Part 17 (1/2)

Thomas hated Guy then, hated him more than ever, hated him even though his cousin was speaking low and reasonably, his voice filled with emotion. Tell me. Thomas said, what you want now.” Your friends.h.i.+p. Guy said.

Friends.h.i.+p!”

The Count of Berat is evil. Guy said. He's a bully, a fool, a man who ignores G.o.d. If you lead your men out of the castle I will turn on him. By nightfall, Thomas, you and I will be lords of this place, and tomorrow we shall go to Berat and reveal the Grail and invite all men of G.o.d to come to us.” Guy paused, watching Thomas's hard face for any reaction to the words. March north with me. he went on, Paris will be next. We shall rid ourselves of that foolish Valois King. We shall take the world, Thomas, and open it to the love of G.o.d. Think of it, Thomas! All the grace and beauty of G.o.d poured onto the world. No more sadness, no more sin, just the harmony of G.o.d in a world of peace.” Thomas pretended to think about it, then frowned. I'll attack Joscelyn with you,” he said, but I would want to talk with Abbot Planchard before I marched north.”

With Abbot Planchard?” Guy could not hide his surprise. Why?” Because he's a good man. Thomas said, and I trust his advice.” Guy nodded. Then I shall send for him. I can have him here by tomorrow.

Thomas felt such anger then that he could have attacked Guy with his bare fists, but he held the rage in check. You can have him here by tomorrow?” he asked instead.

If he'll come.

Doesn't have much choice, does he?” Thomas said, the fury in his voice now. He's dead, cousin, and you killed him. I was there, in the ossuary, hiding. I heard you!”

Guy looked astonished, then incensed, but he had nothing to say.

You lie like a child. Thomas said scornfully. You lie about one good man's death? Then you lie about everything. He turned and walked away.

Thomas!” Guy called after him.

Thomas turned back. You want the Grail, cousin? Then you fight for it. Maybe just you and me? You and your sword against me and my weapon.

Your weapon?” Guy asked.

The Grail. Thomas said curtly and, ignoring his cousin's pleas, walked back to the castle.

So what did he offer?” Sir Guillaume asked.

All the kingdoms of the earth. Thomas said.

Sir Guillaume sniffed suspiciously. I smell something holy in that answer.

Thomas smiled. The devil took Christ into the wilderness and offered him all the kingdoms of the earth if he would give up his mission.”

He should have accepted. Sir Guillaume said, and saved us a pile of trouble. So we can't leave?”

Not unless we fight our way out.”

The ransom money?” Sir Guillaume asked hopefully. I forgot to ask about it.”

Much b.l.o.o.d.y use you are. Sir Guillaume retorted in English, then he switched back to French and sounded more cheerful. But at least we have the Grail, eh? That's something!” Do we?” Genevieve asked.

The two men turned to her. They were in the upper hall, bare of furniture now because the table and stools had been taken down to reinforce the barricade in the courtyard. All that was left was the big iron-bound chest that had the garrison's money inside and there was plenty of that after a season of raiding. Genevieve sat on the chest; she had the beautiful golden Grail with its green cup, but she also had the box that Thomas had brought from Saint Sever's monastery, and now she took the cup from its golden nest and placed it in the box. The lid would not close because the gla.s.s cup was too big. The box, whatever it might have been made for, had not been made for this Grail. Do we have the Grail?” she asked, and Thomas and Sir Guillaume stared at her as she showed how the cup would not fit in the box.

Of course it's the Grail. Sir Guillaume said dismissively. Thomas went to Genevieve and took the cup. He turned it in his hands. If my father did have the Grail. he asked, how did it end up with Cardinal Bessieres's brother?”

Who?” Sir Guillaume demanded.

Thomas stared at the green gla.s.s. He had heard that the Grail in Genoa Cathedral was made of green gla.s.s, and no one believed that was real. Was this the same grail? Or another green gla.s.s fake? The man I took it from. he said, was the brother of Cardinal Bessieres, and if he already had the Grail, then what was he doing in Castillon d'Arbizon? He would have taken it to Paris, or to Avignon.

Sweet Jesus Christ. Sir Guillaume said. You mean that isn't real?” One way to find out. Thomas said, and he held the cup high. He saw the tiny specks of gold on the gla.s.s and he thought it was a beautiful thing, an exquisite thing, an old thing, but was it the real thing? And so he raised his hand higher, held the cup for another heartbeat and then let it drop to the floorboards. Where the green gla.s.s shattered into a thousand fragments. Sweet Jesus Christ. Sir Guillaume said,” sweet Jesus G.o.dd.a.m.ned b.l.o.o.d.y Christ.”

