The Adept Book 3 The Templar Treasure by Katherine Kurtz, Deborah Turner Harris Page B

oppressive government and set the countryside ablaze with rebellion, led by a dissident priest named John Ball and another man of uncertain origins known only as Wat the Tyler. The peasant army had marched on London and taken it by storm, and might well have gone on to overthrow the English monarchy had Tyler not been treacherously slain during a parley with the young King Richard II and his ministers.
    This was the gist of the usual history of the rebellion. But as Adam skimmed over what Nathan had written, making a mental note to check Nathan’s source, a book called Born in Blood, by one John J. Robinson, a further interpretation began to emerge—that Templar technical advice and guidance had backed the rebellion, and Templar funds had bought equipment and information. The theory of intervention by successors of the Templars made sense, for no former Templar establishments had tasted the wrath of the marching peasants—though the men had gone out of their way to bum and loot holdings of the Knights Hospitaller, who had profited by the Templar dissolution and acquired many former Templar properties. And as for Nathan’s Seal providing the funding—”
    “It does make sense,” Adam murmured, lowering the pages. “We already know that Graeme of Templegrange, who pawned the Seal, held land that formerly had belonged to the Temple. If there was still an underground organization of former Templars and their descendants, and Graeme of Templegrange was part of it, it follows that he might have had orders from his superiors to pawn the Seal in order to raise the cash for a last attempt by the Templars to regain their former prominence.”
    Peregrine nodded. “Nathan seems convinced that was why the Seal was pawned—and why it was never redeemed, since the Peasants’ Revolt failed. Our Graeme of Templegrange may have been killed, and no one else knew where the Seal had been pawned. Or they might not have been able to raise the money. And that’s how it came to be in the keeping of Nathan’s family all these years.” He sighed. “But that still doesn’t explain why the Seal should be so valuable, then or now. What is it? And what does it have to do with Grahame of Claverhouse?”
    Adam settled himself more comfortably in his chair and laced his long fingers together, choosing his words with some care, for he was still working out much of it in his own mind.
    “That last, I can’t answer,” he said. “Claverhouse apparently was a Templar, but I can’t yet make any connection between him and the Seal. As for the Seal itself—” He glanced thoughtfully at the young artist.
    “I gather that Noel filled you in on some of the story regarding the death of Nathan Fiennes. What he may not have told you—and what apparently didn’t come through in what you read—is that the Seal of which we’re speaking is no ordinary archaeological artifact. Nathan seemed convinced that it is the very Seal of Solomon himself.”
    Peregrine blinked and gave a low whistle. “Good Lord, do you think it really is?”
    “That remains to be seen,” Adam said grimly. “Nathan spoke of a great power and a great danger, and described the Seal as, ‘A key to keep a deadly evil locked away from the world’. He also intimated that the Seal is somehow bound up with a secret responsibility that, at one time, was the burden of the Knights Templar. He believed that the Seal possesses certain arcane powers.”
    “What—kind of powers?” Peregrine asked hesitantly.
    “That also remains to be seen. Nathan was killed before he could find out. Based on a dream I had last night, little would surprise me. Esoterically speaking, however, I can tell you that there has always been a tradition that King Solomon had authority and control over evil spirits. If that’s true, and Nathan’s Seal is literally the Seal of Solomon, I hesitate even to think what it might have been made to bind, that its keeping should have been guarded through so many