Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy: The Templar Chronicles: Book 2 (13 page)

Just as I said that, the bell rang and the hunters all around us sprang to the their feet. They ran toward the practice field, leaving their mess behind for the Ratlings to clean up. Will and I took our plates to the counter, scraped off the leftovers and placed them in the dirty dishes bin.

A young, rather big-bellied Ratling looked at us wide-eyed, uncertain what to make of two hunters going out of their way to help. T-Rex walked up.

“Thanks guys,” he said. “Hunters sure are a messy bunch, aren’t they, Simon?”

The big-bellied Ratling named Simon looked horrified that T-Rex would say something bad about the hunters. He grabbed the plates and scurried away.

“A little skittish, isn’t he?” Will asked.

“He’s alright,” T-Rex said. “They’re all scared of the hunters. I keep trying to tell them they shouldn’t be. I mean, we’re just as important as you guys. Without us, this place would grind to a halt. Let’s see what happens if we stop cooking for a couple of days.”

“You tell them, T-Rex,” I said.

“Come on,” said Will. “We’ve got to get into formation.”

We said good-bye to T-Rex, jogged to the field and got in line.

That night, I was halfway up the front steps of the Templar Tree when Aquinas appeared on the balcony and walked down toward me.

“Come,” she said as she passed by me, “I think you should see something.”

We circled back around the tree and then walked along the base of the outer wall. I wouldn’t say Aquinas was sneaking around, but she was certainly choosing pathways that minimized the number of eyes that might notice our little midnight stroll. We reached the point where the wall met up with the granite mountain and turned to follow the second, more ancient wall of the Citadel that ran the length of the massive cave that loomed over us. 

I squinted up into the night and saw dark, black shapes flying in and out of the caves. Bats. Thousands of them. A chill passed through my body. When I looked down, Aquinas was staring at me.

“Sorry, the last bat I met tried to kill me…a whole bunch of times,” I said.

Aquinas moved on and I had to jog to catch up to her.

Soon, we reached the arched gate at the center of the Citadel wall. I had only seen it from a distance since I’d been at the Academy and had thought it was a just a small opening. But now, standing in front of it, I saw it was much larger than I had thought. It was tall enough to admit men on horseback, even if they were riding four or five side-by-side.

A massive iron gate hung suspended above it with nasty-looking teeth along the bottom that would sink into holes in the ground below. The heavy gate was poised, ready to drop down when needed to close off the mountain stronghold from the outside world. I cringed at the idea of walking under it, like passing under the blade of a guillotine or in front of a loaded gun. All I could think about was how incredibly fast and effective it could squash anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be under it when it came crashing down.

Aquinas noticed me pause before walking under it.

“The gate weighs nearly two tons. It’s never been breached in a battle,” Aquinas said.

“I’m not so worried about it being breached,” I replied. “I’m more worried about it dropping down and cutting me in half.”

“That’s good. A hunter ought always be aware of the dangers around him,” Aquinas said. “Not to worry, though. The gate’s suspended by thick chains. It takes two people to operate the mechanism to lower it. Come along,” Aquinas said.

We passed through the thick walls of the Citadel and entered the cave. I noticed the chains holding up the gate and the complex pulley system for opening and lowering it. The chains were covered with dust and cobwebs as if they hadn’t been moved in years. I turned and looked around the cave as my eyes adjusted to the dark.

Looming directly in front of us was a battlement with dozens of narrow slits in the rock face where archers could fire directly at an enemy that had breached the main gate. Now they were cold, dark eyes that seemed to follow us as we walked deeper into the cave.

“Almost there,” Aquinas called out.

Before us, a heavy metal door rose up out of the darkness. It was studded with sharp points and a heavy chain crisscrossed in front of it with eight or nine padlocks attached in various places. Whatever was behind the door, the hunters didn’t want anyone to get in. Or, I considered, they didn’t want something getting out.  

“What’s that?” I asked.

Aquinas glanced at the door quickly, as if not wanting her eyes to linger there too long. “That’s nothing for you to concern yourself with.”

“I keep hearing other students talk about this. Is something locked up inside?”

