He squeezed his eyes shut as if expecting her to disappear.
Sophia knelt in front of him and took his chin in her hand. She looked into his eyes and put on her best pout. “Please, Marky? For Sophi? I won’t let you fall this time. I promise!”
Mark pouted as well and she gave him a quick kiss on the nose.
“Stop that now and come on. Show me how big and strong you are!” She got up again and he took her hands. He was very heavy. It took all her strength to help him up and then hold him up as his knees threatened to buckle. He leaned awkwardly on her shoulders and she heard him draw a sharp breath. “Steady, now, big guy. Look! See! I told you that I wouldn’t let you fall!”
She felt the pressure ease a bit and he tried to stand up straighter. He was at least six inches taller than her. She looked up at him to find his eyes were still squeezed tightly closed.
“Open your eyes!” She laughed. “Open your eyes and see how tall you are!”
He shook his head stubbornly.
“Mark!” She used a sharper tone in her voice and his eyes popped open. He swayed and then caught her shoulders again. This time they went down, but it was a controlled fall. They sat back on the floor looking at each other.
“That was close!” She told him. “But you did it! You stood all the way up, big boy!”
He nodded and looked very proud of himself before looking back at the bed. He’d had enough. He wanted back in his bed. The only place he felt truly safe, apparently. Sophia helped him crawl back to the bed and then got him up and under the covers. She sat back on the mattress and picked up a book from the rumpled spread.
“Good! Now what shall we do? You want me to read? Or do you want to play patty-cake?” She raised both eyebrows and shook back her silky, straight hair. It was getting much longer than she liked, brushing her shoulders now.
Mark nodded, held up both hands and then, when she tried to start the patty-cake routine she was using to teach him coordination, he put his hands behind his back and smiled. “Read!”
“OK. You tried to fool Sophi. I’ll get you for that!” She laughed and then leaned off the bed to snatch a hard-bound book from the floor. “Let’s see where we left off… Prew, looking at this ladyhood, this almost maidenhood, felt everything suddenly run down out of him hollowly, like snow suddenly slides off a roof under a February sun exposing the orderly shingles of a former business venture.” Sophia began to read from the James Jones novel From Here to Eternity.
Jozsef Daniel had laughingly provided it for her from the library when she had asked for a book to read. Every day she had been reading a bit more to Mark Andrew and he seemed to be very interested in it. Most likely, he simply wanted to listen to her voice. He had learned quite a few words already and was picking up more and more as the days went on. She wondered at the implications of the title of the novel the horrid man had brought her. Every time he came to the room, she found it more and more difficult to hold her tongue. She wanted to rage at him for having taken Jozsef Daniel’s life from him. She was further horrified to think that whatever he had done to Jozsef and Anna, he might do the same to them at any moment.
She really didn’t understand why he was allowing them to stay here except, possibly, for the intervention of Bari and Nicole. She constrained herself these urges by reminding herself that things could be worse. They could separate her from him. They could throw them both in prison. They could kill them in the courtyard by any number of means that she had witnessed from the barred windows of their room. Yes, things could be much worse and so, she kept her peace, only occasionally throwing a well-placed barb at the Emperor or Mark’s daughter when they came to visit.
The Emperor had managed to place Colonel McGuffy in charge of the palace guard. McGuffy made sure that the guards left them alone and that, if she needed anything, all she had to do was ask. She should have asked the guards for a book, but most of them did not speak English or Italian. Never mind Latin, her other linguistic accomplishment learned from the monks on St. Ramsay’s. But it didn’t seem to matter whether he understood the words or not. Mark listened to her with rapt attention.
Nicole came every day to check on her father’s progress. Sophia did not think that the woman was truly interested in his welfare, but she appeared to want him to recover as soon as possible for some reason. In fact, the blonde seemed very nervous, almost desperate as she sat next to her father, patting his hand and cooing to him day after day ad nauseum. He liked Nicole’s attentions, but his mainstay was Sophia. If she left him, he panicked. Whenever she took a bath, she had to allow him to sit on the floor in the bathroom with her and God forbid that she abandon him for more than a few precious moments for anything else. She had to wait for him to go to sleep before she had any privacy at all. She was slowly, but surely going stir crazy.
