Chapter One - 5

5

 

As planned, Geoffroy left the castle soon after sunrise. The only ones who remained at the castle were a few knights, the six members of the Order of Marie's White Shield, and a few cooks and scullery maids.

Though Marie was still unsure of why, she borrowed a few cloth covers from the dining hall and brought them to Raine. Raine was waiting for her on the ground floor of the east tower. Two other members of the Order of Marie's White Shield stood beside him. Annaud was a timid man despite his great height, while Flanders was honest and loyal to a fault. They both bowed to Marie as soon as she walked in. Marie imitated them and bowed back. They hurriedly bowed again.

“That's enough of that,” Raine said calmly. “I've asked Annaud and Flanders to accompany us and lend some small assistance. Worry not, they are trusted comrades, and I can vouch for their loyalty.”

“So, what are we doing with the cloth?”

“If memory serves, there are ventilation windows and balistrariae in the walls of the tower. All we must do for now is cover them all with cloth. Then, Annaud, Flanders, if you would – Lady Marie, you and I shall investigate the walls of the fourth floor.”

Annaud and Flanders took the cloths and ran up the stairs. Raine made his way up the stairs as well, and Marie followed. At that hour, the sun should have been at its highest point, but the inside of the tower was covered in darkness. Perhaps the position of the balistrariae or the structure of the stairs blocked the sunlight. Unable to see her own feet, Marie almost tripped several times. Each time, Raine turned back and asked if she was alright. Marie told him to shut up. Raine did as he was told and kept his back to her and his mouth closed until they arrived at the fourth floor.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he found a door just beyond the narrow landing. An iron ring handle hung from a door panel that appeared to be made from pieces of old wood hammered together at random. Raine took the handle and opened the door. The door opened quietly. An oddly cold air seeped through the doorway. Marie hugged at shoulders. She felt as though she had experienced this before, but her memory was too hazy to recall.

Inside the room was pitch black. There were no windows and no source of light.

“Where is the candle?” Raine muttered to himself as he turned his head. “There it is.”

Raine deftly lit the candle using a flint. Orange light slowly spread through the room.

Marie hid behind Raine as she looked around. In a small, circular room, an old, decaying wooden table lay forgotten. The cup she'd seen was gone.

“That's the wall.”

Raine put his hand on the wall to his right. It looked like an ordinary stone wall.

“The owner of the invisible footprints disappeared there.”

“Well, as you'd expect, there are no footprints here now.”

Raine bent down and examined the floor. He trailed his fingertips about his feet and remained silent for a moment, as though lost in thought.

“What do you think?”

“I don't see any traces. But this isn't a difficult problem. Lady Marie, I'm going to go back to the second floor and get a jug of water, so please wait here. I shall return in a moment.”

“Ah, wait!”

Raine passed her and went alone down the stairs. Suddenly, everything was quiet, and Marie felt herself erupt in gooseflesh. “Raine...” she whispered, but of course there was no answer. Soon enough, Raine returned, jug in hand. Marie brought her hands to her chest and leaned closer to Raine.

“Do you enjoy seeing me frightened?”

“Not at all. Lady Marie, please observe.”

Raine picked up the candlestick and held it at an angle, deliberately spilling melted wax onto the floor. Before it had time to harden, he stepped on the molten wax. A thin layer of wax was now on the floor. Raine walked towards the wall. Once he'd arrived in front of it, he tilted the jug and splashed water all over the floor.”

“KYA! What are you doing!?”

“It's the footprints.”

Raine pointed at the floor.

A puddle of water was now spreading on the floor, and one or two footprints were carved into it. Marie remembered that rainy night. No one was there to make them, but there were footprints in the spilled wine. It was a perfect reenactment of what she'd seen that night.

“The footprints were made of wax.”

“What do you mean?”

“Wax has the property of repelling water. Let's say you stepped in wax then walked through it, just as I did. In that case, the wax left on the sole of your shoe would have left footprints. At a glance, they'd be difficult to perceive, but when water is spilled on the floor, they become more visible due to the liquid being repelled. The invisible person's footprints were actually footprints left in wax.”

“What, so it was just wax? How ridiculous,” Marie said indignantly. “But where did my father and mother disappear to? It is a fact that they vanished.”

“The person who left the wax trail was likely Count Geoffroy. He probably spilled the wax and accidentally stepped in it, causing the strange phenomenon you witnessed. Then, where did Count Geoffroy disappear to afterwards? And why did the cup of wine fall over on its own?”

