The Watchtower

above and at the ominous darker shadows; his knees would tremble, or he might pause to take several deep breaths. But he made it up to the top floor, drew himself up to his fullest height, clutched the all-important satchel possessively to his side, reassured himself by feeling Marguerite’s ring in his pocket, and knocked on John Dee’s door.
    “Who is it?”
    Will recognized the deep voice. “Will Hughes at your service. Per your request. I have brought the essentials.”
    The grin splitting Dee’s triangular-bearded face as he opened the door was as wide as the ocean. But no expression could have been colder. His amber, glittery gaze transfixed Will’s. It suggested inner depth, but also had the opaqueness of a lizard’s scales. Had Will grasped the affect more fully, he might have fled down the airless stairs and left immortality for another day.
    Dee extended his right hand as if to shake Will’s, but then swung it farther and tried to grab the satchel. Will blocked the maneuver by swiveling away at the last instant. Dee, like a good sport, patted Will amiably on the shoulder. “A pleasure to meet you again, young man. Perhaps you are right to approach me cautiously. I am not offended that you do not trust me with your bag. For what is of greater value than immortality? Indeed, let us have a frank discussion before our exchange is completed. Come, sit on my suffah , please. It has a stirring view of the sea.”
    Will obliged him by sitting on the elegant bench upholstered in oriental fabric Dee had referred to as a suffah, and looking out at the ocean through an archer’s slit across from him that seemed to have widened. From the cliff this opening had looked no more than four to five inches across, but now it was something like a two-foot square in shape, a small window. Will kept a viselike grip on his satchel, wrapping it to his chest with crossed arms, and wondered how his impression from the cliff could have been so wrong. Then he looked farther out to sea, a view that was indeed majestic. The tower on the island off the coast was silhouetted against a violet sky. The ocean had turned a deep purple, reminding Will of a line the poet had once quoted from the Greeks: the wine-dark sea . Will then turned his attention to Dee, who was staring with a bemused expression at the satchel and Will’s fierce grip on it.
    “I understand your covetousness,” Dee said. “The box is rare and potent. Not to mention such a beautiful ring, concealed somewhere on you now, on your person or in the satchel. But you might want to relax your grip a little. After all, it is I who will need box and ring to effect your transformation—you do have the ring with you, don’t you?”
    Will nodded.
    “I will need it to summon a creature who can make you immortal. I will do that. So, alas, you will have to release box and ring into my possession before my end of the bargain can be concluded. In other words, good man, the news is that you will have to trust me. Otherwise we are fiddling away our time over nothing. There is no other way.”
    Will saw the logic of what Dee was saying, but he didn’t like it.
    Then he was startled by a brisk wind that entered the room, undulating tapestries that hung on the walls, strewing papers from Dee’s desk to the floor, even rippling the strands of Dee’s thinning hair. It was chilly and dense with surf and salt. Will glanced out the window and saw fresh-blown waves cresting up the beach close to the tower. A line of dark thunderclouds was amassing in the west behind the tower on the small island. He had the strange impression that the tower was standing between the storm and the mainland, as if guarding the shore from some barbarian invasion.
    Will affixed Dee with the most intimidating stare he could muster. “Who is this amazing being you will summon, who will bring me immortality?”
    Dee ignored Will’s forbidding expression, smiled benignly back. “We are dealing with forces of great potency here, my lad. You can hardly expect beings associated with such forces to be sweet and cuddly. That is the only perspective I can offer. Suffice it to say that if you cannot deal with the fearsome, you should not be here. Otherwise, the sooner you hand over box and ring, the sooner we can proceed.” Dee’s soft look transformed to one of impatience.
    Again Will saw Dee’s logic, but his heart told him to hesitate. He had not thought through this meeting enough in advance. He hadn’t