They had not been allowed out of the rooms since the first day they had arrived and she had lost track of the days since then. Every now and again, ‘General Schweikert’ would arrive with some of his soldiers, and they would lock her in the closet where she would spend a hour or so beating fruitlessly on the door and shouting obscenities to no avail. When they let her out, Mark would be in a total state of turmoil. Whatever they were doing was not very nice and it was causing him to have terrible nightmares.
She slept on the bed with him and sometimes she had to fight with him to keep him from throwing himself on the floor in his sleep. But he was learning very fast now. Every day he made great strides. It would have been impossible to imagine that he might be playing jokes on her today based on what he had been doing only the day before. His joke, however small, had been a great surprise and he showed the resiliency of a child as well. She could hardly believe that he could laugh so easily considering their precarious situation, but it was quite evident he did not understand what was happening to them, where they were or even who they were supposed to be.
A virtual parade of strangers… doctors, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and other persons with unknown qualifications had come to see him, examine him, administer tests or simply talk to him. All had gone away without comment as far as she knew. He seemed to know innately that his best bet with these people was to remain quiet and virtually uncooperative and unresponsive. He almost seemed autistic during these encounters.
Sophia tried to keep his progress secret from the guards as much as possible. Only Colonel McGuffy was sympathetic to their plight. The old colonel knew Mark Andrew from some time in the past and it was quite evident that he truly loved the ‘Teacher’ as he called Mark Andrew. Sophia had been shocked to hear the colonel address him as ‘Master’ when he spoke directly to him, but Mark showed no signs of recognizing the colonel. Furthermore, she had seen the older man crying on several occasions when he had come to check on Mark. Again, Mark enjoyed the attention, but the colonel’s tears upset him.
Bari came from time to time. The Emperor seemed outraged at Mark’s condition. Sophia could not understand the Emperor’s reactions to his great-grandfather. It was as if he was angry his supposed worst enemy had been destroyed. She would have thought that he would have been happy to have Mark out of the way, but it was not so. Every time Bari spoke to Mark, he pleaded with him to call his father for him, but Mark just stared at him uncomprehending eyes and childish frowns. Sophia did not know if he was regaining his memory or learning everything fresh. If the case was the latter rather than the former, then they were in deep trouble.
Chapter Twenty-One of Twenty-Two
May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor
to their children.
“So what do you think?” Lucio leaned his elbows on the table and stared at the French Knight.
“I had never stopped to consider it.” Lavon frowned. “I am sorry. I should have realized… I have been remiss in my duty to you, Brother.”
“No! No! Please.” Lucio shook his head and waved one hand in dismissal. “You cannot think of everything. If I did as much thinking as you, my head woul
d explode. Boomba, boomba!” Lucio smiled at him and Lavon chuckled.
“Well, I believe you are right.” Lavon looked down at the cup of cappuccino in front of him. Italy was one of the only places left in the known world that still had a good supply of chocolate. It cost a fortune and was rapidly disappearing, but he had not been able to resist it when Lucio had insisted. The little sidewalk café almost made him forget what terrible shape the world was in and what had almost happened at Louis’ coronation. He smiled at Catharine. She sat very close to Lucio with her arm linked through his. It was hard for her to hold him still in his agitated state. “Since we now know that Meredith was an immortal when she was married to you and not through the administration of the Tree of Life, it is highly likely that her offspring would have been mortal.
“As for your question about the Grand Master… I can’t say. I can only guess that he either knew that she was immortal or he deliberately withheld the elixir so that she would not become immortal. I wish it were otherwise, but I believe it was the former rather than the latter.