It was on the morning after the fire had burned out so much of Castillon d'Arbizon that the first people died. Some died in the night, some at dawn, and the priests were busy carrying the consecrated wafers to houses where they would offer the last rites. The shrieks of bereaved families were loud enough to wake Joscelyn who snarled at his squire to go and silence the wretched noise, but the squire, who slept on straw in a corner of Joscelyn's room, was s.h.i.+vering and sweating and his face had grown evil-looking dark lumps that made Joscelyn wince. Get out!” he shouted at the squire and then, when the young man did not move, he kicked him towards the door. Out! Out! Oh, Jesus! You shat yourself!

Get out!”

Joscelyn dressed himself, pulling breeches and a leather coat over his linen s.h.i.+rt. You're not ill, are you?” he said to the girl who had shared his bed.

No, lord.”

Then get me bacon and bread, and mulled wine.” Mulled wine?”

You're a serving girl, aren't you? So d.a.m.n well serve me, then clean up that d.a.m.ned mess.” He pointed at the squire's bed, then pulled on his boots and wondered why he had not been woken by the cannon which usually fired at c.o.c.k-crow. The loam in the gun's barrel set overnight and signor Gioberti was of the opinion that the dawn shot did the most damage, yet this morning it had still not been fired. Joscelyn strode into the parlour of the house, shouting for the gunner.

He's sick.” It was Guy Vexille who answered. He was sitting in a corner of the room, sharpening a knife and evidently waiting for Joscelyn. There is a contagion.”

Joscelyn strapped on his sword belt. Gioberti's sick?” Guy Vexille sheathed the knife. He's vomiting, my lord, and sweating. He has swellings in his armpits and groin.” His men can fire the d.a.m.ned gun, can't they?” Most of them are sick as well.”

Joscelyn stared at Vexille, trying to understand what he was hearing. The gunners are sick?”

Half the town seems to be sick,” Vexille said, standing. He had washed, put on clean black clothes and oiled his long black hair so that it lay sleek along his narrow skull. I heard there was a pestilence. he said, but I didn't believe it. I was wrong, G.o.d forgive me.” A pestilence?” Joscelyn was scared now.

G.o.d punishes us,” Vexille said calmly, by letting the devil loose, and we could not hope for a clearer sign from heaven. We have to a.s.sault the castle today, lord, seize the Grail and thus end the plague.”

Plague?” Joscelyn asked, then heard a timid knock on the door and hoped it was the serving girl bringing him food. Come in, d.a.m.n you,” he shouted, but instead of the girl it was Father Medous who looked frightened and nervous.

The priest went on his knees to Joscelyn. People are dying, lord,” he said.

What in G.o.d's name do you expect me to do?” Joscelyn asked. Capture the castle,” Vexille said.

Joscelyn ignored him, staring at the priest. Dying?” he asked helplessly.

Father Medous nodded. There were tears on his face. It is a pestilence, lord,” he said. They sweat, vomit, void their bowels, show black boils and they're dying.”

Dying?” Joscelyn asked again.

Galat Lorret is dead; his wife is ill. My own housekeeper has the sickness.” More tears rolled down Medous's face. It is in the air, lord, a pestilence.” He stared up at Joscelyn's blank, round face, hoping that his lord could help. It is in the air,” he said again, and we need doctors, my lord, and only you can command them to come from Berat.”

Joscelyn pushed past the kneeling priest, ducked out into the street and saw two of his men-at-arms sitting in the tavern door with swollen faces running with sweat. They looked at him dully and he turned away, hearing the wailing and screeching of mothers watching their children sweat and die. Smoke from the previous day's fire drifted thin through the damp morning and everything seemed covered in soot. Joscelyn s.h.i.+vered, then saw Sir Henri Courtois, still healthy, coming from Saint Gallic's church and he almost ran and embraced the old man in his relief. You know what's happening?” Joscelyn asked.

There is a pestilence, my lord.”

It's in the air, yes?” Joscelyn asked, s.n.a.t.c.hing at what Father Medous had told him.

I wouldn't know,” Sir Henri said tiredly, but I do know that more than a score of our men are sick with it, and three are already dead. Robbie Douglas is sick. He was asking for you, my lord. He begs you to find him a physician.”

Joscelyn ignored that request and sniffed the air instead. He could smell the remnants of the fires, the stench of vomit and dung and urine. They were the smells of any town, the everyday smells, yet somehow they seemed more sinister now. What do we do?” he asked helplessly.

The sick need help,” Sir Henri said. They need physicians.” And grave diggers, he thought, but did not say it aloud. It's in the air. Joscelyn said yet again. The stink was rank now, besieging him, threatening him, and he felt a tremor of panic. He could fight a man, fight an army even, but not this silent insidious reek. We go. he decided. Any man untouched by the disease will leave now. Now!”

Go?” Sir Henri was confused by the decision.