Free The Pegasus Secret by Gregg Loomis Page B

was astonished. “But, I am not noble-born, know nothing of arms such as you bear.”
    “You do not understand. For every knight, there must be provisioners. For every temple, there must be those who can count money and goods, scribes who can read and write languages. It is this post you can most surely fill. Come with me to Burgundy.”
    He might as well have suggested I visit the moon. I had never been more than a day’s travel by foot from where I now sat.
    “I cannot,” I said. “These are my brothers who need me to do God’s work.”
    A smile, not entirely devout, tugged at his lips. “I have learned that God usually gets what He wants, no matter the efforts of man. I am offering you three meals a day, two of which have meat. You will never go hungry. You will sleep on a clean bed, wear washed clothes that are not a nation of lice, fleas and ticks. You will do calculations of figures the likes of which you have never dreamed. Or you may remain here, as mean, dirty and hungry as any beast. Either way you will serve God, of that I am certain.”
    God nearly struck me dumb. I could not answer. Had I prayed, sought His guidance as I should have, I would have realized He was trying to tell me to remain. But, like many young men, the idea of such luxury turned my head.
    “I leave right after Prime,” 12 Guillaume de Poitiers said, “before washing myself and before light, please God. You may share my esquire’s ass. Or you may remain here, serving God in a lesser manner and a great deal more squalor.”
    The next morning, I left the only home I could remember, a cell only large enough for a straw mattress, with a ceiling so low I could not stand in it. 13 Since poverty is one of the vows of the Benedictines, I took with me no possessions other than the rude sackcloth gown I wore. And the things that infested it. Would I had chosen to endure the vile life to which I had become accustomed.
    Translator’s notes:
    1 . All dates have been converted to the Gregorian calendar for the convenience of the reader.
    2 . 1290.
    3 . Actually, this directive came from St. Cassian. St. Benedict(ca. 526) founded the first order of monks who lived in a community rather than alone.
    4 . The monk in charge of provisions for the monastery.
    5 . The word used by Pietro is Middle Latin,
noviciatus
, which means the place where novices are trained. It is doubtful a rural monastery would have such a luxury.
    6 . A tunic of chain mail. The full battle dress of a Templar knight is described by surviving copies of the French
Rule
. In addition to what Pietro describes, it would have included: helmet (
heaume
), armour protecting shoulders and feet (
jupeau d’armes, espalliers, souliers d’armes
).
    7 . The City of Jerusalem fell to the Sultan of the Baybars in 1243. It is doubtful Guillaume or any of his contemporaries had ever even seen the Holy City, although it was the avowed goal of the Templars until their dissolution in 1307.
    8 . The name both crusaders and Templars gave to the Holy Land, which they viewed as simply another country under the reign of the Pope.
    9 . The Bible was read at all meals.
    10 . The last mass of the day, usually said right before bed.
    11 . It is assumed this Frankish word is the origin of the English bushel. The exact quantity denoted is lost to antiquity.
    12 . An early morning mass, usually around five A.M. The first masses of the day, Matins and Lauds, were said shortly after midnight. After Prime came Terce, then Nones, Sext, Vespers, etc., for a total of six a day.
    13 . Many monastic cells were intentionally constructed so the occupant was always bowed when in it, thereby enforcing the virtue of humility.

Part Two
     

C HAPTER O NE
    Dallas, Texas

The next day
     
    Lang hated flying. He felt helpless and out of control belted into an airline seat.
    Gloomily, he sat in the waiting area for gate twenty-two of the American Airlines terminal at the Dallas–Fort Worth Airport and watched the man with