The Key (32 page)

He swept the torch beam across the recess and felt his galloping hope trip inside him. Apart from the neat parcel of human remains in the centre, the niche was completely empty. He checked the neighbouring recesses: all empty save for the same neat parcels and grinning skulls that mocked him with their smiles. He examined the walls, the floor, the ceiling. All spotless and cut from solid rock, so there was no chance Oscar might have buried it.

He turned his attention back to the only thing remaining in recess XIV – the wrapped package of bones beneath the skull. He had initially ignored it because it looked too small, but having eliminated all other possibilities, it was the only place the Starmap could now be. He reached in and picked it up.

‘Please,’ Athanasius said, ‘do not disturb the relics.’

Gabriel would happily have ignored him, but the moment he lifted the loose parcel he could tell it was far too light to contain what he was looking for. Whatever Oscar had hidden here, over ninety years earlier, was gone: someone else must have found it. He placed the bundle carefully back down on the shelf, and ran his hand over the cold, clean stone.

‘Why is it so tidy here?’

‘These are the oldest remains in the ossuary – the first prelates of the mountain. Their great age has caused them to crumble almost to dust, which can drift away on the slightest breath. It was decided by an order of council that their remains should be protected.’

‘When was this?’

‘Around ten years ago.’

Gabriel nodded. Ten years too late. ‘Is there anyone else who comes down here?’

‘Only the Sanctus novitiate. As part of their preparation for office, each apprentice spends time here, contemplating their position as the latest link in an unbroken line stretching back to the very beginning. These catacombs are effectively a giant reliquary and the bones of the prelates are relics themselves, sanctified by long proximity to the ultimate relic of all – the Sacrament. As these are the remains of the very first prelates, the founding fathers of the Citadel, they are the most sacred of all. That is why the novices come here to pray.’

This explained how Oscar had managed to smuggle the Starmap here in the first place. He had been apprenticed to the order of the Sancti before he had escaped. He could have brought it here and hidden it during his silent devotions, safe in the knowledge that few others ever ventured here. Until they decided to tidy the place up.

‘Would there be any record of these renovations?’

‘All works are catalogued and kept in the archives of the great library. But the library is still closed. I could probably gain access, but not until after Matins at the earliest, and it won’t be straightforward. The archives are huge.’

Gabriel let out a frustrated sigh, remembering the sliver of moon he had seen through the huge cave window, getting imperceptibly smaller with each passing hour. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPhone. ‘Time is the one thing we don’t have,’ he said, tapping it and handing it over to Athanasius. The screensaver was a photograph of the page in Oscar’s diary containing the Mirror Prophecy. Athanasius took it and started to read.

The air in the cathedral cave tasted sweet after the decay of the crypt.

‘We’d better hurry,’ Athanasius said, moving towards the main door, ‘the devotional rota will be changing soon and the corridors will not be so empty. I’ll take you back a quicker way.’

They retraced their steps through the winding maze of the mountain, cutting corners here and there, taking them past dormitories of snoring monks and private chapels where others prayed. Gabriel hung back as before, his head bowed low, his cowl covering his face, distancing himself from Athanasius in case they were stopped. They had almost made it back to the tribute cave when they both heard it – a low moan, rolling through the darkness like the tortured cries of a trapped animal. They stopped and listened to it rising in intensity before quickly ebbing away. Then they heard footsteps. In the echoing confines of the tunnel it was impossible to tell which direction they were coming from. Gabriel sank into the shadows of a doorway and felt for his gun as a figure in a red robe appeared behind him and swept past towards Athanasius.

‘You must come with me,’ the monk said.

‘Come where?’

‘The infirmary. Brother Simenon ordered me to find you. He says it’s urgent.’

Another chilling moan rose up from somewhere deep in the mountain. ‘Very well,’ Athanasius replied. ‘I was just on my way up these stairs to drop the new rota off at the tribute cave, but I suppose that can wait.’

