'The Da Vinci Code Chapter 105\r'

'CHAPTER 105\r\n shadow had f solelyen oer Rosslyn.\r\nRobert Langdon stood alone on the porch of the fieldstone house enjoying the hold ups of laughter and reunion un contained through the screened door behind him. The brand of potent Brazilian deep brown in his hand had granted him a foggy reprieve from his mounting exhaustion, and insofar he sensed the reprieve would be fleeting. The dash in his body went to the core.\r\nâ€Å"You slipped forbidden quietly,” a congressman behind him said.\r\nHe off-key. Sophies granny emerged, her silver hair shimmering in the night. Her name, for the hold twenty-eight years at least, was Marie Chauvel.\r\nLangdon gave a tired smile. â€Å"I thought Id ordain your family some time unitedly.” Through the window, he could reassure Sophie dialogueing with her br new(prenominal).\r\nMarie came over and stood be typeface him. â€Å"Mr. Langdon, when I first heard of Jacquess murder, I was terrify for Sophies safety. Se eing her standing(a) in my doorstep tonight was the greatest relief of my life. I apprise non thank you enough.”\r\nLangdon had no idea how to respond. Although he had come toered to give Sophie and her grandmother time to talk in private, Marie had asked him to hang-up and listen. My husband plain indisputable you, Mr.Langdon, so I do as well.\r\nAnd so Langdon had pillowed, standing beside Sophie and audience in mute astonishment epoch Marie told the write up of Sophies late p arnts. Incredibly, both had been from Merovingian families †direct descendants of Mary Magdalene and deliverer Christ. Sophies p arnts and ancestors, for valueion, had changed their family names of Plantard and Saint-Clair. Their children represented the close direct surviving kingly bloodline and thus were managefully guarded by the Priory. When Sophies p atomic number 18nts were killed in a car accident whose arrange could not be determined, the Priory feared the identity of the r oyal line had been discovered.\r\nâ€Å"Your grandfather and I,” Marie had explained in a voice choked with pain, â€Å"had to make a grave decision the instant we authoritative the phone call. Your parents car had just been fix in the river.” She dabbed at the tears in her look. â€Å"All six of us †including you dickens grandchildren †were so-called to be traveling to positionher in that car that actually night. fortunately we changed our plans at the last moment, and your parents were alone. Hearing of the accident, Jacques and I had no way to know what had au consequentlytically happened… or if this was truly an accident.” Marie looked at Sophie. â€Å"We knew we had to protect our grandchildren, and we did what we thought was best. Jacques reported to the police that your brother and I had been in the car… our ii bodies apparently washed off in the current. Then your brother and I went vacuum tube with the Priory. Jacques, b eing a man of prominence, did not have the luxury of disappearing. It only make sense that Sophie, being the eldest, would stay in genus Paris to be taught and raised by Jacques, close to the he artistry and security of the Priory.” Her voice reduce to a whisper. â€Å"Separating the family was the hardest thing we ever had to do. Jacques and I saw each other only precise infrequently, and al shipway in the most secret of settings… under the protection of the Priory. thither are certain ceremonies to which the coupling always stays faithful.”\r\nLangdon had sensed the story went far deeper, however he as well sensed it was not for him to hear. So he had stepped outside. Now, gazing up at the spires of Rosslyn, Langdon could not get off the hollow gnaw of Rosslyns unsolved closed book. Is the grail really here at Rosslyn? And if so, where are the trade name and chalice that Sauniere distinguished in his verse?” Ill sanction out that,” Mari e said, motioning to Langdons hand. â€Å"Oh, thank you.” Langdon held out his empty coffee cup. She stared at him. â€Å"I was referring to your other hand, Mr. Langdon.”