Iacobus (37 page)

I had to contain my anger, I had to remain indifferent to his dirty provocation.

“I also remember …,” he continued as he looked around for a suitable place to sit, “I also remember how intently you listened to Evrard and I when we told stories of the Crusades, the Holy Land, the great Salah Al-Din, of the black stone of Mecca. You were a bright lad, Galceran! It looked like you had a great future ahead of you. It’s a real shame that your lineage didn’t allow you to carry out the expectations that your family had of you.”

Restrain your wrath, Galceran, restrain your anger, I told myself, struggling not to throw myself at him and hit him squarely in the chest to cut off his breathing.

“It was a sweet time, yes,” he continued, finally sitting down on a rock. His horse snorted uneasily. “My companion Evrard … my poor companion Evrard and I commented at the time how far you would go when you were a man. Evrard was particularly convinced that we would hear a lot about you and a lot of good things. He thought very highly of you, freire. It was a shame that you were so pathetic.”

I didn’t move a muscle or say a word. I let him continue with his string of stupid memories that were nothing more than an evil ploy to weaken my position before getting into the ring. Luckily, he seemed to have run out of old accounts of my long-ago youth and was finally quiet and thoughtful. Perhaps it was due to his strong resemblance to my son — that’s what Jonas would look like when he was forty-five, I told myself, shaken —, but I stopped to look at him, and noticed the terrible signs of aging caused by the passing of time, of an increasing shortness of breath accompanied by a very flushed face and bloodshot eyes which left no doubt about the deadly illnesses he had inside him, although, unlike him, I refrained from saying anything. My strategy did not include refuting him before the fight.

“Well, my friend,” he said, raising his blue, bloodshot eyes, “you requested this meeting and here we are again, so speak.”

“I thought you’d never finish,” I muttered. “Did you need that preamble to feel better about yourself?”

He looked at me and smiled.

“Speak.”

It was my turn. The game was almost over and we were down to the last moves. There would be no more midnight flees or disguises. Now talent and quick-thinking prevailed.

“I’ll tell you what I want,” I began. “I want protecting from the Church and from the Hospital of St. John. I have no wish to return and I can’t so I am requesting that the Temple gives me a safe place to live with the woman and the boy. I don’t require provisions: I am perfectly capable of maintaining my family by working as a doctor. In addition to that protection, I also request that you put an end to your persecution once and for all and that you place us in a city or town in one of your territories in Portugal or Cyprus, or wherever suits you best. We will adopt new identities and you will let us live in peace, keeping us safe from the papal henchmen and the Hospitaller soldiers.”

Manrique looked at me in amazement, struck by surprise. I don’t know what the hell he thought I was going asking to ask him for but by the look on his face, he wasn’t expecting that. He suddenly let out one of his loud laughs.

“Good God, Galceran of Born! You always manage to surprise me. And why would we have to agree to such an extraordinary request? The Perquisitore begging the Temple for a little place to curl up in and die! I swear that I never expected that!”

“You will have to grant me my request for various reasons. First, because I have seen the Ark of the Covenant,” Manrique flinched involuntarily, “and I know where you keep it, and even if you have changed its hiding place, the mere fact that I know for sure that you have it could turn all of the Christian kingdoms in Europe against you, even those who have been merciful throughout the process.”

“I could kill you …,” he muttered, full of hate. “Anyway, how can I be sure that you haven’t already told the Papacy and the Hospital and all of this isn’t just a filthy trap? How can I know that the secret of the Ark will remain safe?”

“Killing me won’t do any good, sire, given that Sara and Jonas also know where it’s hidden and they would make sure to spread it to the four winds before you could catch up with them which would be very damaging for the Temple. With regards to whether I have kept the secret about the Ark, I have no evidence other than the stupidity and greed of His Holiness and my superiors: Do you really think that if I had told them about the Ark when we escaped from Las Medulas a month ago, they would have waited this long to send their armies to the underground tunnels of Bierzo? However much I would have begged for prudence and stealth (although I don’t know for what purpose), the tunnels would have been full of soldiers by now.”