Gabriel pressed himself against the upright of the door and watched the red-cloaked monk escort Athanasius away down the passage, taking the meagre light of his oil lamp with them. In the utter blackness he listened to their fading footsteps until they had melted into silence then stepped back into the corridor and carried on the way they had been heading. He palmed the torch from his pocket and twisted it on, smothering most of the light with his hand. Up ahead he could see a stone staircase branching off from the main tunnel, hopefully the ones Athanasius’s cryptic instruction had alluded to.

After a few minutes of climbing he felt cold night air flowing from his left and followed it all the way to the tribute cave. He stripped out of the monk’s cassock, left it folded on a low shelf and headed to the edge of the hatch. He hooked the bell rope with a length of construction timber stacked in one of the storage bays. His arms were still heavy and weak, but at least gravity would be on his side this time. He slipped the gloves back on and hauled on the rope to take the tension.

He had climbed up here hoping to find a map that would lead them to a sacred and ancient ending. He was leaving with nothing more than the slimmest of hopes that Athanasius might pick up the cold trail, somewhere in the archives. Gabriel looked out into the moonlit night, knowing that Liv was out there somewhere. He had promised he would not let her down, yet he had consistently failed. He had not been able to protect her, and he had not managed to find the one thing that might ensure her deliverance from the prophetic sequence she was locked in. With this thought weighing him down he wrapped the rope round his leg and stepped off the platform, slipping into the night like a man slowly being hanged.

By the time Athanasius reached the stairway leading to the infirmary, the sound he had heard in the upper section of the mountain had turned into a chorus of the damned. It grew louder with every step until it took all his nerve to continue his descent towards it. He could hear ragged words in the noise now, words of lament and pity, with ‘forgive me’ being the most repeated.

He was met at the bottom of the stairs by a guard wearing a white surgical mask that stood out against the raised cowl of his red cassock. Another masked guard stood by the door to the main ward – the place where all the noise was coming from. As Athanasius drew closer the guard held a mask out for him and watched in silence as he put it on. Only then did he step up to the door and knock on it loud enough to be heard above the din. There was the sound of a bolt being released from inside, then the door began to open.

The scene that greeted Athanasius was a depiction of hell. The eight beds he had seen earlier were now in complete disarray, strewn haphazardly across the floor where the thrashing occupants had shunted them with their violent contortions. Each monk had been stripped to the loincloth and bound to his bed as Brother Gardener had been. All displayed the same symptoms: dense rashes of boils over most of their skin, gouge marks where they had flailed at their flesh before being restrained, and the constant and woeful lamenting that accompanied their suffering.

The loudest cries came from a bed near the door whose occupant had managed somehow to shrug off his restraints and was now clawing at his flesh with his freed hand, dragging his nails across a rash of boils that burst and bled, causing him to howl in a mixture of agony and relief. Two Apothecaria were attempting to pin him down, their blue nitrile gloves struggling to grip on to skin made slick by the brownish liquid that oozed from the burst pustules. A third aimed a syringe at the flailing upper arm, swaying in time to the movement until he finally managed to jab it home. The mask of twisted torment melted away as the sedative took effect, revealing the face of the young, frightened monk Athanasius had seen earlier.

He turned and met Brother Simenon’s eyes, staring at him from the gap between his mask and cowl.

‘All the trees, you said.’

Athanasius nodded. ‘All the trees.’

‘And has the blight returned to the garden?’

Athanasius shook his head. ‘Not the last time it was inspected.’

‘So you would agree that the containment worked.’ Athanasius nodded. ‘And you would naturally advocate a similar procedure to help contain the potential spread of the human manifestation of this disease?’

Despite the fevered heat of the room, Athanasius felt a chill as he realized why he had been summoned here. ‘You think I should be quarantined?’

‘Not just you. The only people who have contracted this sickness so far have been those who spent time in the infected parts of the garden and dealt directly with the diseased material. And you were there, as were the other heads of the guilds. You all stood in the garden, inspecting the rotten material, possibly even handling it, while you decided what to do about the blight.’