“I don't know.”

“I shall give you an explanation that is easy to understand,” Raine said seriously. “Annaud and Flanders should be finished by now. Lady Marie, let us return to the first floor.”

Raine left the room again. Marie, not wanting to be left behind, screamed and ran after him.

When she arrived at the first floor, Annaud and Flanders were already waiting for her, and looked like they had been for some time. They turned to Raine and told him they were finished. Raine nodded.

“Then we'll be going outside now.”

Marie and the others exited the tower, walked through the corridor, and passed the knights' barracks. They passed the dining hall and walked down a winding corridor. Then they opened a heavy door and emerged into the courtyard that lay within the castle walls. Standing in the glare of the sunlight made Marie dizzy. The short weeds under her feet were still wet with the morning dew. Raine, who was leading the way, turned and looked up at the east tower, but he couldn't see it in the shadow of the castle wall.

Marie and the others arrived at the castle's huge gate. The gatekeeper, who looked bored out of his mind, asked them if they were going out. “Only for a moment,” Raine replied. The gatekeeper entered the passage within the wall and opened the gate slightly.

“Hey, where are we going?”

“We're going to observe the east tower from the outside.”

Once she was outside the castle walls, Marie was struck by what a vivid green the hills were. The blowing wind made them into verdant waves. At the edge of the waves she saw a series of trees bereft of leaves. From her viewpoint at the top of the hill looking down, the whole world looked like a miniature garden. A cold wind blew. Gray clouds moved across the sky. For a few moments, the hill was covered in the shadow of a cloud.

Marie and her companions made their way along the base of the wall, which was made from piled up stones. The wall was rough and sturdy. Marie thought that it wouldn't fall even if the enemy brought ten trebuchets. When she touched its rugged surface, it felt damp and slimy. From up close, the stone walls didn't look that blue. Looking overhead, through a gap in the crenels, she saw a sentry walking along the walkway atop the wall.

Suddenly, the huge cross appeared. The cross was lying on a hill, so that from the side it looked like a simple flat stone table. However, even for a table, it was enormous. The lower end of the cross extended almost to the river, and the upper end was so far away that it protruded out of the shadows of the clouds. Only the cross's upper end was shining in the sunlight. The cross was almost as thick as Marie was tall. The stone was polished smooth and felt much better to the touch than the walls. Perhaps from last night's rain, it was even smoother now due to being wet.

“What is this cross? Is it a defensive wall?”

Annaud was muttering to himself. Flanders joined him in tilting his head.

“Isn't it modeled after Cross Spring to the west?”

“I see. As expected of you, Lady Marie.”

“What's Cross Spring?”

“You mean you don't know? ...What am I talking about? This is you, Annaud. It's just a spell of forgetfulness, as usual. You're a forgetful man, after all,” Flanders said with a sneer. “Cross Spring is another name for Lake Sète, in the forest to the west. Lake Sète is almost directly connected to the sea, and the Lourdes River flows from Lake Sète. ...Come to think of it, there's an interesting story about that lake. Apparently, Cross Spring moves.”

“A moving lake?”

“That's right. They say the lake moves, as though it were a living thing. It seems there's no mention of this lake in any ancient map or book. Long ago, a pilgrim wrote in his diary that this lake existed, but it wasn't as large as it is now, and wasn't in the shape of a cross. Its location was also different from where it is now. It's said the lake only recently took on its current appearance. It's almost as though the lake has been slowly growing over the years.”

“Flanders, you certainly do know a lot about things that don't matter.”

“Oh, no, not at all, you needn't flatter me so. I am honored, Lady Marie.”

“That wasn't a compliment. But I wonder if the lake really does move. Just because there's a piece of writing describing a moving lake doesn't mean it actually existed, right?”

“How perceptive,” Raine said. “What Flanders saw may have been maps and books from the past, but they needn't have been accurate records of the world. There may be books from the past that contain records of the past, but pretend to be telling the present, and vice versa. Stories and folklore transcend time. In the written world, it is easy to move a lake. All you have to do is make a false statement.”

“So does that mean Cross Spring was there from the beginning and never moved?”

“I don't know. I am not a witness to history.”

“Well, that's fine. Enough about moving lakes. What I want to know is why my father made such a large stone cross imitating Cross Spring.”

