“I’m so glad,” she whispered, “that I haven’t killed you just yet.”
The light was paining Diego Alatriste’s eyes, or, rather, his right eye, because his left was still swollen, and both eyelids felt as heavy as loaded dice. This time, he saw two shadows moving about near the door of his cell. He sat looking at them from his position on the floor, his back against the wall, having failed to free his bound hands, despite almost rubbing the skin raw in his efforts.
“Do you recognize me?” asked a dour voice.
The man was lit now by the lantern. Alatriste recognized him at once, with a shiver of fear and surprise that must, he thought, have been evident on his face. Who could forget that vast tonsure, that gaunt, ascetic face, those fanatical eyes, the stark black-and-white Dominican habit? Fray Emilio Bocanegra, president of the Court of the Inquisition, was the last man he would have expected to meet there.
“Now,” said the captain, “I really am done for.”
Behind the lantern, Gualterio Malatesta gave a harsh, appreciative laugh. The Inquisitor, however, lacked any sense of humor. His piercing, deep-set eyes fixed on the captain.
“I have come to confess you,” he said.
Alatriste shot an astonished look in the direction of Malatesta’s dark silhouette, but this time the Italian neither laughed nor commented. This offer of confession was clearly intended seriously, too seriously.
“You are a mercenary and a murderer,” the Inquisitor went on. “During your unfortunate life, you have broken each and every one of God’s commandments, and now you are about to be called to account.”
The captain finally recovered the use of his tongue, which had stuck to the roof of his mouth when he heard the word “confession.” Surprising even himself, he managed to keep his composure.
“My accounts,” he retorted, “are my own affair.”
Fray Emilio Bocanegra regarded him impassively, as if he had not heard that last remark.
“Divine Providence,” he went on, “is offering you the chance to reconcile yourself with God, to save your soul, even if you must then spend hundreds of years in Purgatory. In a few hours’ time, the holy swords of the archangel and of Joshua will fall and you will have been transformed into an instrument of God. You can decide whether to go to your death with your heart closed to God’s grace or to accept it with goodwill and a clear conscience. Do you understand?”
The captain shrugged. It was one thing for them to kill him and quite another to come bothering his head with such stuff. He could still not fathom what Bocanegra was doing there.
“One thing I do understand is that today is not a Sunday, so please spare me the sermon and tell me what is going on.”
Fray Emilio Bocanegra fell silent for a moment, but his eyes remained fixed on the prisoner. Then he raised one bony, admonitory finger.
“Very shortly, the world will know that a hired killer named Diego Alatriste, acting out of jealousy for some vile imitator of Jezebel, liberated Spain of a king unworthy to wear the crown. A base instrument wielded by God for a just cause.”
The friar’s eyes were flashing now, aflame with divine wrath. And Alatriste’s suspicions were finally confirmed. He, Alatriste, was to be the holy sword of Joshua, or would, at least, pass into the history books as such.
“The ways of the Lord are unknowable,” commented Malatesta, who was standing behind the friar and saw that the captain had finally understood.
He sounded almost encouraging, persuasive, respectful. Too respectful, thought Alatriste, knowing as he did the depths of Malatesta’s cynicism. Malatesta must have been enjoying this absurd little interlude immensely. Grave-faced, the Dominican half turned toward the Italian, and the latter’s derisive comment died on his lips. In the presence of the Inquisitor, even Gualterio Malatesta did not dare overstep.
“Just what I needed,” said the captain with a sigh. “To fall into the hands of a mad friar.”
The slap was as loud as a whiplash and flung his face to one side.
“Hold your tongue, wretch.” The Dominican still held his hand high, threatening to slap him again. “This is your last chance before you face eternal damnation.”
The captain looked again at Fray Emilio Bocanegra. His cheek smarted from the blow, and he was not the kind of man to turn the other cheek. Despair formed a knot in the pit of his stomach. “By Lucifer’s balls,” he said to himself, repressing his anger. Up until that night, no one had ever slapped him in the face—ever. By Christ and the father who engendered him, he would gladly have sold his soul, always assuming he had one, just to have his hands free for a moment to strangle this friar. He glanced over at the black shape that was Malatesta, still concealed behind the lantern. No laughter and no jocular remarks emerged from him now. That slap had not pleased him one iota. Among their kind, killing was one thing—part of the job—but humiliation was another matter entirely.
“Who else is involved in this?” Alatriste asked, pulling himself together. “Besides Luis de Alquézar, of course. One doesn’t just kill a king like that. An heir is needed, and our king has not yet had a son.”
“The natural order will be followed,” the Dominican said coolly.
So that was it, thought Alatriste, biting his lip. The natural order of succession would fall on the Infante don Carlos, the eldest of the king’s two brothers. It was said that he was the least gifted of the family, and that given his weak will and lack of intelligence, he could easily fall under the influence of the right confessor for the purpose. Despite his youthful licentiousness, Philip IV was nevertheless a devout man; however, unlike his father, Philip III, who spent all his life beset by priests, he never gave the clergy a free hand. On the advice of the Count-Duke of Olivares, the Spanish king always maintained a certain distance from Rome, whose pontiffs knew, much to their regret, that the Hapsburg army was the main Catholic bulwark against the Protestant heretics. Like Olivares, the young king showed some sympathy for the Jesuits, but in a land where one hundred thousand priests and friars and monks were ever battling it out amongst themselves for control of men’s souls and of ecclesiastical privileges, it was neither easy nor advisable to come down in favor of any one group. The Jesuits were hated by the Dominicans, who ran the Holy Office of the Inquisition and were the implacable enemies of the Franciscans and Augustinians, yet they all joined forces when it came to eluding royal authority and justice. In that struggle for power, driven by fanaticism, pride, and ambition, it was hardly surprising that the Dominican order, and, of course, the Inquisition, enjoyed an excellent relationship with the Infante don Carlos. And it was no secret that he, in turn, favored them to the extent of having chosen a Dominican as his confessor. If it was red and served in a jug, Alatriste decided, it must be wine. Or blood.
“If the infante involves himself in this,” he said, “he’s an utter rogue.”
Making a gesture as if brushing away a fly, Fray Emilio Bocanegra resorted to professional rhetoric:
“The right hand does not always know what the left hand is doing. What matters is that we serve the Almighty, and that is our sole aim.”
“It will cost you your heads—you, that Italian over there, Alquézar, and the infante himself.”
“Worry about your own head,” remarked Malatesta phlegmatically.
“Rather,” added the Inquisitor, “worry about the health of your soul.” Again his terrible eyes fixed on Alatriste. “Will you make your confession to me?”