The Templar's Secret (The Templar Series) (23 page)

‘
Your Eminence, I . . . I can’t thank you enough!’ the priest gushed, his relief all too evident. ‘Tell me what must be done and . . . and I will see that your orders are carried out.’

Franco smiled, the priest having quit the field
without so much as raising his sword. ‘The Marqués de Bagá is an enemy of the Church and must be shown no mercy.’

None whatsoever.

To safeguard Christ’s Church, crusades had been launched, inquisitions ordered and bloody wars fought. And just as Franco was prepared to give of his own blood to protect the one true faith, he had no qualms about shedding the blood of an unrepentant heretic.

‘
Well played, Miss Miller,’ Caedmon complimented.

Edie, flintlock pistol in hand, walked over and ceded him custody of the weapon
.

The
nobleman glared at both of them. ‘I protest! This is an outrage!’

‘
Don Luis, I refuse to believe that a man who’s devoted so much time and effort into researching his Templar lineage is unaware of Fortes de Pinós’s voyage to the Malabar Coast in 1307 to retrieve the
Evangelium Gaspar
. This makes me think that you’ve been economical with the truth.’ Caedmon aimed the pistol at the older man’s chest. ‘I suggest that you reconsider your position and spill some valuable beans.’

‘
I can’t tell you what I don’t know.’

Caedmon
kept his gaze on the nobleman, searching for telltale signs – pupil dilation, averted gaze, indrawn breath – to determine if the wily bastard was being disingenuous. ‘It will be to your benefit to be forthcoming, Don Luis.’

‘
Is this where, in a sinister tone of voice, you inform me that if I don’t comply, you’ll put a bullet through my heart?’

‘
Ah! You know the drill.’ Caedmon smiled humorlessly. ‘That simplifies matters immensely. I’m all for efficiency.’ Glancing over at Edie, he said, ‘Would you kindly pull up the Chinon riddle on your iPad?’

Approaching the desk, computer in hand, Edie shot
Caedmon a chastising glare, clearly unhappy with his bully-boy tactics.

A bit too late for that
,
Caedmon thought sourly. She had, after all, commandeered the weapon.

‘
When your ancestor Fortes de Pinós was questioned by the Dominican inquisitor regarding the whereabouts of the
Evangelium Gaspar
,
this is the reply that he gave.’ Caedmon gestured to the iPad that Edie had placed on the desk in front of the Marqués. ‘Does this mean anything to you?’

The Marqués
made a big to-do of peering at the tablet computer. A moment later, shaking his head, he said, ‘It’s nonsensical gibberish.’

Undeterred,
Caedmon slowly recited the riddle. ‘“To see the house where Lucas dwelled, the faithful pilgrim sought the brother’s way. Setting forth from the lion’s castle, he dropped the French iron in a Spanish harbor.” Does any part of that strike a chord?’

‘
Your instrument is badly tuned. As I said, it’s complete rubbish. Nothing more than the ramblings of a man subjected to excruciating torture.’

Caedmon
might have agreed with the Marqués’s dismissive assessment had the rest of the transcript not been so lucid, each one of Fortes de Pinós’s replies pitch perfect. ‘As I’m running short on time and patience, I want you to –’

‘Hold the phone!’
Edie exclaimed suddenly. Standing near the fireplace, she excitedly gestured to a medieval jousting shield mounted above the mantelpiece. ‘The “lion’s castle” is right here on this shield!’

‘
Bloody hell! Are you serious?’ Still keeping the pistol trained on the nobleman, Caedmon strode over to the mantelpiece and examined the shield painted in bold shades of black, red and gold.

His jaw nearly came unhinged, a key piece of the puzzle having been in blatant view all along.
‘This jousting shield bears the coat-of-arms for the medieval Kingdom of Castile and Léon. Or “the lion’s castle” as Fortes de Pinós referred to it in his riddle.’

Hand tightening around the wooden pistol grip,
Caedmon stalked back to the desk. Under no circumstance could the Marqués have
not
known the significance of ‘the lion’s castle’. Originally two separate kingdoms, Castile and Léon were united in 1301. As the old man knew full well.

‘
An oversight on my part,’ the nobleman said blithely, having correctly deduced Caedmon’s thoughts. ‘Like most men, I don’t think clearly when I’m staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.’

Hearing that,
Caedmon’s pulse pounded furiously in both temples, inducing a nauseating burst of pain.

He took a deep breath. Then another. Until just a few moments ago, he’d not considered that Fortes de Pinós may have travel
led to the Iberian Peninsula before he was arrested in France and taken to Chinon Castle.

If that was the case, Fortes may have hidden the
Evangelium Gaspar
somewhere in the Kingdom of Castile and Léon.

And he reckoned the Marqués de Bagá
knew where precisely that might be.

‘
Don’t trifle with me, old man.’ He pressed the barrel against a pulsing blue vein in the Marqués’s left temple, severely tempted to thumb the hammer into the firing position.

‘
I refuse to cooperate with a disreputable English treasure hunter.’ The Marqués obstinately folded his arms over his chest; a Spanish Grandee standing his ground.

‘Allow me to correct an oversight;
I don’t seek the
Evangelium Gaspar
for fortune or fame.’ Lowering the half-cocked pistol, Caedmon retook his seat on the other side of the desk. ‘Seven days ago, a group of men working under the auspices of the Church kidnapped my daughter from her home in Fort Cochin, India,’ he said matter-of-factly, opting for honesty. ‘They have demanded the
Evangelium Gaspar
as ransom for her safe return.’

