Templar's Destiny (9780545415095) (18 page)

Our cells were near to one another, on the second floor of the preceptory overlooking the courtyard, but when we bedded down for the night I was alone. Beyond my walls, men snored and slumbered as I struggled to breathe. The air was close and filled with the dust of the seldom-used space. Why was I here? Torquil was alone and fighting for life. My place was by his side.

I held the carving in my hands. It had been away from me too long, and I needed the feel of it not just in my sporran but also beneath my fingers. Since the moment Aine and I realized where it had come from I had wanted to study it anew. There was no light allowed in the rooms at night so I had to be content to learn the contours with only my fingers. More than anything I wanted to feel the shape of the face and to remember the image of Our Lady, who had come to me in the visions. I brushed my fingers over the ridges of the wood, and suddenly, with a clarity that I had not encountered, I saw the trainees.

Huddled in a small room they whispered.
“I will give evidence first. Tell them of the secret rites of initiation. Blasphemy. Idolatry. Trampling on the cross …”

“But that is untrue. All of it. You don't know what the rites of initiation are. We have not progressed to those levels. We cannot do this.”

“We are in this. One and all. Promises have been made. You were ripe enough when the coin was paid.”

“But that was long ago. None of this was explained. Don't you know what they will do to us? They'll burn us! For heretics!”

“We have been promised protection. Stick to the plan and we will have our share of all the land, ships, and property that the King will seize.”

The vision broke suddenly, leaving me shaking and sweating in the small dark room, in what would someday — perhaps very soon — no longer be the preceptory of the Templar Order.

“We must be prepared,” I said, pacing the floor before the Grand Master and the Templar. Both sat in stunned silence as I revealed all that I had seen in this last and most illuminating vision. “I canno' know when this is going to take place, but God help me, I am sure that the time is not far away.”

“We must begin the preparations,” said the Templar. “No matter what comes o' this, the Order must be protected.”

“I fear that it might be too late for that,” the Grand Master said with a quiet that made me stop mid-stride as a breath of cold slid over me.

“What, my Lord Grand Master?” the Templar said breathlessly.

“Three trainees were missing from the Compline prayer last night. We thought perhaps that they were sick, but when we checked this morning we found their cells empty and their clothing gone.”

“We must move quickly, then. What is most important? What needs to be taken from here before anything else?” asked the Templar.

The Grand Master pulled himself from the darkness that had overtaken him. “We must move the libraries and the treasury. It has to be done quickly and somehow without drawing the notice of the King,” he said. “A pilgrimage. We will go as poor monks in small groups, carrying what we can and loading the packs of donkeys. We will take the treasury and scrolls overland, along the path of Saint James, through the mountain trade passes, and into Berne. We must ensure that everything is moved beyond the borders of France, that the King cannot take it for any reason.”

“But that will take a very long time,” I said. “There will be many opportunities for the King to take it back.”

“Not if we continue our lives as they have always been. All of our plans must be kept a secret. We do not know if there are more than the three involved in this. Only the upper ranks will know the whole of things. Knights will be enlightened only when they are required to be,” said the Grand Master.

“Would it not be a good idea to move the ships as well?” asked the Templar.

“Gradually. The last will only leave when their plans have been further illuminated.” The Grand Master sighed and made the sign of the cross. “May the Lord grant that all of our preparation be for naught.”

“Amen to that,” I said.

“Ye will take Torquil an' Aine back to Scotia on the next ship, Tormod.”

We stood at a watchtower on the gate, staring down over the countryside toward the cathedral off in the distance. Snow was falling lightly, and my breath fanned out before me. The cold I felt now was far more than the weather. How could we know what would come of this?

“Ye've seen it, haven't ye?” We both knew to what I referred.

“Aye. I have seen him burn. I wish that I could erase the thought, but it follows me everywhere. I believe 'tis something that will not change.” I believed still that everything I foresaw eventually would come to pass, but I did not bother to speak the thought aloud.

