Read Online Requiem: The Fall of the Templars by Robyn Young - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Robyn Young
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else looking back at him out of those stormy sea eyes, mocking him, and right then he wanted to strike her. The wall inside him cracked apart and his hand squeezed into a fist, all his rage and pain and impotence flooding into it. He wanted to push it into her, into the the fall of the templars
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woman in front of him who shouldn’t even be a woman, who had grown up without him into this perfect picture of her mother; his hurt made manifest, standing here before him, reminding him of that great betrayal, those dark blue eyes not his, not her mother’s, but someone else’s. A name he couldn’t even say.
As Rose began to walk away, Will took a step forward, reaching out as if to grasp her. Then he faltered, his hand falling, as the distance between them grew too great. He waited, but she didn’t look back. Entering the servants’ passage, she disappeared. Will lifted his head and stared into the sky, until the sunlight blinded him.
By the time he crossed the Grand Pont and made his way back up the rue du Temple, the sun spots in his vision had cleared and the familiar numbness was enclosing him once more. Having returned to the preceptory, he was making his way through the knights’ quarters, when Hugues and Robert found him.
“We need to talk,” said the visitor.
Robert noted the cloak bundled under Will’s arm with a quizzical frown.
“Come,” said Hugues, not seeing Robert’s look. He led the way to the officials’ building and up to his room. “We do not have long. It will soon be Nones and Jacques has arranged a special service to address the men.” He closed the door as they entered. “This morning I received word from our brother in London. As soon as the summons for the grand master arrived, I had Thomas try to find out the purpose of it.” Hugues’s mouth flattened in a line. “It would appear the pope is proposing to merge together the Temple and the Hospital. The plan is to send both orders back to the Holy Land as one united force on a Crusade we will fund together.”
Will’s brow furrowed, but he shook his head. “That will never happen.”
“You don’t know that,” said Robert, a little sharply.
Will looked at him, then back at Hugues. “Does Jacques know?”
“I told him this morning. I said I found out from the master of England, which is partly true. Thomas intercepted a message from King Edward to the master which spoke of the pope’s intentions. Edward, it seems, was requested to attend, as a man of influence who has close relations with the Temple. Presumably the pope wants him to support this plan.”
“What was Jacques’s reaction?”
“Jacques wants a Crusade, certainly, and is prepared to pay for it. I fear he would quite willingly bankrupt the order for one. But he wants any move 38 robyn
young
eastwards conducted under his own terms. He will not work with the Knights of St. John and I do not blame him. From a military point of view it would be a disaster. Any possibility of harmony between our orders ended years ago.”
Will knew Hugues was referring to the Temple’s assault on the Knights of St. John in Acre. The assault, which followed a dispute between opposing royal factions, had happened decades ago, but the Hospitallers had never forgiven them for it. In every disagreement between Western forces in the Holy Land since, they and the Templars had stood on opposite sides. The only time there was any unification was at the fall of Acre, when the two grand masters rode out together to face the Mamluk hordes. But Will doubted, in this convoluted arena of Western politics, where battle lines weren’t clear and alliances seemed built on sand, that any such event could unite them again. Too many in the Knights of St. John remembered the stories of brothers begging to allow the sick and dying through the Temple’s barricades in Acre and the Templars’ jeers at their pleas. Conversely, the Templars maintained they had been in the right and the
37
woman in front of him who shouldn’t even be a woman, who had grown up without him into this perfect picture of her mother; his hurt made manifest, standing here before him, reminding him of that great betrayal, those dark blue eyes not his, not her mother’s, but someone else’s. A name he couldn’t even say.
As Rose began to walk away, Will took a step forward, reaching out as if to grasp her. Then he faltered, his hand falling, as the distance between them grew too great. He waited, but she didn’t look back. Entering the servants’ passage, she disappeared. Will lifted his head and stared into the sky, until the sunlight blinded him.
By the time he crossed the Grand Pont and made his way back up the rue du Temple, the sun spots in his vision had cleared and the familiar numbness was enclosing him once more. Having returned to the preceptory, he was making his way through the knights’ quarters, when Hugues and Robert found him.
“We need to talk,” said the visitor.
Robert noted the cloak bundled under Will’s arm with a quizzical frown.
“Come,” said Hugues, not seeing Robert’s look. He led the way to the officials’ building and up to his room. “We do not have long. It will soon be Nones and Jacques has arranged a special service to address the men.” He closed the door as they entered. “This morning I received word from our brother in London. As soon as the summons for the grand master arrived, I had Thomas try to find out the purpose of it.” Hugues’s mouth flattened in a line. “It would appear the pope is proposing to merge together the Temple and the Hospital. The plan is to send both orders back to the Holy Land as one united force on a Crusade we will fund together.”
Will’s brow furrowed, but he shook his head. “That will never happen.”
“You don’t know that,” said Robert, a little sharply.
Will looked at him, then back at Hugues. “Does Jacques know?”
“I told him this morning. I said I found out from the master of England, which is partly true. Thomas intercepted a message from King Edward to the master which spoke of the pope’s intentions. Edward, it seems, was requested to attend, as a man of influence who has close relations with the Temple. Presumably the pope wants him to support this plan.”
“What was Jacques’s reaction?”
“Jacques wants a Crusade, certainly, and is prepared to pay for it. I fear he would quite willingly bankrupt the order for one. But he wants any move 38 robyn
young
eastwards conducted under his own terms. He will not work with the Knights of St. John and I do not blame him. From a military point of view it would be a disaster. Any possibility of harmony between our orders ended years ago.”
Will knew Hugues was referring to the Temple’s assault on the Knights of St. John in Acre. The assault, which followed a dispute between opposing royal factions, had happened decades ago, but the Hospitallers had never forgiven them for it. In every disagreement between Western forces in the Holy Land since, they and the Templars had stood on opposite sides. The only time there was any unification was at the fall of Acre, when the two grand masters rode out together to face the Mamluk hordes. But Will doubted, in this convoluted arena of Western politics, where battle lines weren’t clear and alliances seemed built on sand, that any such event could unite them again. Too many in the Knights of St. John remembered the stories of brothers begging to allow the sick and dying through the Temple’s barricades in Acre and the Templars’ jeers at their pleas. Conversely, the Templars maintained they had been in the right and the
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