Clearly surprised, the Marqués de Bagá’s eyes opened wide. In that instant,
Caedmon saw a flicker of compassion.

‘
Is this true?’ The Marqués put the question to Edie.

She
nodded. ‘In fact, we had a run-in with one of her captors yesterday in Kottayam, India,’ she replied as she walked over and sat down in a vacant chair.

The Marqués swung his head back in
Caedmon’s direction. ‘How do you know that the kidnappers are Church operatives?’

‘
Not only do they take their marching orders from a Catholic priest, but all of the kidnappers have a Chi-Rho cross branded on the palm of the right hand.’

‘
In hoc signo vinces
,’ the Marqués murmured, clearly aware of the cross’s significance. An instant later, he pushed out a deep breath; a show of surrender. ‘To answer your earlier question, yes, I have heard of the
Evangelium Gaspar.
However, I don’t have it in my possession. To the best of my knowledge, the gospel is still cached where Fortes de Pinós hid it in December of 1307.’

‘
Did he hide it in the Kingdom of Castile and Léon?’ Edie asked, taking the question right out of Caedmon’s mouth.

‘
I believe that he did.’ The Marqués opened a desk drawer and removed a thick folder. ‘These are the evidentiary documents that I’ve compiled for my court case against the Vatican,’ he said as he removed a single sheet of parchment sheathed in a Mylar sleeve from the folder. ‘This is a letter written on December the eighth, 1307, by a Knights Templar named Rodrigo Yañez. He was the provincial Grand Master in the Kingdom of Castile and Léon. According to his missive, Fortes de Pinós asked for and was granted safe sanctuary at a Templar-owned estate.’

‘
Does the provincial Grand Master mention where the estate is located?’

‘
He does not.’ The Marqués handed Caedmon the letter for inspection. ‘He merely stipulates that it is located in the Kingdom of Castile and Léon.’

Caedmon
hurriedly scanned the Latin-scribed parchment. Just as the Marqués claimed, Rodrigo Yañez didn’t reveal the specific location of de Pinós’s safe sanctuary
.

‘
This letter proves that Fortes was on the Iberian Peninsula in late 1307,’ Caedmon said, handing the document back to the Marqués. ‘Yet, soon thereafter, he travelled to France. Whereupon, he was arrested by the king’s men and sent to Chinon Castle. In March of 1308, he died while held in captivity there.’ He drummed his fingertips on the desktop, trying to fit the pieces together. ‘According to the Chinon transcript, Fortes de Pinós attempted to use the
Evangelium Gaspar
to bribe King Philippe le Bel into releasing the Knights Templar.’

‘Knowing
that the French monarch had arrested so many of the Knights Templar, Fortes had reason to be leery,’ Edie remarked. ‘I’m guessing that he stashed the gospel in the Kingdom of Castile and Léon, knowing that he could later retrieve it if the king agreed to the swap.’

Caedmon
nodded, her premise having merit.
Turning his attention back to the Marqués, he said, ‘Because of the nature of your lawsuit against the Vatican, I presume that you’ve researched the known Templar holdings in Castile-Léon.’

Thumbing
through the open folder, the Marqués extracted a second document, a crisp photocopied sheet of paper. ‘This is a map of the medieval kingdom with all of the Templar-owned churches, castles, farms and fortresses marked.’

Interested to see the list,
Caedmon took the proffered sheet of paper.

‘
As you can see, the list of known Templar properties in the Kingdom of Castile and Léon is extensive.’

‘
Good God!’ Caedmon exclaimed, stunned. ‘There are at least sixty properties indicated on this map. I had no idea that the Knights Templar had owned so much real estate in the one kingdom.’ It would take weeks, if not months, to search each and every holding. ‘Is there any way to narrow the list?’

The Marqués made no reply.
A silence that spoke volumes.

Caedmon
raised the flintlock, the old man trying to fob him off with a lie of omission. ‘Tell me what I want to know and you’ll live to fight another day.’

The ploy worked, the Marqués acquiescing with a terse nod. ‘
While the Spanish Templars weren’t arrested en masse, the pope did send an apostolic inquisitor to the Iberian Peninsula to investigate the Order. Fearing the worst, Rodrigo Yañez asked a Castilian prince to take possession of four Templar fortresses in Castile-Léon.’

‘And what reason did the Grand Master have for doing this?’

‘Yañez deeded the properties to the prince in order to safeguard those particular fortresses from the covetous papal emissaries.’

‘I guess you know what the next question is going to be.’ Edie leaned forward in her chair. ‘Which four properties made the cut
?’

‘
Alcañicies, San Pedro de Latarce, Ponferrada and Faro,’ the nobleman replied, tapping his fingertip on four different locations on the medieval map.

‘Why these four?’
Caedmon inquired, certain now that Fortes de Pinós had hidden the
Evangelium Gaspar
at one of the four fortresses.

The Marqués shrugged. ‘I presume it was because a piece of the
Lignum Crucis
was safeguarded at each fortress.’

Edie glanced over at
Caedmon. ‘Since you’re my Latin go-to guy, I’ll ask you: what’s a
lignum crucis
?’

‘It’s Latin for “the
True Cross”,’ Caedmon replied. ‘Pieces of which were brought to Spain from the Holy Land.’

‘“
Lignum cruces arbor scientiae”
,’ the Marqués recited solemnly. ‘“The wood of the cross is the tree of knowledge.”’ Pronouncement made, he grasped the joystick and navigated the motorized wheelchair to the sideboard on the other side of the room.