“I fear that day, Tormod.” He appeared lost in a thought and for once I had no wish to know what it was. I did not want to think about anything that could frighten even him.

“Will ye come to us?” I asked, changing the path of our conversation.

“Aye. As soon as I am able. I want ye to retrieve the Holy Vessel when ye return. Take it far from the preceptory walls, Tormod. Ye have been chosen for a reason,” he said.

I stared out into the distance, as if I could find that reason somewhere out there.

“Is he strong enough to travel?” Aine asked, her hand plaiting the material of Torquil's tunic with worry.

“Between the two o' us, we should be able to keep him strong enough. The Templar ship will have healers waiting for us.” I shared her fears.

“Tormod, what are ye thinking?” She stood and fetched a cloth that had been cooling by the window. “Ye've been quiet an' far off since ye returned.”

“I feel that I have forgotten things that I should have remembered. The visions make sense now in the way they hadn't before. The carving was warning us that there was trouble in the Order. Since the ranks are swelled with gifted an' the new Protector had to be found, it would make sense that She would try to keep the Order from disaster. But is that the answer, the whole o' it?” I moved to the fire, trying to chase the cold that had settled in my bones. I feared sometimes that it would never truly go away.

“What more can there be, Tormod? I, for one, canno' wait to be rid o' these shores. The land here makes my blood itch.” She sat again, gently washing Torquil's face.

“What about the seal? What about Gaston an' the parchment and red wax?” My heart dropped. “Gaston! Aine, where is Gaston?”

I raced from the room, calling for the footman and Fabienne and anyone else who might listen. It was Lisette who stumbled wide-eyed across my path. “Monsieur Tormod. He has gone to the castle.”

They were the first words I had heard the little girl utter, and they brought the chill inside me to freezing. “Lisette, did he tell ye why he was going?” My voice was loud, and she dropped her head and hunched her shoulders as if trying to disappear. “Please, little one. It's important. What did he say?”

“He said that he needed proof, that the Templar Alexander would not believe him if he told.” She stared up at me with eyes as innocent as an infant.

“Told what, Lisette?”

“I don't know, monsieur. Gaston talks a lot. He talks to himself more than to me. That was all I heard him say.”

I took the swiftest horse I could find in Fabienne's stables and still I could not ride as fast as I needed to go. The road was painted with a thin and slippery coat of ice that churned beneath the horse's hooves and made moving quickly nearly impossible. It took twice the time to travel the distance from Fabienne's to the palace as it had just two days before and each footfall of my mount made my heart feel near to exploding.

A train of goods was making its way down the snaking path out of the main gates, and I had to slow and wait for it to pass. Following was the conclave of the Holy Father. Fourteen acolytes carried his litter, and row upon row of priest and bishop walked and rode beside and behind. It was within their ranks that I saw the Archbishop. And though I wanted to beg his help in finding Gaston, in his current position he was no help.

The wait was interminable, and I was nearly ready to climb over the last of them as they passed. But finally there was a space if, however, small to pass and I bolted through it. Thundering down the path I pulled up hard before the stables. “Take my mount, boy,” I said to the stable hand, “I've urgent business within.” I crossed the courtyard, hurried toward the kitchens, and burst inside. “Gaston. Where is he?”

Just then I heard a sharp cry from down the hallway, the shriek of a woman so frightened that the blood nearly drained from my body. I ran toward the sound at full speed, sliding around corners and pushing people out of the way. I found him there with the pool of his life's blood staining the flags crimson. “Gaston!” I cried.

I dropped to his side, cradling the back of his head where the gash had been made. It was a long cut, made by a sharp, curved blade, the kind that was not found on the common men who roamed these halls. He was already gone. The last breath had passed his lips while the Holy Father's conclave had held me up. It didn't seem fair. I felt along his tunic but found nothing stored beneath, but on his fingertips were the remnants of the cracked red wax on the parchment I now knew he had found in the King's chambers. Whoever had done this to him had taken whatever it was that he had found. I held him until the King's guard and healers gathered his body.