John Schettler - Anvil of Fate

“Well,” the Abbot continued, “we got most of the important work safely off to the keeping of the Bishop at Maastricht. What you see here are the inconsequential remains. This Abbey has already stood for 360 years since it was built by St. Martin. It wasn’t supposed to suffer any serious threat until the year 853 when the Normans sacked it, a pox upon them. That’s over 480 years where it stands as a bulwark of Christendom, a growing cultural treasure, and a perfect base of operations here. Then this business took a sudden turn for the worst and it seems we could have a problem now, if we don’t get it sorted out. In a matter of hours.”

“I see,” said Nordhausen. “Then you’ve found the final Pushpoint? You know what needs to be done?”

“We have some ideas, but here,” the Abbot gestured to an open scroll lying on a table. “This is the item we’ve secured, and we believe it may hold the key to unraveling the remainder of this mystery.”

Nordhausen leaned in, moving a candle to get better light on the scroll. “I should have brought along my reading glasses,” he said quietly. “Ms. Linford would not hear if it. That woman can be insufferable at times, but I’m afraid we are much in her debt this time around.”

“The intervention she effected on St. Lambert was regrettable, but nonetheless astounding,” said Emmerich. “How did she manage it, we wonder?”

Robert immediately recognized the writing on the scroll. “Well it all seems to revolve around these lines here,” Nordhausen pointed at the scroll. “This is a rubbing from the stone that was uncovered at Rosetta—the altered stela. We believe it contains instructions concerning the events surrounding this battle. You see these characters? They are at times phonetic, and at other times symbolic. You may get an obvious correlation of a pictogram with some object, but they can also be used phonetically in combinations and with specific determinatives and rules. It’s this bit here…”

He ran his finger along a line of hieroglyphics, reading: “The weave undone… A loose twine… where horses were brought to gather… by the water’s edge.” That last phrase was not on the stela until Maeve began her intervention. Mr. Dorland and I returned to discover this, and sent the information on to Maeve.”

“The apple!” said the Abbot, smiling.

“Which reminds me…” Robert reached in his pocket and fished out the apple Maeve had handed him just before he left. “Compliments of Ms. Linford,” he said. “Yes. Our Maeve managed to sort it all out. That last line led her to the ferry site by the river where Lambert was slain. The riders gathered there by the river’s edge, and it was the simple act of loosening the twine that held the ferry in place that prevented Lambert’s safe escape over the Meuse. How she managed it amazes me as well.”

The Abbot was listening carefully, his brow knit with thought. “And this segment?”

“Let me see… Ah, it reads: ‘Hold them fast… those who drink the wind… lest they trample thy endeavor and the host is made to flee…’ We first believed this to be a reference to the horses the Arabs took while pillaging their way to the site of the battle. In fact, we had an intervention planned and reconnoitered the location we suspected these animals might be located. Our thought was that some sort of stampede or other commotion in Arab camp was instrumental in deciding the outcome of this battle. Yet, when Paul shifted in, there was no sign of a battle at all! Could we have selected the wrong date? Was it October 25 of this year?”

“Unfortunately, the site migrated north after the Assassins found a way to spare Lambert, and very near the Abbey here. Abdul Rahman did not approach via the old Roman road. So if you shifted there you would have seen nothing of interest. But all that has changed again after your intervention! At least that is what I am told through messages we have received in recent weeks. The battle will now be fought at Moussais, just south of this place on the road to Poitiers, on the eve of Ramadan, as our historians agree. If Mr. Dorland were to go and have a look now he would be right on target. Your interventions haven’t resolved the issue entirely yet, but you’ve given it a firm nudge in the right direction.” He smiled. “Anything that keeps those heathens from these hallowed walls is a most welcome reprieve. But what you have told me is very enlightening… Those who drink the wind? I don’t understand. What do you make of it?”

“Arabian horses,” said Nordhausen, “or at least a generic reference to horses. Note these three recurring symbols…” He explained the function of a cartouche, the indication of the name Kuhaylan with its meaning as one of the five primary breeds of Arabian horses.

The Abbot thought hard for a time, clearly impressed by the new information he was receiving. “And this last line?”

“It reads: ‘For the unseen one that comes in the dusk shall unseat all….” Robert concluded, folding his arms. “ Given the earlier references to horses, I thought that might refer to Dodo on the night he was to kill the Bishop Lambert. Then I came to believe it was a reference to Maeve, riding at dusk to secure that steed and make her intervention, or even to Paul sneaking in to deal with Grimwald.”

“Steed? Our researchers do not mention this.”

“We made some assumptions,” said Robert. “Call them educated guesses, but they seemed reasonable at the time. The Chronicles placed Dodo at a banquet in a citadel on the day he was to murder Lambert at his villa in Leodium. We reasoned that citadel had to be at Heristal.”

“Heristal? Well, it has been reinforced in places, but there are no real substantial fortifications there that could deter any determined assault. But that aside, your assumption was correct. The Lady Alpaida was holding forth there that year, and we had Agents in Place listening in on that banquet, but we were comforted that Dodo was determined to avenge the wrongs against his family. Oh, a whisper here and a rumor there helped in that. Stirring the pot, as it were.”

“Well,” the professor went on, “we asked ourselves how the other side could deter Dodo and fixated on a line from an Arabic source about a mishap he had on the road. Our thought was that he was injured in a fall from a horse—a willful beast described in that chronicle. It was said this horse could be known by his eye, and the fire of his hooves, and Maeve believe this referred to this particular breed of Arabian horse. Since the hieroglyphics mention the name Kuhaylan in places,“ he pointed, “we went looking for that horse.”

“Ingenious!” said the Abbot, “But Dodo’s mishap was that his horse came up lame on the road and he was delayed—at least before Ms. Lindford made her intervention. If your source was Arabic, all the rest of that story was probably fabricated by the writer, a fable to cast mythic light on the event, or possibly even deliberate disinformation seeded in the history by the other side. We believe the Assassins had something to do with enfeebling that horse, however, but that doesn’t make for much of a tale.”

“Well we assumed he would look for another mount,” said Nordhausen. “And we thought this temperamental Arabian might fill the bill nicely, suspiciously planted at a roadside farm by our adversaries, and the loose twine mentioned on the stela would be the rein on that horse.”

“Splendid!” said the Abbot, “but we scoured that road for any sign of mischief, and could not seem to locate anything that could possibly become a viable Pushpoint. We did suspect something was amiss on one of the farms near Lambert’s Villa. There was an uncharacteristic gathering of horses there, and we could not see that the farmer had sufficient wealth to afford them. Perhaps they were trying to round up anything Dodo could have secured as an alternate mount. As it reads now, Dodo did manage to find another horse. It was a simple solution for us. We just put a man on that road with a horse for him, and got him merrily on his way again. As a counter operation, our adversaries were planning to warn Lambert directly, and bring him fresh horses to make good his escape. That was risky, but it would have worked if not for Ms. Linford.”