Aquinas turned and I felt her eyes bore into me. “It is a relic of the past and has no place in our world today. It is forbidden. Some things are best left in darkness, my boy. Just you remember that.”

Then it occurred to me what I was looking at. “That’s the entry to the Cave of Trials, isn’t it? Why is everyone so scared of it?”

“Because they have every reason to be,” Aquinas said. “No hunter has ever returned alive. In the old days, many good hunters, driven by the promise of great glory, made the attempt. But they all failed. That foolishness ended over a hundred years ago with the last attempt.”

“What’s behind the door?”

“Death,” she whispered. “Now, before we go on, before we enter the room where so many of your questions can be answered, I have a proposal for you. A bargain, if you will.”

“I don’t like the sound of this,” I said.

“We both possess things the other wants. You want answers. I want you to stay at the Academy and complete your training before the final battle is upon us. I’m willing to bargain one for the other. If you stay, I will give you what answers I can.”

“How long are we talking about?” I asked.

“Until you become a first level monster hunter.” 

“But Eva says that can take six months, if not longer,” I complained.

“And in return, I will explain to you the history of the Black Guard and your ancestors, the Knights Templar.”

“Will you tell me where my father is being kept?”

“I will answer all your questions to the best of my ability,” Aquinas said.

“And my mother. What do you know about her?” I asked.

“Ah, your mother. Eva told me that she came to you in a dream,” Aquinas said.

“It wasn’t a dream,” I replied. I thought back to when I had seen the vision of my mother. It was after I’d drowned in the river and before T-Rex found me and performed CPR. “I think I was dead,” I stated.

“Hmm…” Aquinas said. “Most unusual.”

“Yeah, for me anyway,” I said. “She asked me to forgive her but she wouldn’t say what I was supposed to forgive her for. Do you know what she meant by that?”

Aquinas stared at me, her face completely unreadable. She could have known everything about my mother or nothing at all. It was impossible to tell.

After a few moments of silence she said, “In time I will answer all your questions to the best of my ability. But only in exchange for your solemn oath that you will continue your training here until you become a full hunter.” Aquinas leaned in toward me, her eyes narrow and intense. “Think on it carefully, boy. Do not enter an oath with me lightly. It is unbreakable and cannot be reversed.”

Aquinas held out her hand. I hesitated. Six months. Maybe longer. I hadn’t planned on being here for more than a couple of weeks. Just long enough to find out where my father was being held, or at least a clue to send me in the right direction. Still, the prospect of having all my questions answered was exciting. Maybe it was worth the time. Besides, Eva was probably right. I could stand to learn something from the classes and the fighting drills. Slowly, I reached out and shook her hand.

As I did, a spark passed between us like a massive discharge of static electricity. I flinched, but Aquinas didn’t move. She grasped my hand and looked into my eyes. “The oath is made,” she said.

I nodded my head.

“Good, now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Now come along.” She spun away from me and walked toward a solid, rock wall of the cave, and, without breaking stride, disappeared straight into the mountain. Or at least she seemed to. I walked to the spot where she had disappeared and saw a layer of thick brown vines covering a fold in the rock. I would have missed it completely except for a glow of light that barely penetrated through to the far side. With one last look at the forbidden door, I pushed my way through the vines.

I found myself in a narrow passageway, rough cut and hewn out of the solid rock of the mountain. A burning torch disappeared down the shaft ahead of me.

“Come along,” echoed Aquinas’s voice. “We don’t have all night.”

I hustled to keep up. When I reached her, she was unlocking a heavy wooden door studded with metal. Cobwebs and dust covered the door. Wherever she was taking me, it didn’t look like anyone had been there for a while.

Still, the door swung open soundlessly on smooth hinges. I followed Aquinas into another passageway, this one even narrower and with a low ceiling that made us both stoop over. Above us, I noticed the ceiling of the passageway glittered in the flame of the burning torch. I reached up and touched the surface and my hand came back covered in gold dust.

“Is this—”

“Pyrite,” Aquinas said. “Fool’s Gold. It has its uses. But certainly, a band of solid gold would have been preferable. OK, we’re here.”

