Inquisition Read Online Free PDF Page B

his surgical instruments. He turned with a reel of silk thread in one hand and a large needle in the other.
    ‘Listen carefully,’ he said, staring Gerardo hard in the eye. ‘I have lied to the Inquisitor, I have broken the law and I am now in as much danger as you are. I do not intend to loiter around while a callow youth makes a mess of things and gets himself arrested, condemning us both. You wanted my help and it is too late to go back now. I will decide what we do from now on. Is that clear?’
    ‘Not at all,’ answered Gerardo, dryly. ‘I respect you as a physician and I thank you for not reporting me, but I have no intention of being told what to do by you.’
    He had not liked being referred to as a callow youth, and he certainly didn’t believe that a layman, who was anti-religion and lacking any military training, could really help him find a murderer and defend the interests of the Knights templar at the same time.
    Mondino went up to the corpse and, without saying a word, started to suture the chest, piercing the flesh and pulling the thread through with the expert and nimble fingers of a seamstress. When he had finished he asked Gerardo to help him put the tunic back on, then finally spoke.
    ‘My involvement is not negotiable,’ he said, louring at the monk with resolute green eyes. ‘You want to find the assassin; I want to discover the alchemical secret. We must unite and it is not in your interest to refuse.’
    ‘Why? Because otherwise you’d denounce me?’ countered Gerardo.
    ‘No, because pursuing two parallel lines of action can get us both what we want more quickly. The more time we waste, the greater the risk of being caught.’
    ‘You speak as though you already had something in mind.’
    ‘I do. But before I go on you must accept my involvement without reserve.’
    Gerardo reflected. Although he had no military training, Mondino seemed strong and decided, a man who should not be underestimated in a fight. He had shown himself able to react forcefully to the unexpected. Besides, the idea of following two trails was not at all stupid. But there was still the fact that he didn’t know whether he could trust Mondino once the corpse was hidden.
    ‘You won’t betray me?’ he asked.
    ‘It’s too late for me to do that now, and I’m already beginning to regret the fact. Now make up your mind, we haven’t got all night.’
    ‘Very well, but we make the decisions together.’ Mondino thought a moment and then he nodded. ‘First I will explain my idea, then you tell me yours and we will come to an agreement.’
    It was obvious that the influence of his job as a teacher was taking the upper hand. Although he had just accepted collaboration as equals, Mondino continued to behave as he did when speaking from the podium. As soon as they had begun to discuss their plan, a hurried knocking at the door interrupted them. It was the grave-diggers, just as Mondino had said it would be. They had been hiding in a courtyard with the woman’s body on a barrow and only dared to come out when the street was deserted once again. As Mondino bade them come in, Gerardo quickly withdrew to hide in another room. From behind the door, he listened to their apologies: they had been frightened when the Inquisitor with the three guards had passed close by them and they’d thrown the cadaver into a sewer. Then they had retrieved it. Mondino was indignant and said that it was impossible to practise anatomy on a body covered in slime and filth. The two men asked for compensation to take the woman away again. The physician negotiated a fee and in the end doubled it, asking them to take away the corpse stretched out on the dissecting table at the same time. He explained that it was a body on which he had already finished experimenting, and should be buried in a mass grave. The two grave-diggers lifted Angelo’s body on to the wooden barrow, laying it on top of the woman, pocketed the agreed sum and went off