The Cup

CHAPTER 37

The monastery was a sprawling complex of stone buildings on a high plateau. From the highway they followed a drive lined with trees to a large, paved parking lot. There were a dozen cars in the lot, including a black Mercedes with a uniformed driver waiting inside the car. He glanced over at them and went back to reading a newspaper.

The rain had stopped. They got out of the car and walked toward a set of broad, stone steps leading up to the entrance. Two tall bell towers topped with the Syriac cross rose over the buildings. Everything was made of sand-colored stone, perfectly cut and fitted. The motif of the diamond cross was everywhere you looked, set on balustrades as finials and carved into the walls.

"This is something," Lamont said. "Place looks like a fortress. That's a hell of a lot of stone."

"The monastery has been here for more than sixteen hundred years," Selena said. "They've had a lot of time to work on it."

"Let's see if anyone's home," Nick said.

They climbed past two crosses flanking the steps and stepped onto a flat stone terrace in front of the entrance. The door opened as they approached. A monk waited to greet them.

A full beard streaked with gray reached halfway down his chest. He wore a robe of midnight blue that was almost black, with a tight hood that covered his hair. It was bordered with white and divided in the middle by a white line. The top of the hood bore a lighter field of blue stitched with a dozen white Syriac crosses.

Nick guessed his age at around sixty. His face appeared relaxed. He looked as though he spent a lot of time smiling. He was shorter than Nick, about Ronnie's height.

The monk stood to the side and gestured for them to come in.

"Welcome," he said. "I'm Brother Jacob. Please, enter. Your friend is waiting for you."

"What friend?" Nick asked.

"This way," the monk said.

He led them down a long arched colonnade and through three arched doorways. As they moved deeper into the complex, the look of the passage changed. They were coming to the oldest part of the monastery, part of the original building.

They entered a chapel with an elaborate altar set in an alcove at one end. The wall behind the altar was decorated with a mosaic design of the Syriac cross. Mosaic grapevines bearing clusters of grapes climbed the edges of the alcove.

Count Mercurio was waiting for them.

"Hello, Mister Carter."

"What are you doing here, Count?"

"The same as you, looking for the Grail."

"Count Mercurio has been telling me about your quest," Brother Jacob said. "It is most admirable, but I am sorry to disappoint you. What you are looking for is not here."

"I mean no disrespect, Brother, but it's a little hard for me to just take your word for it. We know the Grail was brought here after it left Italy."

"Yes, your friend has explained it to me. The tiles told a true story. The monk on the tile was Brother Gabriel. He was one of the first to live here, one of the builders. It was wonderful for me to see a picture of him."

"Then the Grail was here? You admit it?"

"We have nothing to hide. If it were still here perhaps I would not be so forthcoming with you, but it was taken to Rhodes centuries ago."

"Rhodes? Why Rhodes?"

"Are you familiar with the history of our monastery?"

"No."

"There is a long history of conflict here with Islam."

"That figures," Ronnie said.

The monk continued. "Have you heard of Tamerlane?"

"The last Mongol conqueror," Selena said. "He wanted to re-create the Empire of Genghis Khan."

"That is the man," Jacob said. "Timur the Lame. He called himself the 'Sword of Islam.' In 1401 he attacked this monastery. The remains of the monks he murdered are buried in caves below the chapel floor where we stand."

"What does that have to do with the Grail?" Nick asked.

"My predecessors knew what was likely to happen. It was decided to move the Grail to a place of safety. It was taken to Rhodes and placed under the protection of the Knights Hospitallers."

"So your order is no longer responsible for its protection?"

"That is correct."

Up until now Mercurio had been silent, listening to the conversation. Now he interrupted.

"Sulemein the Magnificent attacked Rhodes in the sixteenth century and defeated the Knights Hospitallers. This isn't good news, Brother Jacob."

"Were they all killed?" Lamont said.

"The survivors were allowed to leave. They went to Sicily. After that, to Malta."

"The Knights would never allow the Grail to fall into the hands of Sulemein," Selena said. "They would have taken it with them."

"If they took it with them, it would have been on Malta when Sulemein laid siege to the island," Mercurio said. "He was trying to gain control of the Mediterranean. Malta was a key strategic location."

"Who won that one?" Ronnie asked.

"The Hospitallers. It's one of the great victories against Islam," Mercurio said. "At the time it must have seemed hopeless. Sulemein had overwhelming superiority of numbers."

"Then the Grail could be on Malta," Nick said.

"Unless it was moved again," Selena said.

"It's enough to give you a headache," Nick said.

"You didn't think finding the Grail was going to be easy, did you?" Mercurio asked.