magdalena, praying to her pagan goddess, Dee supposed. Loew recited the psalm against demons again. Dee felt the crosscurrents of magic grow thicker as other powers made themselves felt within the circle.
Suddenly Rudolf giggled. Everyone turned to look in his direction; shock came into their eyes, one by one, as they recognized him. A silence fell over the crowd as they slowly stopped reciting their spells.
“Oh, I like this body,” the demon said with Rudolfs mouth. “I liked it the last time I had it, and I like it even more now. I would certainly enjoy being one of the most powerful men in the world. And my first command as kingâkill that man. The thirty-sixth, the one who claimed to be Loew.”