Kate Mosse - Labyrinth

“Raoul?”

“The boy who found you in the orchard.” Esclarmonde gave a wry smile. “He has gained some notoriety since the attack on you, aggrandising his own role to the point that if you heard him speak, you would think he had taken on the armies of Saladin single-handed to save your life.”

“I have no memory of him at all,” said Alais, shaking her head. “Did he see anything, do you think?”

Esclarmonde shrugged. “I doubt it. You had been missing more than a day before the alarm was raised. I cannot believe Raoul witnessed the actual attack otherwise he would have spoken up earlier. Anyway, the stranger approached Raoul and took him to the taberna Sant Joan dels Evangelis . He plied him with ale, flattered him. Raoul is but a boy for all his talk and swagger, and a rather dull-witted one at that, with the result that by the time Gaston was shutting up for the night, Raoul was incapable of putting one foot in front of the other. His companion offered to see him safely to his lodgings.”

Yes?“

“Raoul never arrived home. Nor has he been seen since.”

“And the man?”

“Vanished, as if he had never been. In the tavern, he claimed to be from Alzonne. While you were in Besiers, I travelled there. No one had heard of him.”

“So we can learn nothing from that quarter.”

Esclarmonde shook her head. “How came it that you were in the courtyard that time of night?” she said. Her voice was calm and steady, but there was no mistaking the serious intent behind her words.

Alais told her. When she had finished, Esclarmonde was silent for a moment.

There are two questions,“ she said in the end. ”The first is who knew that you had been summoned to your father’s presence, for I do not believe that your assailants were there by chance. The second is, presuming they were not the instigators of the plot, for whom were they acting?“

“I told no one. My father advised me against it.”

“Francois brought the message.”

Yes,“ admitted Alais, ”but I cannot believe Francois would-“

“Any number of servants might have seen him come to your chamber and overheard you talking.” She fixed Alais with her direct and intelligent stare. Why did you follow your father to Besiers?“

The change of subject was so sudden, so unexpected, that it took Alais by surprise.

“I was-” she began, sombre, but careful. She had come to Esclarmonde to find out answers to her questions. Instead, she found herself instead the witness. “He gave me a token,” she said, not taking her eyes from Esclarmonde’s face, “a token, with an engraving of a labyrinth. It was that the thieves took. Because of what my father had told me, I feared that every day that passed in ignorance of what had come to pass, might jeopardise the-‘ She broke off, not sure how to continue.

Instead of looking alarmed, Esclarmonde was smiling. “Did you tell him about the board too, Alais?” she said softly.

“On the eve of his departure, yes, before… before the attack. He was much perturbed, especially when I admitted I did not know where it had come from.” She paused. “But how do you know that I-”

“Sajhe saw it when he helped you buy cheese in the market and told me of it. As you remarked, he is observant.”

“It is a strange thing for a boy of eleven to remark upon.”

“He recognised its importance to me,” Esclarmonde replied.

“Like the merel !

Their eyes met.

Esclarmonde hesitated. “No,” she said, choosing her words with care. “No, not exactly.”

“You have it?” said Ala’is slowly.

Esclarmonde nodded.

“But why did you simply not ask? I would have given it willingly.”

“Sajhe was there the night of your disappearance to make just such a request. He waited and waited and when, finally, you still did not return your chamber, he took it. In the circumstances, it was good that he did.”

“And you have it still?”

Esclarmonde nodded.

Alais felt a surge of triumph, proud that she had been right about her the last guardian.

I saw the pattern. It spoke to me.

“Answer me this, Esclarmonde,” she said, her excitement making her hurry. “If the board belongs to you, why did my father not know it?”

Esclarmonde smiled. “For the same reason he does not know why I have it. Because Harif wished it. For the safety of the Trilogy.”

Alais couldn’t trust herself to speak.

“Good. So, now we understand one another, you must tell me all you know.”

Esclarmonde listened carefully until Alais had reached the end of her story.

“And Simeon is making his way to Carcassona?”

“Yes, although he gave to my father the book for safekeeping.”

“A wise precaution.” She nodded. “I shall looking forward to making his acquaintance properly. He always seemed a fine man.”

“I liked him enormously,” admitted Alais. “In Besiers, my father was disappointed to discover Simeon had but one of the books. He was expecting both.”

Esclarmonde was about to answer when there was a sudden hammering on the shutters and door.

Both women leaped to their feet.

“Atencion! Atencion!”

“What is it? What’s going on?” cried Alais.

“Soldiers! In your father’s absence, there have been a number of searches.”

“But what are they looking for?”

“Criminals, they say, but in truth for Bons Homes !

“But on whose authority do they act? The consuls?”

Esclarmonde shook her head. “Berenger de Rochefort, our noble Bishop; the Spanish monk Domingo de Guzman and his friar preachers; legates, who can say? They do not announce themselves.”

That’s against our laws to-“

Esclarmonde raised a finger to her lips. “Sssh. They might yet pass us by.”

At that moment, a savage kick sent splinters of wood flying into the room. The latch gave and the door smashed back against the stone wall with a hollow thud. Two men-at-arms, their features concealed by helmets worn low over their faces, burst into the room.

“I am Alais du Mas, the daughter of Intendant Pelletier. I demand to know on whose authority you act.”

They did not lower their weapons nor raise their visors.

“I insist that you-”

There was a flash of red in the doorway and to Alais’ horror, Oriane appeared in the doorway. “Sister! What brings you here in this manner?”

“I come at our father’s request to escort you back to the Chateau Comtal. Your somewhat hasty departure from Vespers has already reached his ears. Fearing some catastrophe might have overtaken you, he bid me find you.”

You are lying.

“He would never think such a thing unless you had planted the idea in his head in the first place,” she said immediately. Alais glanced at the soldiers. “And was it his idea to bring an armed guard?”

“We all have your best interests at heart,” she said, smiling slightly.

They were, I admit, perhaps overzealous.“

“There is no need for you to concern yourself. I will return to the Chateau Comtal when I am ready.”

Alais suddenly realised Oriane wasn’t paying attention. Her eyes were sweeping around the room. Alais felt a hard cold feeling in her stomach.

Could Oriane have overheard their conversation?

Immediately, she changed tactics. “On second thoughts, perhaps I will accompany you now. My business here is concluded.”

“Business, sister?”

Oriane started to prowl around the room, running her hand over the backs of the chairs and the surface of the table. She opened the lid of the chest standing in the corner, then let it fall shut with a snap. Alais I watched her anxiously.

She halted on the threshold of Esclarmonde’s consulting room. “What is it you do through there, sorciere ,” Oriane said contemptuously, acknowledging Esclarmonde for the first time. “Potions, spells for the weak-minded?” She put her head inside, a look of disgust on her face, then withdrew. There are many who say you are a witch, Esclarmonde de Servian, a faitilhier as the common people say.“