Athanasius thought back to the two silent guards who had greeted him outside. He had initially thought they had been posted there to keep people out. Now he realized the truth. They were there to keep them in. ‘But if I had been infected, surely I would be displaying symptoms by now?’

‘Not necessarily. Your exposure was limited, so it could be working more slowly within you. These men all had extended and uncontained exposure; and quantity is a key factor in cases of acute mycosis. If there were any other way to do this I would suggest it, but we cannot risk this thing spreading further. All those who may have been contaminated must remain segregated for at least four days and under strict observation. Provided no symptoms present themselves within that time, we can safely assume that the infection has been contained. Otherwise …’ He let the thought hang. ‘If it makes you feel any better, I myself, together with my staff, will remain here too for the duration of the quarantine period.’

Athanasius saw the logic of this, but it presented a problem. The quarantine would mean a four-day delay before he could check through the records on Gabriel’s behalf – always assuming he didn’t end up strapped to a bed or worse. This thought raised another question and, though he feared the answer, he had to ask: ‘How is Brother Gardener?’

‘I’m afraid Brother Gardener died shortly after you last saw him. He suffered massive organ failure caused by his chronic infection. The pustules you see on the skin are also present internally. Violent physical activity bursts them and floods the body with toxins. When the levels get too high, the organs simply shut down.’

Athanasius looked again at the writhing bodies strapped to the beds and imagined the boils running right through their flesh, the same boils that might now be forming in his own body.

‘And where are we to be kept? There is no room here and proximity to those already infected would surely negate the point of a quarantine.’

‘The guards are making arrangements. Myself and the staff will occupy the remaining isolation caves. I’m sure they will come up with something appropriate.’

Athanasius’s mind raced ahead, seeing an opportunity in his imminent isolation. ‘Might I make a suggestion? The library is close by and accessible without the need for passing through the more populated areas of the mountain. We could turn one of the reading rooms into a makeshift ward for the duration without too much disruption. No one is using it at the moment and its sealed nature and climate-control systems will ensure the air we breathe will not contaminate the rest of the mountain.’

Simenon nodded. ‘I will propose it. In the meantime, you should leave this room and wait outside in the corridor. The other heads have been sent for. I wanted to talk to you first as I knew you would see the sense and logic of it and possibly help me convince the others.’

‘Of course.’

As if on cue, the sound of someone pounding on the door cut through the moaning and Simenon opened it to discover a bewildered Brother Axel standing outside. Athanasius slipped from the room and put his hand on Axel’s shoulder, turning him away from the terrible sights inside.

Axel shrugged free and stared into his face with thinly disguised anger. ‘Do you see what you have done?’ he said. ‘You have brought a plague down upon us.’

‘Let us hope not,’ Athanasius replied. ‘For both our sakes, let us pray it proves to be something else.’

Strong winds over the Atlantic had pushed the white dove on the tail of the DC-9 swiftly on its flight towards the furthest edge of Europe. It landed at Gaziantep International a little ahead of schedule at two fifty a.m.

At three minutes past three, a loader pulled up to the plane and raised its platform to the passenger door. Two things were loaded on to it: a box, roughly the same shape and size as a coffin, and a large, blond man dressed in black, who laid his hand flat on the box, as though he were making a pledge on an oversized Bible. The loader lowered them to a waiting van, its rear doors already open, the key in the ignition. Unassisted, the man slid the box off the loading platform and into the back of the van, then slammed the doors and headed for the driver’s seat. He turned the key in the ignition and the robotic voice of the sat-nav gave him the first direction of the pre-programmed route. Four minutes later he was easing the van through the security gate and on to the service road that ran round the perimeter fence. It took him to the main road leading away from the airport and up into the mountains towards the city of Ruin.

He made it through the mountain pass and entered the outskirts of the city at exactly half past three. The flat voice from the dashboard guided him on to the great wide Eastern Boulevard then on to the inner ring-road that circled the old town and took him to the northeastern section, known as the Umbrasian Quarter. Nine minutes later he had reached his destination.