“I don't think it's possible to definitively say it was modeled after Cross Spring. It's possible that Count Geoffroy, being a devout Cathar, merely wanted to build a grand sun cross. Or maybe he was just forcing his soldiers to perform pointless labor to indulge in his lust for power.”

“Raine,” Flanders hurriedly interrupted, “That would be a great insult to Count Geoffroy.”

“It's all right, Flanders,” Marie said, closing her eyes. “It isn't really an insult at this point, is it?”

“Yes.”

Raine started walking again. Annaud and Flanders both went pale, as if they now realized they were involved in something serious. Marie pushed passed them and followed Raine.

In front of her lay the east tower. The tower was connected to the castle wall but was still a direct part of the castle. If the tower were to be destroyed from the outside, it would allow direct entry to the space within the castle walls. It was a fatal weakness. And yet, Count Geoffroy had personally ordered the tower's construction. No one understood why.

The left end of the megalith cross approached the tower, but there was still some space between them. Marie looked up at the stone tower. White cloths were swaying from the open windows. They were the same cloths she'd prepared.

“How does it look?”

Raine walked slowly as he looked up at the tower. He checked each window and balistraria. Beside him, Flanders tilted his head. Following his gaze, Marie looked up at the tower. There was a window by the edge of the roof. But there was no cloth on that window.

“That's strange,” said Annaud. “I tied cloths to every window, but there's a window up there with no cloth. And in the first place, I don't remember there being any windows that high up.”

“Was it blown away by the wind?”

“No, I weighed them down to prevent that.”

“Then what is that window without a cloth at the top?”

“That window shouldn't exist.”

The tower was topped by a gently curved spire. The window was discreetly placed in the middle of the curve. As Annaud said, it was a window that shouldn't have existed. Looking up from the ground, it was impossible to see what was going on inside.

“Isn't that window above the fourth floor?”

“Judging from the height, I'd say it's on the four-and-a-halfth floor. By the way, Lady Marie, do you remember the question of why the cup of wine fell down?”

“Yes. Ordinarily, a cup wouldn't fall over on its own.” Marie realized the answer as she spoke. “Is it possible that there's a secret window on the fourth floor of the tower? And a strong wind coming through that window knocked over the cup?”

“It's possible. The cloth experiment we just performed was done to find the secret window. There is a window in that room that no one knows about. It was wind blowing through that window that knocked over the cup the night Lady Marie witnessed the incident. Since no one was visible in the room, we must assume that some invisible force acted on the cup. Lady Marie also said that she heard the sound of a strong wind. Yes, without doubt, there is a secret window there. Do you remember where Count Geoffroy's footsteps led? The wall. The footprints disappeared into the wall.”

“Let's go back to the tower room and investigate it again!”

Marie ran off. As she passed through the gate, the gatekeeper said something to her, but she couldn't quite make out what. Once she was inside the castle, it was pitch dark for a spell, and she was struck blind. By the time her eyes adjusted, the three knights running after her had managed to catch up. Out of breath, she climbed the stairs of the east tower. She threw open the door to the fourth floor.

“I wonder how we can get past that wall...”

Marie stood in front of the door with her arms folded.

“Lady Marie, there is a slight indentation in the stone there. I recommend we place a hand on it and pull.”

Raine immediately did so. At first there was nothing, but suddenly, a rough sound like the grinding of a millstone rang out as the entire wall shifted inwards. Raine stepped forward and pulled the wall. Slowly, the wall swung open like a door, with its hinge on the right. Once the gap was wide enough for a person to pass through, the movement stopped. Raine looked through the gap. The light of outdoors was illuminating his feet.

“There's a small staircase here,” he said.

Marie also looked into the gap. The stairs curved upwards at a rather steep angle. Raine went up first. Marie followed him. Annaud and Flanders didn't enter, for there wasn't enough space to accommodate them. The staircase was short and small; each step was barely wide enough for their feet. Moreover, after only a few steps, they stopped. There was nothing at the end but a small window. There was no door, just a hole in the wall. Looking out the window, they saw the slope of the roof and the stone cross.

“What is this?”

“I don't know.”

“Is this it?”

“It looks that way.”

“Isn't there anything else?”

“Anything?”

“Such as my mother's bones, for instance.”

“Don't tell me you actually thought there was a dead body hidden up here.”

“I did. But there's just a window.”

“If it was hidden, there must be a reason why.”

With a start, Marie went back down the stairs and into the room.

“How was it, Lady Marie?”

“It was quite exciting.”

Marie said that, but she sounded bored to tears.

 

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