The flame fluttered as we entered what felt like a much larger space. I say ‘felt’ because the small torch was no match for the intense darkness that surrounded us.

“What is this place?” I asked, my voice echoing through the dark chamber.

Aquinas held the torch up close to the nearest wall. Carved directly into the solid rock face was a beautiful image of an ancient walled city, surrounded by a siege army of medieval soldiers.

“This is our history,” Aquinas intoned. “Different from what they taught you in school, I’m sure.”

“The city is Jerusalem and this is the Crusades, isn’t it?” I asked. “Eva had told me—”

“Eva told you what?” Aquinas snapped.

“Not much,” I said carefully, curious about her reaction. “Just that my name, Templar, has something to do with the Knights Templar. From the Crusades.”

“Yes, of course,” said Aquinas. “And what do you know about the Crusades?”

“I—I—not much, to tell you the truth,” I said.

Aquinas shook her head. “Technology has made intelligence more accessible than ever and yet the outside world just gets more forgetful. The ultimate result of forgetfulness is ignorance. And that is the most dangerous weapon of all.”

She handed me the torch and indicated toward the wall. I explored the carving as she spoke. “There were many Crusades through history. All were efforts from the devout Christians of Europe to battle against what they perceived to be the threat of the growing Islamic power of the East. The centerpiece was the liberation of Jerusalem and the Holy Lands. Unfortunately, these lands were holy for both sides, ensuring that the fight would continue for centuries and, well, they continue to this day.”

I walked further along the wall and the scene changed from a siege to a massive battle scene. Thousands of men were depicted in the carving, many of them lying dead in gruesome piles of mutilated bodies.

“But in 1099, the First Crusade saw the successful recapture of Jerusalem with great loss of life on both sides. Although they held the city, the lands around the city were lawless. Pilgrims traveling from Europe regularly found themselves attacked; sometimes hundreds of them were slaughtered at the hands of these bandits.

“Twenty years after the capture of the city, a French knight named Hughes de Payens was granted permission to set up a small protective order in Jerusalem to watch over the pilgrims. He and eight other knights set up camp on an ancient site called the Temple Mount, inside the Al-Aqsa mosque, which was believed to be above the old Temple of Solomon from biblical times. De Payens decreed a vow of poverty for his knights. For his insignia he chose the image of two knights sharing one horse. He called his order the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. But soon they became known simply as the Templars.”

“But how does any of this relate to the Black Guard?” I asked.

“Everything I’ve told you is in the history books,” Aquinas replied. “What isn’t there is the real reason why de Payens started the Templars. Yes, it was to protect the pilgrims, but not from bandits. It was the Creach. Commanded by an aggressive new leader, Ren Lucre. Under his leadership, monsters were attacking in broad daylight. This was not for sport. Nor was it for food. This was something different. It was as if a war had been declared by monsters against Man himself.”

I moved my torch further down the wall and the carvings of grotesque monsters feasting on helpless pilgrims covered the wall.

Aquinas’s voice came out of the dark behind me. “De Payens knew of Ren Lucre. He and his men did battle on a small scale against the Creach back in France, but this new war with the monsters was to be on an unprecedented scale.”

“But there were only nine of them,” I said. “How could they make a difference?”

“Ah, but it’s the power of the cause that builds an army, not the number of soldiers,” Aquinas said. “While the Templars did indeed protect pilgrims from bandits and fight in the wars against the armies of men who tried to recapture Jerusalem, their true mission was carried out in secret by a group within the Order.”

“The Black Guard,” I said.

“Precisely,” said Aquinas. “Led by de Payens himself, the Black Guard was committed to the defense of mankind against the rising power of the monsters. The history books call it one of the great mysteries of the medieval world, that, within only a few years of forming, the Templars had integrated themselves as a leading financial and political power in the world, rivaling kings and leaders of the Church. You can Goggle it on the Interwebs; it’s all there I’m sure.”

“I can what?” I asked, taken back.

“Isn’t that what it’s called?” Aquinas asked. “Goggling?”