“He never really approved of Meredith’s admittance into the Order. Perhaps he hoped that her aging would prove out a point that women did not belong. Who could have disputed it then? But to learn the truth, you would have to ask him. I would not advise it. But Lucia and Marco should have been exactly the same, genetically speaking, as Konrad or Nicole or Luke Andrew Ramsay. As you pointed out, however, Marco succumbed in the underworld, but then, so did Nicole grow old there. I was there. I watched her grow old. I watched Marco grow old and John Paul as well. It is my opinion that the Djinni had something to do with Nicole’s deterioration because he did not like the way she treated his son, Omar.
“Just as he kept Ruth young there, he may have made her think she was growing old. Again, we must consider the Grand Master as an example. I have learned that he was once a very handsome man, much like Corrigan. I believe Miss Catharine can attest to that.”
Lavon glanced at Catharine and she nodded in the affirmative.
“Sir d’Brouchart seems to have no problem allowing himself to age at will. It also may be that Lemarik could have done the same to Marco in order to end the war between Konrad and your son. He was growing quite weary of it by the time he managed to win over Oriel after I disappeared…” Lavon’s voice trailed off. These were painful memories for the golden Knight. He still loved Oriel Champlain.”
“I’m sorry, Brother.” Lucio reached across the table and took Lavon’s hand. “This is very important to me and painful to me as well, but I would ask that you forgive me and bear with me. You understand.”
Lavon nodded and glanced down the busy street. Oriel was Queen of the Franks now. She had graciously offered him a position in the Frankish Court, but he had declined the offer. It had only been an offer. She had expected a refusal. He belonged with the Order.
“Theoretically both Lucia and Marco should still be alive… somewhere.” Lavon said lightly.
“Somewhere,” Lucio repeated the word. “Then it is possible that Galen is Marco.”
“Correct. I believe that it is highly likely. He may have been waiting for a new opportunity to return. Sir Ramsay was convinced that Michael was John Paul. I’m not so sure about that now.” Lavon frowned. “I don’t think it is so because Luke Matthew is Michael’s father not Mark. But according to the research recorded in the archives, Luke Matthew’s genes may have also created the body we know as John Paul even though his father was Mark. It is very complicated. We may never know the answer.”
“What about Lucia?” Catharine asked this question. “Vanni said that he saw her, talked to her in the Chapel at Glessyn. It could have been her in spiritual form.”
“Quite so.” Lavon agreed.
“Then she could be in the Abyss with Meredith!” Lucio’s face lit up. “But why didn’t she come to the meetings?”
“You must remember the circumstances under which she died, Brother. She was not overly sympathetic to the Order. I don’t think she would voluntarily become a part of the Order’s business.”
“Ahh. Yes. I forgot.” Lucio looked down at the table.
“But there is another possibility. A bit far-fetched, but…” Lavon seemed unwilling to continue.
“What? What do you think?” Lucio prompted him and waved to waiter to bring another cup of the expensive brew for Lavon.
“You know our lives are never really our own. That everything that has happened to us… all of us, seems to be interconnected and controlled by a higher power. Especially those of us who are connected with the so-called ‘fallen ones’, the Watchers.
“My father is a Watcher and I am his creation. Only God, the Father’s, creations are perfect. All else is imperfect. All that is fallen in the spiritual sense are caught up in the materialistic world in which we live. I believe that it is God’s intention to lift all that is fallen back to a higher state and I believe that He is controlling us and everything that we do with that purpose in mind. I believe that He directs us all.”
“Yes. I’ve noticed the same thing.” Lucio nodded and glanced at Catharine. He remembered the depression he fallen into when he had learned Catharine was just another link in the bizarre chain of events that he called his life.
“You realize we never learned the truth about Sophia Cardinelli’s origin. She just simply appeared on St. Ramsay’s Island and she hasn’t aged a day since she was about twenty-five or so. That means that she, too, is of the same ilk as me and the others.”
