The Sixth Key(148)

I was shaking my head with amazement. ‘Who killed them, the Cénacle?’

‘It is obvious that there are some who will stop at nothing to keep Rahn’s time in the South of France out of the limelight. In any event, the intoxication of the world with the enigma of that small circle of churches, remains even to this day. The brotherhoods will continue to proliferate and to squabble like children, to taunt one another, and to assassinate one another. These brotherhoods are completely oblivious to the fact that they are living in an endless performance of metatheatre where they, as both actors and audience, allude to a redundant secret, and in their collusion they perpetuate a reality that is really nothing more than an illusion.’

‘But it’s an illusion based on the truth,’ I said.

‘Most illusions are.’

‘So, did Rahn eventually make it to Venice? Did he find this tomb?’

‘He will.’

‘What do you mean, he will?’

‘First, he has to wake up.’

I must have looked at him blankly.

‘Are you surprised?’ he said.

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Don’t you know that you are in a dream?’

‘What?’

‘Yes.’

‘You can’t be serious?’

‘The first time you dreamed this dream you were waiting for a vaporetto to bring you to the island. I have been asking you, over and over, why you are here, and this is because you have been here before, in those days . . . long ago. That is what I meant, when I said you invited yourself. You see, you wanted to remember Wewelsburg, and Rennes-le-Château, and the hunt for the Sixth Key.’

‘Remember it? I still don’t understand.’

‘That was the promise Rahn made to the Countess P – that he would remember his destiny as the guardian of the treasure. You see, in a previous life, Rahn had been Nostradamus’s secretary, Chavigny, and before that he was the troubadour Matteu.’

For some reason this made sense to me. ‘What about Deodat – who had he been?’ I asked.

‘Do you not see Nostradamus in Deodat?’

‘And La Dame?’

‘He was the Templar knight who saved the young Matteu from Béziers. That is the bond between La Dame and Rahn – La Dame had once saved Rahn’s life.’

‘And you? Who are you in all of this?’

‘Don’t you know yet?’ He shot me a glance.

I was filled with a sudden realisation. ‘You’re Cros!’

‘Matteu and I once sat together on the pog at Montsegur, aeons ago.’

‘You were Cros and Cros was Bertrand Marty, the Cathar perfect!’

‘Yes. You see, the Seventh Key is my bond with Rahn.’

I was numbed, shocked, amazed.

‘Now, if you will permit me, I will tell you the rest.’

‘Please.’

‘Well, by the time I found the treasure in the church of Bugarach I was already ill. I felt I didn’t have much time and I was unsure of what to do. I went to Paris to see my lawyers and while there I heard the fake rumour that Monti had circulated about Le Serpent Rouge. At first, I was surprised to hear about it after so many years, and then a plan began to formulate itself in my mind. I gave my lawyers those strict instructions regarding my funeral arrangements, which you know about. I then told them to expect something from me in the coming weeks and gave them instructions on what they should do with it.

‘After that, I asked around about Monti. It wasn’t difficult to contact him. In a note I informed him about a missing key to Le Serpent Rouge. A key to unlocking the powers of the grimoire. I told him that clues to this missing key’s whereabouts could be found on a list somewhere in the south of France; clues that only one person could decipher – a German writer and Grail historian called Otto Rahn. I also included the name of Otto’s book and the page number where the skeleton key was mentioned. I signed it, Eugene Grassaud.’

‘So Monti went to Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet to see Grassaud?’

‘Yes, and that’s how the rumour was spread about the list.’

‘But how did you know about Rahn?’

‘Deodat had often talked about him and had given me a copy of Rahn’s book.’

‘And after that you placed the Apocalypse of Saint John containing the key in plain view, under the ROTAS window – the wheel of fortune – in the church.’

‘That is actually where it always was, I merely replaced it and planted clues to its whereabouts on the list of priests – JCKAL – and hid the list in the tabernacle.’

‘And the sacrament?’

‘I knew I was being watched by the Lodges and that it was only a matter of time before they used their Black Magic on me, so I gave my sacristan express instructions that I should have no other sacrament than the one I kept in the tabernacle, safeguarded by the Sign of the Lamb. But before I succumbed to the stroke I had a change of heart. You see, the arrival of Eva meant that the penitents couldn’t get near me to give me their desecrated sacrament, so I removed the key to the tabernacle from the sacristan’s ring of keys and hid it in the pond. Later, when AGLA tortured the poor man, knowing nothing on the list, he gave them the keys to the church, but the key to the tabernacle was long gone.