\r\nLangdon looked carry out and shed light ond he was holding Saunieres paper plant. He had take a crapn it from the cryptex once again in hopes of chinking something he had missed earlier. â€Å"Of course, Im sorry.”\r\nMarie looked amused as she took the paper. â€Å"I know of a man at a coast in Paris who is probably very eager to clear the product of this rosewood box. Andre Vernet was a dear friend of Jacques, and Jacques trusted him explicitly. Andre would have done whateverthing to laurels Jacquess requests for the care of this box.”\r\nIncluding shooting me, Langdon recalled, deciding not to mention that he had probably broken the lax mans nose. Thinking of Paris, Langdon flashed on the three senechaux who had been killed the night ahead. â€Å"And the Priory? Wh at happens now?”\r\nâ€Å"The wheels are already in motion, Mr. Langdon. The brotherhood has endured for centuries, and it testament endure this. There are always those waiting to impact up and rebuild.”\r\nAll distillerying Langdon had guess that Sophies grandmother was closely tied to the trading operations of the Priory. afterwards all, the Priory had always had women members. Four yard Masters had been women. The senechaux were traditionally men †the guardians †and yet women held far more honored stead within the Priory and could ascend to the highest post from to the highest degree any rank.\r\nLangdon thought of Leigh Teabing and Westminster Abbey. It studymed a spirit ago. â€Å"Was the Church pressuring your husband not to free the Sangreal documents at the End of Days?”\r\nâ€Å" heavens no. The End of Days is a legend of paranoid minds. There is cipher in the Priory doctrine that identifies a sequence at which the grail should be unveiled. In fact the Priory has always maintained that the grail should never be unveiled.”\r\nâ€Å"Never?” Langdon was stunned.\r\nâ€Å"It is the mystery and wonderment that serve our souls, not the grail itself. The beauty of the grail lies in her unsubstantial nature.” Marie Chauvel gazed up at Rosslyn now. â€Å"For some, the Grail is a chalice that will bring them double-dyed(a) life. For others, it is the quest for illogical documents and secret history. And for most, I suspect the Holy Grail is just a grand idea… a glorious unattainable treasure that somehow, even in to daylights world of chaos, inspires us.”\r\nâ€Å" simply if the Sangreal documents remain hidden, the story of Mary Magdalene will be lost forever,” Langdon said.\r\nâ€Å"Will it? Look more or less you. Her story is being told in art, music, and books. much so every day. The pendulum is swinging. We are beginning to sense the dangers of our history… and of our destructive paths. We are beginning to sense the need to desexualise the sacred feminine.” She paused. â€Å"You mentioned you are writing a manuscript roughly the symbols of the sacred feminine, are you not?”\r\nâ€Å"I am.” She smiled. â€Å"Finish it, Mr. Langdon. smatter her song. The world needs modern troubadours.” Langdon fell silent, feelinging the weight of her message upon him. crossways the open spaces, a new moonshine was rising above the tree line.\r\n crook his eyeball toward Rosslyn, Langdon felt a childlike craving to know her secrets. Dont ask, he told himself. This is not the moment.He glanced at the papyrus in Maries hand, and then back at Rosslyn.\r\nâ€Å"Ask the question, Mr. Langdon,” Marie said, smell amused. â€Å"You have earned the right field.” Langdon felt himself flush.” You indispensableness to know if the Grail is here at Rosslyn.” â€Å"Can you split up me?” She sighed in scoff exasperation. â€Å" wherefore is it that men simply cannot let the Grail rest?” She laughed, obviously enjoying herself. â€Å"Why do you think its here?”\r\nLangdon motioned to the papyrus in her hand. â€Å"Your husbands poem speaks specifically of Rosslyn, further it also mentions a blade and chalice watching over the Grail. I didnt collide with any symbols of the blade and chalice up there.”\r\nâ€Å"The blade and chalice?” Marie asked. â€Å"What exactly do they look like?”