The Brotherhood Of The Holy Shroud by Julia Navarro

Author:Julia Navarro [Navarro, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Sometimes they speak to us in dreams;

sometimes deep in thought the mind hears

them.

And with their sound for a moment return

sounds from our life's first poetry-

like music at night, distant, fading away.

She fell asleep thinking about the battle fought by the Byzantine army against the emir of Edessa. She heard the voices of the soldiers, the crackling of the burning wood, the crying of children who held tight to their mothers' hands as they frantically sought refuge. She saw a venerable old man surrounded by other old men, and a throng of the devout, on their knees, praying for a miracle that didn't happen.

Then the old man approached a small, simple wooden casket, took out a carefully folded piece of cloth, and gave it to a massive Muslim soldier who could hardly contain his emotion at taking these people's most venerated treasure.

The general leading the Byzantine army received the Mandylion from an Edessan nobleman and, victorious, rode swiftly off toward Constantinople:

Smoke obscured the walls of the city's houses, and the Byzantine soldiers who were swarming through the streets looting the city carried off their booty in large mule-drawn wagons.

Later, in the stone church that still, somehow, remained standing, beside the cross, surrounded by priests and the most faithful of the Christians, the bishop of Edessa swore-and they swore with him- that the Mandylion would one day be recovered, though it cost them their lives to do it.

Ana moaned in her sleep. She sat up with tears streaming down her face, racked with anguish.

She went to the minibar for water and opened the window to let in some cool air.

Cavafy's poem seemed to have come true, and the voices of the dead had stormed her sleep. So real had the dream been that she felt that what she had seen and heard as she slept had actually happened. She was sure that the events had unfolded just that way.

After a shower she felt better. She wasn't hungry, so she stayed awhile in her room looking through the books she'd bought for information on Balduino de Courtenay, the emperor gone begging. There was little to be found, so she went online, even though she didn't always trust what she discovered on the Internet. She was looking for information on the Templars, too, and to her surprise she came across a page supposedly posted by the Order of Knights Templar itself-an order that no longer existed. It was well known that it had been eradicated by the king of France in the fourteenth century. She called the head of IT at her newspaper and explained what she needed.

A half hour later the IT man called her back. The Web site server was in London-and the site was perfectly registered, perfectly legitimate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.