The Templar Knight

by Jan Guillou

  Queen Cecilia Blanca sent word to Gudhem three days in advance to announce her visit. The arrival of the messenger came as a relief for the three who were privy to Gudhem’s great secret—Sister Leonore was now in her third or fourth month; but the message imposed a heavy burden on Mother Rikissa. Archbishop Stéphan had died, to be sure, but as far as she knew the new Archbishop Johan was just as much in the king’s pocket. Mother Rikissa was thus still subject to the slightest whim of Queen Cecilia Blanca. And because of this the cursed Cecilia Rosa was still just as big a threat to Mother Rikissa. Vengeance was not something she worried about; she knew how she would take her revenge. But excommunication was a greater threat to her than anything else. And she could be excommunicated by the archbishop if the two Cecilias truly set their minds to it.

  Cecilia Rosa understood full well that Mother Rikissa’s present mental state was advantageous for certain conversations. She sought out Mother Rikissa in the abbess’s own rooms and bluntly laid out her plan: she herself would take over all the activities for which yconomus Jöns was now responsible at Gudhem. She would put the bookkeeping in order and this would improve Gudhem’s standing. The yconomus would then have more time for the trips to marketplaces that now took up an unreasonable number of hours, since he claimed he had far too many other things to do.

  Mother Rikissa feebly tried to argue that no one had ever heard of a woman being yconomus, and that was indeed why it used the masculine form of Latin.

  Without hesitation Cecilia Rosa replied that women were particularly well suited to taking care of such work at a convent, as it was not manual labor. And as far as the gender of the Latin word, all they had to do was change it to “yconoma.”

  So that was what she wanted her job at Gudhem to be called from now on, yconoma. When Mother Rikissa seemed about to give in, Cecilia Rosa quickly pointed out that the yconoma was naturally the one who would decide where the man Jöns would be sent in the future. He would travel with messages from Gudhem but not take part in any trading, since his decisions had proved to be greatly lacking.

  Mother Rikissa was now very close to anger, as was clearly apparent since she was sitting motionless and hunched up, rubbing her left hand on her right—all signs that in previous years had been a bad omen at Gudhem, since it presaged shouts about the scourge and the carcer.

  “God will soon show us whether this was a wise decision or not,” she said when she had regained some control over herself. “But it shall be as you wish. You will have to pray with humility about this change and not let anything go to your head. Remember that what I give you can just as easily be taken away in an instant. For I am still your abbess.”

  “Yes, Mother, for now you are my abbess,” said Cecilia Rosa with feigned humility so that the concealed warning in her words would not sound like a threat. Then she bowed her head and left. When she closed the door to Mother Rikissa’s rooms, she made an effort not to slam it. But silently to herself she hissed, for now, you witch.

  When Queen Cecilia Blanca came to visit this time she brought her firstborn son Erik with her, and she was obviously pregnant again. The meeting of the two Cecilias was more poignant than ever, because they were both now mothers. Cecilia Blanca also brought tidings of both her son Magnus and of Arn Magnusson.

  Her son Magnus was a plucky lad who climbed trees and fell off horses, but he never injured himself. Birger Brosa claimed that he could already see in the boy that he would be such a good shot with a bow and arrow that only one man would be able to match him; there was no doubt about his father’s identity.

  According to the latest news from Varnhem, Arn Magnusson was in good health and still carrying out his calling in Jerusalem, among bishops and kings. To Cecilia Blanca this meant that his life was not in danger, for among bishops and kings there were no terrible foes. She could both be happy about this and thank Our Lady for Her high protection.

  To Cecilia Blanca’s question about whether Rikissa were still behaving herself Cecilia Rosa replied in the affirmative, but also explained in no uncertain terms that this state of calm might soon be at an end. For there was a big problem and great danger.

  But about this matter she would prefer to speak alone with the queen.

  They went upstairs in the hospitium and lay down on the bed where they had said goodbye on the last night they had both been captives at Gudhem. Now they once again took each other’s hands and lay silent for a while, musing and staring up at the ceiling.