Manrique remained silent.

“The second reason you will grant my request,” I said, without giving him any respite, “is that I know the way to find your gold inside out, and I’m not referring to the key of the Tau but to the method, the process you use to hide the gold. I know that that key isn’t the only one, that there are many others with similar characteristics, and I don’t think that it would take me too much work to figure them out. Although the truth is that I’m thinking I could carry on a little longer with the Tau, because it’s impossible that you could have changed the place of all the riches hidden under that sign already. On the other hand …,” I continued, “on the other hand, I know that the Temple not only has the Ark of the Covenant but also the treasure of the Temple of Solomon. Am I right?” Manrique’s face was a stone mask. “It has always been rumored that the Templars possessed both things, the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple treasure but it has never been proven. However, if you have one of them, which I know for a fact that you do, why wouldn’t you also have the other? I bet you anything you want that it’s also in Las Medulas since it’s the only place that guarantees the security necessary for something so valuable.”

“No one will ever find it,” he said grimly.

“I said before, Manrique,” I said quickly, “that I still have something else to offer you.”

“Speak, damn it! Get it out!”

“The parchment of keys.”

“The parchment of keys? What parchment of keys?”

“The parchment of keys that I found in the crypt of St. John of Ortega, a scroll of leather full of secretive signs and Latin texts written in Visigoth writing that begins with a verse from the Gospel of Matthew: ‘Nihil enim est opertum quod non revelabitur, aut occultum quod non scietur’. ‘There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing secret that will not be made known’.”

Even though I didn’t move a muscle on my face, inside my spirit was overflowing with satisfaction. I had won the game, I told myself proudly. Checkmate.

“Yes,” I declared, “that parchment of keys.”

Manrique of Mendoza’s stone mask had turned into the face of an incredulous man, overwhelmed, crushed under an incredible weight that had suddenly fallen upon his shoulders. The blood had left his cheeks and his eyes had begun to emit a glow of madness.

“No, it’s not possible.” he stuttered. “How …?

“Do you mean to say that you weren’t aware of its disappearance?” I asked innocently.

“There are only three copies,” he said, wiping his brow with his hand to dry the cold, stinking sweat. “There are only three copies in the whole world. And only two people know where those copies are: the Grand Master and the Commander of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, our advocate treasurer. Even I didn’t know that one of them had been hidden at the Church of St. John of Ortega.”

“Badly played,” I said, feigning regret. “I guess your Order is convinced that it has a foolproof security system.”

“There’s no doubt about it. But how did you know what it referred to?”

“The truth is that I only knew that it was a key code. As far as its content, I’m still not sure if it deals with something similar to a universal key that allows access to any of the Order’s secret places or if it’s just to reach the Ark of the Covenant and the Treasure of the Temple of Salomon. In any case, I know its worth, sire, and I repeat that I have it in my possession.”

“Do you have it on you? Let me see it.”

I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. Either Manrique thought I was a fool, or the indisputable fool was he. The surprise must have registered on my face because immediately after because Manrique began to laugh.

“Well!” he said with good humour. “I had to try! You would have done the same.”

“Let me clear something up for you,” I said angrily. “If I don’t return to Sara and Jonas today ….”

“Why do you always say her name first? Have you already made her yours?”

I lunged at Manrique, and before he had time to react, I punched him in the mouth. But if I had thought that the weakness of his heart was going to stop him from responding to my attack, I was very mistaken. He jumped on me like a bull and plunged his head into my stomach, doubling me over and leaving me breathless, following with a knee to my chin.

“Enough!” he shouted between gasps, taking an unsteady step backwards. “Enough!”

He had a split lip and blood was pouring from his chin.

“You sick bastard!” I spat at him from the ground, breathing heavily.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m following orders, you wouldn’t leave here alive!”

