Temple of the Grail(86)

‘A labyrinth of tunnels!’ my master exclaimed. ‘Now what Daniel told us makes sense. He who follows the seven letters in number and order will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who would seek to go against the seven churches will wander the earth till the moment of death . . . This must surely mean the seven letters of the apocalypse, to the seven communities or churches . . . we must follow them precisely or find ourselves food for rats. Now, what was the first letter . . .?’ my master asked Eisik.

‘Smyrna . . . no, no, Ephesus . . . that’s it, Ephesus.’

‘Of course Ephesus . . . ‘I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; and what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira . . .’ Blast! What comes next?’

‘Unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea,’ Eisik added.

‘Eisik!’ Andre exclaimed suddenly. ‘You know the gentile Bible better than the gentile!’

‘Why should I not, my son?’ he said, but my master ignored him, for he was muttering other things under his breath.

‘And since this is our first chamber, we should surmise that our next should be Smyrna.’

‘‘To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God’,’ Eisik quoted.

I was the first to look up at the vaulted ceiling where, at its apex, a circle enclosing a smaller one could be discerned with Smyrna written in a semicircle at its perimeter. I pointed this out to my master and Eisik excitedly, but it only seemed to confound them all the more.

‘If we are in Smyrna, the first was that little chamber before we entered the tunnels. In this case it stands to reason that we should take the door marked ‘Pergamos’, for that is the subsequent letter. However, there are two of them!’

‘Oh, holy fathers . . .’ Eisik whispered, wringing his hands, ‘which door to take?’

My master looked in this direction and that, pulling on his beard. ‘A good question . . . perhaps we are best advised to try one. Shall we?’ He moved forward a pace.

‘No!’ I cried, and felt immediately ashamed. ‘There might be something hideous waiting for us on the other side of the wrong door, master.’ I reminded him of the story of the Minotaur of Greek legends, and he paused for a moment, nodding his head a little. ‘Perhaps then we shall make him a very fine dinner.’

Eisik came to my defence, ‘Andre, the boy is right, we must be careful, tunnels are evil places wherein one may become hopelessly lost not only in body but also in soul.’

‘That is why I have brought a piece of charcoal and a parchment on which we shall draw a map.’ My master handed me the articles that included a strange device set inside a bubble of glass. ‘This way our bodies may find a way out, and hopefully our souls will follow.’

‘What is this, master?’ I asked, rolling the circular thing.

‘That, my dear boy, is the instrument I have often mentioned to you and yet never shown you, it is called a compass.’

‘Oh, yes, the reason you returned to your cell . . . What does one do with it?’ I placed it against my ear tentatively, but I could make out no sound coming from it.

My master smiled. ‘It seeks north.’

‘Take it away!’ Eisik whispered harshly. ‘It is wicked, an astronomer concentrated his thoughts on it for many years and his thinking is said to have created a wicked force, as it might create also a good one, and this force seeks the pole star, because proceeding from it is a great emptiness that sucks this force into itself. It is said to have also sucked into it the soul of the astronomer! Take it away!’ He brought his hands up to his face as if to defend his soul.

‘Sorcery, master?’

‘I suppose it is,’ he said, and then, seeing that I was about to drop the object in my horror, he steadied my hand. ‘Don’t be a goose, Christian! Mon dieu! It is most delicate, and may indeed be the only one of its kind on the continent. Although it may be a kind of sorcery, it is also a wonderful one, invented by the Arabs . . . It was a present given to me by a great Saracen convert . . . an Islamic scientist who credited this knowledge to the courts of Haroun al Rashid.’

‘But are we in peril of our souls, master?’

‘I shall tell you quickly how it works and you will see that it is merely scientific. A strange stone,’ he said, ‘whose curious properties are not known, is passed over the metal of the needle. The needle, in turn, is said to acquire the same properties as the stone. After this the needle will always seek the northerly direction by pivoting on its axis.’