  “Well?” said Cecilia Blanca at last. “What is it that only my ears should hear?”

  “I need silver money.”

  “How much and for what purpose? Of all that you lack here at Gudhem, the need for silver money is probably something that seems the least important,” said Cecilia Blanca, surprised.

  “Our simple yconomus, whom I will soon be replacing, by the way, would say two handfuls of silver. That will be enough for a long journey to the south of the Frankish kingdom for two. I should think that a hundred Sverker coins would be sufficient. I beg you sincerely for this, and I will pay you back someday,” said Cecilia Rosa.

  “You and Ulvhilde aren’t planning to run away, are you? I don’t want that, I don’t want to lose my dearest friend! And remember that we’re not old yet, and that half your penance has already been served,” the queen replied uneasily.

  “No, I’m not asking for my own sake or for Ulvhilde,” said Cecilia Rosa with a little laugh, since she couldn’t help thinking of herself and Ulvhilde wandering on foot, holding hands all the way to France.

  “Do you swear it?” asked the queen dubiously.

  “Yes, I swear it.”

  “But you can’t tell me what this matter involves?”

  “No, I don’t want to, dear Cecilia Blanca. Perhaps someone will come and tell you that this money was used for a grave sin, and malicious tongues will try to involve you in this sin. But if you know nothing about it, then you are without sin. That’s what I thought, anyway,” said Cecilia Rosa.

  They lay silent for a while as Cecilia Blanca thought it over. But then she giggled and promised to take the money from her own traveling funds, since the amount was so small. But she reserved the right to be told someday what this sin entailed; so that she was innocent of any involvement, although she was providing the money. At least she wanted to find out eventually, when it was all over.

  Cecilia Rosa promised to tell her at some later time.

  Because the second matter that Cecilia Rosa wanted to discuss dealt with Ulvhilde, she thought it would be better if all three of them spoke together. So they got up from the bed, kissed each other, and went down to the queen’s table and her attendants.

  On this first evening of her visit Cecilia Blanca had decided that Rikissa would be allowed to stay behind the walls, since it seemed to her such a bother to hold a banquet for her queen. In this way the dear friends and Ulvhilde could spend a much more amusing evening together. The queen had minstrels in her retinue, and they performed merrily as the feast was consumed. There were only women in the hall; the queen’s guards had to remain outside the hospitium, taking their own repast in their tents as best they could. For as Cecilia Blanca said, she had learned quickly as queen that men were bothersome to have at table. They talked so loudly, got so drunk, and had to show off if they were in the presence of too many women and maidens, with no king or jarl.

  But all the women were now eating and drinking like men, whom they mimicked with the greatest mischief. For example, the queen could still perform a number of tricks she had played when she was to be scourged at Gudhem, belching and breaking wind thunderously. Which she now repeated as she stretched and scratched her bottom and behind her ears as some men were in the habit of doing. All the women had a good laugh at this.

  When all the food was consumed, they kept some mead on the table and Cecilia Blanca sent all her ladies-in-waiting to bed so that she and her friends at Gudhem could more easily converse about serious matters. For the queen understood the
need for secrecy, since what concerned Ulvhilde Emundsdotter could become quite serious.

  Cecilia Rosa began. At the time when Ulvhilde came to Gudhem there was great unrest in the country; all three of them remembered that. And as the blessed Fru Helena Stenkilsdotter made them all realize, a woman was unwise to run like a goose after friends and enemies when war could turn everything upside down in the blink of an eye.

  Now all of Ulvhilde’s kinsmen were dead on the fields of blood outside Bjälbo and in the battles that followed, when the Folkungs and Eriks were victorious. That was when a message came to Gudhem that for Cecilia Rosa and her dear friend Cecilia Blanca had been like the loveliest dream. But Ulvhilde belonged to those for whom the fields of blood were the blackest of all nightmares.

