There were confused cries of ‘No!’
My master then, thankfully, interjected.
‘Rainiero, I am certain this incident is an innocent one. The man hit his head and has become stupefied, that is all. Murder has not been established, Rainiero. I believe there is another agent responsible . . .’
‘Really?’ The other man was angry now, and his face was turning the colour of my master’s radish. ‘Pray enlighten us all, preceptor, perhaps I should defer to your wisdom, for you seem more adept in such matters than I.’
My master ignored him and continued, vegetable in hand, ‘I believe the cook has somehow partaken of a poisonous herb, perhaps the same that killed Brother Ezekiel .’
‘Why then is he not dead?’ the other man argued, turning blue.
‘I have not figured it all out yet, but perhaps it is because he did not ingest it, he only inhaled it when the herbs were set alight.’
The cook merely gazed from one man to the other. ‘No! No! La Virgen!’
‘And so how is it that you know what poisonous herb was used, preceptor? That is, unless you are in collusion with heretics!’ he cried, ‘The wolf and the fox are cunning, but the lamb is wise!’
‘You are the wolf!’ the cook exclaimed. ‘Death to the wolves!’
And then he howled like a madman.
Rainiero’s mouth twisted in an evil grin. ‘Aha! Now we see the true nature of the beast! Death to the wolves! The cry of a Ghibelline!’ He turned to the abbot. ‘Not only do you harbour men who deal with infernal powers, but you also protect imperialists!’
The abbot frowned, lost for words. Once again my master ventured his opinion, ‘The man does not know what he is saying, he is still under the influence of the herb and the blow to his head. You fail to see that there is more here than meets the eye.’
The inquisitor laughed a terrible laugh. ‘Tomorrow we shall see what he says under oath! Guards, seize this vermin and take him to the room provided us by the abbey.’
The guards took the cook brutally by both arms. He cried in sudden desperation, realising the gravity of his situation. They dragged him out of the kitchen through the door to the gardens in the time it took to say one amen, and I felt a terrible sense of powerlessness.
‘Infirmarian, you are to stay in your infirmary until I learn what part you have played in this terrible business, a guard will be posted at your door with orders to allow no one in without my sanction. And you . . .’ He glared at my master, ‘I’ll have no more of your intrusions in the affairs of the inquisition, preceptor, your duty lies as a watchful servant of the king and nothing more. If I catch you sniffing about I shall have no other recourse but to have you and your apprentice seized until the conclusion of this dreadful inquiry which is fast running a straight course toward inquisition.’ Turning towards the captain of the guards, he ordered that he post archers at all known exits out of the monastery. No one was to enter or to leave without his orders. He also ordered that all food prepared for the members of the legation must first be tasted, and that this included all the wine. After this he left, amid the wails and moans of monks.
15
Capitulum
The storm came, not suddenly, but quietly. We were sitting in my master’s cell, Eisik, my master and I. Having heard the commotion Eisik was unable to contain his curiosity, and had made his way stealthily to the pilgrims’ hospice where we sat, deep in thought, as the wind began to rage outside the window. In the beginning it was nothing more than a gust, slowly, however, it became violent, pounding on the stone walls of the building with enough strength, it seemed, to carry a man. The sky, nearly black now, looked heavy with snow clouds that sequestered the mountain, and announced a heavy fall. Soon, up in the higher reaches, the peaks would become dangerously congested, like a pregnant woman longing to give birth to its excess – I fervently hoped, not on the abbey.
Avalanches were not extraordinary, so a brother told us when he knocked on our door to announce that the meal would be delayed. He had brought us a tray of nuts and bread and while he set it down he told us that this phenomenon was the consequence of unusually wet winters and that only ten years before, a brother, while crossing the grounds to the stables, was asphyxiated under an enormous mantle of snow that had loosened from overhead.
‘He was not found until the next morning,’ the brother said in a thick vulgar accent, one eye permanently closed. ‘When they dug his carcass out of the snow we prayed for his soul, God grant him, soaring lightly in the heavens, even as his testicles were as heavy as glass.’
Now we could see almost nothing except snow from my master’s window.