A lanky, dark-haired man with what looked like a permanent slouch stepped out of the arch’s shadow. He’d been absorbed in a plastic sheet and gave Pan and Kaiden only cursory glances.
“Panfilo? Yeah, Francesca is in the chapel. Come on.”
He started down a paved path that led into the inner ward. Kaiden tapped him on the shoulder.
“And you are?” he said with a sunny smile.
“Phillipe. Phillipe Jorgensen. Oh, yeah, I’m not an assassin.”
Kaiden continued to smile blandly without moving. Pan saw the armed bodyguards nod approval. Phillipe sighed heavily and gestured to the identity watch on Kaiden’s wrist. Kaiden held out his arm. The watch scanned Phillipe’s fingerprint and sweat and spoke his name.
“Okay? Let’s go.”
The path took them across the center of the ward. Ahead was anther stone arch with a black, grill gate. It opened onto an expanse of sky.
Philipe said, “Francesca’s waiting in the chapel.”
Stepping into the chapel’s portico, Pan took off his cap and sunglasses. Kaiden followed. They entered a narrow nave. It wasn’t as dark as Pan had anticipated but darker than outside. High windows let it a little light. Otherwise, the interior was lit by modern lamps.
The armed bodyguards didn’t follow. Either they trusted Kaiden or they had surveillance devices already scattered throughout the chapel. Pan wagered the latter.
Inside, Francesca waited in the chancel near the altar. She waited patiently as Pan and Kaiden approached, hands folded in front of her green dress.
“Panfilo. And Kaiden. Welcome.”
His eyes on Francesca’s neat slender form, Kaiden executed a not completely unclassy bow.
Pan said, “Thank you for meeting us.”
“Absolutely,” Kaiden echoed and gazed about the one-room chapel. He motioned to a table against the left wall. A long box sat on the top. “Are your bones—Lady Margaret’s bones—here?”
She led them to the table. Kaiden strolled beside her, hands clasped behind his back, shoulders hunched to meet her height. She was a tall woman and currently wearing heels, so Kaiden didn’t have to stoop too far.
Francesca was at least twenty years older than Kaiden, and she had a Cubus boyfriend slash stalker, so Pan wasn’t worried Kaiden would pursue Francesca like a medieval knight who had pledged troth to a lady.
But he should remember his duties.
Unless Kaiden is verifying Francesca’s identity in a less confrontational way than he did with Phillipe.
Francesca halted. The narrow case on the table had sides and lids of yellowish material carved with circles and flowing lines. Inside the case lay a long grayish object.
“Was Oswald one of your saints?” Pan said.
“No. Thankfully. I’ve enough of medieval saints for a while. Take Oswald’s arm. When he died, he was reportedly dismembered, his body parts, including the arm, placed in various reliquaries and scattered among various churches. They were lost at the time of the Reformation, the arm too.”
“And then retrieved?” Pan said.
“Likely not,” Francesca said. “Bamburgh Castle is a nineteenth-century version of a Norman fortress. The church is a reconstruction of an earlier Anglo-Saxon chapel that stood on the grounds. The arm is a—”
“Fake.”
“Replica. Commissioned from Moon Cloning.”
“Like me—according to your Cubus, Will.”
Francesca made a complicated face—a rueful bemused, slightly sad (Pan thought) smirk. She turned to the folding wooden chairs that served as pews and settled in the front row. Kaiden pulled two more into a small circle. Sitting, Pan noted that Kaiden glanced around the empty chancel before he sat in the chair that faced the outer door.
Still my security officer.
Francesca said, “Quin and Allec didn’t accompany you.”
Pan said, “Allec is undergoing a life-extension procedure.”
“I hope it is successful. Will they join you at Queen Atria’s court?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Monseigneur Rhys and Canon Lider will join you as well?”
“After they wind up their investigation,” Kaiden said.
“They are on the Moon?”
“Because I look like someone from Will’s past,” Pan said.
No comments:
Post a Comment