I was so tired, so weary of thought and emotion that sleep came swiftly.
The vivid colours and the lush provincial landscape sparked my recollection of seeing Albray kneeling before a woman dressed in scarlet by a fountain.
I feared for a moment that Albray, having been spurned by me, had turned to the past love of his life for comfort, but when I reached the ivy-covered stone walls where a gate granted entry to the priestess’ garden, I found Lillet alone.
‘Please.’ The dark-haired beauty invited me to sit on the side of the fountain with her.
‘Lillet du Lac?’ I sought confirmation.
‘Mia Montrose,’ she said, completing the introductions, letting me know she was well aware who I was. ‘I wish to tell you the rest of my story, if you will hear it.’
I sat myself down beside her, somewhat stunned by the concern that filled her voice and radiated from her being. Lillet felt like an old friend that I had not seen in some time, and she seemed well disposed toward me also, even though we had never met.
‘I have long regretted ever putting ink to that parchment you read today,’ the priestess admitted, ‘for it is incomplete without the second scroll, and seriously misleading in many regards.’
‘You seem a very different person to the woman who penned that account. I had expected you to be more…’ I tried to think of a mild way of putting it so as not to offend my hostess’…forbidding.’
Lillet smiled to concede my intuition was fair. ‘During that time I was completely filled with my own self- importance. I believed that I had reached spiritual perfection, when in fact all I had achieved was a profound lack of tolerance for the rest of humanity. I lusted after the divine liberation of death, and failed to realise what it was to truly live and care and love.’
‘But the faith and holy order in which you were raised had a lot to do with that, surely?’ I tried to justify her actions.
‘My faith should have instilled a sense of unconditional compassion, love and, thus, wisdom in me, but none of these fine qualities did I display during my quest for our foremothers.’
‘But you see your failings now, so somewhere along the road you must have had an awakening?’ I said, as she was clearly repentant and wiser now.
‘I wish I could say I came to my senses through my own observations.’ She lowered her eyes, and had a moment to regain her composure and look at me once more. ‘It took a heart-wrenching lesson to make me realise my ignorance and lack of judgement, for in truth I had no right to be judgemental of anyone.’
‘But the incident in Antioch, when you found Albray—’
Lillet was shaking her head. There was no need for me to finish the sentence as she obviously knew where my accusation was leading. ‘He was only protecting me from myself and had already warned me that he would do so. Do you not recall his prediction after consuming the Highward Fire-Stone?’
I had read so much today that I had trouble recalling this part of her story. Lillet refreshed my memory.
‘Our love shall never be realised,’ he told me. He went on to say that he realised that if I submitted to my feelings for him, it would destroy everything I had worked my whole life to achieve. He also said that he would take steps to curtail his feelings. The way he sabotaged our relationship that night made it easy for me to shun him and any feelings I might have been entertaining regarding him. Albray knew that I would seek him that night and had I found him alone, I would have surely forsaken the sacred vows of my order.’
‘And would that have been such a bad thing?’ I asked her.
‘In retrospect,’ Lillet paused and smiled briefly, ‘I think not. However, at the time, I feel sure I would have regretted forsaking the ideals I held sacred for one night of passion. Such a moment of weakness would have caused me to question my worthiness to continue the sacred quest I had been assigned. Our feelings for each other were a threat to our goal and the clarity bestowed by the Highward Fire-Stone substance made Albray realise this.’
Her understanding stemmed from more than idle speculation; there was an authority in her statements that only came from true awareness. Did death award each soul complete knowledge of all the errors made in their life? That theory would certainly explain the difference between the knight I had come to know as Albray, and the knight that Lillet had known.
‘Albray has not changed so much,’ Lillet informed me, perceiving my inner thoughts as readily as the questions I verbalised. ‘It is only my perception of him that has changed. He was always as gallant and loyal as he is now, but because I distrusted him, most of his heroism went unrealised by myself until it was too late.’ Again Lillet turned away from me to restrain her feelings of regret and hurt.
‘You were the death of him?’ I had remembered another of Albray’s predictions, recorded in Lillet’s writings.
She nodded. ‘Had I been capable of caring for another human being more than myself, I might have seen the truth of my situation, but as it was I didn’t have any doubt that Molier was the true guide sent to me by Marie de Saint-Clair. It wasn’t until we finally reached the temple ruins in the Sinai that the penny finally dropped.’
Our caravan scaled the rocky mount of Serabit el-Khadim slowly. Camels may not have been as accommodating as horses, but they were the transport for the obscure route we had chosen. We had followed the King’s Road down the inland side of the Dead Sea, and turned at Kerak into the desert wilderness to cut across country to Nekhl at the top of the Sinai. From Nekhl, only the Bedouins knew the route to the ruined temple of Hathor on Mt Serabit, which was the reported place of origin of my treasure.
The story I’d been taught was that after Hugh de Payens discovered the Covenant, hidden in a vault complex beneath the Temple of Jerusalem during the first crusade, he also found documentation regarding a second Ark. This was hidden deep in the Sinai at the original mount where both Arks had been fashioned. The temple complex of Serabit el-Khadim was dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Hathor, who the secret orders would later refer to as ‘The Gold Beneath the Gods and the Electron beneath the Goddesses’—code for the protector of the temple of the Fire-Stone vial and the Highward Fire-Stone vial. A mission was launched by the knights under de Payens’ command to seek out this Star-Fire temple and secure the second Ark. The knights uncovered the secret passage, and even discovered the key to unlocking the Star-Fire complex in the ruined temple of Hathor above the passage. The men sustained heavy losses when many of them attempted to enter the underground complex without a woman to lead
