Find out what Torquemada might accomplish if he had an arcenciel trapped in a quartz crystal
Find out if the above answer shows us what his ultimate goal is
Save Soul
I figured the lists would get longer, and soon. Outside, the clouds grew heavier, the air colder. Lightning lit the dark sky here and there, an odd, pearly color as if reflecting off ice or snow crystals.
About two in the afternoon, I received a dozen pics via email from an unknown address. Normally I’d have dumped them all as spam, but the subject line saidFrom my mistress, Yvonne, so I took a chance. In the zipped folder were six pictures of old paintings. I sent them to FireWind and went to his office, where he was sitting at his desk, typing on a new laptop. The door was open so I knocked and started talking. “FireWind, I just sent you a file. I think it’s from one of Yummy’s blood-servants and I don’t know what it means.”
Without lifting his head, he looked up at me, his yellow eyes bright. He returned his attention to the laptop and kept typing. “Sit,” he said to me.
I considered barking like Cherry, but thought better of it, and it was a good thing because he touched the chair next to him atthe big desk. I crossed around to sit beside him, facing the door. He opened the file and six photos spun out like a propeller and took up positions on the screen. He enlarged one and frowned. “Middle Ages, most likely. One of the old masters. Religious scene. Perhaps Jesus calling Lazarus from the tomb, small crowd.”
He moved to another, then another. They were all religious, and FireWind pronounced them from the same period, possibly by the same artist. “Ah. This is curious. The artist used Torquemada as a model for a minor character in each. Why did your vampire send this to you?”
“She ain’t my vampire,” I said, my tone mulish.
My boss-boss cracked a faint smile. Trying to get my goat.
“It’s in my report,” I said. “Yummy dated one of the attacking vampires. She said they had secret stuff in the Vatican. I’m guessing she found these pics from her time in Italy and had her servant send them.”
He went back through them again, and then again. And finally he said, “Tomás de Torquemada is in each of them.” He pointed at an image on the screen. “There.” He switched photographs. “There.”
I said, “And in each one, he’s wearing a necklace and it doesn’t look like a cross.”
FireWind enlarged each of the photos. The crystal around his neck seemed to hold a blue and purple winged creature inside, the color of paua abalone shells.
“Huh,” FireWind grunted. Again we went through them. FireWind sat back. “It’s a crystal, with what could be a dragon inside.”
“Yes.” I handed him my lists. “See my first list, numbers two and three. ‘Empty crystals with arcenciel shapes in them.’ If Torquemada already has an arcenciel in a crystal, why did he take Soul? How many does he need to do whatever he wants to do? And if he needs multiple arcenciels, why would he trade Soul for the Blood Tarot?”
“Excellent questions. Have you ever heard of ‘riding the dragon’?”
“When Ming first called me to her clan home and tried to get me to kill Torquemada, she said something about…” I closed my eyes and ransacked my memory. “ ‘He and his scions will take the Blood Tarot and ride the dragon.’ No, I don’t know what it means.”
“Arcenciels are said to have the ability to go back and change the past. It’s been said that if one can capture arcenciels in quartz crystal, or perhaps enough of them, they can ‘ride the dragon’ into the past and change it. What would Tomás de Torquemada want to change in the past?”
“Everything,” I said instantly. Then I stopped and looked away from my boss-boss. “He would want to change…the fact that the Inquisition ended. That he lost power. That the church lost power. That the Protestant revolution took place and took power from the Roman church.”
“That he allowed himself to be turned?” FireWind asked softly.
“Could be. He might feel he’s a bigger sinner because he’s a vampire than because he tortured and killed people in the name of God.”
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