Before the long journey, Reyn went to Marseille to lay some flowers on the highest cliff.
In these windy places, where Ada had looked up at the sky one last time, he swore not to drink filthy, throat-burning wine. He also swore not to touch any more whores, preferring to sleep alone and to dream that his Ada was waiting for him peacefully at the top of the cliffs.
Each time, he runs to her, but she disappears in the mist.
Reyn asked Barral of Baux to look after his new fiefs. John of Chasseney and his wife promised to make the trip once a year to the South. But they had a heavy, worrying feeling that their beautiful son was leaving them forever.
Reyn and Barral rode their horses through the posthumous inheritance of the murdered little bastard.
The tenants mainly cultivate barley, wheat, oats, beans, and peas. In addition, plum and blackthorn trees, peach trees, cherry trees, fig trees, hazelnut trees, walnut trees, and almond trees abound. Of course, vineyards are less present than in the Champagne region, but Reyn loves this land that is both wild and peaceful. He visits his mills, ovens, presses, and forges for plows and tools. As the news goes well, stewards bow their heads before the northern lord, and farm girls are proud of their new master, so pleasant to look at.
But they're a little sad because his heart seems broken and he will soon leave for the other side of the sea.
Barral of Baux is moved that the late Ada be a bastard of the lords of Montreal, who belonged to a glorious southern lineage as powerful as his own.
Then Barral and Reyn climbed a slope to reach the ruins of Montreal castle. We can still make out the stronghold's courtyard and an octagonal tower where the bell tower was probably housed.
A small signal tower still stands to the southwest of the bell tower. It was intended to warn the fortress of the attackers' arrival.
After the lord of Montreal's defeat against Simon of Montfort, Toulouse and Foix had attacked the fortress hard, and the fire of war machines severely damaged it.
Reyn thinks it might make sense to build a new castle, but he doesn't plan to do it immediately. In several months or perhaps a year, he will write to his father about rebuilding Montreal or not. They wandered among the rubble mingled with wild brambles, then spotted an entrance.
Barral knows that many southern castles still hold secrets, perhaps hidden treasures. They end up in an intricate network of galleries, going down what seemed to them the bowels of hell by an interminable stone staircase. Finally, they find an old iron door they have to kick open, and they enter a vast room with a trapdoor in the vault of the building. Straw was thrown on the pavement; no doubt this place was a jail, and the trap door was used to pass water and food to the prisoners.
Like all those who died in these places marked by past sufferings, Ada no longer lives in the same world as her knight. Yet, each time he reads and rereads the words of his beloved, Reyn is reminded of the terrible ordeal she endured preserving his life.
He doesn't know how to honor her and stay on his feet in this life, which doesn't have any interest without her.
A few months later, the young lord of Laurac, Montreal, and Chasseney, got his house in order and kissed his dear parents several times.
He embarks in Marseille on a beautiful sunny day in 1256. While the mistral wind is blowing through the Latin sails, and the ship takes the sea slowly, Reyn keeps his amber eyes fixed on the high cliffs looking like they're walking on the sea.
End of Book III
***
When I am alone
I dream on the horizon
And words fail
Yes, I know there is no light
In a room when the sun is absent
If you are not there with me, with me
Open the windows
Show everyone my heart
Which you have set alight
Enclose within me
The light that
You met on the street
I will leave with you
Countries that I've never
Seen or shared with you
Yes, now I will experience them
I will leave with you
On ships overseas
That I know
No, no, they no longer exist
With you, I shall experience them
When you are far away
I dream on the horizon
And words fail
And I do know
That you are with me, with me
You, my moon, you are here with me
My sun, you are here with me
With me, with me, with me
I will leave with you
Countries that I've never
Seen or shared with you
Yes, now I will experience them
I will leave with you
On ships overseas
That I know
No, no, they no longer exist
With you, I shall experience them again
I will leave with you
On ships overseas
That I know
No, no, they no longer exist
With you, I shall experience them again
I will leave with you
Me with you
YOU ARE READING
The Wolf and the Snake (English version)
Historical FictionIn 1099, a mysterious child of noble origin was taken in by Jews who had fled the Crusaders' arrival in front of Jerusalem. Years later, Ada, the descendant of this child, travels through Palestine with her father. He's a merchant and knows medicin...