\r\nLangdon sensed she was dally with him, just now he played along, chop-chop describing the symbols.\r\nA look of vague medical record crossed her brass section. â€Å"Ah, yes, of course. The blade represents all that is masculine. I believe it is drawn like this, no?” Using her index finger, she traced a wreak on herpalm.\r\nâ€Å"Yes,” Langdon said. Marie had drawn the less unwashed” closed” form of the blade, although Langdon had seen the symbol portray both ways.\r\nâ€Å"And the inverse,” she said, drawing again on her palm,” is the chalice, which represents the feminine.”\r\nâ€Å"Correct,” Langdon said.\r\nâ€Å"And you are saying that in all the hundreds of symbols we have here in Rosslyn Chapel, these deuce shapes appear nowhere?” â€Å"I didnt see them.” â€Å"And if I show them to you, will you get some sleep?”\r\nBefore Langdon could answer, Marie Chauvel had stepped off the porch and was heading toward the chapel. Langdon hurried by and by her. introduction the superannuated building, Marie turned on the lights and masterminded to the midst of the sanctuary floor. â€Å"There you are, Mr. Langdon. The blade and chalice.”\r\nLangdon stared at the scuffed stone floor. It was blank. â€Å"Theres zippo here… .”\r\nMarie sighed and began to passing along the famous path skeletal into the chapel floor, the same path Langdon had seen the visitors locomote earlier this evening. As his eyes alter to see the giant symbol, he still felt lost. â€Å"But thats the sentiency of Dav †” Langdon stop short, mute with amazement as it dawned on him.\r\nThe blade and chalice.\r\nFused as one.\r\nThe Star of David… the perfect union of phallic and distaff… Solomons Seal… marking the Holy of Holies, where the male and female deities †Yahweh and Shekinah †were thought to dwell.\r\nLangdon needed a minute to find his words. â€Å"The verse does point here to Rosslyn. Completely. Perfectly.”\r\nMarie smiled. â€Å"Apparently.”\r\nThe implications chilled him. â€Å"So the Holy Grail is in the vault on a lower floor us?”\r\nShe laughed. â€Å"Only in spirit. One of the Priorys most ancient charges was one day to return the Grail to her homeland of France where she could rest for eternity. For centuries, she was dragged crosswise the countryside to cumber her safe. Most undignified. Jacquess charge when he became Grand Master was to restore her honor by returning her to France and building her a resting place fit for a queen.”\r\nâ€Å"And he succeeded?”\r\nNow her face grew serious. â€Å"Mr. Langdon, considering what youve done for me tonight, and as curator of the Rosslyn Trust, I can tell you for certain that the Grail is no seven-day here.”\r\nLangdon decided to press. â€Å"But the keystone is supposed to point to the place where the Holy Grail is hidden now.Why does it point to Rosslyn?”\r\nâ€Å"Maybe youre scan its meaning. Remember, the Grail can be deceptive. As could my late husband.”\r\nâ€Å"But how much clearer could he be?” he asked. â€Å"We are standing over an underground vault marked by the blade and chalice, underneath a ceiling of stars, surrounded by the art of Master Masons. Everything speaks of Rosslyn.”\r\nâ€Å"Very well, let me see this mysterious verse. ” She unrolled the papyrus and read the poem aloud in a pass tone.\r\nThe Holy Grail ‘neath ancient Roslin waits.\r\nThe blade and chalice guarding oer Her gates.\r\nAdorned in masters loving art, She lies.\r\nShe rests at last beneath the starry skies.\r\nWhen she finished, she was still for several seconds, until a knowing smile crossed her lips. â€Å"Aah, Jacques.”\r\nLangdon watched her expectantly. â€Å"You generalise this?”\r\nâ€Å"As you have witnessed on the chapel floor, Mr. Langdon, there are many ways to see simple things.”\r\nLangdon strained to understand. Everything about Jacques Sauniere seemed to have double meanings, and yet Langdon could see no further.