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man of incalculable wealth and far-ranging influence, de Nogaret had been feared and
courted by all lesser men, his political powers such that no one had ever succeeded in
defying him with impunity. Not even the Knights Templar.
His were the promptings that had emboldened Philippe le Bel to launch his assault on the
Order, a campaign which had resulted in its official dissolution. Within the revelations of
The Dream, Gerard de Nogaret had presided over the trials and torments of many a
Knight Templar, and had heard the testimony which convicted a number of them of
sorcery and sodomy. Waking as well as sleeping, Gerard had come to believe unshakably
in the Templar s guilt, and had shaped his academic career accordingly in this life. Little
had he suspected that there might be more to the story - until his association with Nathan
Fiennes revealed the existence of the Seal, and his further research for Fiennes had
prompted him to go looking for new documentary material that might pertain specifically
to Templar treasures denied to Philippe and de Nogaret centuries ago, but perhaps still
accessible to Henri Gerard.
The Dream had hinted at such wonders - and had led Gerard not only to the hitherto
undiscovered testimony of Renault le Clerque, which he foolishly had shared with
Fiennes, but to two additional unpublished depositions Gerard had since discovered,
wherein both the witnesses in question had sworn to the existence of a mysterious coffer
which the Templars had guarded with ceaseless vigilance since the days of their
founding. This coffer, they asserted, was sealed shut by magic, and could only be opened
by the guardian of the Seal. One of the witnesses had speculated that the coffer contained
a small trove of choice treasures more valuable than all the rest of the Templars property
put together: books of magic and implements of sorcery which had enabled the Order to
become the single richest, most powerful organization in all the known world. De
Nogaret would have been aware of the depositions; perhaps, Gerard allowed, their
promise of wealth was part of what had led de Nogaret to urge the King to attack the
Order. But no coffer or any other great Templar treasure had ever been found. When the
seneschals of the French King broke into the former Templar strongholds, they had found
the treasuries empty. Apparently no one, not even de Nogaret himself in those days, had
suspected what Gerard had since discovered - that the Seal of Solomon and the secret and
treasure it guarded were the key to the mystery. After a lapse of nearly seven hundred
years, Gerard was about to succeed where he had failed as de Nogaret - and his fortunes
were to be raised to a height even beyond that of his predecessor.
For he had the Seal. Now all he needed to do was locate the casket. Between the research
Nathan Fiennes had carried out and the information Gerard had since been able to
assemble, all the evidence indicated that the coffer and its contents, like the Seal itself,
had been spirited away to Scotland for safekeeping when the Templar fleet fled France.
Gerard was convinced that he was getting close now. So far he lacked any specific clues
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to its whereabouts, but fortunately there were ways of getting at the truth without
resorting to Nathan s painfully pedestrian methods of investigation. Gerard had not spent
all his time merely poring over obscure, mouldering manuscripts for historical snippets;
he had studied as well, with some of the finest if most amoral minds on the Continent.
He rewrapped the Seal in its silken swaddlings and laid it in front of him on the coffee
table. Then he reached for the topmost of the two ancient books he had brought with him.
It was a treatise, in Hebrew, on the art and practice of Qabalistic divination. Nathan
Fiennes, he knew, would never, ever have profaned the Qabalah as he proposed to do.
But Nathan was dead, and Gerard had staked his remaining fortunes on the success of
this present, all-important gambit& .
chapter ten
THE next day was Friday. Up at Strathmourne, Adam finished his usual light breakfast
while he cast his eyes over the headlines in The Scotsman, waiting for a decent hour to
phone someone he did not know, then dialled the Inverness number of Fiona Morrison at
nine o clock precisely. There had been no answer the night before, but a woman s voice
answered cheerily on the third ring.  Oh, yes, Sir Adam, she said, when Adam had
identified himself.  Miss Oriani said you d be ringing. If you tried last night, I m sorry I
missed your call. I m a light sleeper, so I unplug the phone before I go to bed. I
understand you d like to see the Dundee ring.
 Indeed, I would, Miss Morrison, Adam replied.  I believe Miss Oriani may have
mentioned that I m writing an article for the Royal Society of Antiquaries. I wonder,
would it be convenient if I drove up this afternoon to have a look at the ring?
 Oh, no, I couldn t possibly let you do that, she replied.  My niece is bringing her
children over after school, and I haven t seen them for months. Besides, I was already
planning to be in Edinburgh at the weekend for a Templar investiture, she added, just as
Adam was drawing breath to try another tack.  Perhaps we could meet somewhere and
I ll show it to you. You do know, of course, that Pundee was a Knight Templar? It s said
he was wearing the Grand Cross of the Order when he died at Killiecrankie.
 Yes, I d heard that story, Adam said,  and if you re already coming down to
Edinburgh, that would be absolutely splendid. As a matter of fact, I d been planning to
attend that investiture myself. It s the one at St. Mary s Cathedral tomorrow afternoon?
 Yes, that s the one. Yes, of course I ll bring the ring to show - oh, dear, there s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]