  Since then it was as though everyone had forgotten about Ulvhilde here at Gudhem. There was no one to ask after her, and no one could plead her cause or demand her rights. And even if it was hard to know what payment had been made on Ulvhilde’s behalf during the bloody mess that existed back then, it was inconceivable that Rikissa would have cast out a relation out of hand.

  But now was the time to settle accounts, Cecilia Rosa concluded, reaching for her tankard of mead.

  The queen said, “Now, as your queen but above all as your dearest friend, I would like to know what exactly you have in mind.”

  “It’s very simple,” said Cecilia Rosa, collecting herself as she drank calmly. “Ulvhilde’s father died. Then her little brother and her mother inherited. But later her brother died on the field of blood. After her mother died too…”

  “Ulvhilde was the sole heir!” said the queen. “As I understand the law, that is true. Ulvhilde, what was the name of the estate they burned down?”

  “Ulfshem,” said Ulvhilde in terror, for what was now being discussed was something she hadn’t heard even from her dear friend Cecilia Rosa.

  “Folkungs now live there. They took over Ulfshem as a prize of victory. I know the people who live there,” said the queen pensively. “But in this matter we have to proceed cautiously, dear friends. Very cautiously, since we want to win. The law is clear, it cannot be anyone but Ulvhilde who inherits Ulfshem. But laws are one thing, and men’s conceptions of what is right and reasonable are not always the same. I can’t promise you anything for certain, but it will please me greatly to try and create order in this matter. I will first speak with Torgny Lagman in Eastern Götaland. He is also a Folkung and is close to us. Then I will talk to Birger Brosa, and when I’m done with these two I will take my case to the king. You both have your queen’s word on this!”

  Ulvhilde looked as though she’d been struck by lightning. She sat there completely pale, straight-backed, and suddenly stone-cold sober. For even if she wasn’t as cunning as her two older friends, she could see that what the queen had said might mean that her life could be changed as if by magic.

  Her next thought was that in that case she would have to leave her dear Cecilia Rosa, and then the tears came.

  “I refuse to leave you here alone with that witch Rikissa, especially now that Sister Leonore…” she sniffled, but was immediately interrupted by Cecilia Rosa, who laid a warning finger across her lips. She quickly moved to Ulvhilde’s side at the table and took the girl in her arms.

  “Hush, hush, my dear little friend,” Cecilia Rosa whispered to her. “Remember that I was separated from my dear Cecilia Blanca once in the same way, and here we now sit, the dearest of friends. Remember too that when we see each other on the outside we’ll be younger than Sister Leonore is now. And by the way, don’t say anything else about this matter to your queen.”

  Cecilia Blanca cleared her throat and rolled her eyes as if to show that she might already have understood too much. Then she excused herself and went into her own rooms on the ground floor to “fetch a few trinkets,” as she said.

  While she was gone Cecilia Rosa stroked Ulvhilde’s hair as the young girl continued to cry.

  “I know what you’re feeling now, Ulvhilde,” whispered Cecilia Rosa. “I have felt the same. The day I understood that Cecilia Blanca would leave this Godforsaken place, I wept with joy for her sake but also with sorrow because I would be alone for a time which then seemed like an eternity. But the days no longer seem endless, Ulvhilde. I can now see that my penance will one day end.”

  “But if you’re left alone with the witch…” Ulvhilde sniffled.

  “I’ll be all right. I can manage. If you think about our secret here at Gudhem, the one only you and I and Sister Leonore know about, isn’t it a miracle of God that love is so strong? And isn’t it just as wondrous what Our Lady can do for someone who never loses faith and hope?”

  Ulvhilde seemed to take some solace from this. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and pluckily poured a little more mead for herself, although she had already drunk more than enough.

  Cecilia Blanca returned with long strides and slammed a leather purse down on the table. From the sound it was clear what the leather purse contained.

  “Two handfuls, approximately,” Cecilia Blanca said with a laugh. “Whatever wily female plans you have, dear friends, make damned sure you succeed!”

  At first the other two were shocked by their queen’s audacious, manly speech. Then all three women burst into uncontrollable laughter.