\r\nMarie gave a tired yawn. â€Å"Mr. Langdon, I will make a vindication to you. I have never officially been privy to the present location of the Grail. But, of course, I was married to a person of gigantic influence… and my womens intuition is strong.” Langdon started to speak but Marie continued. â€Å"I am sorry that after all your hard work, you will be leaving Rosslyn without any real answers. And yet, something tells me you will eventually find what you seek. One day it will dawn on you.” She smiled. â€Å"And when it does, I trust that you, of all people, can keep a secret.”\r\nThere was a sound of someone arriving in the doorway. â€Å"Both of you disappeared,” Sophie said, entering.\r\nâ€Å"I was just leaving,” her grandmother replied, walking over to Sophie at the door. â€Å"Good night, princess.” She kissed Sophies forehead. â€Å"Dont keep Mr. Langdon out too late.”\r\nLangdon and Sophie watched her grandmother walk back toward the fieldstone house. When Sophie turned to him, her eyes were awash in deep emotion. â€Å"Not exactly the culmination I expected.”\r\nThat makes two of us, he thought. Langdon could see she was overwhelmed. The news she had received tonight had change d everything in her life. â€Å"Are you okay? Its a fix to take in.”\r\nShe smiled quietly. â€Å"I have a family. Thats where Im going to start. Who we are and where we came from will take some time.”\r\nLangdon remained silent.\r\nâ€Å"Beyond tonight, will you stay with us?” Sophie asked. â€Å"At least for a few days?”\r\nLangdon sighed, wanting nought more. â€Å"You need some time here with your family, Sophie. Im going back to Paris in the morning.”\r\nShe looked disappointed but seemed to know it was the right thing to do. Neither of them spoke for a long time. Finally Sophie reached over and, victorious his hand, led him out of the chapel. They walked to a puny rise on the bluff. From here, the Scottish countryside blossom out out before them, suffused in a pale moonlight that sifted through the departing clouds. They stood in silence, holding hands, both of them fighting the go shroud of exhaustion.\r\nThe stars were just now appear ing, but to the east, a single point of light glowed brighter than any other. Langdon smiled when he saw it. It was Venus. The ancient Goddess shining down with her steady and forbearing light.\r\nThe night was growing cooler, a sharp-worded breeze rolling up from the lowlands. After a while, Langdon looked over at Sophie. Her eyes were closed, her lips relaxed in a contented smile. Langdon could feel his own eyes growing heavy. Reluctantly, he squeezed her hand. â€Å"Sophie?”\r\nSlowly, she opened her eyes and turned to him. Her face was beautiful in the moonlight. She gave him a sleepy smile. â€Å"Hi.”\r\nLangdon felt an unexpected sadness to realize he would be returning to Paris without her. â€Å"I maybe gone before you wake up.” He paused, a unravel growing in his throat. â€Å"Im sorry, Im not very good at †â€Å"\r\nSophie reached out and position her soft hand on the side of his face. Then, leaning forward, she kissed him tenderly on the ch eek. â€Å"When can I see you again?”\r\nLangdon reeled momentarily, lost in her eyes. â€Å"When?” He paused, curious if she had any idea how much he had been enquire the same thing. â€Å"Well, actually, next month Im teach at a conference in Florence. Ill be there a work week without much to do.” â€Å"Is that an invitation?”\r\nâ€Å"Wed be living in luxury. Theyre giving me a room at the Brunelleschi.” Sophie smiled playfully. â€Å"You presume a lot, Mr. Langdon.” He cringed at how it had sounded. â€Å"What I meant †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"I would love nothing more than to meet you in Florence, Robert. But on one condition.” Her tone turned serious. â€Å"No museums, no churches, no tombs, no art, no relics.”\r\nâ€Å"In Florence? For a week? Theres nothing else to do.”\r\nSophie leaned forward and kissed him again, now on the lips. Their bodies came together, softly at first, and then completely. When she pulle d away, her eyes were full of promise.\r\nâ€Å"Right,” Langdon managed. â€Å"Its a date.”\r\n'