“Swine!” I said as I sat up with difficulty and regained my composure. I brushed off my clothes and looked at him defiantly. “If I don’t return today to Sara and Jonas, they have instructions to take the parchment to the Grand Hospitaller Commander of France, frey Robert of Arthus-Bertrand, Duque of Soyecout, who I’m sure you’ve heard of. However, if we manage to reach an agreement, I will personally give it to you as soon as the woman, the boy and myself are out of harm’s way.”

Manrique remained silent. His tired eyes scanned the cliff, stopping on the blurry figure of Martiño’s boat.

“She’s there, isn’t she?” he asked with a sudden sadness. It was then that I understood everything. He still loved Sara.

For the first time in my life, I felt the sting of jealousy wrapping itself around my heart. I wondered what she would think, what she would feel if she knew. Would she want to go back to him? Had she loved him more than she loved me? No, I told myself, Sara’s eyes didn’t know how to lie. Sara’s body would never lie.

“You have chosen freedom,” Manrique said finally. “I have always followed orders. We are living in difficult times and someone has to do the dirty work.”

“Do you accept my proposal?” I urged, getting back to the matter at hand. I was in a hurry to get back to Sara, to get out of that place.

“No.”

“No?”

I knew it could happen, I knew that the possibility existed but deep down in my heart I had wanted so much for everything to turn out well that I was taken aback.

“No?” I repeated with disbelief.

“No.”

He sat down heavily on the rock he had been using as a chair and looked at me.

“You have told me your needs and what you want from us. Now it’s my turn to tell you what the Temple wants from you.”

“Isn’t my silence enough, my disappearance, my handing over the parchment?”

“I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be interesting,” he smiled. “What’s more, I’m sure that my Order would have very much appreciated your offer to not interfere with other important elements. It would have been the easiest way to resolve a problem that’s keeping a large part of our forces occupied. But there’s something that the Order of the Temple needs above everything else, and without it there is no deal.”

“What do they want?”

“You, Galceran of Born. You.”

I didn’t think that I had understood him well, and went over his response several times in my head until a light came on deep in inside me.

“Me!”

“Don’t you think it’s time to eat something? The sun is high and we still have a lot to discuss. I’ve brought bread, cheese, dried fish, smoked bacon, apples and a good skin of wine. Would you like some?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Fine, well, allow me to eat something. The sea breeze is giving me an appetite.”

He ate little and quickly, and I nibbled on a bit of bread and left over cheese so he wasn’t eating alone even though I wasn’t in the mood. The wine, strong and transparent, calmed us down, and when we had finished the food we continued to talk.

“What does the Temple want from me? It would be crazy for you to ask that I take the Templar vows when I have just abandoned the Hospitaller vows!”

“The Temple doesn’t want you, Galceran of Born. The Temple wants Perquisitore.”

“But I am Perquisitore!” I replied indignantly.

“How many men like you do you think exist? None! You have made that very clear. Which is why we need you. We are not asking you to profess in our Order or for you to renounce the life you desire. We just want you to work with us and the payment in return will be everything you have asked for, and maybe much more, since we are convinced that a man like you will be generously rewarded for taking part in the projects we are working on.”

“How presumptuous! Your attitude only makes your offer sound less appealing.”

“Wait. I haven’t finished!”

His face reflected a deep satisfaction, a secret indulgence that I could not understand. Why should I give in to his demand? I had my weapons and I had laid them out: If they didn’t give me what I wanted, I would carry out my threat, and there would be no more to discuss, although I must admit that I was rather curious about Manrique’s offer.

“The General Chapter of the demised Order of the Temple, held a few days ago in Portugal, declared that gaining the collaboration of the Perquisitore was a priority for certain endeavors we are carrying out. You should know that Pope John XXII has authorized a new military Order in Portugal, the Order of the Knights of Christ.”

“He did authorize it in the end!”

“Ah, you have heard about it then? Well, so you know that the King of Portugal, Don Dinis, is an ardent ally of ours and with the formation of this new Order, which will be made official next year, he aims to facilitate our survival and return our Portuguese possessions which were legally given to him by the dissolute bull of Pope Clement V.