  They hid the leather purse with the hundred silver pennings in a crevice in the cloister wall out by the gardens and described the spot exactly for Sister Leonore. They sewed the necessary garments piece by piece and let Sister Leonore herself hide them where she pleased outside the walls.

  And when the summer was winding toward its end, Brother Lucien again made visits to Gudhem because he thought that there were important things about the harvesting, and about how to handle the fresh herbs, which Sister Leonore had not yet fully grasped.

  This time he brought along a little book that he had made himself, in which most of what he knew could be read. And he gave this book to Cecilia Rosa along with a greeting. Though he never spoke to her, he wanted to thank her for keeping their secret. It was not easy to read everything in the little book; Sister Leonore had to carry questions between the giver and the receiver a few times until most of it had been explained.

  One evening when the summer was approaching harvest time, when the apples had begun to turn sweet, when the moon reddened in the evening and the black earth smelled of moist ripeness, and it was now obvious in what blessed condition Sister Leonore found herself, Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde accompanied her to the back gate that led out to the gardens. All three of them knew where the keys were hidden.

  They opened the little wooden gate very carefully, because it was a bit creaky. Out there in the moonlight Brother Lucien was waiting in his new worldly clothes. In his arms he had a bundle of clothes that Sister Leonore would wear all the way to the south of France, if they could make it that far before she had to give birth.

  Hastily the three women embraced one another. They blessed each other but none of them cried. And so Sister Leonore vanished into the moonlight; Cecilia Rosa closed the little wooden gate quietly and carefully, and Ulvhilde silently locked it. They went back to the vestiarium and continued their work as if nothing had happened, as if Sister Leonore had only left them a little earlier than normal this evening, even though there was still much sewing to be done.

  But Sister Leonore had left them forever. And afterward there was much grumbling and many harsh words. But for Cecilia Rosa her absence left a great emptiness, since she both feared and hoped that for the second time she would soon be alone at Gudhem.

  Chapter 7

  Autumn and winter were the time for rest and healing in the Holy Land. The land itself, like many of its warring inhabitants, seemed to be recovering from its wounds during this time when enemy armies could make no headway. The roads around Jerusalem turned into mud; wagons that were too heavy got stuck, and on the bare and windswept hills outside the holy city there was often thick, slushy snow. Together with
the violent wind it would make any enemy siege more miserable for the besiegers than for the besieged inside.

  In Gaza it often rained, but the weather could also be sunny and cool, like the Nordic summers. Snow had never been seen there.

  The autumn and winter days following the remarkable, miraculous victory at Mont Gisard were at first filled with two tasks that were of greater concern for fortress master Arn de Gothia than all the everyday work. First, he had a hundred Mameluke prisoners who were more or less battered; and second, he had almost thirty wounded knights and sergeants in the north wing of the fortress.

  Two of the captives were men who could not be locked in with the others in one of Gaza’s grain stores. They were Saladin’s younger brother Fahkr and the emir Moussa. Arn had them quartered in private rooms, and he ate the midday meal with them every day instead of with his knights down in the refectorium by the fortress courtyard. He knew that this behavior prompted some amazement among his close brothers, but he had not explained to them how important Fahkr was.

  In all of Outremer and the surrounding lands, everyone acted in the same way when it came to prisoners, whether they were followers of the Prophet or Christians or something else. Important prisoners like Fahkr and emir Moussa were exchanged or released when ransomed. Prisoners who could not be exchanged were usually beheaded.

  The captives in Gaza were mostly Mamelukes. The simplest thing would have been to find out which of them had earned their freedom and were rewarded with property, and which of them were still slaves. The result would be either death or, in the best case, the position of master of a whole region in one of Saladin’s many lands.

  Those who were still slaves ought to be beheaded at once. They were just as worthless as prisoners as Templar knights were, since they could never be ransomed. Besides, it was unhealthy to keep too many prisoners in close quarters, because they could easily spread disease. Killing them was the most hygienic solution, and also the wisest in terms of economical administration.