Rose of Fire

2

The ship was sighted at dawn. Some fishermen, mending their nets by the Sea Wall, saw it emerging out of the mist, carried in by the swell. When the prow ran aground on the shore and the hull listed to port, the fishermen clambered aboard. A powerful stench rose from the bowels of the ship: the hold was flooded and a dozen sarcophagi floated among the debris. Edmond de Luna, maker of labyrinths and sole survivor of the voyage, was found tied to the helm and burnt by the sun. At first they thought he was dead, but when they took a closer look they noticed that his wrists were still bleeding where they were tied and a cold breath issued from his lips. He carried a leather-bound notebook under his belt but none of the fishermen was able lay his hands on it because by then a group of soldiers had turned up in the port and their captain, following instructions from the Bishop’s Palace – which had been alerted of the ship’s arrival – ordered the dying man to be taken to the neighbouring Hospital de Santa Marta. The captain then posted his men around the shipwreck to guard it until representatives of the Holy Office were able to inspect the vessel and make a proper Christian appraisal of the events. Edmond de Luna’s notebook was handed over to the Grand Inquisitor Jorge de León, a brilliant and ambitious defender of the Church who trusted that his efforts to cleanse the world of sin would soon earn him the titles of Blessed, Saint and Beacon of the Christian Faith. After a brief inspection, Jorge de León concluded that the notebook had been written in a language unbeknown to Christianity and he ordered his men to go and find a printer named Raimundo de Sempere. Sempere had a modest workshop next to the Gate of Santa Ana, and because he had travelled during his youth, knew more languages than it was prudent for a good Christian to know. Under threat of torture, Sempere the printer was made to swear he would keep the secret of what was revealed to him. Only then was he allowed to inspect the notebook, in a heavily guarded room above the library of archdeacon’s house, next to the cathedral. Jorge de León watched over him avidly. ‘I think the text is written in Persian, your Holiness,’ murmured a terrified Sempere. ‘I’m not a saint yet,’ clarified the Inquisitor. ‘All in good time. Continue…’ And so it was that the printer spent the entire night reading and translating for the Grand Inquisitor the secret diary of Edmond de Luna, adventurer and bearer of a curse that was to bring the beast to Barcelona.