The Temple and the Crown by Katherine Kurtz

Author:Katherine Kurtz
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, General, Fiction
ISBN: 0446608548
Publisher: Aspect
Published: 2001-03-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-four

February, 1308

THE CASTLE GUARDING THE NARROW VALLEY WAS NO longer known by any name. Stark and forbidding, it squatted above the valley’s mouth like a basilisk guarding its lair. Especially in winter, the surrounding foothills of the Rouerge represented one of the most forbidding regions of southern France. Farther into the valley, the unsightly refuse of an abandoned stone quarry littered the snow-covered ground like the picked bones of a carcass.

The castle’s outward appearance of neglect, however, was mere camouflage, instigated by Nogaret. Having acquired the shell of an ancestral ruin, he had since transformed it into a secret citadel of power. Inside, every room in the castle had been scoured and refurbished, from the deepest cellars to the topmost chamber of the highest tower.

The resident garrison was small, its numbers limited to those who could readily be housed within the castle’s outer baillie. The handful of servants who maintained the place had been carefully chosen for reasons that had nothing to do with providing hospitality. Visitors, apart from Nogaret himself, were unheard of. When he summoned three other members of the Decuria there for a secret meeting, the occasion was virtually without precedent.

Baudoin de Champiere edged his chair closer toward the fire and rubbed his cold hands briskly to warm them.

“Sensible of what an honor it is for me to be here,” he observed sourly, “I can hardly deem the experience a pleasure. You would think these loutish servants would know enough at least to bring us refreshments. I’m perishing for a cup of wine!”

He helped himself to a sugared rose leaf from the jeweled comfit box he habitually carried in one of his silken sleeve pockets.

“Magister Nogaret’s servants take their tone from their master,” Peret Auvergnais said with an offhand shrug. “If they didn’t have their uses, he wouldn’t keep them.”

“Our peerless leader has the appetites of an anchorite,” Baudoin said with a snort. “He is incapable of enjoying the finer things life has to offer—though he does have that demon in his ring…”

“Guard your tongue,” Peret advised. “Nogaret’s churls may lack manners, but I daresay they have ears.”

Hitherto silent, Valentin de Vesey turned restlessly away from the window, where he had been contemplating an ice-rimed view of a long-dead orchard.

“This is as joyless a retreat as I can imagine,” he said. “Is it true that this castle was once a Cathar stronghold?”

“So I understand,” Baudoin said around another sugared petal, though without any great interest. “It’s said that his parents were Cathars, you know: condemned as heretics and burned at the stake, when he was but a lad.”

“I’d heard that,” Valentin replied. “And that the Church took great pains to educate him, in hopes that it might keep him from following in their footsteps.”

“Well, he didn’t follow in the footsteps of his parents or the Church fathers, did he?” Baudoin said slyly, sucking the stickiness from his fingers. “You don’t suppose this is where his parents were burned, do you?”

Both his companions gave him warning looks, which Baudoin shrugged off as he leaned forward to pitch another chunk of wood on the fire.

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