The Lafayette Sword Read Online Free Page B

in the fireplace sounded like bones breaking.
    â€œYou have a grand reputation, sir,” the lord said. “The Dominicans who employ you praise your powers of persuasion. It’s said that you track lies to the depths of the flesh and that none can resist your skilled hands. Is t his true?”
    â€œI do my duty, milord, for the greater glor y of God.”
    â€œGod? Are you so sure? But never mind. I’m not here to discuss God. I’m here to discuss the prisoner who’s waiting for you. What did the Dominicans tell you?”
    â€œThat I was to help a heretic who refused to confess his mista ken ways.”
    â€œYou were to help him by tortu ring him?”
    â€œBy punishing impure flesh, by tormenting the error-prone mind. This is how we sav e a soul.”
    The nobleman sighed. “Souls aren’t my concern. And it isn’t a man from whom you must force a confession. It’s a woman who has committed the crime of offending a s overeign.”
    â€œSo she’s already c onfessed?”
    â€œNot what we wanted her to tell us.”
    The torturer was confused.
    â€œWe’re burning the Jew because we won’t get any more from him,” the nobleman said. “His companion, however, is another story. She’s a young lass, no more than twenty, I’d say. She has something to live for and will talk. Particularly in your expert hands. Write down everything she says. Pay special attention if it’s abou t a book.”
    â€œW hat book?”
    â€œYou’re very curious, master torturer! Just like your Dominican friends. And they don’t like books, especially the ones they don’t un derstand.”
    â€œThere are too many books spreading heretical ideas. We must fight them witho ut mercy.”
    â€œAnd the Dominicans, as good sons of the Church, hunt down books relentlessly. Isn’t that so?”
    â€œBooks harbor t he Devil.”
    The nobleman rubbed his beard before responding. “I’m not interested in your opinion about literature. But listen well. If the suspect makes the slightest allusion to a book, you must write everything down exactly as you hear it and report ba ck to me.”
    â€œMilord, when a suspect talks, I am not the one who takes down what he says. A Dominican brother collects his words. I’m not charged with doing that. If you wish, I will get one of the brothers.”
    â€œIt’s out of the question to have a Dominican at this questioning. You will write it down yourself.”
    â€œThat’s impossible. I don’t know how to write. That’s a cle rk’s job.”
    The aristocrat stood up. “I must leave. You will listen carefully to what I hav e to say.”
    The torturer got to his feet and adjusted his hood so he could hear e very word.
    â€œFind a scribe. A layman. A simple man who copies without trying to un derstand.”
    The torturer nodded. Clearly, this noble was used to being obeyed and didn’t have the sense of unease that lesser nobles felt in regard to the Holy Inquisition. Perhaps he was close to the royal family. He heard the nobleman’s robe rustle and then a voice nea r his ear.
    â€œChoose him with utmost care, because it is his life, and yours, that are in play.”

9
    Grand Orient Masonic Hall
    Evening of the initiation
    â€œE ighty-six. Eighty-seven. Eighty-eight.” When Marcas was grand expert—twice a year—and went to get an initiate, he always counted the steps between the temple and the chamber of reflection. It helped him still his mind and focus on his task.
    It had been many years since his initiation, but he still remembered his relief at seeing the grand expert, of no longer being alone in the dark with the skull, and finally being able to enter the lodge. But there was also the fear of not being good enough, of being sent away by the assembly.
    â€œA hundred and twenty. A hundred and tw enty-one.”
    Marcas was almost