Eva did the strangest thing then – she grabbed Rahn affectionately by the arm. ‘We’re looking for family connections, that sort of thing.’
The woman’s face was full of knowing. ‘Looking for family connections?’ She smoothed her floral dress over her bosom.
‘I’d say looking for treasure more like it! That’s why people come here generally, for gold and silver, not family connections! They’re always disappointed though. Anyway, it’s none of my business. Just follow this street all the way to the end, it’ll take you directly to the church. The priest is there every day, poor man. They say he has a condition and was sent here to calm his nerves. Imagine that! Will you be staying the night? The Autan’s getting ready to blow.’
‘The what?’ Rahn said.
‘The Autan . . .’ she repeated, gesticulating as if informing a child or an imbecile. ‘Haven’t you noticed how calm it is?’ She raised both brows and leant on her broom again, rather like a witch, Rahn fancied, and it made him smile a little. ‘Do you smell how fine the air is? That is how it always starts with the Autan . . . the calm before the storm. You don’t want to get caught up in the middle of that devil! Once, you know, they found an auto in the fork of a tree after the Autan! I will reserve a room for the monsieur and madame; you are married of course?’
‘Newly,’ Eva answered quickly, to Rahn’s surprise.
‘Look, Maman, love birds!’ the woman said, with a wistfulness that lingered only a moment before vanishing in light of practicalities. ‘Well, that’s settled then! Mind you don’t fall on those cobbles! Dinner is at six, on the dot. If you’re late I feed your portions to the pig.’
As they walked Rahn asked, ‘Why did you tell her we’re married?’
Eva came disquietingly close and whispered. ‘If someone comes here looking for you, they will not be looking for a married couple, will they?’
Rahn couldn’t argue with her logic. Her quick thinking impressed him but he didn’t know how it would go at night when he would have to sleep on a chair, or worse still, on the floor. The thought of it didn’t sound the least bit appealing.
They hadn’t walked long before a short wall defined the path to the door of the church. The path cut through a garden, which on one side was crowned by a crucifix and on the other by a statue of Mary on a pillar of sandstone. Rahn could tell it was of Visigoth design.
Standing outside the door to the church, Eva pointed to the inscription over the lintel:
‘Terribilis est locus iste!’ she said.
‘This place is terrible . . .’ he translated.
‘Interesting words to put over the door to a church!’
Rahn couldn’t agree more because he felt that familiar nausea come over him and had to brace himself as she pushed the door open, allowing the light to fall on an old water stoup directly in front of them. It made him pause in amazement for the second time that day, for it was held up by a red devil with horrible eyes.
‘Asmodeus . . .’ he said, his breathing deliberate and slow. ‘The king of the Underworld.’
‘A handsome devil!’ Eva said, walking in. ‘I’ve always wondered why so many churches have him at the front door.’
‘I wouldn’t know. But if pressed I might venture to say that it could have something to do with Solomon.’
‘The king?’ She turned around, boyish, tall and as calm as a cold lake.
‘Yes, he invoked Asmodeus to help him to build his temple in Jerusalem. See how the devil holds the stoup of holy water as a symbol that he’s bound, like a servant, to the elemental beings and the angels above him? Solomon wrote the first grimoire and men have used it to bind devils for holy purposes ever since.’
‘So the book written by this Pope Honorius wasn’t the first one?’
‘No. Solomon was the first, centuries before Christ. After that came the book by the Theban who was also called Honorius, and then later Pope Honorius appropriated it. It is complicated. Look do you see those griffins and salamanders on the water stoup?’ Rahn pointed to them. ‘They’re guardians of treasure. And the initials BS?’
‘Bérenger Saunière,’ Eva said to herself. ‘Not a modest man!’
‘Perhaps not, but BS also stands for something else in Black Magic: Baron Samadi – the lord of graveyards and death. Asmodeus by another name is still Asmodeus.’
She gave him a shiver of a white smile. ‘How nice. I like this place more and more. Who are those four angels?’
‘That’s also in the grimoires. The invocation of the spirits of the four directions: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael. And see this inscription on the water stoup: By this sign you will vanquish him . . . ? This is usually attributed to Constantine, who was converted to Christianity after he saw the sign of the cross in a dream. It’s supposed to mean that by virtue of the sign of the cross one conquers one’s enemies, but here it says you will vanquish him, which is an aberration of the initial inscription.’