“Yes. I know that. Very strange.” Lucio sighed. “And she came to Lothian to see Mark Andrew. Luke Andrew told me that Sophia was in love with him. Lucifer said that Mark Andrew was ‘keeping’ her in his room. I remember it quite well, don’t you, my love?” He looked at Catharine and she nodded. “That would seem to indicate her affections were being returned and then she just happened to be with him when he disappeared. I have often wondered if she might have been sent to trick him or trap him.”
“I don’t think so.” Lavon shook his head slightly and then smiled as the water brought his second cup of rich chocolate cappuccino. “I think she really loves him. I have seen it on her face.”
“Ahh. The sage!” Lucio laughed. “Everyone loves Mark Andrew.”
“That’s not true.” Lavon laughed as well. “Most everyone I know is terrified of him.”
“Then who do you think she is?” Catharine eyed the French Knight closely.
“I believe that Sophia could be another of us. She would be a good candidate for Lucia. It’s possible. We never came to any conclusions, if you will remember, before the war, and she became a secondary concern when the war started. So far, she has not provided any clues. She keeps to herself and does… did her work very well. There was no reason to question her.”
“No!” Lucio shook his head. “No. No. No. I don’t think so. She can’t be Lucia. Lucia almost despised him!”
“Did she really?” Lavon raised both blonde eyebrows. “Perhaps she simply disliked what he stood for. He was the wedge between her mother and father. It would be natural for her to dislike him. If she is what we believe her to be, she may have come back solely for the purpose of linking up with him. As you well know, we must mend our wrongs as we live out our lives. It is the law.”
Lucio stood up abruptly as jealousy stabbed him from two directions at once. Lucia? His daughter?! And Mark Andrew? Mark Andrew… Andrea? Impossible. It was too bizarre.
“I didn’t say it was a fact, Brother. I just said it was a possibility. Sophia did not show up until Lucia was gone, and she seemed to have a great affinity for your son, Vanni. He also treats her with great deference and respect. Perhaps you should ask him about her. He sometimes knows things, but doesn’t think to tell them. He assumes that everyone else knows them as well.”
Lucio did not answer. He stood looking at Lavon in shock for several moments before Catharine pulled him back down in the seat.
“When will we be going home?” She asked him.
<
br /> “Soon.” He told her shortly.
(((((((((((((
Lucio stepped out into the bright sunlight at the base of the cliff and blinked rapidly. He was greatly relieved to be free of the oppressive darkness of the cavern below the meadow. He put his flashlight away in his back pocket and shaded his eyes with one hand. The forest lay cool, green and shady before them. He glanced at Vanni, who was standing on his tiptoes, straining to see into the forest. He would be in trouble for coming here without permission if they were found out, but Vanni had told him that he often traveled here with Il Dolce Mio’s elves and that all was quiet in the Center since the dragon had been subdued. Lucio planned to be very careful this time. He only wanted a quick peek around and really expected to learn nothing new. He had no intention of going into the Abyss looking for Lucia or Galen and the others. Some of the Council members had suggested that Lucifer might have gone to the Abyss to look for the other Watchers, but Lucio did not think so. Why, he could not say, but he just felt Lucifer would not venture into the Abyss. He did not think that the angel would want to risk being entrapped anywhere again.
Lucio put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.
The red stallion and a bay mare broke from the edge of the woods and trotted to them as they walked toward the trees. Both animals wore the saddles of the elven folk.
“Ahh!” Vanni’s face lit up as the red horse stopped beside him.
“The mare is for you.” Lucio told his son as he reached for the reins of the red horse he usually rode while in this wondrous place. The red horse jerked its head away from him and rose up slightly on its hind legs.
“Santa Maria!” Lucio backed away from the beast and then tried again for the bridle. The horse whinnied and pawed the ground, jerking his head from side to side, preventing the Knight of the Golden Eagle from taking the reins. “Whoa, boy! Che cosa e` esso?” Lucio frowned at the horse, but the stallion had no intention of allowing him to come near him.
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